Recently, Reddit user Not_Sharif_700 asked people what movies they regret watching, and people had some strong opinions. Here are truly terrible movies that people wish they had never seen.
1. “The reboot of Mean Girls. WTF — making it a musical?!? Add that to the fact that the acting was weak, the writing was ham-fisted, and that it smacked of trying too hard on everything, and I saw my childhood dying before my eyes.”
2. “The Matrix Reloaded was so bad that I did not watch any subsequent movies.”
Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection
“I went with friends to watch this in the movies. We literally would just look at each other with complete disbelief that this was a movie. At one point, my friend started booing. We had to leave; it was kind of a relief.”
3. “Live-action Mulan. I take it personally. I really do.”
Disney
“Take this from someone who usually loves sequels and live actions in their own way, definitely not a default ‘the original was better’ snob at all: live-action Mulan was terrible. I can’t even express how terrible it was.
Honestly, to me, there were only a few elements from Mulan. You know flavored water? That tastes like whatever fruit just farted in some water? You just taste a little toot of the essence of flavor? Similar feeling watching live-action Mulan.“
“Imagine every plot point, personal moment, and growth, plus every song (I realized this week that Mulan is the only live-action remake not to have songs) and jokes removed to make a superpowered Chinese propaganda piece for the Chinese market. That’s it.”
4. “Highlander II. There should have been only one.”
Interstar / courtesy Everett Collection
“Highlander 2 is so bad, it’s become my byword for other sequels that shouldn’t have existed.”
“I was in grad school when it came out. I had a short break after papers were turned in. There was a midnight preview screening, and I was so, so excited, despite even then being very wary of sequels. It was so awful, and the aliens thing actually ruined the first movie for me. I am still mad about it 30+ years later. They should have just done a prequel with Clancy Brown and Lambert if they wanted more box office.
I wish they had just kept the backstory mystical and vague. This is the example of ruining something with over exposition.”
5. “Black Adam. I knew it was going to be trash, but I saw it in theaters anyway. I was desperate for it to end within 20 minutes. What an absolute calamity.”
“Black Adam was one of the best naps I ever had.”
6. “The Dead Don’t Die. Putting my dick in a blender would have been a funnier experience than sitting through that pretentious waste.”
Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
7. “Tiptoes.”
“I tried because it’s the most outrageous premise, but I couldn’t. Gary Oldman is walking on his knees to play a person with dwarfism, and it looks exactly like a guy walking around on his knees.”
“I don’t know if I regret watching it, but I do often wonder how that movie got made…that at no point did anyone question if this was a good idea…and how the hell did they convince McConaughey, Beckinsale, AND Oldman to do this movie?
And having the most well-known person with dwarfism in Hollywood in the film and not having him play the lead person with dwarfism was a choice…a bad, bad, bad choice.”
8. “Gladiator 2. I should have listened to the reviews and put my love for Paul Mescal aside. 😮💨”
Aidan Monaghan / Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
“I watched the first Gladiator (I hadn’t seen it yet) the night before Gladiator 2. Holy crap, night and day. They should have left it. I was laughing at the ‘special effects.'”
“I legitimately cannot tell you one character’s name except the monkey. What a forgettable movie. Also, Temu Epicurus: ‘Where we are death is not!'”
9. “Funny People was not funny.”
Tracy Bennett/Universal / courtesy Everett Collection
“You unlocked a forgotten memory for me. I was hanging out with friends and we had a few beers. But I was so bored watching this movie that I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up, it was still playing and boring as shit, so I fell asleep again. I woke up a third time, and the god forsaken movie was still playing. Luckily, it was almost over by that point, lol.”
10. “Madame Web. … I literally didn’t make it through the film.”
“Madame Web felt like Marvel [editor’s note: Sony] dared us to see how bad it could get and somehow still overshot.”
“I’ve seen children playing in the park with better acting skills than those ‘actors.'”
11. “It would be very difficult for any other movie to ever top Howard the Duck. I’ve never left a movie theater so disappointed.”
Universal / courtesy Everett Collection
12. “Aquaman. Utter rubbish. Thanks for talking it up, Reddit.”
“I remember laughing out loud in the theater multiple times during ‘serious’ scenes.”
“I remember watching it in the theater, and my wife asked me what I thought. I couldn’t describe it, but it was just…off. Probably a combination of the acting, writing, and directing that just threw everything out of whack.”
“I started watching it, and I could not finish it. So bad! I kept thinking, ‘Who wrote this? Thirteen-year-olds trying to sound cool?'”
13. “Napoleon. Four hours of Joaquin staring blankly into the camera in a big hat.”
Aidan Monaghan /Sony Pictures Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection
“I expected it to be a well-done, though only skin deep (because you can’t go deep on Napoleon’s life in two hours) biopic. While it started well and had good parts throughout, it turned into toilet humor and Phoenix just doing goofy shit for no reason, and ruined the whole thing for me.”
14. “Movie 43.”
“Seriously might be the most unfunny waste of time for a ‘comedy’ movie, ever. It’s been at the top of my ‘worst movies ever’ list since I saw it back when it came out. So many good actors! Such a waste of time!”
15. “Glitter. I watched it for shits and giggles, and it ended up just being shit.”
20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I always forget Glitter was a movie that actually existed and not just a nightmare.
“I rented it at the video store for $0.99, and that was too high.”
“The fact that YouTube didn’t even provide the movie to watch, and I still found it free, should’ve set off some alarms.😔 The ads were my favorite part of the movie.”
16. “The Flash with Ezra Miller still gives me flashes of rage years later. Their stoner laughs gave me nightmares. And I’m not a Snyder hater. I enjoyed his other DCEU movies even though they weren’t my favorite. But The Flash was just legitimately bad, and I feel like someone who hates Barry Allen wrote it. And outside of Miller’s awful personality and problematic behavior, they just can’t act. If there’s ever a movie coming out that I really want to see, like a Static Shock movie or a sequel to Law Abiding Citizen, and I find out they’re in it, I just wouldn’t see it. Any movie where one of the decisions was to hire that clown probably made a bunch of other poor choices.”
17. I’m amazed it hasn’t been mentioned, but M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender movie. Never had a more disappointing cinematic experience after going to see that opening weekend.”
Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I went into it with the lowest expectations I could have had and still came out of it disappointed to a level I didn’t think was possible…My friend liked the series, but I never had interest in it up to that point, but I was like, ‘Whatever, if that makes him happy, I’ll go watch a shitty movie, and while at it, we might as well get 3D, so if the movie is trash, at least maybe the images will be fun…then we got baked and went to see it…it was overwhelmingly bad, like, even the 3D was the worst I’ve seen. Being stoned didn’t help make any part of it more enjoyable. It was just bad. Not funny bad. Not silly bad. Just plain bad.
It took me 10 years to finally watch the series after that, and I’m so glad I never watched it beforehand because it might’ve killed me to see what they did to it.”
18. “I was made to watch Mac and Me. Still the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”
“Mac and Me is essentially any random person watching ET and saying, ‘I could have made that movie,’ and actually attempting it.”
“I love this movie so much, AND I made my kids watch it too! They were looking at me the whole time, like, ‘WTF is this?’ Which made everything even funnier.
The overt ad placements, the disastrous set and costumes — it’s full of nightmare fuel, but it falls into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category for me. It’s a truly terrible movie that is so good, lol!”
19. “Mother!.”
Paramount Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
“It felt like it was put together by a snobby amateur dramatic society that thought they were being really profound.”
20. “Sausage Party. I paid a dollar to see it in college. I want my dollar back.”
Columbia Pictures
“Embarrassing for all involved, including the viewers (🙋🏻♂️). Probably great for 13-year-old boys, but I haven’t been one of those in decades.”
“I tried so hard to laugh through this movie. But just like the movie itself, it was forced and embarrassing.”
21. “Asteroid City. Absolutely horrendous. I walked out of the cinema, which is something I’ve never done before. It gave me a headache.”
Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
22. “Saltburn. If there ever was a movie that insisted upon itself, it’s Saltburn.”
23. My friends and I walked out of The Boondock Saints II. We were all in our early twenties (aka not exactly discerning) and we still couldn’t handle that pile of shit.”
Apparition/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I still can’t believe this is a real movie. It seems like an SNL skit that would get cut before they get halfway through the first reading. Just atrocious.”
24. “The worst movie I ever saw was The Happening by M. Night Shyamalan. I went to a sneak preview and walked out not believing what I saw. The 5.0 on IMDb does not justify how incredibly bad this movie was.”
“It’s hard to take something seriously when the big bad villain is the wind rustling gently through the trees.”
“Unintentionally funny, though.”
25. “The Human Centipede. I finally cracked and decided to watch it, and…it’s a 35-minute film with 50 minutes of bullshit. I ended up fast forwarding through the centipede bullshit, and it was a dumb movie on its non-gross-out parts.”
IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
26. “Spring Breakers — what a load of crap.”
“Only movie I’ve ever walked out on in theatres.”
“I remember seeing that with a friend of mine who wanted to see it. The whole thing felt like it was one giant music video with the way it was shot. It wasn’t just bad, it was absurdly confusing.”
27. “Thanksgiving. I love horror/slasher films, but this one was both bad and grotesque, which is saying something in that genre. It could’ve been a whole lot better, but probably not much worse.”
Pief Weyman / TriStar Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
28. “I saw Lucy in the theaters, and it’s one of the worst films I’ve ever paid to see, hands down. I probably wouldn’t have such a hatred for it had I seen it on streaming, but the fact that I paid $15 for that really rubs me the wrong way. 0/10 would not do again.”
EuropaCorp Distribution/Universal Pictures
“‘YoU oNlY uSe TeN pErCeNt Of YoUr BrAiN!’
Worst conceptual misunderstanding of neurology ever, and they built a whole goddamn movie on it. Ugghh.”
29. “All of my friends and I fell asleep during the Chronicles of Riddick. There were like five of us.”
Universal/courtesy Everett
30. “21 Grams. I remember everyone else at the time I talked to loved it, and I was genuinely bored out of my mind. It was a struggle to finish.”
Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection
31. “Joker 2. I just try to forget it and not let it ruin the first movie for me. It had its good moments, but that’s like five seconds from the whole movie.”
“I lost hope when I read ‘musical.'”
“Even worse, it’s a ‘Jukebox musical’, meaning almost all the songs were pre-existing songs by popular musicians rather than songs actually written for the movie. According to the soundtrack on Wikipedia, the only exception is a single song that Gaga wrote for the film. That’s just a terrible, horrible idea for a Joker movie.”
“There were so many things bad about Joker 2, but the musical aspect doesn’t make my top 50. (I actually enjoyed some of those segments.) I find it hard to look past the fact that the whole movie seemed to be saying, ‘Remember the first movie? Remember how things actually happened? Well, you should feel bad about liking it. Now here’s 10 more minutes of Joker feeling bad about what he did.’
I didn’t even particularly love Joker, but Joker 2 was so self-flagellating and intensely dull it kind of boggles the mind. Spoiler for those who care: no one dies in the movie (I guess until one brief moment toward the end). Joker doesn’t kill anyone. Nothing happens. Unreal.”
32. “Night Swim. Saw it in the theater by myself. I knew it would have cliche horror movie tropes, but goddamn, was it boring. It is the only movie I’ve ever fallen asleep to in theaters.”
Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
33. “Live-action Lilo and Stitch.”
“Many key elements that made the original amazing were removed, and that took away so much from it.”
“Cartoon Nani would take care of Live-Action Nani out back, adopt Live-Action Lilo, and punt Live-Action Stitch into the ocean.”
34. “Recently…Highest 2 Lowest. What a dump. It was so bad it made me sad about Spike Lee, who is normally a great director, but someone needs to tell him to stop adapting Asian masterpieces.”
David Lee / A24 / courtesy Everett Collection
“I couldn’t believe all the great reviews it received. The whole chase sequence with the ransom money was so tedious.”
35. “Alone in the Dark. It may be the worst movie I have ever seen. Saw it in the theater too.”
Lions Gate / courtesy Everett Collection
“My buddy growing up once referred to this movie as ‘alone in the ratings’. I still think about it and laugh to this day.”
“Holy shit, I remember seeing this and couldn’t believe how bad it was. I was too young to really appreciate it, but it was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, this is terrible.’
I think I remember booms in shots and studio equipment showing up in the reflection of windows, too.
It was so bad. Definitely the worst I’ve ever seen.”
36. “Downsizing. Total piece of trash. Worst movie I have ever personally seen.”
“I will always argue that Downsizing could have been great had they decided what type of movie it was supposed to be, felt like several completely different movies shoved together.”
“Every preview shows the first ten minutes of the film with no hint of the end. So when it went from fun concept to illegal immigration, I was out.”
37. “The Turning. It was such a waste of time, and the ending, ngl — it was pathetic.”
Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
38. “Skinamarink. I’ll never get those two hours of my life back from that hack, rat-bastard director.”
BayView Entertainment/IFC Midnight/Shudder
“I was so excited for this movie. The trailer was mysterious and dark. Couldn’t wait to see what the plot was. Turns out there was no plot. Just a bunch of shots of doors and carpet. Occasionally a TV with very seldom whispering. That’s it.”
“I would rather sit in front of a broken-down washing machine doing a violent centrifuge cycle in Dolby Surround than watch that shit again.”
“I’ve tried three or four times to sit through it, because I’ve heard so many people say that it’s terrifying, but I’ve never been able to endure more than half an hour. The director has somehow succeeded in creating something more boring than staring at a blank TV screen. … Maybe the boredom is the horror…?”
39. “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It looked so cool when it came out, and it was one of the worst movies I’ve ever sat through.”
20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection
40. “Live-action Aladdin.”
“The original Aladdin was my FAVORITE movie as a kid – I literally ruined two VHS tapes watching it so much. My brother recommended the live-action one to me, talked it waaaaaay up, and I have rarely been so wildly disappointed in a movie. I didn’t even finish it.
Also, how the fuck do you replace Robin Williams?”
41. And finally…”The Dark Tower. I had such high hopes…”
Ilze Kitshoff. Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
“I’m sad they wasted Matthew McConaughey in that movie. He was so perfect, and now they will probably not use him in the Mike Flanagan one.”
What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen? Let us know in the comments!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
