The Worst Movies of 2024

My “Best of the Year” lists are usually pretty easy, considering that all I need to do is think back on the past year and pick out the cream of the crop. As is the case with every ranking, I will not have seen every film dropped in theaters. Of course, there are always more than ten very good to great films to choose from, so sometimes I add a few “Honorable Mentions” for good measure. I must admit that I have a lot of fun creating the “Worst of the Year” list. To clarify, these will be ten films that I either despised every minute of, shameless cash grabs, or ones that I expected much more from.

1. Joker: Folie a Deux

This ill-conceived film fails spectacularly on almost every level. Like its main character, it suffers from an identity crisis. It wants to be a sequel to the 2019 hit, a jukebox musical, a romance, and a courtroom drama. Unfortunately, Phillips clearly hates even people who simply liked the predecessor, and everything here strips away the ambiguity and unreliable narrative that worked so well there and proves that he even hates his central character. Sure, Phoenix’s performance is still very good, and the production design–specifically the cinematography and direction–is still top-shelf stuff. But not even these merits are enough to save this cinematic middle finger. Phillips destroys any future, leaving it pathetic and bleeding out.

2. Argylle

If you came to this movie looking for a fun time, seek out another movie in Matthew Vaughn’s filmography. All of the promotional materials show Henry Cavill, but he is relegated to making a precious few appearances— in poorly-rendered CGI. Despite an A-list cast including Samuel Jackson, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell and Bryan Cranston (just to name a few) becomes bloated, and the plot is so increasingly dumb with every twist that you leave the movie feeling like you’ve actually lost IQ points. It doesn’t help that the action set-pieces should be silly and entertaining but are devolve into sheerly ludicrous. They should’ve named this one Arrrgh!!!

3. Trap

Speaking of films that insulted my intelligence this year, M. Night Shyamalan returns to the director’s chair with yet another stinker that had me questioning why I hate myself. Yet my relationship with this guy is that his filmography really is like a box of chocolates: you really don’t know what his next project will be, but it’s always something different…even if you walk out hating it. No, Trap is not a catastrophe on par with The Last Airbender, nor does it reach the so-bad-it’s-good goofiness of The Happening. This could have and should have been a nice thriller about catching a serial killer who is attending a concert with his teenage daughter. What we get is a shameless vanity project for Shyamalan’s real-life daughter (not to be confused with the one who brought us this summer’s bomb The Watchers). She can sing well enough but when the second half calls upon her to act, it’s a different story. Props can at least be given to Josh Hartnett, who makes the best he can of a film that has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.

4. Venom: The Last Dance

If you know me, I’m not a fan of Sony’s Spider-Man villain franchise, minus the Web-head. Why can’t we see him fight a bulkier Venom? Apparently the studio would rather milk this cash cow until it’s truly a dry, dead husk. If the first Venom was a turd in the wind, the sequels have only declined in quality. It wastes the primary villain who has approximately one minute of screen time at the start—before disappearing completely. Like other entries on this list, this third movie has an identity crisis: it makes dumb choices with the main duo, and the tonal shifts are incredibly detrimental: Is this a buddy-road trip? A musical? A comedy? A heartfelt goodbye? Venom 3 wants to be all of these, but fails to deliver on any of it, and is ultimately an overlong slog. Here’s hoping this really is the last one (although the post-credits scene suggests otherwise). If there is anything positive to say about this mess, it prevented me from checking out Kraven the Hunter, which was proclaimed worse than both this film and Madame Web, which is an impressive feat!).

5. Rebel Ridge

Rebel Ridge was marketed as an action/thriller, and for the first 2/3rds are quite strong. The lead performances from Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson are very good, and the tension is built up to a heart-pounding rate. Pierre is particularly remarkable as the guy who just wants to help get his brother out of jail, but is constantly kept down by corrupt cops. Alas, this blockbuster drops the ball so hard in the final act that it never recovers. Instead, it fizzles out anticlimactically and ends abruptly. As with others that clock in around two hours or less on this list, it should be a breezy watch, but feels too long.

6. Gladiator II

Oh, Ridley Scott, what has happened to you? Your final cut of Blade Runner, as well as Alien and Gladiator have all become legends in Hollywood. But Napoleon was maddeningly mediocre, and the extended cut on streaming has not added so much to it to fully redeem it. I even defend Prometheus, with all of its flaws, and prefer it over Alien: Covenant. Now, it feels like you will just settle for mediocrity as long as it makes money. This sequel was not a disaster, but you should have created an original story instead of rehashing familiar beats and–of course!–refusing to leave the shadow of Maximus. I never expected that this one would live up to the near-perfect original, but I left the theater feeling empty and indifferent. At least it was not as bad as Napoleon, but creating any other sword-and-sandals epic, freed from the confines and name of Gladiator, would have made for a better film.

7. Deadpool & Wolverine

I will readily admit to being fatigued by everything MCU-related, and superhero content in general. I am not a fan of Deadpool or even enjoy Ryan Reynolds these days all that much. Most of all, the use of the Multiverse as a plot device and nostalgia-bait by giving us cameos has grown stale by this point. Thankfully, Deadpool & Wolverine was mercifully the only Marvel project released this year–to wild success, of course. Director Shawn Levy injected the film with the expected amounts of hard-R vulgarities, gore and irreverent humor that diehard fans of these two characters have come to expect. Growing up on the X-Men franchise, I admit that watching real-life buddies Jackman and Reynolds slice and dice both each other and hordes of villains was entertainingt…to a degree. But just because Reynolds breaks the fourth wall to tell Disney that fans are tired of the Multiverse (among many other things) does not give the studio an excuse to use it for the umpteenth time. Additionally, this is obviously just two hours of fan service, so if you’re expecting focus on its antiheroes’ personal lives, you won’t really be satisfied. Finally, the villain is arguably one of the most underdeveloped in the entire MCU.

8. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

I haven’t really liked a Ghostbusters film since the original. Say what you will about some of the odd choices made, but it was genuinely funny; essentially a feature-length SNL sketch with plenty of quotable lines and memorable scenes (the giant Stay-Puft Man!). So why do they continue to turn that movie into a franchise that now uses CGI to bring back its legendary stars? This sequel to the reboot Ghostbusters: Afterlife brings the story to The Big Apple, but that adds very little. The predecessor’s star McKenna Grace is hardly even in this movie, and the plot makes no sense. I wonder how many audiences will really want to answer the call when the inevitable sequel is made.

9. Moana 2

Much like other movies on this list, this sequel to the highly successful 2016 hit (which is getting a live action remake, because why not?) feels like a cheap cash grab churned out by a studio that is operating out of desperation. Here they are lacking in creativity, and resort to basically rehashing the plot beats of the original. Even good ol’ Maui doesn’t even show up until about the half-hour mark. Also noticeably missing are the catchy tunes by Lin-Manuel Miranda that largely helped make the first movie such a big splash. As a result, this sequel is much less shiny.

10. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Credit where credit is due: this blockbuster knows exactly what it is and just attempts to please its fans. You won’t find any substance here, just spectacle. If you love watching these titans duke it out, you will get exactly what you paid for. Very little new wrinkles are added here, besides Kong’s young monkey ally. Is it worth going bananas over? That’s for fanboys to decide, and casual viewers might find some entertainment here. Yes, especially in the final act, it goes over-the-top to deliver these crowd-pleasing scenes. Yes, the humans are the weakest element. Yes, a sense of tedium might set in, but it’s not as offensive or weak as the other choices on this list.