There are a number of lists of the best movies of all time, as well as some that cover the worst films ever. Since movies made for theaters were introduced over a century ago, it is hard for the lists to be consistent. Most of them rely on information about how critics rate films. Some use audience ratings. 24/7 Tempo used a mix of both to pick the 100 worst movies and, by the same metrics, the worst of that worst list.
Recently, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) site released its 100 worst movies, rated by its users. IMDb is sometimes used to create other lists. Business Insider released its own worst-movie list. It used information from the review site Metacritic. Yahoo released a list of worst films, based on reviews from film site Rotten Tomatoes.
We all know a bad movie when we see one. Bad movies can have weak storylines, incompetent direction, poor technical quality, amateurish performances or all of the above.
Sometimes, the title is a clue, like “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Really? Another indicator of a stinker is who is in it. Actors such as Carmen Electra or Jean-Claude Van Damme won’t make you forget Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis. Some movies are so awful they develop a cult following, like 2003 film “The Room.”
How do these clunkers get made? In some cases, filmmakers are working with a limited budget that affects all aspects of production, from the technology used to make the movie to the talent they can afford to hire.
24/7 Tempo has identified the 100 worst movies of all time based on audience and critic ratings from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
Oftentimes, talent alone is not enough to carry a film. Many of the movies on the list are major Hollywood productions that feature top talent. Among the stars who appear in them are Nicolas Cage, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Sylvester Stallone and Matthew McConaughey, all of whom have won or have been nominated for an Oscar. These are the most popular Oscar winners of all time.
Sequels make numerous appearances among the worst films. Movie studios love to churn out additional chapters to popular originals, but filmmakers often botch these follow-ups, much to the displeasure of fans. Here are the 50 best movie sequels of all time.
Also common are both comedies and horror movies. Despite critics frequently skewering genre films of these types, they can be made cheaply and often do well at the box office and are therefore made often. While both genres often resonate with fans despite drawing ire from critics, the movies found here test the sensibilities of even the most tolerant viewers. If there is a silver lining for the pandemic, it prevented another year of cringe-worthy motion pictures being made.
To determine the worst movies of all time, 24/7 Tempo created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes average audience rating and IMDb average user rating. To be considered, each film needed to have at least 5,000 Rotten Tomatoes user ratings, 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews and 10,000 IMDb user ratings.
After running thousands of movies again these tests, “Manos: The Hands of Fate” turned out to be the single worst movie of all time. This horror movie was released in 1966 and directed by Harold P. Warren. It starred Tom Neyman, John Reynolds and Diane Adelson.
This movie about a family that stumbles upon a devil-worshiping, human-hand-sacrificing cult is hated by nearly all, aside from a smattering of die-hard bad movie fans. The lone film by writer-director and Texas fertilizer salesman Harold P. Warren has zero positive reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences on the site gave it a rating of 20%, while IMDb users rated it 1.9 out of 10. Distributor Synapse Films released a Blu-ray edition of the film in 2015 for the morbidly curious.
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