The films listed below have been ranked by a number of critics in varying media sources as being among the worst films made in the 21st century. Examples of such sources include Metacritic, Roger Ebert's list of most-hated films, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, Rotten Tomatoes, pop culture writer Nathan Rabin's My World of Flops, the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (alongside spinoffs Cinematic Titanic, The Film Crew and RiffTrax), and the Golden Raspberry Awards (aka the "Razzies"). Films on these lists are generally feature-length films that are commercial or artistic in nature (intended to turn a profit, express personal statements or both), professionally or independently produced (as opposed to amateur productions, such as home movies), and released in theaters, then on home video. There are 46 films listed below, with 103 across both lists.
2000s Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
The comedy film Freddy Got Fingered stars Tom Green, who also co-wrote and directed it, featuring largely gross-out and shock humor similar to that featured in The Tom Green Show. In the film, Green stars as a 28-year-old slacker and cartoonist who falsely accuses his father (played by Rip Torn) of child molestation when he questions his son's life goals. Freddy Got Fingered received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with CNN critic Paul Clinton declaring it "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history." Warren Epstein of The Gazette described Freddy Got Fingered as "the worst movie ever made". A review in The Washington Post said: "If ever a movie testified to the utter creative bankruptcy of the Hollywood film industry, it is the abomination known as Freddy Got Fingered." Roger Ebert included the film on his "most hated" list, gave it zero out of four stars and wrote: "This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."
Freddy Got Fingered was nominated for eight awards at the 2001 Razzies, and won for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst On-Screen Couple. Razzies founder John J. B. Wilson called it "offensive, stupid and obnoxious" and said it had "no redeeming value". Green accepted his awards in person, traveling to the ceremony in a white Cadillac, wearing a tuxedo and rolling out his own red carpet to the presentation. The movie has a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 99 reviews. In 2010, the film was nominated at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture of the Decade, though it lost to Battlefield Earth. Freddy Got Fingered also appeared on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, was featured in Empire list of the 50 Worst Movies Ever poll, and is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list.The film has since garnered some positive critical re-evaluation, as well as a cult following.
Glitter (2001)
Starring Mariah Carey in the lead role as an aspiring singer in 1980s New York City, the romantic musical drama Glitter was intended to be her breakthrough role but was a critical failure and a box-office bomb. Hindustan Times claimed that Glitter "was slammed by almost all critics for being the worst film ever". Fade In stated that "Glitter isn't just one of the worst music-themed films ever – it's one of the worst films ever made, period." Author Bob McCann wrote in Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television that it's "rightfully in the running as one of the worst films ever made". News.com.au, Hi, Flavorwire, Screen Rant, Vanity Fair, Metacritic, and Empire are amongst those who have listed it as one of the worst films ever made.
Glitter received six Razzie nominations, and Carey won for Worst Actress. It was also featured in The Official Razzie Movie Guide, and in 2005, it was nominated for "Worst Musical of Our First 25 Years", but lost to From Justin to Kelly. In an interview in 2010, Carey stated that she believed that the film's failure at the box office was largely due to the soundtrack being released the same day as the September 11 attacks. It has a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 86 reviews.
Swept Away (2002)
A remake of a 1974 Italian film of the same name, the romantic comedy film Swept Away was directed by Guy Ritchie and starred his then-wife Madonna and Adriano Giannini. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with most of the criticism going towards Madonna's bad acting, the original film being considered superior and the remake being considered just a star vehicle for Madonna. Rex Reed of The New York Observer said: "If there is one thing worse than a Guy Ritchie movie, it's a Guy Ritchie movie with Madonna in it." Newsday critic John Anderson said, "New ways of describing badness need to be invented to describe exactly how bad it is." Joe Queenan of The Guardian discussed the movie in an article on what makes a movie the worst of all time and said, "[...] Showgirls has a certain campy allure that grows a bit each time I see it. Madonna's Swept Away doesn't; it seems more amateurish on each viewing, like a morass that starts out as a quagmire, then morphs into a cesspool and finally turns into a slime pit on the road to its ultimate destination in the bowels of Hell." Julie Burchill, also from The Guardian, selected it as her pick for the worst film ever made.
Swept Away was also a box-office bomb; against a $10 million budget, it grossed $598,645 in the United States and around $437,875 from foreign territories for a worldwide total gross of $1,036,520. It received five awards at the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards and became the first film to win both Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel. At the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards, it was nominated for Worst "Drama" of Our First 25 Years, and at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards, it was nominated for Worst Picture of the Decade, but 'lost' to Battlefield Earth at both ceremonies. Empire ranked it #20 in its list of "The 50 Worst Movies Ever", and AfterEllen ranked it #7 in its list of "The worst movies ever to grace the screen".
The Master of Disguise (2002)
The comedy film The Master of Disguise was produced in part by Adam Sandler and stars Dana Carvey as Pistachio Disguisey, an undercover Italian waiter who must save his father Fabbrizio (James Brolin) from the evil Devlin Bowman (Brent Spiner) by using his inherent skills in disguise. Although the film was a box office success, it received scathing reviews from critics upon its release, many of which pointed out its sophomoric plot, unfunny humor (in particular, its flatulence gags) and disguises that would clearly not be recognized by children (such as Tony Montana from Scarface). Many critics also pointed out the short running time, consisting of 72 minutes of the film itself and over ten minutes of end credits juxtaposed with outtakes, including two post-credit scenes. Roger Ebert gave it one star out of four, claiming, "The movie is a desperate miscalculation. It gives poor Dana Carvey nothing to do that is really funny, and then expects us to laugh because he acts so goofy all the time." Alan Morrison, writing for Empire, proclaimed that The Master of Disguise was "the worst film ever made: a film about idiots, made by idiots, for idiots", while Matthew Turner of ViewLondon remarked, "This is a serious contender for the title of The Worst Film Ever Made." The film holds a 1% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 105 reviews, and is featured on the site's list of the top 100 worst-reviewed films of all time. It also appears on Metacritic's list of the all-time lowest-scoring films, and is on the MRQE's 50 Worst Movies list. A cameo appearance by Bo Derek was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress at the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards, but she lost to Madonna for Die Another Day.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
The action film Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever stars Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu as opposing secret agents. Critics panned the movie, generally regarding it as having no redeeming features, lacking even the unintentional comedic value normally associated with bad films. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes describes the movie as "A startlingly inept film, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever offers overblown, wall-to-wall action without a hint of wit, coherence, style, or originality.".
Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote, "You could run this film backward, soundtrack included, and it would make no less sense." Roger Ebert called the movie "a chaotic mess, overloaded with special effects and explosions, light on continuity, sanity and coherence." The movie was also a commercial failure, recouping just over $19.9 million of its $70 million budget. In March 2007, Rotten Tomatoes ranked it #1 among "The Worst of the Worst" movie list, with 108 "rotten" reviews and no "fresh" ones. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever remains the worst-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes, as it is at the top of their 100 Worst Films of All time list. Mental Floss has also nominated it as the worst movie ever made and Ebert included it in his "most hated" list.
Conversely, the movie's videogame adaptation and its 2002 sequel, both for the Game Boy Advance, received critical acclaim, being regarded by some critics as two of the console's better first-person shooter games.
Ben and Arthur (2002)
A low-budget 2002 American romantic drama film about the titular gay couple who come into conflict with Arthur's religious brother, Ben and Arthur was written, directed, produced, edited, and scored by Sam Mraovich, who also played the character Arthur. Ben and Arthur received strong criticism (especially from the LGBT community) for its low budget and poor plotting. BuzzFeed described it as the "worst gay movie of all time". The gay popular culture site Queerty described Ben and Arthur as "unintelligible" and ended its review by calling it the "Worst. Movie. Ever." The gay movie review site Cinemaqueer likewise stated: "Ben and Arthur is so terrible that it has awoken the dormant Bette Davis in me. It is so painfully bad that it wouldn't even make good fodder on Mystery Science Theater 3000. This just might possibly be the worst movie I have ever seen ... Unless you get a kick out of mocking bad films, avoid this one at all costs." Michael Adams, reviewing the film for his book Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies, describes it thus: "Ben & Arthur is as over-the-top insane as it is ludicrously executed ... the production values, from biscuits on plates comprising the main course of a candlelit dinner to a church literally having a cardboard cross and a cartoon Jesus on the wall, are as bad as anything I've seen." A Rotten Tomatoes article placed Ben and Arthur on their list of "Films So Bad They're Unmissable", saying "If Tommy Wiseau's The Room is the over-wrought, melodramatic and self-pitying heterosexual camp classic of choice, then Sam Mraovich's Ben & Arthur is its gay equivalent." Rotten Tomatoes also stated "Every scene, every line, every hissy fit is simultaneously hilariously amateur and hysterically fever-pitched." Total Film ranked Ben and Arthur at No. 58 in their list of the 66 worst films of all time. Mraovich finds Ben and Arthurs placement among the canon of worst films to be a blessing as the film has received more attention than he ever anticipated.
From Justin to Kelly (2003)