Most Famous Bad Films List

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Last Updated: 6/3/24
Note: It's simple and straightforward: the worst of the worst in famous bad cinema history. In order to qualify, the film has received a rating of less than '7' from me and then must also meet the following criteria:

1. Most people have declared it a bad movie.
2. And I agree with them.
3. It has achieved notoriety.

Multiple parts (i.e. duology, trilogy, etc.) or films in a similar vein can be put together as one if there's a continuation in the narrative. Miniseries and telefilms are fair game, but documentaries are excluded. Anything made after the year 2000 will not be mentioned at all because of the unbelievable avalanche of totally bad films that persists.

These films have shown awfulness in most, if not all, aspects: acting, characters, screenplay, plot, direction, editing, cinematography, and so on. They must also be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically insignificant." Then, I think about cultural phenomenon, uniqueness, infamous movie moments, terrible scenes and/or lines, and a lack of cinematic power and timelessness.

This list is based on what I have seen so far and is limited to the top 50 with 5 dishonorable mentions in that order. While ranking the films, I am simultaneously thinking about infamy before lack of quality and lack of quality before infamy.




  1. Heaven's Gate (1980)

  2. Heaven's Gate has been routinely included in just about every Worst Films List there is. There are good reasons why it belongs there, but I don't view it as a truly awful movie because there have been worse. Hypothetically speaking, if Platoon was released before The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino would've never won anything. As a result, he doesn't get a Wellesian-like free rein to make Heaven's Gate as the prolix picture it is.


  3. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)

  4. Stop! Or I Will Shoot Your Mom is the most infamous movie of Sylvester Stallone's career. Whoever thought of this deserves to be shot. The title should be Shut Up! Or I Will Shoot Your Mom. I liked Estelle Getty in The Golden Girls, but no disrespect to her...she's awful. Apart from Mr. Magoo by Leslie Nielsen, Estelle plays the most annoying, obnoxious character of all time.


  5. Psycho (1998)

  6. What the fuck was going on in Gus Van Sant's head when he agreed to plagiarize Psycho? Not only Gus did that abominable piece of shit, but he also went an extra step further to insult Alfred Hitchcock by including a masturbation scene which is unexplainable. Everybody who was part of the remake should be shamed, and Vince Vaughn will burn forever in cinema hell for what he did.


  7. Ishtar (1987)

  8. Ishtar is a stupid film that falls flat on its face in every scene. There's a feeling of "yeah...okay" most of the time. Reading up the history behind the scenes is more compelling with Elaine May never directing a movie again. It's fair to say Ishtar should've never been made in the first place, and the poster on right says it all.


  9. Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

  10. Yep, this is the most infamous film of the franchise. The tagline of Jaws: The Revenge reads, "This time, it's personal." What the fuck are they talking about? Didn't Jaws die in the first part? Four different Jaws films. Four different Michaels. Four different Seans. And Michael Caine's clothes are still dry. Mario Van Peebles' character unbelievably survives after being thrashed around so much.


  11. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

  12. My head still shakes in disbelief, befuddlement, and shock all rolled into one. Marlon Brando was a sex symbol in A Streetcar Named Desire and then reaffirmed it in On the Waterfront. Fast-forward to The Island of Dr. Moreau forty years later, he's a 500-pound indescribable vat of Larry Drake ugliness. Not only that, but Brando has also lost his mind for good.


  13. Armageddon (1998)

  14. You know Criterion Collection's reputation went down the toilet when it decided to add this piece of shit to its library by calling it an "important classic and contemporary film." This is one of the worst popcorn junk movies of all time and is an abuse on the eyes, intelligence, and ears. The asteroid is "the size of Texas"? Yeah...whatever.


  15. Caligula (1979)

  16. Caligula is a trashy sexploitation picture that fails on many levels, hence its much-deserved disreputation. Moreover, it's so theatrical, nonsensical, unstructured, and free-going that it no longer resembles a film. Random scenes are followed by more random scenes, making the whole thing a disjointed mess. Any notion of a plot has gone out of the window.


  17. Police Academy Sequels (1985)

  18. The first one was fine, but the rest? Jeez. According to IMDb, "Ron Perlman (Konstantine Konali) considered his work on this movie [6th sequel] 'a public service' by shutting down the Police Academy movies for over two decades. Perlman said, 'I'm not going to apologize. I did that piece of shit.'" It goes without saying there's no point to adding more and more sequels to prolong the franchise.


  19. The Wiz (1978)

  20. The Wiz is too bizarre. $24 million was budgeted for the film, but they couldn't squeeze five bucks out of it on light bulbs? At any rate, the film is so dark and ugly that I'm flabbergasted it received Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design. The voters must have been high on crack back then. And we have the mother of them all: the casting of the 33-year-old Diana Ross in the leading role that's owned by Judy Garland who was 16 at the time.


  21. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

  22. Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, James Earl Jones, Paul Henreid, Max von Sydow, and Ned Beatty...all in the same film. What the hell happened? It's hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem is: the locusts, the trip to Ethiopia, the boy doing the lasso thing, Kokumo's inconsequential impact, the sync machine, Richard Burton's deadpan stares, the fancy terrace with almost no fence, or the inane line "The wings are brushing me!"


  23. Mommie Dearest (1981)

  24. Written by her adopted daughter Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest is the first and the most famous tell-all book about Joan Crawford and the mystique of Hollywood. It obliterated Joan Crawford's reputation. To soil her image even further is Faye Dunaway's iconic camp performance. Talk about two controlling kooks. The movie does go overboard at certain times, most especially the "No...Wire...Hangers!" moment.


  25. Duel in the Sun (1946)

  26. Trash, stupid, long, juvenile, boring, overblown, nonsensical, excessive, and plain silly, Duel in the Sun is nothing like the poster on right. Much of the fault lies in David O. Selznick, the ultimate puppet master. For starters, he was trying to top the success of Gone with the Wind which would never happen. Then, he was trying to make Jennifer Jones the greatest leading lady of all time when she had no acting chops to begin with.


  27. Howard the Duck (1986)

  28. Howard the Duck was a massive box-office failure back in the 80's, and everybody made fun of it. Occasionally, there are funny moments, but the rest is a mess. No question, the grossest scene is when Lea Thompson was about to commit an act of bestiality with the duck. What a nauseous moment.


  29. Hudson Hawk (1991)

  30. "Catch the excitement. Catch the adventure. Catch the Hawk. Bruce Willis. Hudson Hawk." What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis? Bruce Willis, with all of his four gold looped earrings, actually thought he could write a story? Ha, that's a laugh! It's impossible to follow the ridiculous plot or what everybody is doing or talking about. Basically, anything goes in spite of rationality. Oh, yeah. Bruce? Just one thing: wipe that stupid smirk off your face.


  31. Batman & Robin (1997)

  32. Quick! What's the first thing that comes to your mind about Batman & Robin? If you said, "Nipples," then yep...you are correct. Fans of the franchise have universally voted Batman & Robin as the worst Batman movie of all time. Joel Schumacher goes overboard with the use of colors. I can imagine him trying to decide: "What color should I use? Is red good? Or yellow? How about a pitch of orange and some purple? I feel blue. No! Yes! No! More green! No! More yellow!"


  33. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

  34. "Yippee!" young Darth Vader yells. In the meanwhile, I don't consider myself as racist, but I have to say this: Jar Jar Binks acts like a foolish black person in a minstrel show, speaking some of the worst made-up language I've heard in movie history. There's no way he would've been accepted in any elite circle, let alone be granted a generalship. "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute." Taxation??? Oh, my goodness. Who the fuck cares?!?


  35. Staying Alive (1983)

  36. I looked at the DVD case to see who the director of Staying Alive was. To my surprise, it's Sylvester Stallone. After blinking twice, I reread the words, and they still said: "Sylvester Stallone." Yes, that Sylvester Stallone of Rocky and Rambo fame. Holy shit, he directed a dance movie. Staying Alive fails on so many levels that it's a train wreck. Forget about the magic of Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. It's gone.


  37. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

  38. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is one of the worst pictures made. It's trash beyond trash and so poorly directed and edited that I had nightmares afterwards. The acting by the cast is across-the-board atrocious. Pure nonsense is the dialogue that's written by none other than the moron sock puppet named Roger Ebert. It's the single number one reason why I never read his reviews or believe any of the shit he says about cinema.


  39. Battlefield Earth (2000)

  40. Great balls of fire, what the hell was the poor man thinking? I can't believe John Travolta still defends his work to this day. Apart from the money, the only reason for doing the film is that he, a long-time Scientologist, wanted to make a film that's based on a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. At any rate, Battlefield Earth deserves a place in cinema hell as one of the most famous bad movies ever made.


  41. Last Tango in Paris (1972)

  42. Proclaimed as one of the most outrageous and controversial made, Last Tango in Paris, which is better known as Hey, Marlon Brando Is Fucking Me in the Ass with a Slab of Butter, is a boring, pointless, and unsexual film. It's not Brando. It's not the girl. And it's not the concept. Rather, the direction, along with the damn bad dialogue, is what killed the movie. It just goes nowhere. In fact, Marlon Brando said he had absolutely no idea what Last Tango in Paris was all about. Neither did I.


  43. Cruising (1980)

  44. Cruising is a big disappointment. An even bigger disappointment is Al Pacino. What he did is nothing. Pretending to be a homosexual character, he never kisses a guy, only to lets him cop a feel of his chest for one moment, or partakes of oral sex either way. In short, Al Pacino chickened out, plain and simple. Meanwhile, Cruising is infamous for the mistreatment of homosexuals and transsexuals and the perpetuation of stereotypes about them.


  45. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

  46. Well, congratulations, Jack Sholder. He committed the greatest cardinal sin: directing an unintentionally gay horror picture. Never mind asking about horror in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge because there isn't any. It's all about the gay undertones. Yet I thought the movie was supposed to be about Freddy Krueger? Even the last two words in the title is irrelevant.


  47. The Green Berets (1968)

  48. You can watch the fat, old John Wayne, a WWII draft dodger, kill Viet Congs in The Green Berets, which is usually regarded as the first film about the Vietnam War. Many Vietnam vets have lambasted it for being inaccurate in details. A bland war movie that runs far too long, I have no idea what's going on in most of the scenes. Psst, John...the sun sets in the west, you fucking racist idiot.


  49. Zabriskie Point (1970)

  50. There's a long dragged-out sequence of ridiculousness and pointlessness in Zabriskie Point with the last ten minutes of stuff being repeatedly blown up in a slow-motion at different angles before closing out with a sunset. I've been wondering the whole time: was Michelangelo Antonioni mentally retarded? Also, did he watch 2001: A Space Odyssey and Easy Rider too many times and try to emulate them?


  51. Raintree County (1957)

  52. During the filming, Montgomery Clift was involved in a serious automobile accident by driving straight toward a telephone pole which happened on May 12, 1956, setting off the longest suicide in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Taylor had to remove two front teeth from Clift's throat that were choking him. Afterwards, he was never the same again, and this Gone with the Wind wannabe had to be suspended for a few months.


  53. Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

  54. At 2:30 in the morning, two illegally hired Asian kids, ages 6 and 7, were working with Vic Morrow on July 23, 1982, in a scene for Twilight Zone: The Movie, and a helicopter killed them. Steven Spielberg lost so much respect for John Landis based on what happened that he ceased their friendship. Oh, the movie? Who cares?


  55. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)

  56. Oh, boy...more Friday the 13th insanity. I love the poster on right because the hockey mask is the most fake I've seen and should be considered as a dead giveaway. Therefore, the fifth part is the Halloween III: Season of the Witch of the franchise and is a major source of contention among the fans. The filmmakers have done a good job of making the characters as annoying as possible and then having them killed pronto. I guess the goal is not to feel bad about it.


  57. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)

  58. The movie has a notorious reputation for being one of the worst book-to-film adaptations ever, but honestly, it's not that bad. The only biggest misgiving I have about it is the casting of Morgan Freeman. As much as I like him, his cartoonish character ruins the film. I wish there are more incorporations of the well-known Bonfire phrases such as "social x-ray," "the girl with the brown lipstick," and "the Master of the Universe."


  59. Striptease (1996)

  60. Not taking itself seriously is a major problem throughout. Of the cast, Demi Moore is the only one who thinks it's a drama picture. No matter how often strippers are naked, it feels so clinical. Ditto for Demi Moore who looks old and plastic. Replete with manly legs and breast implants (or enhancement?), she puts on a long, boring dance show before taking her top off, and it's immediately over afterwards. If Demi Moore can't be sexy, then what's the point?


  61. Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

  62. Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf is an infamous horror movie for one and only one reason: Sybil Danning. Seventeen is the number of times she rips her top off at the end. Why? I suppose it's to get the audience to stay through the stupid rock video. There's an occasional random insert every ten minutes of either the concert or a sex orgy. Sometimes, it's been both. They do nothing but add fuel to the runaway disaster.


  63. The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978)

  64. No...no...no...the horror. Nothing works in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan. It's a train wreck of a picture. What the hell was Tony Curtis thinking when he agreed to appear in this steaming pile of crap? I've been clueless why the team had earned the privilege to travel to Japan to play a meaningless game with tons of dollars wasted to make it happen.


  65. Nothing But Trouble (1991)

  66. Oh, boy! Who wants to see a penis on Dan Aykroyd's nose? Billed as a comedy, Nothing But Trouble is never funny and brings a new meaning to the word "tasteless." Forget the cast which includes Chevy Chase, John Candy (twice as he also plays a drag queen(!)), and Demi Moore. All should be embarrassed of themselves for eternity.


  67. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

  68. The franchise takes a bizarre detour as Halloween III: Season of the Witch abruptly drops Michael Myers (well, he makes a cameo via Movie of the Night) and subsequently goes in a new direction. Um, why? Although the premise is interesting, there's a lot of Invasion of the Body Snatchers going on with many coincidences.


  69. Hook (1991)

  70. Hook is a rare misfire in Steven Spielberg's oeuvre. For a kid's film, it's far too long to sit through, clocking at a whopping 144 minutes when it should be 54 minutes shorter. The main fault, despite the lavish production and several big-name stars, is it never gels together. Add the annoying child stars into the mix. And finally throw in the earnestness to make every moment so Mary Poppins special. Then, we have the mother of them all: Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. Aaaaargh!


  71. Reefer Madness (1936)

  72. Well done. Reefer Madness has me sold. Marijuana is the greatest menace ever, worse than the Black Death, syphilis, polio, alcohol, and the dust bowl. Although intelligence is sorely lacking and there are slow parts, it's a somewhat enjoyable and amusing movie. Dave "Faster! Play It Faster!" O'Brien is effective in a campy way. Everybody seems to be having a good time. Hence, for a moral picture, Reefer Madness fails miserably.


  73. Superman III (1983)

  74. Yep, this is the worst Superman movie of all time. Nothing works. Every time a subplot occurs, I've forgotten what happened before that. If a Superman sequel is going to leave out Marlon Brando, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, and Valerie Perrine, then it's fair to say the franchise is over. Allowing Richard Pryor to play a crackhead doesn't help matters any.


  75. Shanghai Surprise (1986)

  76. No, no, no...absolutely no fucking Madonna. Don't be fooled by her blond hair. Shanghai Surprise sucks. Whenever Sean Penn is left alone by his then-wife Madonna, the movie works well because he can lead with relative ease. But as soon as she's back, it falls apart. Hence, Madonna is the worst big-name actress ever lived.


  77. Shakespeare in Love (1998)

  78. Ah, Virginia, but the story of Shakespeare in Love takes place in 1593 and the colony didn't exist until 1607. Ah, Shakespeare is single and in love with a rich lady, but the real playwright had a wife and three kids. If you ask me to name some of the worst Best Picture winners ever, Shakespeare in Love immediately comes to my mind. It's that bad. Hence, Saving Private Ryan should've won.


  79. Boxing Helena (1993)

  80. The tagline of the poster for Boxing Helena says: THE MOST TALKED ABOUT FILM OF THE YEAR. That's funny because almost nobody saw it in 1993. Boxing Helena is the one that bankrupted Kim Basinger who initially agreed to star but backed out after reading the script and learning she's required to be nude for some scenes. Now, when Madonna turns down a film like Boxing Helena, it's a warning for everybody else to stay far away from the turd.


  81. Even the Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)

  82. What the hell was Gus Van Sant thinking? To be fair, he did direct the remake of Psycho which took stupidity to a new level. Van Sant admitted to being upset with the negative critical response to his film of which he didn't see coming. Oh, come on. How could he not? Look at Uma's fucking huge thumbs. Start from there, and realize the magnitude of this...absurdity.


  83. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)

  84. Wow, is Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation the worst ever? In the midst of a dense fog, Matthew McConaughey constantly screams and loses his shit. It's highly doubtful he was in the right frame of mind. That stupid mechanical leg of his has to be one of the most bizarre ever conceived in movie history. So is the moment when a plane came out of nowhere to kill his character. Everybody involved with this crap was either mentally unstable or on drugs.


  85. St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

  86. Calling the Guinness Book of Records, we have a winner here: St. Elmo's Fire for the film with the most unlikable characters. Let me reiterate that: it's about seven worthless recent college graduates with useless problems. Every time something goes wrong, my answer has been uniformly the same: "Like I care." Remember they were called "The Brat Pack"? Make that "The Untalented Pack."


  87. Yentl (1983)

  88. The most damning indictment comes from the author of "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy" Isaac Bashevis Singer when asked about his thoughts on Yentl and whether he liked it or not: "I am sorry to say I did not. I did not find artistic merit neither in the adaptation, nor in the directing. One thing is sure: there was too much singing in this movie, much too much. It came from all sides."


  89. An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)

  90. Imagine my surprise when I came across a VHS copy of An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn at a flea market. It was like finding plutonium in the middle of a godforsaken desert. The comments "Hilarious!", "Outrageous!", and "One of the funniest movies in ages!" are splattered all over the cover. What the fuck are they talking about? It's nothing but a soporific dreck that revolves around the missing reel of an upcoming crappy Hollywood blockbuster.


  91. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

  92. Submitted eleven times to the MPAA, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is infamous for being extensively cut to avoid an 'X' rating. Ken Foree's character is first hacked into pieces, and then he miraculously survives the bloodbath with only a band-aid on his head not long after. A new ending was shot without the knowledge of the director who found out about it for the first time while seeing the film at a theatre in Tennessee.


  93. Valley of the Dolls (1967)

  94. Valley of the Dolls is about how an actress can go from a big star to a drug junkie, but such films have been fairly common for decades. Obviously, the focus is on the drug-infested lifestyle that Judy Garland, famous for playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, used to lead. She attempted suicide so many times until one day that it finally happened through an accidental overdose of barbiturates. No matter what, the film is a mess.


  95. Spice World (1997)

  96. Did they blatantly rip off the idea from A Hard Day's Night featuring the Beatles? The problem with the five females is they're virtually indistinguishable, at least from a personality standpoint. Not only that, but the editor also has to make rapid cuts by going from one character to another, therefore making for a disorientating film. As a result, it has been a madcap of pure nonsense.


  97. Cocktail (1988)

  98. Cocktail...now, that's what I call a bad movie. To be fair, it's highly watchable because of the bottle-throwing crap which is called flair bartending that can be listed among the top ten of pointless skills. But it's a good thing Tom Cruise did many impressive films during the 80's and early 90's to wipe Cocktail away from memory.


  99. Airport 1975 (1974)

  100. Made and released in 1974, I wonder why it's called Airport 1975. In many ways, the film is a disaster, and I'm not even talking about the airline disaster. Although the first half hour is hilarious and camp, it goes downhill afterwards. The characters are loathsome, and the plot is stupid. Momentum dies after the small jet collides with Boeing 747, and the ending is predictable as ever. Oh, my goodness...Linda Blair. Her performance is so bad and cheesy that it's infamous enough.




Dishonorable Mentions: The Arrangement (1969), Performance (1970), Caddyshack II (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), and Turbulence (1997)