Movies with a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes are common.
But to get a 0 percent rating takes a certain kind of awfulness.
Sure, it's usually not the type of perfect the filmmakers were going for, but to get
any kind of perfectly unanimous response on a film is quite a feat.
Though watching a bad movie on purpose can seem like a complete waste of time, some of
these just have to be seen to be believed.
Find out how things can go so wrong, so fast with these critical bombs you should watch
anyway.
Manos: The Hands of Fate
It's one of the best episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and one of the strangest films
of all time.
From the beginning, everything about Manos: The Hands of Fate was a bad idea.
Hal Warren told Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant that making a movie was
easy.
He figured it was so simple, he bet Silliphant that even he, a lowly fertilizer salesman,
could finish a picture.
When your grand artistic vision stems from winning a bet, you're already off to a bad
start.
So Warren raised $19,000 from friends and family and started filming Manos.
He crafted a complicated story about a family that gets lost on vacation and stumbles upon
a cult leader that tries to turn all the women in his family to his stable of bickering brides.
“You are a trouble maker.
You deserve to die!”
It could’ve been something simple, but it wasn’t.
Manos is definitely not a cash grab.
Instead, it’s a bizarre expression of art.
Though everything about it is strange, there did seem to be some attempt at making a real
film.
At the end of the day, Manos is a movie about a real family coming together, giving their
all, and trying to make art no matter how low-budget or strange.
Roller Boogie
This disco-infused roller skating wreck was supposed to be a breakout role for Exorcist
alum Linda Blair.
If she wanted to get as far away from her Exorcist casting as possible, the idea of
doing a harmless roller skating picture doesn't sound like a bad idea.
Right?
“Now I can’t wait.”
Okay, maybe it was a bad idea.
Unfortunately, everyone hated the film, and it did little to lift her career.
Roger Ebert wrote,
"I didn't think it was still possible, in the dog-eared final days of the 1970s, to
have this silly, innocent, lame-brained and naive movie."
The fact that the film contained all disco music, which was fading in popularity, didn't
help matters.
Xanadu came out the next year, just to double-check that the nation was truly over roller dancing.
Yeah … we were over it.
Heartbeeps
"I'm here to tell you about this new movie.
It’s called Heartbeeps, and it’s about me and my pals."
Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters star as two robots who were created to be human companions.
When they meet each other, they fall in love and run away.
Which is kind of cute.
But that's not the whole story of Heartbeeps.
There's also a tank-like robot called Crimebuster who's come to hunt them down, a garbage child
robot that Kaufman made from spare parts, and Catskil, a corny stand-up comedian robot
who serves no purpose whatsoever.
"But believe me folks, this movie’s got a lot goin' for it."
Though the movie is weird and a lot of the jokes are hokey, what makes it all the more
strange is the robot design.
Peters looks like some kind of overly-oily first-generation fembot.
Kaufman's robot could be a carbon copy of a too-tan Chevy Chase.
Kaufman appeared in so few films, it's worth watching Heartbeeps for that alone, and it
also serves as a warning that even the funniest people can manage to make awfully unfunny
things.
Megaforce
Star Wars is one of the most influential films of all time, but one of the biggest effects
of the sci-fi blockbuster was the crazy amount of ripoffs that followed in its wake, like
the epic failure Megaforce.
Megaforce is about, you know, explosions and laser guns.
It's hard to admit, but even after multiple viewings, the only thing from Megaforce that
will be mega-impressed upon your brain is Barry Bostwick's booty.
Now, that's not to say this film isn't worth watching.
The weird mix of comedy and action plus the utter lack of a budget make this a pretty
funny watch.
You won't get some intricate tale of space intrigue, but you will get to see one of the
worst flying motorcycle special effects.
“I can’t understand / But I’ve only been so far.”
Seriously, who thought that looked good?
Plus, there's the added bonus Barry Bostwick with bleached hair looking like a rejected
Gibb brother.
As the New York Times' review of the film put it, "The combination is original — just
as a peanut butter and olive loaf sandwich might be — but it isn't any good."
Staying Alive
Though you may only remember Saturday Night Fever for its disco dancing and white bell
bottoms, it's actually a really great film about lower-class kids trying to find some
good and hope in their lives.
As the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive has none of that.
In Staying Alive, Tony Manero has moved to Manhattan and wants to be a dancer on Broadway.
Unlike the first film where Tony is a charming but troubled young man, here Tony is just
an all-the-time jerk.
Now in addition to the Bee Gees, we get the dulcet tones of Frank Stallone, brother of
Sylvester Stallone — who directed the film.
The dance numbers are bizarre, the leotards are cut high, and the story is just garbage.
But it's great garbage!
MAC and Me
Another film from the ripoff department, this D-grade E.T. has the double distinction of
trying to capitalize on Spielberg's incredibly successful film and being a great excuse for
blatant product placement.
MAC stands for Mysterious Alien Creature, and it turns out that Coca-Cola, not Reese's
Pieces, pleases this alien, although MAC is way more fond of product placement than his
Spielbergian counterpart.
A whole scene is devoted to a birthday party held at McDonald's that features Ronald McDonald
himself, and enough of the chain's logos to fund the production company's next five knockoffs.
There's also a dance number, which ET is notably lacking, so at least one thing was different.
“A friend in the end / Is always there / To give their heart”
Seriously, it just goes on like that.
Another reason to see this one: Almost every time Paul Rudd goes on Conan to promote a
film, he switches out the clip of his own movie with the same clip of MAC and Me.
Rudd has done this for over a decade, and for some reason it never gets old.
Simon Sez
Simply watching a Simon toy light up for an hour and a half would contain better acting
than this Dennis Rodman sequel.
The original, entitled Double Team, featured the bad boy basketball player and Jean-Claude
Van Damme teaming up to kick butt and give horrible line readings.
"Their styles are different.
Very different."
For the sequel, Van Damme did not return, so they got the next best thing: Dane Cook.
The movie has a lot of "comedy" and plenty of Rodman looking cool while super fake explosions
happen behind him.
The film is a great reminder of a time when Rodman was a really big deal.
1999 feels so, so far away.
Pinocchio
If you want to see the second-worst film of all time, sit down for a terrible evening
with Pinocchio.
No, not the Disney version.
The 2002 Roberto Benigni vehicle.
After winning two Oscars for Life is Beautiful, America was charmed by this excitable Italian
and couldn't wait for what wonderful film he'd bring to us next.
Unfortunately, the next film he brought was this one.
“It’s Pinocchio!”
“Pinocchio!”
It's odd enough that a 49-year-old Benigni decided to play the small puppet child, but
the American version had to make it even weirder.
Instead of dubbing the film with Benigni's accented voice in English, Breckin Meyer of
Road Trip fame was chosen.
The 30-something voice of Meyer coming out of the nearly 50-year-old body of Benigni
is simply disturbing.
Plus, the fairy tale film has a good moral: say no to a film where you play a 10-year-old
if you're pushing 50.
Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever
Now, it's true that all these films have a 0 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the
crown of worst of the worst has to go to Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.
A lot of films that reach this level only have a couple dozen reviews.
Since there are fewer critics chiming in, the odds of a perfectly bad score are a little
better.
But Ecks vs. Sever was a major release, and a lot of critics agreed that it deserved the
ultimate F. 116 critics, to be exact.
They all agreed this movie was garbage.
It beats the next worst movie by almost 50 critics.
Ouch.
What makes this film so hated?
Critics seem to agree that the movie has a convoluted plot, no character development,
and a ton of messy-looking explosions that all just blend together after a while.
Still, it's worth watching just to see what Rotten Tomatoes considers the very worst of
them all.
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