Not yearly is usually a cinematic masterpiece, and 2024 was no exception. For each Depraved or Movement that left us in awe, there have been the head-scratchers, the groan-inducers, and the straight-up disasters that made us marvel: “Who greenlit this?” These movies didn’t simply miss the mark, they geared toward a wholly totally different goal and nonetheless managed to journey over themselves.
From bloated sequels nobody wanted to pretentious experiments that forgot the viewers solely, the worst movies of 2024 gave us loads to snigger, cringe, and rant about. If nothing else, they reminded us that even Hollywood’s largest names and budgets can churn out a flop. So seize your popcorn (for throwing, not consuming), and let’s dive into the cinematic practice wrecks that made headlines for all of the improper causes.
Jamie Broadnax’s Worst of 2024
Joker: Folie à Deux
Oh, the place will we even start? The sequel no person actually requested for however everybody was interested in in some way managed to double down on the improper type of insanity. Joker: Folie à Deux was marketed as a gritty psychological musical, but it surely ended up feeling like a chaotic karaoke evening at Arkham Asylum, with an atrocious ending that made completely no sense. And whereas I appreciated Woman Gaga giving it her all vocally as Harley Quinn, who of their proper thoughts thought it was a good suggestion to have Joaquin Phoenix sing? That obtained some main side-eye from me. This made many of the musical numbers unintentionally hilarious and the plot simply fell flat. It’s unhappy that that is the sequel to a movie that broke field workplace data and earned Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for Greatest Actor. Joker: Folie à Deux is proof that typically much less is extra, and never each masterpiece wants a sequel. Or, on this case, a musical sequel.
Megalopolis
I did a Tik Tok evaluate on this movie and was high-key upset that I left a very nice reception at TIFF to attend a screening to look at this movie. Megalopolis is a movie that has no identification. It doesn’t know what it needs to be and it has among the worst performances I’ve seen by the most-talented actors this yr. I discovered myself to be completely bored and in my screening there have been precise walk-outs. There’s no denying Francis Ford Coppola’s ardour and imaginative and prescient, however Megalopolis proved that typically, even the best filmmakers want a co-pilot to reign them in. As a substitute of the masterpiece we have been promised (bear in mind this challenge was in growth for many years), we obtained a sprawling, self-indulgent experiment that reminded us that ambition isn’t any substitute for cohesion.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Should you have been to ask me what are my favourite prime 10 motion pictures of all time, the 1988 Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice would rank on my record. And but somebody thought it was a good suggestion 30 years later to offer us a sequel that we didn’t ask for. Now, critically this movie has performed properly with each movie critics and basic audiences. It additionally carried out properly on the field workplace, not like Joker: Folie à Deux. Nonetheless, for me I believed this movie was a dud. The plot was an incoherent mess, the jokes felt compelled, and the surreal whimsy that made the unique so particular was nowhere to be discovered. I actually hope the franchise ends right here and so they don’t make one other one, as a result of the charisma of the unique continues to be caught in 1988 and by no means left. Whereas I believed it was nice that they introduced again Michael Keaton, Wynona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, even their expertise couldn’t save this movie for me. I did like Jenna Ortega and thought she added a brand new refreshing emo vibe to the function, however total it simply didn’t land for me.
Chalice Williams’ Worst of 2024
Joker 2: Folie A Deux
I’m going to be trustworthy: the one cause this movie is on my record is as a result of it wasn’t performed correctly. Was it as unhealthy as individuals make it appear? Completely not. The appearing wasn’t unhealthy in any respect and the cinematography was fairly nice. They lose the viewers with the random breakouts into tune and plot factors that didn’t make sense (why on earth would we wish to consider Joker having a child?). One factor the movie did properly was it picked immediately up after the primary installment and truly confirmed a villain finishing up their sentence, proving unhealthy guys don’t get away with every little thing. Apart from that, Joker 2 was a scorching mess stuffed with scattered scenes that didn’t contribute to 1 one other and we received’t even get into that pointless rest room scene. I had excessive hopes, as Woman Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix are extraordinarily gifted. It’s a thriller what went improper, but it surely was really unhappy to see an Oscar-winning movie obtain such a lackluster sequel.
The Crow (2024)
Some cult classics actually shouldn’t be touched, and The Crow was one in every of them. However they went there and it was an utter disappointment, particularly to the followers of the unique. With the tragic incident that value the lifetime of Brandon Lee on the set of the unique, you’ll suppose that in case you are even going to aim to recreate this iconic movie, you’d take your time to make it good. That was not the case, though Invoice Skarsgård’s transformation was unbelievable and he was certainly an ideal match for the function. The story itself wanted work and the dearth of press to advertise the movie prompted there to be little information that it was even launched. It immediately grew to become a kind of movies you needed to see simply to take a look at how terrible it was.
Madame Net
There’s merely little interest in seeing something Sony tries to do in the case of Marvel, though I loved the Venom trilogy. Madame Net had social media in a frenzy when it was first introduced {that a} movie was in manufacturing. However after I noticed Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney connected, I misplaced as I didn’t suppose that they had what it takes to hold a movie that was already projected to carry out poorly. With so many strains supply so cringe and a plot that doesn’t have a worthwhile climax, it was a pointless movie to even try, and if it was going to have any actual likelihood at being respectable, Marvel Studios would have needed to become involved. Sony simply isn’t that lady in the case of comedian guide movies. This movie was so poorly acquired, it jogged my memory of how all of us hated Gigli again within the day.
Jeanine T Abraham’s Worst of 2024
Emilia Pérez
Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez is a horrible musical with gratuitous violence, a sophomoric storyline, and an uninspired ending that leaves you considering, why did I simply sit by means of this nonsense? Rita (Zoe Saldana) is an lawyer for a drug cartel. Juan Manitas Del Monte, a drug cartel kingpin, contacts Rita to assist him faux their dying and help him to transition into residing as a lady named Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofia Gascón) and retire. Jacques Audiard’s script is scattered, nonsensical, and regressive. I don’t perceive why this was a musical. Individuals simply began singing out of nowhere; the music wasn’t nice, the film felt lengthy, the choreography was lackluster, and the script was so stuffed with stereotypes that it was laughable. Juan Manitas and Emilia Pérez are one-dimensional bullies manipulating individuals to serve their self-interest. Juan Manitas abandons his spouse Jessi (Selena Gomez) and sons, transitions into after which controls their lives from afar. Emilia is a hypocrite, and the movie simply assumes as a result of they’ve positioned a trans girl on this function that the viewers will probably be sympathetic. Emilia is a superficial character, and the movie follows extra drained outdated tropes round trans individuals than I can depend. There’s even a scene the place Rita gasps in disgust as Juan Manitas reveals their breasts to show they’re critical about having surgical procedure to transition. Emilia Pérez appears like a trans model of Inexperienced E-book, Oscar bait, cosplaying at being conscious of social points whereas being tone-deaf.
Sorts of Kindness
This movie was one more excuse for director Yorgos Lanthimos to have feminine actors take their garments off and carry out graphic, gratuitous intercourse scenes and present far-fetched conditions in probably the most graphic and gross methods. Yorgos Lanthimos’ work is like that of a movie pupil whose solely expertise lies in writing probably the most obscene nonsense he can consider and convincing naive younger actors to do probably the most demeaning issues on display and name it artwork. Sorts of Kindness consists of three brief movies. The primary includes a person who receives a each day handwritten letter with detailed directions that management each facet of the person’s life, from what he eats to when he has intercourse along with his spouse. As a reward, he receives uncommon sports activities memorabilia. However when he’s instructed to inflict a violent act on a stranger, he questions authority, and the end result leaves him in a pickle. One other is a few husband convincing his spouse to chop small elements of her physique off to prepare dinner for him to eat. One other includes a manipulative intercourse cult. All three brief movies happen in worlds I don’t wish to go to. Sorts of Kindness is sort of three hours lengthy, and every minute appears like 4. Every movie finds a distinct technique to exploit and demean girls. The costumes, set design, and make-up for every movie look shabby. The makes an attempt at darkish humor aren’t humorous. This sort of misogynistic filmmaking will not be for me.
Nightbitch
Author/director Marielle Heller has created an idea of a film about motherhood by means of the expertise of a privileged married white girl. Mom (Amy Adams) is the stay-at-home mum or dad to her son and is cared for by her Husband (Scoot McNairy). The husband makes an excellent residing, and the household lives in a stupendous home in an upper-class suburb. Mom pours everything of her coronary heart, soul, and creativity into elevating her son however is bored and invisible to the chums she had when she was an artist earlier than motherhood. Mom appears down on the opposite moms in her neighborhood, and he or she is so targeted on catering to her solely son’s each want that she doesn’t deal with herself. She’s sleep-deprived and feels underappreciated, and he or she finds neighborhood with a pack of canines in her neighborhood and begins working with the canines at evening, or is she? Mom will get to the purpose the place she believes she’s turning right into a canine and finds liberation by means of appearing like an animal.
Nightbitch was eye-opening as a result of it gave perception into how some white moms groom their sons to consider that the world is their oyster. Mom abandons her identification as an artist to pour every little thing into this youngster with out offering any type of self-discipline. Nightbitch expects the viewers to sympathize with moms who coddle their youngsters’s each whim with out construction or self-discipline. The movie questions the patriarchy, however Mom is elevating her son to be part of that system. Mom selected to have the kid. If she needed to return to work so badly, she might rent a nanny or babysitter and return to work! The kid is already about two. If she needs to remain residence, he will probably be in pre-school for just some years. Return to work when he’s in class! These sorts of moms create the boys who find yourself being boyfriends or husbands who count on girls to care for his or her each want with out query. Nightbitch obtained on my final nerve.
The Deliverance
Lee Daniels directs this tedious supernatural thriller about Ebony (Andra Day), an alcoholic single mom who unknowingly strikes her three youngsters and her mom Alberta (Glenn Shut) right into a haunted home and tries to persuade the pious social employee (Mo’Nique) that she will be able to deal with her youngsters although they present as much as faculty lined in bruises, and act out in peculiar and disgusting methods throughout class. The Deliverance is an atrocious knockoff of The Exorcist, The Ring, and several other different revolutionary horror movies made up to now fifty years. Ebony is identical outdated drained, low-income, self-medicating Black mom trope. Ebony yells at her children, is offended on the world, and makes all of the improper decisions on a regular basis. The writing is mediocre and does nothing to create relatable individuals to care about.
Everybody on this movie is a stereotype. Glenn Shut appears to have an excellent time cosplaying her internal Rachel Dolezal as this white girl with a fetish for Black males who has connected herself to this specific working-class Black neighborhood by means of her blended daughter and Black grandchildren. The most effective half about Alberta was the hilarious memes individuals created of her on social media. Mo’Nique and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s characters are underwritten. From the interviews for this movie, it looks as if the actors had fun, however for the viewers, you possibly can see the leap scares coming from a mile away; the jokes aren’t humorous, the complete story is predictable, and the movie’s decision is just condescending. Good horror movies have characters you care about positioned in suspenseful conditions that scare the viewers and compel people to root for the individuals on display to outlive. The Deliverance was so terrible I began rooting for the demons.
Cassondra Feltus’ Worst of 2024
House 7A
Going into House 7A, I knew it wouldn’t be significantly suspenseful. As a prequel to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Child, writer-director Natalie Erika James (Relic) had an uphill battle. Anybody aware of the long-lasting 1968 movie already is aware of what’s going to occur to Terry Gionoffrio, performed right here by Julia Garner, which takes away many of the thriller. What results in her premature dying is attention-grabbing sufficient; James and co-writer Christian White (Clickbait) gave Terry a extra fleshed-out backstory as a struggling Broadway dancer. It places her within the place to simply accept a suggestion of a free residence from a few invasive, love-bombing strangers. Nonetheless, I’m extra curious concerning the Satanic origins of Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman Castevet (Kevin McNally). Though it was a superbly shot movie with spectacular performances, House 7A simply didn’t ship a compelling story.
Salem’s Lot
Gary Dauberman’s (It, It Chapter Two) tackle Salem’s Lot was meant for the large display however ended up a Max Unique. Regardless of the numerous hoops it needed to leap by means of simply to get launched, the movie feels a bit rushed. Whereas some scenes, together with the silhouetted abduction of younger Ralphie Glick (Cade Woodward), have been successfully chilling, there are few precise scares. Horror fanatic Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard), and others have little or no characterization, and the (principally trauma-bonded) relationships fail to really feel even barely plausible. I’ve seen most of those actors flip in stellar performances in different tasks, so everybody’s stilted dialogue supply was stunning.
The Deliverance
Author-director Lee Daniels (The US vs. Billie Vacation) tried his hand at horror with The Deliverance. Impressed by the true story of the Ammons household, this household drama facilities on a single mom elevating three youngsters who unknowingly strikes them right into a haunted home. Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) is among the most unlikable characters I’ve seen. Daniels wrote her as one other Indignant Black Lady stereotype, somebody scuffling with sustaining their sobriety, who continuously berates her children for something and every little thing. She’s at all times combating along with her in poor health mom Alberta (Glenn Shut), a white girl who’s totally adopted Black tradition as her personal. Glenn Shut appears to be having enjoyable with the function, principally the wild, unflattering wardrobe. She’s additionally given some really baffling strains. What started as a social supernatural thriller about poverty, generational trauma, and dependancy ended as an evangelical model of The Amityville Horror (or, no less than, an try at) that got here off as relatively preachy.
Catalina Combs’ Worst of 2024
Entice
The one factor good about Entice was seeing Josh Hartnett. He’s perpetually, one in every of my final 90s crushes. However, he alone couldn’t save this movie. Directed by M. Evening Shyamalan, I used to be anticipating some twist or reveal in direction of the top, as he’s identified for. I used to be let down. The reveal got here too early! To not point out, the trailers revealed an excessive amount of of what we have been to count on main as much as the discharge. The plot was non existent and the supply was missing. The suspense was constructed, however launched too quickly. The movie appeared rushed. The ending was uninspired. There’s no method a Taylor Swift/Billie Eillish-type artist ought to ever have made it so far as she did with a legit serial killer. Casting was nice, however I want a redo from Shyamalan.
And there you have got it, the cinematic misfires, blunders, and “what-were-they-thinking” moments that graced (or disgraced) our screens this yr. These movies may not have hit the mark, however they certain gave us one thing to speak about. Whether or not it was misguided sequels, bloated ardour tasks, or cringe-worthy reboots, 2024 proved that even in failure, Hollywood finds a technique to entertain us—simply not at all times how they meant.
Let’s hope 2025 brings extra hits than misses, however hey, if it doesn’t, we’ll nonetheless be right here, able to unpack the subsequent cinematic practice wreck.