2025 was a great year for movies. It was so great, in fact, that tomorrow I have my list of the 100 best films of the year dropping. There was plenty to like in theatres and on streaming, a bunch of stuff that was kinda forgettable/just okay/not very good, and then a small, but mighty handful of films that sucked harder than anything else.
This list is for the films that dared to stink up a room the hardest in 2025, but I should preface this by saying I feel blessed in some respects. I missed out on some of this year’s worst list staples. War of the Worlds? Ducked it because it released on streaming to zero fanfare and didn’t pick up steam until people started watching it. The Electric State? I was out sick when it came out and never got around to watching it. Love Hurts? Legitimately had somewhere else to be that night So this list is just the worst of what I had to sit through. I can’t watch everything, even if it seems like I do, and that goes for the good films and doubly for the things that have a certain odour around them.
The gap in quality between the previous low bar for the Star Trek franchise and this shoddy repurposing of a series into a single volume film is frankly staggering. Stranding star Michelle Yeoh and a great supporting cast in a Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off is a crime against all parties involved, and the legions of devoted fans who expected and should’ve gotten much better. It’s painful to watch from the perspective of a non-Trek enthusiast, so I shudder to think what it’s like being let down even more by this.
9. The Roses
I have a theory about The Roses, a dire adaptation of The War of the Roses. I’m betting writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things, The Favourite) probably turned in a good script, which got the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman excited to participate. But somewhere along the way, Searchlight started meddling with things, hiring the director of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents films to make something way out of his depth and surrounding the leads with the most bafflingly assembled cast of name brand actors who look absolutely adrift. At that point, no one could get out of their contract so they all just hoped for the best and got the worst. The kind of abject failure that reeks of studio interference in every frame.
8. Smurfs
I mean, Peyo’s Smurfs are still a big deal overseas, so I can see why studios are so keen to crank out low aiming cinematic outings with these little blue critters, but none of them have been worth the effort, especially this all time low point. An animated adventure with no soul, bad songs (including one that somehow coaxed Rihanna out of her semi-retirement), and no funny jokes or gags, Smurfs is the most aggressively mediocre bit of family entertainment this year. But the cast has a lot of recognizable voice talents who probably got paid decently, so good on them. I’m sure it’s easy money, and in this economy, can you blame them?
7. M3gan 2.0
A textbook example of how to follow-up a decent enough movie with an empty headed, half-assed, and punishingly overlong sequel that misunderstands everything that made the previous film such a B-movie delight. A movie that’s trying way too hard to be a meme come to life, M3gan 2.0 sands off all of the original’s harsh edges and offers an ugly looking, leaden paced, and unsatisfying piece of product made up from the picked clean bones of other franchises… and other memes.
6. The Pickup
Every time it feels like Eddie Murphy is on the verge of a full on career comeback or return to form, he drops something like The Pickup, an unwatchable, unfunny action comedy that has him playing the grizzled veteran second fiddle to Pete Davidson’s terminally annoying motormouth. Tim Story once again proves himself to be a decent director with the absolute worst taste in material. No one in this derivative heist flick looks like they’re having a lick of fun.
5. Flight Risk
One of the first things viewers see in “Oscar Winning Director” Mel Gibson’s laughably idiotic Flight Risk is the most unconvincing CGI moose you’ve ever seen in your life. Things only get worse from there in this story of an FBI agent and a white collar con trapped on a private plane ride across Alaska with Mark Wahlberg’s hammy, oddly accented hitman with a huge bald patch. The sight of Wahlberg’s male pattern baldness is amusing. As is that moose. Everything else here is just boring, unexciting filler. Gibson’s absolute worst as a director and it’s not even close. Everyone involved should’ve stayed away from this.
The most enjoyably awful movie on this list is Trey Edward Shults’ ode to The Weeknd’s ego, Hurry Up Tomorrow, a movie that was inexplicably made before the titular album in question had been recorded and then shelved until after it was released. Not that it matters. There’s almost nothing in common between the album and the movie, the latter of which feels like just an excuse to complain about all the women in The Weeknd’s life and the underperformance of his Dawn FM album. A movie that can only exist when you refuse to say no to a megastar and let all of their most obnoxious and toxic traits run amok. Compulsively watchable and contemptible at the same time. That’s quite an achievement. Should be number one on this list, but it isn’t, for reasons I’ll get into in a minute. Better than The Idol, though, if only because this is much, much shorter.
3. Playdate
It has been a rough few years for comedies, especially ones aimed at the dad joke crowd. A film so badly conceived and executed I find it hard to believe it was crafted by human hands, this star vehicle for an openly annoyed looking Kevin James and an overly eager Alan Ritchson about mismatched parents caught up in a high concept military plot spins around in neutral for what feels like an eternity. This is what they mean when they call movies “content.” Functionally useless and amateurish at every level of production.
2. The Ritual
The worst horror movies try to exploit a subgenre that’s hot at the moment and trick people into seeing them because they want more of the same. The Ritual, an ungodly and poorly made chiller, wants to cash in on the bumper crop of satanic possession films that have come out lately. There isn’t an original idea in this film’s head and the contempt it shows for the viewer is unforgivable. Exactly the kind of movie you would expect from Buzzfeed, the listicle company that used this as a foray into filmmaking.
1. Bride Hard
And here we are. The bottom of the barrel, leading a list filled with several other movies that tried and failed to pair action and laughs. With sub network television level budgets, no funny jokes, cut rate action, and a cast of people who all look like they’re being held at gunpoint to do this, Bride Hard is an attempt to make a female led action comedy that fails to generate a single laugh or smile. I previously said that Bride Hard wasn’t the worst thing I saw all year, but I was wrong. It absolutely was. I think I just wanted an excuse to forget that it even happened.
Objectively speaking, Hurry Up Tomorrow is the worst movie of the year; a once in a lifetime train-wreck of biblical proportions. But if pressed with the question which of these top four I would watch again if forced, I would take that over the three that take the top (or in this case, bottom) spots on the worst of the year list. Hurry Up Tomorrow is awful, misguided, and mind-boggling. Playdate, The Ritual, and Bride Hard are acts of cinematic torture.
