Sometimes a movie gets horrible reviews, but happens to feature a dearly departed actor or an early performance from a beloved sitcom star. Just because these flicks landed at the bottom of Rotten Tomatoes' rankings doesn't mean there isn't something to love about them.
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00:00Sometimes a movie gets horrible reviews,
00:03but happens to feature a dearly departed actor
00:06or an early performance from a beloved sitcom star.
00:08Just because these flicks landed at the bottom
00:11of Rotten Tomatoes rankings doesn't mean
00:13there isn't something to love about them.
00:15There are few action flicks sillier than 1999's Simon Says.
00:19Simply put, this movie hits the nail on the head
00:21when it comes to the sweet spot of goofy and over-the-top,
00:24starting with its gimmicky star,
00:26controversial NBA great Dennis Rodman.
00:29Rodman plays smooth-talking Interpol agent Simon.
00:33With the help of his old friend Nick, played by Dane Cook,
00:36he's on a mission to take down a dangerous weapons dealer.
00:39On top of that, Nick's boss's daughter
00:41has also been kidnapped.
00:42Martial arts fans will appreciate the choreography
00:44and stunt direction, while for everyone else,
00:47Rodman's involvement makes the whole thing worthwhile.
00:50Channeling equal parts Wesley Snipes and Robin Williams,
00:53Rodman can't quite match the chops of either,
00:56but he's still worth watching for the novelty alone.
00:58Simon Says makes plenty of nonsensical choices,
01:01but that's all part of the fun,
01:03as long as you don't take it seriously.
01:05Part of Adam Sandler's deal with Netflix,
01:072015's The Ridiculous Six, is a slapstick Western
01:11with a plot that doesn't really matter,
01:13because it's all ultimately about
01:14Sandler's ridiculous schtick.
01:16It was a huge hit for the streamer,
01:18despite its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.
01:21While critics rightly called out Sandler's foray
01:23into the Wild West as unimaginative and lazy,
01:27it's fair to ask, what did they think they were watching?
01:30It never aspires to be anything other
01:32than a lowbrow comedy.
01:33To be fair, it doesn't quite reach the heights
01:36of some of his earlier hits,
01:37and it's admittedly often cringeworthy and offensive.
01:41Nevertheless, if you're a loyal Sandler fan,
01:42you should be able to get some solid laughs out of this one.
01:45Low-hanging fruit and childish vulgarity
01:47have always been the Sandman's bread and butter, after all.
01:51Good night, Burrow.
01:54That's a dry one.
01:56We will have good dry weather tomorrow.
01:58Gangster movies have been popular
02:00since the early days of Hollywood,
02:02so when it was announced that John Travolta
02:04was set to star as ruthless,
02:06real-life criminal kingpin John Gotti,
02:08it surely perked up a few ears.
02:10Alas, it didn't exactly deliver on its potential.
02:13Critics raked Gotti over the coals
02:15with Glenn Kenney of the New York Times
02:17calling it a dismal mess.
02:18We'll concede that it's not very good,
02:20but it's also not worthless,
02:22and that's thanks to Travolta.
02:23This might not be an Oscar-worthy performance,
02:26but it is an interesting one at least.
02:28Even Kenney praised the actor,
02:29despite his otherwise negative take.
02:32If you're looking for a Michael Mann-esque crime thriller,
02:35you'll be sorely disappointed,
02:36and it could be that sort of expectation
02:38that killed Gotti's chances with critics.
02:40It may not be one of the most underrated
02:42gangster movies ever,
02:43but the hate it gets is definitely overboard.
02:46This meeting today was worth 55 years hanging upside down
02:52because now you know how I feel.
02:55It might seem overkill
02:56to put another Western comedy on this list,
02:58but 1994's Wagons East
03:00belongs just as much as The Ridiculous Six.
03:03Wagons East follows a group of misfits in the Wild West
03:06who hire a hard-drinking rabble-rouser
03:08played by John Candy to help take them
03:10on a wagon train back home to the East Coast.
03:12To be fair to the critics who trashed it,
03:14this movie admittedly doesn't do nearly enough
03:16to effectively lampoon the Western genre,
03:19but it still hardly deserves a zero.
03:20Candy and Richard Lewis are delightful,
03:22even if the laughs can't quite match
03:24either of their best work.
03:25And what really makes the film more watchable today
03:27than even a few years ago
03:28is the fact that both of those stars have since left us.
03:31Candy tragically died before the release of the film,
03:34and now with Lewis' passing in 2024,
03:36Wagons East takes on an even more poignant tone.
03:40It's a time capsule of their careers,
03:41and even when it's not especially funny,
03:43it's nice to see them both trying their best
03:45to make us laugh.
03:47It would be quite a stretch
03:48for even the least discerning film buff
03:51to call 1990s Problem Child a masterpiece,
03:53but that doesn't mean it's not underappreciated.
03:56Starring John Ritter and Amy Yazbeck,
03:58the plot follows a couple with an adopted son
04:00who seems hell-bent on making his parents' lives
04:02a living hell.
04:03A dark comedy that works for all ages,
04:06Problem Child is definitely not the sharp social satire
04:10that some critics might have wanted it to be,
04:12but it never really pretends to be either.
04:15It revels in its ridiculousness
04:17and boasts a sterling supporting cast,
04:19including Gilbert Gottfried as an uptight adoption agent
04:22and Michael Richards as an escaped crook.
04:25Smiley pies.
04:28I ain't had a smiley pie in 15 years.
04:31Rotten Tomatoes called it juvenile and mean-spirited,
04:35but that's all by design as a twisted black comedy.
04:37Plus, Ritter is genuinely funny as usual,
04:40and the chemistry between him and Yazbeck
04:42make it all worthwhile.
04:43You might be wondering what an awful remake
04:46of an already mediocre horror movie is doing on this list.
04:50The 2002 original version of Cabin Fever,
04:53directed by Eli Roth, actually got decent reviews,
04:56and the 2016 version admittedly doesn't live up to it.
05:00But everything surrounding the remake makes it worth seeing.
05:02For starters, it's just fascinating
05:04as an exercise in filmmaking.
05:05Roth actually returned as an executive producer
05:07and a co-writer to remake his own movie,
05:09which is an incredibly rare occurrence in Hollywood.
05:13The chance to see the changes that he made
05:15to his own story are fascinating,
05:18if not necessarily instructive.
05:21Basically, if you love to study filmmaking
05:23in all of its unusual iterations,
05:25then there's plenty about 2016's Cabin Fever
05:27to keep you watching.
05:29Gotti wasn't the first time that John Travolta
05:32starred in a movie with a 0% tomato meter.
05:34Back in 1983, he headlined Staying Alive,
05:38the much-maligned sequel to the classic Saturday Night Fever.
05:42Saturday Night Fever is beloved for its strong script,
05:45heartfelt drama, and Travolta's career-defining performance.
05:48Staying Alive, by contrast,
05:50was mocked for focusing too much
05:51on all the songs and dance numbers
05:53and forgetting that it was the character drama
05:54that made its predecessor
05:55one of the best movies of the 1970s.
05:58But just because Staying Alive
05:59isn't as good as the original
06:01doesn't mean that it's completely terrible.
06:03At times, it's even better than good,
06:05and that's partly due to the stylish,
06:07if unpolished, direction of Sylvester Stallone.
06:11Watching Stay Alive with a fresh set of eyes
06:13makes it clear that maybe critics expected it
06:15to be just like its predecessor,
06:17when it's really a very different kind of movie.
06:19True, it's a direct sequel
06:21and spends lots of time on theatrical musical numbers,
06:25but we also get to explore Tony Morano's hopes and dreams
06:29as he goes on a journey of self-acceptance.
06:32I don't want anybody ever laughing at me.
06:33Who are you, somebody special?
06:36A sequel to the 1980 classic The Blue Lagoon,
06:39starring a young Brooke Shields,
06:40Return to the Blue Lagoon followed its predecessor
06:4311 years later.
06:44The original wasn't very good,
06:45so it was hardly a surprise
06:47that Return was also met with bad reviews.
06:49Still, its 0% score seems excessive,
06:52and it's at least worth watching for an early star turn
06:55from a young Mila Jovovich.
06:56Just 15 when she was cast,
06:58Jovovich plays island castaway Lily Hargrave,
07:01who becomes marooned with Patty,
07:02the baby from the first movie now all grown up.
07:05Return to the Blue Lagoon
07:06is admittedly slow-moving and tiresome,
07:08and the romantic drama is nothing to write home about.
07:11But seeing Jovovich in just her second big-screen outing
07:13is at least something to watch.
07:15Her performance has enough innocence and effervescence
07:18to offer a glimpse of her eventual star power.
07:21The color, it's the same as the sky.
07:25The first Highlander movie successfully blends elements
07:28of sci-fi, fantasy, and thriller
07:30with a hard-boiled crime story
07:32about an immortal warrior named Connor MacLeod
07:35being hunted by others of his kind,
07:38though it bombed at the box office,
07:40it still got a sequel, but then Highlander 2.
07:43The Quickening landed with an even bigger thud.
07:46In The Quickening,
07:47Connor is living in a post-apocalyptic far future.
07:50When a new evil emerges,
07:51he once again fights alongside fellow immortal
07:55Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez.
07:57It's not as good as the first movie,
07:59but The Quickening does have its redeeming qualities.
08:03Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery
08:05continue to chew the scenery,
08:07and there's something that's just so bonkers
08:09about the futuristic setting
08:11that it's hard not to enjoy, even if ironically.
08:13The story, meanwhile, is more layered than you might think,
08:16with elements of social satire and political commentary,
08:19however unsubtle or cliched they may be.
08:22And just like the first film,
08:23The Quickening eventually earned itself a cult following
08:26that could appreciate its big themes and ambitious ideas.
08:30Will I ever see you again?
08:31Who knows, Highlander?
08:34Who knows?
08:35While most of the movies on this list
08:37might not be completely terrible,
08:38they're generally not all that great either.
08:40However, the 2002 French comedy Merci, Dr. Ray
08:44is a bit of an exception,
08:45and that's due to its surprising 65% audience score
08:49on Rotten Tomatoes,
08:50a rare instance of a movie with a 0% critical rating
08:54receiving a fresh score from average moviegoers.
08:56Top critics didn't like Merci, Dr. Ray at all,
08:59as it seems that they were confused by what they deemed
09:02to be a pointless, contrived story with little meaning.
09:05Audiences, however, had quite the opposite reaction.
09:08Many user reviews have praised the quirky story
09:11involving a sex-starved young Frenchman,
09:14his narcissistic mother, a renowned psychiatrist,
09:17and lots of murder.
09:19Merci, Dr. Ray is an uneven and wild
09:21but also controlled art film.
09:23It's the sort of thing that would probably be favorably
09:26compared to Wes Anderson if it were released now.
09:28That's because it's populated by eccentric oddballs,
09:31which is the film's real appeal.
09:33It's not so much a tight, clever story
09:35as it is a showcase for an offbeat cast of characters
09:38and a game cast.
09:40His name is Love.
09:42The late 80s and early 90s saw the releases
09:45of some of the best comedy movies of all time,
09:48like Groundhog Day and Wayne's World.
09:50Unfortunately, the era also produced notorious stinkers
09:54like Nothing But Trouble and Stop or My Mom Will Shoot,
09:57but few flops from that time got as low a rating as Folks.
10:00The 1992 box office bomb,
10:03starring Tom Selleck as an uptight yuppie
10:05who takes his parents in
10:06when their house is destroyed in a fire.
10:08A movie about the ever-widening generation gap
10:11between baby boomers and their aging parents,
10:14Folks pokes fun at the elderly a little too much
10:16for some people's tastes.
10:17But while the humor can certainly be cringeworthy at times,
10:21it's far from the worst comedy of the decade.
10:23Nor is it even the worst comedy that Selleck ever starred in
10:27with the likes of Three Men and A Little Lady
10:29and The Love Letter serving as even bigger clunkers.
10:32Sure, the story in Folks is trite
10:34and the jokes are predictable,
10:35but in a certain light,
10:36it feels like a predecessor to the Adam Sandler movies
10:39that were soon to arrive later that decade.
10:41Thanks to a nonstop cavalcade of borderline offensive,
10:44lowbrow laughs mixed with satisfying slapstick farce.
10:47I can't get over how great you look.
10:50In the streaming era,
10:51gritty crime thrillers have become a dime a dozen,
10:55with the likes of Netflix and Amazon
10:57pumping out countless films about grizzled heroes
11:00on a quest for justice.
11:01These kinds of low-rent action movies
11:03were actually already common, if easy to ignore,
11:06which is probably why Stolen flew under everyone's radar
11:08when it came out in 2010.
11:10Maybe Stolen would have gotten a better score
11:12if more critics had bothered to even see it,
11:14as it has only 21 professional reviews
11:17listed on Rotten Tomatoes.
11:19Those that did see it noted that it lacks the tension
11:22that a thriller needs and is woefully awful
11:24despite its impressive cast.
11:27But that cast is exactly why it's worth more
11:29than its 0% suggests,
11:31as it's led by Jon Hamm as a dedicated detective
11:34trying to solve a cold case
11:35that may be related to his own son's disappearance.
11:38Stolen may not be as award-worthy as Mad Men,
11:41but for one of Hamm's first big screen lead roles,
11:44he delivers just enough to keep your attention
11:47when the story is lacking.
11:48As long as you don't go in expecting something
11:51on the same level as The Silence of the Lambs,
11:53you'll probably have a good time.