Here is my list of films that profoundly disappointed me or just were painful to get through or downright bad. Apologies to anyone offended but a nuber of films disillusioned me and made me want to give up watching films.
WOLF MAN may not really be the worst film of the year it was the first huge disappointment. Having nothing to do with a wolf man or werewolf, it is instead simply variation on the contagion/zombie film where people turn homicidal, with some slight body changes. Echoing too many other better films the film fails to be scary. Worse it's not even in the same ballpark as the directors previous Invisible Man film
AMERICAN THEATER is about a canceled theater director putting on a show in Georgia. I'm not sure if it's serious or if it's a scathing portrait. Either way it plays like a Christopher Guest film and not in a good way.
PERIPHERY OF BASE a painful art house film where we watch people wandering around a worksite in Mongolia. From a guy speaking jibberish to images that are blurry (people are out of focus) this was a physically painful film I refused to review.
THE GORGE may not really a true worst of 2025 some of the other films on this list, but its weird tonal shifts and narrative illogic (a gorge hiding mutating human from a science experiment started by nazis is guarded by soldiers from the east and west for a corporation) make it a waste of time,
ELECTRIC STATE - The Russo Brothers make a soulless turd ball of a movie. (While it shares some of the flaws of THE LEGEND OF OCHI it is several sub-basements lower). The film disillusioned me so badly I didn't watch new films for weeks afterward. I still haven't recovered since it points the way to the death of real art and the place the cess pit of corporate greed truly begins to kill anything remotely creative or soul stirring. Why do I think the MCU is dying next December? This film. It made me realize that the Russos are not good filmmakers and we are doomed as a society and a culture. Seriously.
I finally saw THE NEXT GOAL WINS- Taika Waititi's version of the story of the American Somoan soccer team trying to get to the World Cup and turns it into a film where everything is a joke and none of the jokes land. It does no one any favors. (see the documentary it is based on) Worse than I feared and not any good at all. While his BOY AND THE OCTOPUS shines, he hasn't made a feature I've liked since HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE. I know the film was held up because of reshoots because of Armie Hammer, but I think it was the film was shit from the get go and they were trying to save it.
DOOM ASYLUM - I saw this at the drive in in Pittsburgh and it crushed my soul. Nominally the story of guy who survived an autopsy and went crazy. It's twenty minutes of material stretched to eighty. Whats worse is that the film badly uses a mish mosh of Todd Slaughter film clips that make his films look like shit instead of knowing over the top film. This film is only good for sleep but you still may end up doomed to live in the shittiest level of cinematic hell forever.
Canone effimero- painful 11 part documentary on ethnic music in Italy. Imagine the dullest school documentary or film strip but twenty times more painful and touted as a truly great thing by so called adults who know whats best.
SO FAR ALL GOOD is far from that. An experimental mess where we focus on one confused man's face for 75 minutes before the film stops. It makes most bad films from the last five years look like CITIZEN KANE. How did this end up at a festival? More to the point who are the people who sent me rude emails because I didn't like the film.
WAR OF THE WORLDS - this all computer screen movie is unwatchable.
SUSPENDED TIME - Olivier Assayas bombs badly- this covid inspired film is unwatchable.
DEAR STRANGER - the basic plot about a Chinese/Japanese couple living in New York is good. the problem is that the film feels like it was made by someone who never lived in New York (or any American city) nor understands basic behavior of people.
MASTERMIND - Kelly Reichart at her most Kelly Reichert. Its bad enough we follow a loser who never arcs, but everyone around him never changes either. Worst of all the film stops half way in as he goes on the run for an hour, doing absolutely nothing but running, until there is truly a funny joke that ends the film, which, while laugh out loud funny, doesn't fit the rest of the film and goes nowehere.
DRY LEAF a man searches for his daughter and looks at soccer pitches along the way. Nothing happens for 3 hours. And it looks crappy because it was shot on a crappy old cellphone for no reason
TWO PROSECUTORS utterly pointless film about a prosecutor in Stalin's Russia who is so niave about Stalin's society that he does the morally right thing and after 2 hours of screen time ends up in prison via the shot we knew was coming when he first appeared on screen. No one in an official position as a prosecutor would be so innocent. Nothing unexpected happens so why bother watching?
WAR OF THE ROHIEM anime styled Lord of the Rings feature is just dully bad. A disappointing cash grab that grabbed no cash.
IN YOUR DREAMS- yes this has some great moments but most of this is by rote and so saccarinely sweet I wanted to vomit.
SPINAL TAP 2- Wow. I did not think the people involved could make a film with zero laughs- but they did. This is like a bad parody by the most unfunny people in the world. Its not even a cash grab but an something that makes you want to lock everyone involved in it in an place where they can't hurt themselves or eat crayons
A huge disappointment for me was ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. Paul Thomas Anderson's film never clicked with me. The tone was all over the place and I just don't get what anyone other than Hubert Vigilla saw in it. If I wasn't watching it at home I would have walked out
BREAKDOWN 1975-this messy look at the films of 1975 is okay- but this should have been a great film but it is so badly put together that it disappoints. Honestly I've never seen a film on film this badly edited.
Gaereth Edwards has made a number of films I absolutely love. Everything he makes I find interesting, even his JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH, which has me wondering if it was done for a paycheck. Chalk this up as another film in the Jurassic Park franchise I want to burn. Not truly bad, but it's beyond by rote by a director I never thought could make a film this by the numbers. I groaned when we got to the family that needed to be rescued. There is not an original moment in this film. As for the new super dinosaur- did they really have to echo the xenomorph?
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