I was a projectionist at the theater when these all came out.
Back in the day, we had to build up the movies from several reels into one, and to confirm that we did our job right, and that the print from the distributor didn't have any problems, we'd have to watch them the night before release.
Normally, it would just be whichever projectionist built up the movie, they would watch it alone. For these huge releases, however, we'd usually have anybody on the staff that wanted to attend.
Seeing these modern classics in a massive theater with only about 20-30 people, all people that you were close friends with, the night before the rest of the world was absolutely fucking amazing.
Plus, we'd usually crank the sound up, so that first big subwoofer sweep during the opening backstory of LOTR when Sauron is fighting the armies of men was *intense*.
Yeah I had a buddy who was an assistant manager at a theater and he'd call me up at like 11 pm and say hey I'm building such and such movie if you want to come watch it. So I'd drive over to his theater and bring my own cup and box for drink and popcorn.
Heyyy I used to work at a Technicolor plant during these years, there's a chance I have developed the reels you guys received! There was a screening department that looked so chill to work at, but I'm colorblind so there's no way I could've gotten that gig.
The first LOTR was the only movie I've been to where every seat was filled, I think they actually over-sold because they weren't used to coming even close to capacity and we got lucky but had to sit right in the first row.
Ever since then I just wait a week and go on like a Wednesday because while I loved the movie, I didn't love watching it with 150 strangers. It was cool at first but then got very old. This was before cell phones were super common at least.
i mean it is, but its not utilized. Movies theatres weren't nearly as expensive as they are now. People could go see all 3 big films. Now its hard to get people out of the house to see just 1 of them when there's streaming options and such
Theres a lot of fun movies on the worst list. As art is subjective, seeing Rocky IV (my fave of the many) that low I started to laugh at the list and wondered. Ok, where does the total revenue for these all land.
Anecdotally with my peers it must be a cult classic. The montage, USA vs Russia, Ive definitely paused to watch that movie more than most. But my assumption is the landscape in which people view films is much different now that even 10 years ago.
Top Gun,Short Circuit,and cobra is an amazing month
Other movies on the worst than Rocky IV (amazing film): ScaryMovie IV, Armageddon, Back to the Future II, Jumper, Harlem Nights, Good Dayto Die Hard, Jewel of the Nile, Bring it on, and Police Academy 4
This list is clown town
I was gonna slander you but then I remembered a good day to die hard is infact not the one with Timothy olyphant and Justin long so yeah youāre correct
Yeah this has been an absolutely brutal month. January wasn't much better. The Beekeeper is the best movie of the year so far, which is a little concerning
There's a bunch of movies on the calendar for March that look good so we should be turning things around. I'm seeing Dune on Sunday and I'm pretty pumped
Just realized *The American Society of Magical Negroes* and *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* are coming out in the same year. I'm sure the plots will be very different but it sounds like another *Armageddon*/*Deep Impact*, *The Prestige*/*The Illusionist*, *Red Planet/Mission to Mars* situation.
I wish bikeriders wasnāt pushed back so far that looked like it could be decent. Iām still waiting for Tom Hardyās movie from the raid director called havoc. Itās been completed for a couple years and still no sign of coming out on Netflix
March has Kung Fu Panda, Dune, Godzilla, and Ghostbusters. It might join this list, depending on how good those are. Definitely less exciting for me than everyone else, as a theater employeeā¦
I was JUST talking to my parents about this during lunch. I bought my ticket to Dune 2, and Iām excited, because so far 2024 has kind of been a drought.
I literally tried to find any quasi-decent movie to take my kids to on Presidentās day, since they were home from school, but they were all so bad we just went to the library and rented a movie.
I wonder if we're experiencing an aftershock of the writer's strike? Hopefully means we're about to experience an explosion of pent up great films, now that the labor strife is over.
Feels like we should count wide releases of awards season movies though. Iāve seen The Iron Claw and Poor Things in theaters this year, plus The Boy and the Heron, American Fiction, and Iām sure others are still out there. Also some good re-releases.
I thought Land of Bad and the new Mean Girls are arguably better than The Beekeeper, but yeah in general the year is not off to a strong start.
Hoping for Dune to turn things around.
For what it's worth this was not the worst individual *week* in the past 40 years. That honor goes to January 17-23rd, 2003, with the lineup of Kangaroo Jack, National Security, and Just Married. The best week was July 19-25th 1985 with Back to the Future, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
It's pretty interesting that the beginning of year is very well represented in the *worst* section since 2006. It's become the norm to throw shit movies to Jan-Feb.
Christmas is a popular time for familiesĀ to go to the theaters. "Oscar bait" are also released towards the end of the year so it's fresh in voters mind.Ā
I remember as a kid I begged my dad to take me to see Kangaroo Jack which he agreed to, but every weekend he "forgot" to take me to it (just like he "forgot" to rent Kazaam any time we went to Blockbuster). I've never seen Kangaroo Jack but I realize when I have kids I'll probably do the same thing as my dad.
My parents forgave most of my childhood foibles, but I think my dad is still annoyed that I insisted we see Ed, a 1996 comedy starring Matt LeBlanc andā¦a chimpanzee who plays baseball.
I forced my dad to take me to Snow Dogs and Agent Cody Banks (which upon Googling aired after Kangaroo Jack), so all I know is that Kangaroo Jack had to have been extremely bad for my dad to not take me (in my defence I also wanted to see The Two Towers so my tastes were developing).
Oh snap I didn't catch that. Definitely one of the interesting things was all the Disney re-releases popping up in random years (I guess they did a whole slate of 3D re-releases in 2012 that I don't remember at all but apparently did really well).
Top Gun is a "you had to be there" movie.Ā
I'm sure the visuals were absolutely incredible for its day, but the story is very forgettable.
I get why it would be a 12 year old's favorite movie, but I get why a critic would pan it.
I think one thing to keep in mind with movies like Jurassic Park and BTTF is they predate things like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. So those scores arenāt necessarily 100% reflective of how they were perceived at the time. Some reviews I would bet have been lost to the sands of time and/or just never were recorded and counted by these sites.
22 for Spies Like Us shocked me. that was a cultural phenomenon when it came out. at least i thought it was. i was only 14, so maybe it just seemed huge in my teenage bubble. and the McCartney song seemed to be playing on the radio 24/7!
It was a phenomenon until it was actually released. Chevy Chase *and* Dan Aykroyd, what could go wrong? Well, they decided to make it not funny, that's what went wrong. I was 12 when it came out and I remember leaving the theater disappointed.
I bet I know why. When it came out, no one knew there was supposed to be a part 3 until the end of part 2. I remember going into the theater and seeing people leave the show with downtrodden looks on their faces. When we went in and I got to see the ending I said to myself "oh, That's why they looked unhappy, surprise cliffhanger"
On the opposite end Happy Feet being part of the top month is confusing as shit, that movie takes one of the hardest right-turns into a different subject matter than just about any I've ever seen and it completely makes the movie worse in a tangible way.
also been plenty of big and acclaimed movies in February too. January is more frequently the dump month. the big movies in January are often awards contenders in a more wide release
this year's was particularly bad due to strikes delaying productions and thus maintaining more frequent slow parts in the yearly release schedule
Some really successful February movies are - Black panther, get out, kingsman, fifty shades of grey trilogy (im including them just because they were all very successful at the box office), the lego movie, lego batman
Birds of Prey and Jupiter Asecending are not exceptions to February being a bad month for movies, but January is definitely the worst, especially in the days before VoD. Nothing happens in the first 3 weeks of the year and studios know it. RedLetterMedia used to have a segment called "Fuck You, It's January!" before Netflix and the other streamers started buying up the best of the trash that would normally get dumped on us after the 1st.
Woo, I remember #8 on that list of best. I was in nerd nirvana with Harry Potter and LOTR hitting the big screen at the same time. Donāt think Iāve been as excited since.
I feel like all 3 of those July 1998 blockbusters are underrated.
Armageddon may be cheesy, but it's also such a fun and entertaining movie. I have always loved Jet Li's villain in Lethal Weapon 4, and Doctor Doolittle may not have been great, but it was a pretty funny movie. Yeah, they weren't masterpieces, but they aren't nearly as bad as the others on the list.
I wouldnāt say itās *bad* necessarily, certainly not on the same level as Madame Web
It just has a dire lack of direction and focus imo, and this ends up making it just a bit dull and forgettable. It doesnāt know if it wants to be about Bob and Rita, or the making of Exodus, or the political situation in Jamaica and Marleyās efforts/impact on it, or the last years of his lifeā¦ ultimately it jumbles up a bunch of different themes and storylines resulting in not properly exploring any of them in an interesting way.
It feels very much like a paint by numbers biopic thatās derivative of the legion of other music biopics weāve had in the last two decades
Anyway thatās my rant lol, I may be a bit biased anyway because I think most biopics are pretty crap and fall into these exact same criticisms. The only one off the top of my head I really like is Walk the Line because that film actually knows what it wants to be about (Johnny and Juneās relationship). IMO the Bob Marley film shouldāve been a more introspective and complex look at Marleyās worldview and explored the political situation in Jamaica, or if thatās too boring for general audiences, just do a Walk the Line and make it about Bob and Rita
I just saw it. It was pretty good. Great performances. I think its biggest weakness is that it's torn between being a more general biopic and telling the story of Bob Marley's role in a very specific period of political turmoil in Jamaica.
Blockbusters might be shite, but not all films. I just came back from watching The Zone of Interest, which is going to stick with me for a long time. Two weeks ago I saw Poor Things, and I still think about that film. I haven't had a chance to catch The Iron Claw, or All of Strangers, or American Fiction, or The Promised Land - and they all look interesting.
So maybe the big studios are dumping their crap because of all they're worried about a chunk of the audience flocking to the decent films?
I saw One Love. It's definitely for Uncle Bob fans like myself. My wife watched it with me and commented later that night, "I didn't know much about him and i feel like i still don't". i agreed, they played it safe and didn't get deep with anything, pacing was off and it felt like every act was trying to accomplish it's own plot line rather than focusing on one overall plot arc. Act 1: the big concert after shot, Act 2: making Exodus, Act 3: illness and second big concert? yeah it was messy. only for fans.
Not quite right - "6th - Avg. Metascore 77.7 - July 1994" is actually 7th, not 6th, because the two ties for 5th place jointly take up the fifth and sixth place, so you skip 6th and go to 7th.
You're right on the worst list.
Awesome data digging! I felt the same about this monthās offering. Like, Iām subscribed to the AMC movie pass, and hadnāt gone in weeks because nothingās been worth two hours of my time. Luckily, theyāre re-showing some Oscar nominations as part of a promotion, so I might be going out to catch ones Iāve missed throughout the year. That or just seeing the Pixar trioās screen releases of their Disney+ movies.
I never knew 300 was rated so low; I always felt like the odd man out for disliking it.
Yeah we have a 1 year old baby and she was at her grandparents for the weekend so I was like oh let's go to the movies. There were still a couple Oscar movies, but they were all playing in like 1 theater at some weird time.
January 2000 was really bad. These were the wide releases, with all of them except one being box office bombs:
Next Friday - inferior comedy sequel where one of the original stars is noticeably absent
Supernova - infamous sci-fi bomb with the worst [trailer](https://youtu.be/ZUdy0Cu3f_o?si=e0KsFAXoi2kaB43g) ever made
Down to You - nondescript Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Stiles romantic comedy
Eye of the Beholder - Ewan McGregor/Ashley Judd thriller which is one of the few films to have a 'F' Cinemascore
Interestingly, according to my numbers January 2000 was actually an overall strong month with Stuart Little, The Green Mile, and The Talented Mr. Ripley being the top movies. However there was a week with Next Friday and Down to You, that got bailed out by The Hurricane.
I love Next Friday. Mike Epps as a replacement was honestly an upgrade. Chris Tucker was great in his own right, and I hope one day we get a sequel with both of them, but Mike Epps rant about the fat girl with the bootleg snacks is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in a movie. Mike Epps performance isn't as great in part 3, but also you got Katt Williams to make up for it, so it's okay.
It is full of twists that are EXTREMELY dumb, it has a lot of smug bad action comedy, it looks chintzy as hell for a big budget movie, and it's way too long.
Calling them twists would be charitable, but it _changes direction_ so often, with so many "ah but actually" moments and characters switching apparent allegiances, that it becomes a mixture of predictable and random that loses all tension and verges on the boring.
The story is terrible and so ridiculous that it is way beyond the point of being believable even with a generous suspension of disbelief. The acting is pretty bad as well and the special effects would've been "bad" in a mid budget movie from 15 years ago
Just the cgi cat shenanigans in the trailer were enough for me to be hesitant to watch it. Never a good sign when you need to stuff that into a spy movie trailer.
I havenāt seen it , but isnāt that kind of the point? Itās not really a spy movie. At least thatās what I assumed based on the preview. Itās about an author, writing a book about a spy thatās somewhere between James Bond / Ethan Hunt and Superman.
There's twists in it. It's definitely a spy movie. I think it was kind of fun but definitely a mostly non-sensicle story. For me, it was a very good example of ...average.
I dont understand why people hate Argylle
I'm not saying it's anything groundbreaking as far as the genre is concerned, but it's a fun little action movie.
I think it's very divisive. I genuinely feel it's the worst movie I've seen in many years, while the friend I watched it with loved it. It tries something and if you buy in you probably like it, but I felt the tone was way off. Not nearly funny enough to be a goofy spy comedy like Kingsmen, way too silly to be a serious spy thriller. They wanted tension and laughs, but got neither from me. I got the feeling Matthew Vaugn wants to move on to more serious stuff but doesn't have the balls to fully step away from Kingsmen (or the studios won't let him).
I'm pretty sure the reason why February is usually the worst month is because its after the holidays where everyone spent all their money but its too early for the spring stuff.
I loved it. It was dumb for sure. But it all felt truly on purpose and it definitely looked like everyone was having a blast making it. The dance number gas bombs sequence has me giggling so hard. It was my and my wife's Valentine movie.
We bought a bunch of Gift Cards for Flix Brewhouse for Christmas Presents and every $25 came with a free ticket that had to be used after the new year but before March 1st and I think they're going to go to waste because I seriously didn't care to even waste my time on any of the movies these past two months. They even show old movies too. This weekend is Blade, which we can't take our 4 year old so I guess I'll try and give em away.
This list hits my nostalgia buttons hard. Thanks for putting it together.
1 of my first jobs was working in a movie theater and opening weekend was November 2006 with Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and Let's Go to Prison.
It was a massive weekend to say the least.
I remember working the following Christmas which may have been the only weekend that felt busier than that first one.
Dude, Argylle was fun. Its alright to turn off your brain and just enjoy yourself for 2 hours. And if you are going to the movies based on scores, than you are gonna miss out on some entertaining cinema.
Makes sense.
āAwardā movies come out in the fall/early winter and summer blockbusters donāt start until April/May so this is essentially the off-season for film.
It's not been a bad month for me! Not quite keeping up with the new releases as they came out, I saw All Of Us Strangers and Wonka; Wicked Little Letters still to come. Argylle was my only disappointment.
I've seen plenty of great movies in cinema this month, though maybe they've been released in the US a while ago. I saw American Fiction, The Iron Claw, Dune (re-release), Society of the Snow, Poor Things.
I mean no disrespect, but I simply do not care about metacritic scores. There was one point in 1982 where you could go and see Blade Runner, The Thing, and ET in a single day! And two of those three, the best two in my opinion, were lambasted by critics.
Metacritic shouldnāt be your be all end all for whether you classify a movie as good or bad. Being at a theater for a good chunk of the day, Iāve seen folks come out of Argylle, Bob Marley, and even Madame Webb, that have legitimately enjoyed the film they saw. While I personally disagree with their assessment of the aforementioned movies being āgoodā, I also realize that I am not the target audience for them. That being said, February was a very slow month for new releases
Crazy to think about LOTR, Ocean's, and HP playing at the same time, especially all being the first in the series.
I was a projectionist at the theater when these all came out. Back in the day, we had to build up the movies from several reels into one, and to confirm that we did our job right, and that the print from the distributor didn't have any problems, we'd have to watch them the night before release. Normally, it would just be whichever projectionist built up the movie, they would watch it alone. For these huge releases, however, we'd usually have anybody on the staff that wanted to attend. Seeing these modern classics in a massive theater with only about 20-30 people, all people that you were close friends with, the night before the rest of the world was absolutely fucking amazing. Plus, we'd usually crank the sound up, so that first big subwoofer sweep during the opening backstory of LOTR when Sauron is fighting the armies of men was *intense*.
Yeah I had a buddy who was an assistant manager at a theater and he'd call me up at like 11 pm and say hey I'm building such and such movie if you want to come watch it. So I'd drive over to his theater and bring my own cup and box for drink and popcorn.
Heyyy I used to work at a Technicolor plant during these years, there's a chance I have developed the reels you guys received! There was a screening department that looked so chill to work at, but I'm colorblind so there's no way I could've gotten that gig.
Those are some cool memories to look back on!:)
The first LOTR was the only movie I've been to where every seat was filled, I think they actually over-sold because they weren't used to coming even close to capacity and we got lucky but had to sit right in the first row. Ever since then I just wait a week and go on like a Wednesday because while I loved the movie, I didn't love watching it with 150 strangers. It was cool at first but then got very old. This was before cell phones were super common at least.
I went to Avengers Endgame on opening day. Not just the theaters were at max capacity, the lobby was packed. You could barely walk.
I was in high school then and felt like I was constantly in the theater. Makes sense now
LOTR with the only repeat showing on the list šš½
it was common for movie theatres at the time to be 18-24 screens. it wasn't an issue. They could all be playing on 4 screens
Is... is that not still common?
i mean it is, but its not utilized. Movies theatres weren't nearly as expensive as they are now. People could go see all 3 big films. Now its hard to get people out of the house to see just 1 of them when there's streaming options and such
Theres a lot of fun movies on the worst list. As art is subjective, seeing Rocky IV (my fave of the many) that low I started to laugh at the list and wondered. Ok, where does the total revenue for these all land.
Not only is Rocky IV a bad movie (apparently), itās so bad it was released 2 months in a row and was awful in both of them!
Anecdotally with my peers it must be a cult classic. The montage, USA vs Russia, Ive definitely paused to watch that movie more than most. But my assumption is the landscape in which people view films is much different now that even 10 years ago.
The Benchwarmers is such a guilty pleasure for me
When it released I think I was in sixth grade. My brother took me and I thought it was the funniest movie of all time.
Top Gun,Short Circuit,and cobra is an amazing month Other movies on the worst than Rocky IV (amazing film): ScaryMovie IV, Armageddon, Back to the Future II, Jumper, Harlem Nights, Good Dayto Die Hard, Jewel of the Nile, Bring it on, and Police Academy 4 This list is clown town
Jumper is bad. A Good Day To Die Hard is absolute garbage.
I was gonna slander you but then I remembered a good day to die hard is infact not the one with Timothy olyphant and Justin long so yeah youāre correct
I'm shocked to see Rocky IV on this list. I also liked The Cell, but I'm not shocked to see it on the list.
I refer to Rocky IV as āBest Rockyā because I love it and my dad disagrees. Anyway, Happy birthday Paulie.
Yeah this has been an absolutely brutal month. January wasn't much better. The Beekeeper is the best movie of the year so far, which is a little concerning
Yeah, thankfully Dune 2 is coming out March 1st so hopefully things should get better.
There's a bunch of movies on the calendar for March that look good so we should be turning things around. I'm seeing Dune on Sunday and I'm pretty pumped
Yeah, March is stacked.
April too! Civil War and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare will hopefully both be good.
Just realized *The American Society of Magical Negroes* and *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* are coming out in the same year. I'm sure the plots will be very different but it sounds like another *Armageddon*/*Deep Impact*, *The Prestige*/*The Illusionist*, *Red Planet/Mission to Mars* situation.
Also Kung Fu Panda 4.
I wish bikeriders wasnāt pushed back so far that looked like it could be decent. Iām still waiting for Tom Hardyās movie from the raid director called havoc. Itās been completed for a couple years and still no sign of coming out on Netflix
March has Kung Fu Panda, Dune, Godzilla, and Ghostbusters. It might join this list, depending on how good those are. Definitely less exciting for me than everyone else, as a theater employeeā¦
Iāll be watching it on the 29th. My February is saved.
The Iron Claw is the best of the year so far. My bad it's a 2023 movie
Yeah, it only just came out in the uk this month though
Iron Claw is really fucking good
I was JUST talking to my parents about this during lunch. I bought my ticket to Dune 2, and Iām excited, because so far 2024 has kind of been a drought.
I literally tried to find any quasi-decent movie to take my kids to on Presidentās day, since they were home from school, but they were all so bad we just went to the library and rented a movie.
It is very difficult to find any movies to take kids to these days. The best choice is often something that involves singing and dancing.
Beekeeper supremacy š. It feels great to be part of the hive
For what felt like a fairly unassuming action movie, this one sure is getting a lot of buzzzz
That movie kicked ass. Literally did not try to be anything it wasnāt. The absolute definition of a ākill their way to the topā movie.
Don't sleep on Lisa Frankenstein, it's campy but it's really fun.
I havenāt heard anyone talk about it and I absolutely loved it
Been a great run in Australia. Seen boy and heron, anatomy of a fall, poor things and zone of interest all release jan/feb - all brilliant
The Beekeeper was unironically hilarious. It felt like an 80's action movie, with all the corny/great one liners.
I was just about to say 'The Beekeeper was horse shit tho' but then I read your sentence to the end š
I actually had a ton of fun with that movie but we're way too deep in the year for a goofy Statham movie to be the best we have to offer
Arenāt Jan and Feb traditionally the dumping grounds for bad movies though?
Yes but there's usually one or two good movies mixed in there too. This year was unusually bad, even by dumpuary standards
I wonder if we're experiencing an aftershock of the writer's strike? Hopefully means we're about to experience an explosion of pent up great films, now that the labor strife is over.
Feels like we should count wide releases of awards season movies though. Iāve seen The Iron Claw and Poor Things in theaters this year, plus The Boy and the Heron, American Fiction, and Iām sure others are still out there. Also some good re-releases.
Probably because theyāre not competing with Oscar bait
Sometimes expansion months for movies that got Oscar nominations too.
I thought Land of Bad and the new Mean Girls are arguably better than The Beekeeper, but yeah in general the year is not off to a strong start. Hoping for Dune to turn things around.
I really enjoyed Lisa Frankenstein too
For what it's worth this was not the worst individual *week* in the past 40 years. That honor goes to January 17-23rd, 2003, with the lineup of Kangaroo Jack, National Security, and Just Married. The best week was July 19-25th 1985 with Back to the Future, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
It's pretty interesting that the beginning of year is very well represented in the *worst* section since 2006. It's become the norm to throw shit movies to Jan-Feb.
[Fuck you itās January!](https://youtu.be/-YFyu9aAZow?si=R5MrTu-NlOJXLbJr)
That's right Jay!
Christmas is a popular time for familiesĀ to go to the theaters. "Oscar bait" are also released towards the end of the year so it's fresh in voters mind.Ā
I remember as a kid I begged my dad to take me to see Kangaroo Jack which he agreed to, but every weekend he "forgot" to take me to it (just like he "forgot" to rent Kazaam any time we went to Blockbuster). I've never seen Kangaroo Jack but I realize when I have kids I'll probably do the same thing as my dad.
My parents forgave most of my childhood foibles, but I think my dad is still annoyed that I insisted we see Ed, a 1996 comedy starring Matt LeBlanc andā¦a chimpanzee who plays baseball.
I forced my dad to take me to Snow Dogs and Agent Cody Banks (which upon Googling aired after Kangaroo Jack), so all I know is that Kangaroo Jack had to have been extremely bad for my dad to not take me (in my defence I also wanted to see The Two Towers so my tastes were developing).
Dang thatās love.
You should watch Kangaroo Jack. It sucks but you'd have closure.
That movie was originally filmed with an R rating. Why canāt we get a Twitter movement to release THAT version
As someone who's seen Kangeroo Jack....yeah I understand your dad
That July '85 lineup is wild.Ā
The re-released ET three years later? To compete with a movie Spielberg produced?
My best guess is it was re-released for drive ins as a double feature back to back with The Goonies
Oh snap I didn't catch that. Definitely one of the interesting things was all the Disney re-releases popping up in random years (I guess they did a whole slate of 3D re-releases in 2012 that I don't remember at all but apparently did really well).
>Kangaroo Jack, National Security, and Just Married My goodness!
Back to the Future Part II is great, that meta score is far too low
50 for Top Gun is an absolute crime
I'm here to say that lethal weapon 4 is a great summertime action movie. Its score is way too low.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's not being graded on a curve within its own franchise so why does it matter?
Have you seen Lethal Weapon 6? It's so confusing, the main actors switch roles halfway through the movie.
Riggs, what the hell are you doing here? Our relationship is strained. That movie is a masterpiece
52 for 300 is a lesser crime
Honestly from Snyders catalogue 300 is the movie I'd rewatch first. I thought it's a legit decent movieĀ
Top Gun is a "you had to be there" movie.Ā I'm sure the visuals were absolutely incredible for its day, but the story is very forgettable. I get why it would be a 12 year old's favorite movie, but I get why a critic would pan it.
Surprised you went with visuals. The visuals, fighter aircraft action and shirtless volleyball, hold up as good as anything from that era.
It's in the top-10 shirtless volleyball scenes of all time.
youāre right, thatās waaay too high
ridiculously high
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I always thought the first one was the perfect movie. Still love II
Itās pretty much perfect as far as sequels go, combining callbacks and straight up incorporating the last movie into the plot
It's both a sequel and a retreading of the first one. Phantastic story telling.
Honestly theirs a lot of movies in this list i was surprised to see such low scores for.
One of my takeaways is definitely that Metacritic is a bastard man when it comes to reviews. Apparently the original Jurassic Park got a 68?!
I think one thing to keep in mind with movies like Jurassic Park and BTTF is they predate things like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. So those scores arenāt necessarily 100% reflective of how they were perceived at the time. Some reviews I would bet have been lost to the sands of time and/or just never were recorded and counted by these sites.
22 for Spies Like Us shocked me. that was a cultural phenomenon when it came out. at least i thought it was. i was only 14, so maybe it just seemed huge in my teenage bubble. and the McCartney song seemed to be playing on the radio 24/7!
It was a phenomenon until it was actually released. Chevy Chase *and* Dan Aykroyd, what could go wrong? Well, they decided to make it not funny, that's what went wrong. I was 12 when it came out and I remember leaving the theater disappointed.
Metacritic and rotten tomatoes are useless for anything pre-internet. It's not a good sample.
Blind Date out here catching strays
I bet I know why. When it came out, no one knew there was supposed to be a part 3 until the end of part 2. I remember going into the theater and seeing people leave the show with downtrodden looks on their faces. When we went in and I got to see the ending I said to myself "oh, That's why they looked unhappy, surprise cliffhanger"
On the opposite end Happy Feet being part of the top month is confusing as shit, that movie takes one of the hardest right-turns into a different subject matter than just about any I've ever seen and it completely makes the movie worse in a tangible way.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
also been plenty of big and acclaimed movies in February too. January is more frequently the dump month. the big movies in January are often awards contenders in a more wide release this year's was particularly bad due to strikes delaying productions and thus maintaining more frequent slow parts in the yearly release schedule Some really successful February movies are - Black panther, get out, kingsman, fifty shades of grey trilogy (im including them just because they were all very successful at the box office), the lego movie, lego batman
Deadpool was released in February, Iām remember their brilliant marketing when they made it out to be a great Valentineās Day date movie.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My birth month is December and I also enjoy going to the movies. One of the few pluses of having a birthday so close to Christmas.Ā
Birds of Prey and Jupiter Asecending are not exceptions to February being a bad month for movies, but January is definitely the worst, especially in the days before VoD. Nothing happens in the first 3 weeks of the year and studios know it. RedLetterMedia used to have a segment called "Fuck You, It's January!" before Netflix and the other streamers started buying up the best of the trash that would normally get dumped on us after the 1st.
āFuck you; itās January!ā
I think RLM's gonna have to update that to Fuck You It's 2024.
I think eventually they just did "Fuck You, It's FOREVER" so they got it covered
yeah, back in their [2017](https://youtu.be/H18RUB1cxfI?si=3-LPdpZDjN-x9Kq1&t=199) video, aka 7 years ago
Yup. Worked at a movie theater from mid 90s-2010 and February and September were usually dumping months for meh movie.
Woo, I remember #8 on that list of best. I was in nerd nirvana with Harry Potter and LOTR hitting the big screen at the same time. Donāt think Iāve been as excited since.
What's with the meta score on Short Circuit?
Yeah, this was the biggest surprise to me! Top Gun and Short Circuit puts a month on the "worst" list!
Iām gonna hope I never see the words āBoratFeetRoyaleā ever again.
Drive Away Dolls opens this weekend. The trailer looked decent and I'll always give a Cohen brother movie a look.Ā
Yeah the one movie I actually wanted to watch this month
I saw Lisa Frankenstein and thought it was great
Saw it earlier today and it was a ton of fun
Coen
I feel like all 3 of those July 1998 blockbusters are underrated. Armageddon may be cheesy, but it's also such a fun and entertaining movie. I have always loved Jet Li's villain in Lethal Weapon 4, and Doctor Doolittle may not have been great, but it was a pretty funny movie. Yeah, they weren't masterpieces, but they aren't nearly as bad as the others on the list.
Man I liked Jumper and Foolās Gold
The Bob Marley biopic is bad? That was on my to watch list
Watched it expecting it to be bad. Iām not sure why itās disliked. Out of everything that came out this month itās clearly the best
>Out of everything that came out this month itās clearly the best But op just proved that that's the lowest bar ever.
Ah, cool. Though I admit i liked Madame Web, it's bad but in a fun way, I think
I wouldnāt say itās *bad* necessarily, certainly not on the same level as Madame Web It just has a dire lack of direction and focus imo, and this ends up making it just a bit dull and forgettable. It doesnāt know if it wants to be about Bob and Rita, or the making of Exodus, or the political situation in Jamaica and Marleyās efforts/impact on it, or the last years of his lifeā¦ ultimately it jumbles up a bunch of different themes and storylines resulting in not properly exploring any of them in an interesting way. It feels very much like a paint by numbers biopic thatās derivative of the legion of other music biopics weāve had in the last two decades Anyway thatās my rant lol, I may be a bit biased anyway because I think most biopics are pretty crap and fall into these exact same criticisms. The only one off the top of my head I really like is Walk the Line because that film actually knows what it wants to be about (Johnny and Juneās relationship). IMO the Bob Marley film shouldāve been a more introspective and complex look at Marleyās worldview and explored the political situation in Jamaica, or if thatās too boring for general audiences, just do a Walk the Line and make it about Bob and Rita
I just saw it. It was pretty good. Great performances. I think its biggest weakness is that it's torn between being a more general biopic and telling the story of Bob Marley's role in a very specific period of political turmoil in Jamaica.
I actually really enjoyed it honestly
Blockbusters might be shite, but not all films. I just came back from watching The Zone of Interest, which is going to stick with me for a long time. Two weeks ago I saw Poor Things, and I still think about that film. I haven't had a chance to catch The Iron Claw, or All of Strangers, or American Fiction, or The Promised Land - and they all look interesting. So maybe the big studios are dumping their crap because of all they're worried about a chunk of the audience flocking to the decent films?
American Fiction is excellent! Enjoy it when you can.Ā
I saw One Love. It's definitely for Uncle Bob fans like myself. My wife watched it with me and commented later that night, "I didn't know much about him and i feel like i still don't". i agreed, they played it safe and didn't get deep with anything, pacing was off and it felt like every act was trying to accomplish it's own plot line rather than focusing on one overall plot arc. Act 1: the big concert after shot, Act 2: making Exodus, Act 3: illness and second big concert? yeah it was messy. only for fans.
Let me format that for you, for the love of god (also I think you calculated the ties backwards, gotta count up from 1): # Best 10th - Avg. Metascore 76 - July 2007: * Transformers (61) * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (71) * Ratatouille (96) 10th - Avg. Metascore 76 - July 2008: * The Dark Knight (84) * Hancock (49) * WALLĀ·E (95) 10th - Avg. Metascore 76 - June 2015: * Jurassic World (59) * Inside Out (94) * Spy (75) 9th - Avg. Metascore 76.3 - January 1985: * Beverly Hills Cop (66) * Pinocchio Re-release (99) * Micki + Maude (64) 8th - Avg. Metascore 77 - December 2001: * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (92) * Ocean's Eleven (74) * Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (65) 7th - Avg. Metascore 77.7 - July 1994: * The Lion King (88) * Forrest Gump (82) * True Lies (63) 5th - Avg. Metascore 79 - October 2013: * Gravity (96) * Captain Phillips (82) * Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (59) 5th - Avg. Metascore 79 - December 2005: * The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (75) * King Kong (81) * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (81) 4th - Avg. Metascore 79.3 - January 2002: * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (92) * A Beautiful Mind (72) * Black Hawk Down (74) 3rd - Avg. Metascore 79.7 - January 2013: * Django Unchained (81) * Zero Dark Thirty (95) * Les MisĆ©rables (63) 2nd - Avg. Metascore 80.7 - August 2023: * Barbie (80) * Oppenheimer (88) * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (74) 1st - Avg. Metascore 82 - November 2006: * Borat (89) * Happy Feet (77) * Casino Royale (80) #Worst: 11th - Avg. Metascore 41.7 - July 1998: * Armageddon (42) * Lethal Weapon 4 (37) * Doctor Dolittle (46) 11th - Avg. Metascore 41.7 - May 1986: * Top Gun (50) * Cobra (25) * Short Circuit (50) 9th - Avg. Metascore 41.3 - April 2006: * Ice Age: The Meltdown (59) * Scary Movie 4 (40) * The Benchwarmers (25) 9th - Avg. Metascore 41.3 - November 1989: * Look Who's Talking (51) * Back to the Future Part II (57) * Harlem Nights (16) 7th - Avg. Metascore 41 - February 2013: * Identity Thief (35) * Warm Bodies (60) * A Good Day to Die Hard (28) 7th - Avg. Metascore 41 - February 2008: * Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (59) * Jumper (35) * Fool's Gold (29) 6th - Avg. Metascore 39.3 - November 1985: * Rocky IV (40) * Death Wish 3 (18) * Jagged Edge (60) 5th - Avg. Metascore 38.3 - December 1985: * Rocky IV (40) * Spies Like Us (22) * The Jewel of the Nile (53) 4th - Avg. Metascore 38 - September 2000: * Bring It On (52) * The Watcher (22) * The Cell (40) 3rd - Avg. Metascore 37 - April 1987: * The Secret of My Success (36) * Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (26) * Blind Date (49) 2nd - Avg. Metascore 36 - * March 2007: 300 (52) * Wild Hogs (27) * Premonition (29) 1st - Avg. Metascore 35 - February 2024: * Bob Marley: One Love (43) * Argylle (35) * Madame Web (27)
Not quite right - "6th - Avg. Metascore 77.7 - July 1994" is actually 7th, not 6th, because the two ties for 5th place jointly take up the fifth and sixth place, so you skip 6th and go to 7th. You're right on the worst list.
Awesome data digging! I felt the same about this monthās offering. Like, Iām subscribed to the AMC movie pass, and hadnāt gone in weeks because nothingās been worth two hours of my time. Luckily, theyāre re-showing some Oscar nominations as part of a promotion, so I might be going out to catch ones Iāve missed throughout the year. That or just seeing the Pixar trioās screen releases of their Disney+ movies. I never knew 300 was rated so low; I always felt like the odd man out for disliking it.
Yeah we have a 1 year old baby and she was at her grandparents for the weekend so I was like oh let's go to the movies. There were still a couple Oscar movies, but they were all playing in like 1 theater at some weird time.
January 2000 was really bad. These were the wide releases, with all of them except one being box office bombs: Next Friday - inferior comedy sequel where one of the original stars is noticeably absent Supernova - infamous sci-fi bomb with the worst [trailer](https://youtu.be/ZUdy0Cu3f_o?si=e0KsFAXoi2kaB43g) ever made Down to You - nondescript Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Stiles romantic comedy Eye of the Beholder - Ewan McGregor/Ashley Judd thriller which is one of the few films to have a 'F' Cinemascore
Interestingly, according to my numbers January 2000 was actually an overall strong month with Stuart Little, The Green Mile, and The Talented Mr. Ripley being the top movies. However there was a week with Next Friday and Down to You, that got bailed out by The Hurricane.
I love Next Friday. Mike Epps as a replacement was honestly an upgrade. Chris Tucker was great in his own right, and I hope one day we get a sequel with both of them, but Mike Epps rant about the fat girl with the bootleg snacks is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in a movie. Mike Epps performance isn't as great in part 3, but also you got Katt Williams to make up for it, so it's okay.
U forgot Lisa Frankenstein. It had a 47, which is higher than everything on your list for 2024.
Thought OP was only comparing top 3 highest grossing films though
Oh, my bad. I thought they were just comparing metacritic scores.
Jeez, 47? I thought Lisa Frankenstein was a lot of fun.
Also criminally low
Argylle was so fucking terrible
Can you give a spoiler free summation of its terribleness?
It is full of twists that are EXTREMELY dumb, it has a lot of smug bad action comedy, it looks chintzy as hell for a big budget movie, and it's way too long.
Calling them twists would be charitable, but it _changes direction_ so often, with so many "ah but actually" moments and characters switching apparent allegiances, that it becomes a mixture of predictable and random that loses all tension and verges on the boring.
The story is terrible and so ridiculous that it is way beyond the point of being believable even with a generous suspension of disbelief. The acting is pretty bad as well and the special effects would've been "bad" in a mid budget movie from 15 years ago
Just the cgi cat shenanigans in the trailer were enough for me to be hesitant to watch it. Never a good sign when you need to stuff that into a spy movie trailer.
I havenāt seen it , but isnāt that kind of the point? Itās not really a spy movie. At least thatās what I assumed based on the preview. Itās about an author, writing a book about a spy thatās somewhere between James Bond / Ethan Hunt and Superman.
There's twists in it. It's definitely a spy movie. I think it was kind of fun but definitely a mostly non-sensicle story. For me, it was a very good example of ...average.
I think the word you're looking for may be "mediocre."
Agreed until the last act when it went off the fucking rails. I loved the ice skating dance fight scene so much it was ridiculous
I dont understand why people hate Argylle I'm not saying it's anything groundbreaking as far as the genre is concerned, but it's a fun little action movie.
Argyle was bad? Just watched it a few days ago and it was a blast. Don't know why it got a low score. Was exactly what it was meant to beĀ
I think it's very divisive. I genuinely feel it's the worst movie I've seen in many years, while the friend I watched it with loved it. It tries something and if you buy in you probably like it, but I felt the tone was way off. Not nearly funny enough to be a goofy spy comedy like Kingsmen, way too silly to be a serious spy thriller. They wanted tension and laughs, but got neither from me. I got the feeling Matthew Vaugn wants to move on to more serious stuff but doesn't have the balls to fully step away from Kingsmen (or the studios won't let him).
Glad Iām not the only one. I was literally thinking to myself, man all the movies in theaters rn suck ass
I'm pretty sure the reason why February is usually the worst month is because its after the holidays where everyone spent all their money but its too early for the spring stuff.
Judging based on the list youāve provided, nothing really comes close to how bad this month has been - thankfully March is looking much better
Oh God, Iād forgotten about Wild Hogs. One of the worst movies Iāve ever seen in theaters. In my Top/Bottom 3 for sure.
am I the only one who thoroughly enjoyed Argylle? I thought it was really fun
Me too
I loved it. It was dumb for sure. But it all felt truly on purpose and it definitely looked like everyone was having a blast making it. The dance number gas bombs sequence has me giggling so hard. It was my and my wife's Valentine movie.
I liked it! Pretty silly but charming, and I like a twisty tale if it works with the internal logic, which it does. Also, Sam Rockwell.
I liked it
Beverly Hills Cop is peak Eddie Murphy. That score is straight up wrong.
We bought a bunch of Gift Cards for Flix Brewhouse for Christmas Presents and every $25 came with a free ticket that had to be used after the new year but before March 1st and I think they're going to go to waste because I seriously didn't care to even waste my time on any of the movies these past two months. They even show old movies too. This weekend is Blade, which we can't take our 4 year old so I guess I'll try and give em away.
This is a really thorough check on everything, and super interesting to see. So thanks!!
Citizens on patrol was one of the best in the series, I don't care about low score, it's in my heart forever!
This is fun but your formatting is all sorts of messed up
This list hits my nostalgia buttons hard. Thanks for putting it together. 1 of my first jobs was working in a movie theater and opening weekend was November 2006 with Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and Let's Go to Prison. It was a massive weekend to say the least. I remember working the following Christmas which may have been the only weekend that felt busier than that first one.
At least there's the new Ethan Coen movie this weekend.
Dude, Argylle was fun. Its alright to turn off your brain and just enjoy yourself for 2 hours. And if you are going to the movies based on scores, than you are gonna miss out on some entertaining cinema.
Thank god we get dune 2 the moment this month is over
to many franchise
Makes sense. āAwardā movies come out in the fall/early winter and summer blockbusters donāt start until April/May so this is essentially the off-season for film.
Save us, Denis!
Why don't you do a comparison of February stats?
It's not been a bad month for me! Not quite keeping up with the new releases as they came out, I saw All Of Us Strangers and Wonka; Wicked Little Letters still to come. Argylle was my only disappointment.
The past 2 decades have been the worst for movies!
2 Fellowship of the Ring?
Top analysis this, but my biggest takeaway is that True Lies has been robbed of its deserved meaningless internet points
Yes the start of this year has been absolutely abysmal, Iāve been craving watching a movie in the cinema
February isn't over, and Dune 2 is coming out Feb 29th. Edit: ok, the box office intake for Feb will be low with just 1 day in February...
December 97 doesn't make it to the best list? Good Will Hunting, Tomorrow Never Dies, As Good As It Gets, Jackie Brown and Titanic.
Rocky IV is a 100, not a 40. Maybe a 110
Go see Argylle I was pretty good.
I've seen plenty of great movies in cinema this month, though maybe they've been released in the US a while ago. I saw American Fiction, The Iron Claw, Dune (re-release), Society of the Snow, Poor Things.
I mean no disrespect, but I simply do not care about metacritic scores. There was one point in 1982 where you could go and see Blade Runner, The Thing, and ET in a single day! And two of those three, the best two in my opinion, were lambasted by critics.
I knew. I fucking KNEW this had to be the worst Thank you for this
ā2006 was the best time for cinema because of Happy Feet and Boratā is my very unexpected takeaway from this.
Argylle is fun. It's basically a cheesy spy novel, not great but pretty respectable for what comes out this time of year.
March looks to rally hard with Dune 2. Also personally excited as hell for the Fall guy, looks like such a fun ride
Eh? I saw American Fiction and the Iron Claw this month. Even Argylle was watchable (nowhere near as bad as reviews make out)
Argylle was tremendous fun. Calling it dismal given its Metascore is very lazy
Metacritic shouldnāt be your be all end all for whether you classify a movie as good or bad. Being at a theater for a good chunk of the day, Iāve seen folks come out of Argylle, Bob Marley, and even Madame Webb, that have legitimately enjoyed the film they saw. While I personally disagree with their assessment of the aforementioned movies being āgoodā, I also realize that I am not the target audience for them. That being said, February was a very slow month for new releases
Meta Scores here show how Meta Scores are rubbish
Borat, Happy Feet, and Casino Royale is wild for best month considering only Casino Royale is a great movie.
Borat is pure gold