The worst movies of every year inevitably include the most egregious missteps by major corporate franchises. In 2025, fewer than half the worst movies belonged to franchises and only two were sequels per se.
The majority of 2025's worst movies came from established filmmakers courting acclaim, or studios wildly miscalculating the charm of their premise. Links direct readers to full reviews of the movies where available, but some made the list after their theatrical release or streaming premieres.
10. 'Freaky Tales'
The directors of Captain Marvel returned to their indie roots but forgot the distinct voice that made their films Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind memorable. Freaky Tales is based on true events from Oakland, Calif., in 1987 but feels derivative when all of its anthology stories lead to the same sort of violence. Its unmotivated stylistic choices and homages that cross the line didn't make much of an impact at Sundance 2024 as it took a year and a half for Lionsgate to ultimately give it a limited release this year.
9. 'Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere'
It's gotten too easy to mock bad musician biopics, but they keep making the same mistakes like this year's Blue Moon and upcoming Song Sung Blue. Even focusing on one album, Springsteen is laughable when Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) translates inspiration into famous songs and the film assumes audiences already know things it should be illuminating. This film does its subject the biggest disservice, turning Springsteen's real life mental health struggles into plot points.
8. 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'
This remake should just disappear into the streaming ether, but before it does, here's why. A modern update of the "nanny from hell" thriller could be relevant. Instead, this remake relies on mostly the same motivations, watered down of their sexual tension. The remake pays lip service to relevant issues like a child's developing orientation and weaponizing her rebellion against parents, but the twist is only that these new characters behave less believably than the ones from 1992.
7. 'Flight Risk'
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To be fair, they released this in January so they knew Flight Risk wasn't major competition. But there's more exposition in the first 10 minutes than in the whole MCU all to set up a generic thriller about transporting a mob witness. As the witness, Topher Grace is insufferable whining about his situation and completely unbelievable that he was a mob accountant. They'd have eaten him alive. Mark Wahlberg doesn't fare much better as the hammy hitman. The conversations they have with voices on the airplane radio are absurd. Director Mel Gibson has fallen far from the performances and epic historical drama he directed in Braveheart.
6. 'Fountain of Youth'
This all-star, globe-trotting treasure hunt is worse than watching someone's vacation slideshow, back before people just posted vacation pics on Facebook. Fountain of Youth has less charisma too, mistaking an insufferably toxic hero (John Krasinski) for charming. Action never rouses, despite filming at least in part on location and in physical sets, but the whole endeavor feels apathetic.
5. 'Ella McKay'
If not for the irresponsible depiction of mental health issues, Ella McKay may have simply been a forgettable misfire. There are many other problems, such as uninformed portrayal of politics, unrealistic depiction of relationships and a random character given outsized screen time, played by the director's son. All of that is just annoying. Misrepresenting mental health is harmful.
4. 'Another Simple Favor'
They got the gang back together, but without a book on which to base the sequel. So, the machinations reuniting characters who survived the first movie reduce both of their intelligence. Even allowing that another murder can happen amongst the same crowd, what really spoils the fun is that every character has become mean.
3. 'Den of Thieves 2: Pantera'
This is just pampered actors posturing as tough guys saying the F word a lot. But that's what made the first one popular so mission accomplished?
2. 'How to Train Your Dragon'
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This isn't the live-action remake that least gets what was great about the animated original. That was 2019's The Lion King. But in 2025, How to Train Your Dragon renders the DreamWorks classic as a mundane CGI movie. The effect itself adds levels of separation that distract from the characters' journey, while the film dilutes the animated vibrancy with an overcast aesthetic.
1. 'A Minecraft Movie'
It's not too much to hope a movie based on a corporate asset be creative. The Lego Movie and Barbie exist. No such imagination survived the development of The Minecraft Movie. What's most shocking is they built sets in Minecraft style because all of it still looks like disembodied green screen. Jack Black earns his paycheck selling it but he's still saddled with exposition in one of at least four convoluted subplots that barely revolve around building things, the whole point of the game.
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