My good friend Kenneth is a worthy cinephile, but since the release of Megalopolis, we have been fervently discussing our differences over the film: I was genuinely disappointed (yet still eager to try it again), and he (like many) truly hated it.
Yes, the film does not work, but I could at least see (somewhat) the idea Coppola was going for as he went for a big swing (in a year full of big swings in the cinema). If he is reading this, Kenneth should know I did see more than ten films worse than Megalopolis…and not one of them are Hot Frosty. (I did thankfully dodge a bullet by not seeing films I have heard are trash such as Borderlands, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Crow, and Kraven the Hunter).
That said, here are the 10 worst films of 2024 that are totally worse than Megalopolis (not including that one movie I saw for free on Twitter by someone I refuse to say makes movies: Kenneth knows who I am talking about).
10.
Okay, so this was not completely terrible, but I can guarantee a bright shiny nickel how forgettable Red One will be by December 2025. It is a much down graded version of an Avengers flick, made for people who most likely no longer believe in Santa.
9.
After the huge success of 2019’s Joker, it was virtually inevitable that a sequel would be made. As one of the many aforementioned big swings of the year, a musical twist was not on most anyone’s radar for what Todd Philips had in mind. Even with Joaquin Phoenix and a well cast Lady Gaga (in theory), Joker: Folie à Deux was one film that was…well, fully a dud.
8.
I would say Zach Snyder is much more style over substance, but with his Rebel Moon films, the substance is barely apparent. While not as confusing as the first film, Rebel Moon- Part Two: The Scargiver is still as dull and bland.
7.
Dennis Quaid is obviously a good actor (he was truly memorable in The Substance), but his dedication to playing the titular Reagan can’t save this film from itself. It is so self glamorizing it makes you feel like that woman in Airplane!: “I haven’t felt this awful since I saw that Ronald Reagan film!.”
6.
A film from the YA vault that missed its time by as many years as this takes place in the future, the entirety of Uglies is…well, you know…Ugly. I really want better things for Joey King.
5.
Speaking of young stars I hope get better material…Miranda Cosgrove is another who deserves far better than the likes of Mother of the Bride. I am not sure how well she should have “known better”, but I do feel veterans like Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt definitely should have.
4.
Remember when Lee Daniels did films like Precious and The Butler and The United States vs Billie Holiday? That latter film brought a nomination for star Andra Day, who is at the center of Daniels’ newest film, The Deliverance. This huge down grade of a horror film has Omar Epps being the love interest of Glenn Close. You read that right.
3.
It is hard to believe it has been only a year since we have had to put up with the constant bombardment of trailers for Argylle. You would think this spy cape thriller would have enough talent to make up for the source material, and you would be wrong. This is a movie where the film has a climax fight scene my eyes don’t want to remember the pain of seeing.
2.
I grew up in the 90s, so I know how big a deal Seinfeld was as a TV show (even though I did not get all the jokes at the time due to my age). It is safe to say that Jerry Seinfeld will never reach that peak again, but who could have thought he would have reached a low like Unfrosted? Okay, maybe I heard so much about how not good the movie was going into it that I could be a tad biased, but not only did I not laugh one time, but I never had the inclination.
1.
As stated before, I did not get around to Kraven the Hunter in time for this list, even if a film like Morbius was proof the Sony Spiderman Villian universe (minus Spidey himself) would not last long. Then came Madame Web. This was not the final nail in the coffin, but another coffin around it like one of those old russian dolls. As bad as the other films are on this list, at least they seemed completed. Madame Web is a film with bad lip synched line reading, a villain without shoes, career lows for all involved, and a horrible break for Pepsi. It is one of those films that deserves to be in the same sentence as films like Battlefield Earth (2000), Jack and Jill (2011), Movie 43 (2013), and Cats (2019), among others. Not an ideal club to be a part of.
Nothing else to say 