Rotten Tomatoes is an imperfect but sometimes over-hated and misunderstood site that aims to offer a consensus of not all critics, but a bunch of them, regarding, like, almost all the movies ever. Certain older ones don’t have Rotten Tomatoes scores, and the same can be said for more obscure releases, but the vast majority of movies do have at least a handful of official reviews – and accompanying scores – out there for them.
So, Rotten Tomatoes takes those reviews, evaluates which ones are positive and negative, and then gives a movie a “Fresh” or “Rotten” rating. If at least 60% of critics like a movie, it’ll have a fresh score (“Certified Fresh” requires a score of at least 75% and a minimum number of reviews), while if it’s less than 60%, a movie will be deemed rotten. The following is a rundown of movies where you might expect a rotten score, but you’ll actually find a fresh one if you look it up on Rotten Tomatoes. Let the hate flow through you, because these films kind of need some more of it.
10
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%
After Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi was seemingly allowed to do whatever he wanted when he came back to direct the fourth Thor, Thor: Love and Thunder. Anything fun or fresh about Ragnarok was entirely absent here, as the movie was just chaotic in tone and execution, but without any humor that landed or action sequences that satisfied as far as spectacle was concerned.
Rock songs were cynically crammed in as constant needle drops, which felt like a hollow attempt to capture some of that Guardians of the Galaxy charm soundtrack-wise, and the whole film was an absolute slog. But the critical response was perhaps definable as lukewarm, rather than outright hostile, since 63% of critics liked (or maybe just tolerated) Thor: Love and Thunder. It’s ghastly, though, and a movie that might well have made some people want to tap out of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe; a final straw kind of thing.
9
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
Some people will say that the fourth Indiana Jones movie was the worst one, but at least Steven Spielberg brought a little life to it, and Harrison Ford was old, sure, but not too old. In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, watching him at 80 just feels a little sad, and also not helping the movie is the fact that Spielberg sat this one out, with James Mangold making for a surprisingly poor replacement.
“Surprisingly” because Mangold’s usually a solid director, and he helmed Logan, which was a great – and bittersweet – movie about an older and creakier Wolverine, but the spark found there didn’t get reignited in The Dial of Destiny. It’s one of the most miserable blockbusters of the 2020s so far, and, like, maybe critics just felt sorry for it, and went easy on the whole thing? It does have a lower Rotten Tomatoes rating than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, at least, which some people might also be surprised to learn is considered fresh by the site.
8
‘Lightyear’ (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%
Technically, Lightyear doesn’t continue the Toy Story series, but it is a weird spin-off of sorts, or like a movie that’s supposed to exist within the Toy Story universe? It’s a bit strange and convoluted to wrap one’s head around, as far as the premise goes, but that wouldn’t be a problem if the movie itself were fun, or funny, or creative, or even just a little bit charming the way most Pixar films tend to be, at the very least, be.
No, instead, Lightyear extends beyond being confusing at its core to also be a chore when it comes to watching the damn thing. If it weren’t for Cars 2, it might well take the crown of “worst Pixar movie,” and it’s weird how it was apparently good enough (or even better) for 74% of critics. It pales in comparison to pretty much any non-Cars 2 Pixar film, and though decently reviewed, it’s been deservedly forgotten; you can take some comfort in that. Because, seriously, when was the last time you heard someone mention Lightyear? Other than about 175 words ago.
7
‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%
Comparing The Hobbit trilogy to The Lord of the Rings might seem unfair, given it’s just one book – and a less epic one at that – that stood as the source material, while The Lord of the Rings… okay, that was technically one massive book, but released in three parts, and certainly the length of three novels. But Peter Jackson was behind both, and there was genuine anticipation surrounding a return to his version of Middle-earth.
The Desolation of Smaug is the most tedious of the three Hobbit movies, and the one with the least material to work with adaptation-wise.
An Unexpected Journey was a little underwhelming, but it got the job done as an opening chapter of what, unfortunately, became a trilogy. The Desolation of Smaug is the most tedious of the three, and the one with the least material to work with adaptation-wise, leading to so much padding and a sense of nothing really going anywhere. But it’s got the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any of The Hobbit movies, so who the hell knows what’s going on anymore.
6
‘Mickey 17’ (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%
For a while, Bong Joon-ho was untouchable, since his run of movies from 2000 to 2019 is honestly remarkable, peaking with Parasite, which won Best Picture and stood out even in an overall crowded year for cinema. He could do anything next, and when Mickey 17 was announced as a darkly comedic science fiction movie, it sounded promising. Okja and Snowpiercer were a little more divisive, sure, but both showed he could do sci-fi pretty well (the same can be said about The Host).
But Mickey 17 was almost dreadful. Maybe “extremely disappointing” would be the fairer way to describe it, as it just didn’t feel confidently made, or anywhere near consistent tonally, with every actor seemingly thinking they were in a different movie. To go back to The Host and Parasite, those movies are a bit chaotic tonally and ambitious in how many genres they want to tackle, but there is still enough consistency to make them both come together in the end, and it’s that lack of flow or confidence in Mickey 17 that trips the whole thing up.
5
‘Frankie and Johnny’ (1991)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%
Frankie and Johnny is most interesting for reuniting Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer in the kind of movie that couldn’t be further removed from Scarface, which they also both starred in. That film was a legendary gangster movie, while Frankie and Johnny is a pretty straightforward rom-com about two people working in a diner and falling for each other, but nothing’s very romantic and none of it’s particularly comedic.
Pacino and Pfieffer aren’t even terrible, considering the material they have here, but maybe it’s one of those movies that goes to show how even great actors generally can’t spin something gold out of nothing; they need at least a little something to work with. Frankie and Johnny has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69%, which might make watching the movie sound nice, but nah, it’s just boring and annoying.
4
‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%
For some reason, there are four Bad Boys movies, even though things peaked with the ridiculous Bad Boys II, and it’s all been downhill from there. If people are nostalgic for the series, or feeling starved from the relative lack of R-rated action comedies coming out nowadays, maybe that would explain the somewhat positive reception for Bad Boys: Ride or Die, but that must be some pretty aching nostalgia and/or serious desperation.
This is comfortably the worst Bad Boys movie, even though you could argue all the Bad Boys movies are a bit bad (except for Bad Boys II, which is an absurdist, excessive, and tasteless near-masterpiece). Bad Boys: Ride or Die is limp and a bit sad, in a Dial of Destiny sort of way; something that’s recognizably Bad Boys, but with the teeth forcefully removed. Or the teeth just fell out because of old age. Either way, not ideal.
3
‘Nouvelle Vague’ (1990)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
Not to be mixed up with the 2025 Richard Linklater film, Nouvelle Vague is a Jean-Luc Godard film from 1990, and hey, maybe the mixing up is bound to happen, since the making of Godard’s Breathless is what Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague is about. This 1990 film, though, is about absolutely nothing. It’s Godard just seeing what he can get away with, in terms of making the most obscure and floaty drivel he can.
Put another way, it’s the bad kind of arthouse cinema; the stuff that sometimes gives the term “arthouse” a bad name. It only has six reviews counted on Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s a bit of a borderline case here, and just one more negative review being counted would tip it into rotten territory, where it probably deserves to be. Godard could do better, and knew he could, but he didn’t care with Nouvelle Vague, and neither should you.
2
‘Superman Returns’ (2006)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%
2006 was not a good year for superhero movies, since Superman Returns was probably the best release of said year, and it was pretty limp and disappointing. Its competition was the similarly contested X-Men: The Last Stand, but at least that one has a rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as it probably deserves. Superman Returns, though, got reasonably positive reviews.
It’s odd to see, since the movie is a bit of a snooze. It’s not the worst Superman movie, since we live in a world where The Quest for Peace exists, but that’s a pretty low bar to clear. Superman Returns makes the titular hero boring in the way that some people often seem to fear Superman can be. It’s all misguided, and one of the more forgettable blockbusters released in the past couple of decades for sure.
1
‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ (1957)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%
One of the definitive “worst movies of all time” is Plan 9 from Outer Space, or at least that’s maybe what you’ve heard. It has that kind of reputation, but honestly, it’s not all that awful compared to a ton of other extremely low-budget sci-fi movies from the 1950s, and some of its flaws make it a little charming in that “bad movie that’s actually good” kind of way.
So, maybe it’s fitting, then, that 66% of critics have liked Plan 9 from Outer Space, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes. It’s got its place in cinema history, so even if it’s not very good, watching it is worthwhile, both so you can say you’ve done it and so you can understand what all the “hype” is about. Still, you can’t deny it’s a little surprising that one of those typical “worst movie ever” picks is actually fresh.
Plan 9 from Outer Space
- Release Date
-
July 22, 1959
- Runtime
-
79 Minutes
-
Gregory Walcott
Jeff Trent
-
Mona McKinnon
Paula Trent