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00:00Most moviegoers don't go out of their way to watch terrible movies, do they?
00:04But at the same time, they'll usually freely admit when they've accidentally ended up
00:08watching a bit of a dud.
00:09And yet sometimes the collective audience denial is overpowering enough that viewers
00:15en masse will only actually fully admit that a movie was trash a good while later.
00:20For a ton of different and often quite understandable reasons, audiences just didn't want to face
00:25up to the fact that the following 10 movies weren't merely disappointing, they utterly
00:30sucked.
00:31So I'm Gareth, this is WhatCulture, and here are 10 movies nobody wants to admit suck.
00:3610.
00:37The Matrix Resurrections
00:38Just about every fan of the Matrix franchise desperately wanted to love the belated fourth
00:44entry, didn't they?
00:45Even if most knew deep down that it surely wouldn't be a patch on that statuesque original.
00:50As it turned out though, The Matrix Resurrections couldn't even hold a candle to the just pretty
00:55good sequel or even the wildly divisive third.
00:58With Lana Wachowski turning in one of cinema's all-time great instances of a creative firebombing
01:03their own IP with seemingly intentional abandon.
01:06Though the sequel's meta flourishes begin promisingly enough, this is ultimately self-aware
01:11to a fault because the film spends way too long hand-wringing over its own pointlessness
01:16than, well, just getting to the point.
01:18Beyond that, the story is just abject nonsense.
01:21And most disappointingly, the visuals are shockingly lacklustre for a Matrix film, with specifically
01:26the fight scenes just being a bit forgettable and bland.
01:29The magic just wasn't there this time, sadly.
01:32And while an initial viewing of The Matrix Resurrections was bewildering enough that fans
01:36just needed a minute there to process it, a few years after the fact it's much easier
01:40to admit now that the film was just a bit naff.
01:439.
01:44Clerks 3
01:44Not unlike The Fourth Matrix, the third Clerks movie was such a long, gestating affair
01:49that many fans were willing to overlook some serious issues because the film had just actually
01:54got made.
01:54They were like, yeah, it's here, finally.
01:56Kevin Smith's apparently final entry into the slacker comedy series coasted hard on
02:01dew-eyed nostalgia for the prior films.
02:03But once it was all said and done, the end result was a profoundly empty and oddly depressing
02:08experience.
02:08For starters, the film is bookended by two wildly divisive and questionable character deaths,
02:14clearly motivated by Smith's own near-fatal heart attack in 2018.
02:18And yet casting a hugely dark cloud over a threequel that was in desperate need of a
02:22few laughs, really.
02:23Elsewhere, the film's relentless shilling of NFTs has already aged pretty badly since
02:28the film released and it's only going to get worse and worse as time goes by, isn't
02:31it?
02:32And while Clerks 3 will probably ring a few tears for those who are dedicated fans of the series
02:37and the franchise and all that good stuff, that still doesn't necessarily make it a great
02:40movie.
02:41As wonderfully off the cuff as the first two movies were, this one just feels like a bit of
02:45a forced victory lap that gets a bit too serious for its own good, a reality many fans are
02:50still struggling to accept in lieu of its rather shocking ending.
02:538.
02:54Blue Beetle Now, to be completely fair to Blue Beetle, it's
02:57far from the worst film that's ever popped up in the DCEU, but let's be honest with
03:02that statement we're quite comfortably setting the bar all the way down in hell.
03:06By far the most interesting thing about Blue Beetle is the fact it's the first major superhero
03:11live-action movie with the Latino lead, because outside its laudable representation it's
03:16pretty much just another generic paint-by-numbers superhero cape flick.
03:20To put it simply, it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, does it?
03:23The plot, characters and dialogue all feel largely boilerplate.
03:27Susan Sarandon gives such a snoozy performance as the lame duck villain that she was lucky to
03:31avoid a razzie, and it's directed with little flair beyond being basically functional.
03:36In many respects, the Blue Beetle was the little superhero movie that cut in 2023, a scrappier,
03:41lower-budget superhero movie that people actually wanted to be good.
03:45Yet in retrospect, it's painfully obvious now why Warner Bros. were initially considering
03:49sending this one straight onto streaming.
03:527.
03:53Warcraft Of all the epic video game franchises to adapt
03:56into a movie, Warcraft certainly seemed like one that was absolutely overflowing with potential
04:01because it was such a deep world and it had so many fans, it was so popular.
04:05But once you get over the undeniably impressive CGI and visual effects that are seen going
04:09down within this movie within like the first 10 minutes, the mask slips a bit and Warcraft
04:14just reveals itself to be yet another soulless mega-budgeted flick that's just trying its
04:19best to be the next Lord of the Rings.
04:20As much as many fans might swear that Warcraft wasn't really that bad, no, no, no, Warcraft
04:25was actually that bad.
04:27Beyond its yawn-inducingly formulaic plot, Warcraft is packed full of tiresome, expository
04:32dialogue.
04:33The practical sets also look a little bit cheap, don't they?
04:36And the film somehow managed to coax a bad performance out of Ben Foster.
04:43Warcraft was so intent on laying the track for a new franchise that it forgot to make a
04:47single interesting movie first, and while many continue to bang their drum for this Warcraft
04:52adventure, the fact that it underperformed at the box office suggests that even few among
04:56the die-hard fandom truly vibed with it.
04:596.
05:00Lightyear
05:01Even with the lower batting average in recent years, Pixar is still one of the greatest animation
05:05studios of all time, isn't it?
05:07And it's never fun to come to terms with the fact that they've released yet another bad
05:10movie that isn't Cars 2.
05:12And on paper it genuinely felt like Lightyear just couldn't miss.
05:16A Toy Story spin-off that primed to serve as a campy throwback to classic sci-fi adventures
05:21like Flash Gordon.
05:22Except that wasn't really the movie that Pixar decided to make.
05:25Given that Lightyear is supposed to be the very movie that Andy watched all the way back
05:29in 1995 and inspired him to buy that toy or at least ask for that toy as a present, it's
05:34bizarre that it's relatively serious and not really that much fun and a bit boring at times.
05:40It's simply tough to come away from this movie and appreciate why Andy or any other kid for that
05:44matter would have ever fallen in love with it.
05:46Not even Pixar's signature visual flair can save this Lightyear.
05:50It's a bafflingly pedestrian adjunct to the studio's flagship franchise and one that's
05:54made infinitely worse by that divisive twist.
05:585.
05:59Rustin
06:00Blotbusters and franchise movies are one thing, but what about well-intended Oscars bait that
06:04also just misses the mark a little bit?
06:07In the current awards cycle there's no bigger example of that than Rustin.
06:10This is a biopic of civil rights activist Beynard Rustin.
06:14And were it not for Coleman Domingo's Oscar-nominated performance in the lead role, which while decent
06:19is a little bit restricted by the bland script, this particular film probably would have been
06:23forgotten instantly.
06:25Rustin is a quintessential Wikipedia page biopic.
06:28A by-the-numbers checklist ticking exercise that's painfully lacking in soul or personality
06:33no matter how well Domingo does in the lead role.
06:36The script is an expository barrage of information, yet doesn't really outline who Rustin was
06:41as a human being, and even its depiction of the 1963 March on Washington feels weirdly
06:46small and low-key, though that was presumably hampered by a low-ish budget.
06:51Given that the film is spotlighting an important story centred around an underrepresented figure
06:55in history, nobody really wants to admit that it's bad.
06:58But once Oscar season passes, it'll be a lot easier to admit that Domingo aside, Rustin
07:03was pretty lousy to be honest.
07:044.
07:05IT Chapter 2 The first chapter of Andy Muschietti's adaptation
07:09of Stephen King's classic horror tome, IT, was such a pleasant surprise.
07:13Fans approached the sequel with fair confidence that Muschietti would once again knock it out
07:17of the park.
07:18Because why wouldn't he?
07:19No perfect cast playing the older versions of the Loser Club, including Jessica Chastain,
07:24James McAvoy, Bill Hader and James Ranson.
07:27It seemed like all the necessary ingredients were there for Muschietti to just finish off
07:31this story in a great way.
07:33But IT Chapter 2 actually feels less a satisfying conclusion to this overall story, more a vocal
07:38warning about the dangers of letting a successful filmmaker run amok.
07:42With the budget almost double that of IT Chapter 1, this sequel was a 169 minute bloated mishmash
07:50of CGI driven set pieces, and most of those set pieces just largely felt like warmed over
07:55rehashes of what worked so well in the first film.
07:58Sure the cast commits gamely to the material, but the film's tedious fetch quest plot does
08:03them no favours at all.
08:05Chapter 1 was such a mesmerising adaptation that nobody really wanted to admit that Muschietti
08:09had fumbled the ball with the second half, even though he categorically did, sadly.
08:133.
08:14Ready Player One Though Ready Player One received broadly positive
08:18reviews when it released all those years ago, it's also a film whose shine wore off incredibly
08:22quickly too, as not even Steven Spielberg's directorial ingenuity could disguise its overpowering
08:28hollowness for too long.
08:30Some might dub it a high-calorie, switch-your-brain-off kind of movie, but its core is so empty and emblematic
08:36of Hollywood's worst current instincts, it's pretty tough to just accept this as
08:40dumb fun.
08:41A garish crash of pop culture references may very much be the point of Ernest Cline's
08:46source novel, but does it a good movie or even a good story make?
08:50Certainly not, and for all the crap that clearly went into making it, Ready Player One's
08:53a resoundingly barren endeavour.
08:56One that evacuates itself from your mind very quickly and doesn't give you much of a reason
08:59to go back and revisit it either.
09:01It isn't easy to face up to the fact that Spielberg, of all people, made a movie that
09:05was so devoid of soul, but here we are.
09:082.
09:09Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny The fact so many people begin their assessment
09:13of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny by calling it, well, better than the last one,
09:18says it all really.
09:19Every card-carrying indie fan, myself included, desperately wanted this James Mangold swan
09:24song to give Indiana Jones the exciting and dignified ride off into the sunset that he deserved.
09:29But the end result was a depressingly anodyne and seriously overlong slog.
09:35So much of the movie is focused on just how miserable Indy's life has become, a fact only
09:39compounded when we learn of the grim fate that befell his son-mot.
09:43Did many Indiana Jones fans come to see this movie to see a meditation on grief?
09:47I know I didn't.
09:49Making Indy a bereaved, depressed and separated alcoholic didn't exactly lay the groundwork
09:54for another rip-roaring adventure, did it?
09:56And even the high-wire set pieces that were present lack the weight and intensity of the
10:01original trilogy.
10:02Were it not for Ford's game presence and a pretty nutty third-act twist, it'd be pretty
10:06tough to rank this one that much higher than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
10:10Skull.
10:11As it stands, it settles for the decisive fourth place in the franchise.
10:14And when it comes to revisiting the series, are any fans honestly really going to bother
10:18with any movie that's not a part of the original trilogy?
10:20The Dine of Destiny may have left Indy in a rather good place, but didn't the franchise
10:24already do that like 30 years ago?
10:26Yes, yes it did, Junior.
10:281.
10:29World War Z There's an almost impressive denial that
10:31Mark Foster's adaptation of World War Z isn't a bad movie.
10:35As if its infamously troubled shoot indicated such an atrocious end-product that it being
10:40merely bad in the end was a bit of a solid outcome?
10:43Brilliant, though Max Brooks' source novel actually is.
10:46This adaptation in name only takes the book's branding to sell a shambolically by-the-numbers
10:51zombie actioner.
10:53One that's filled with inane dialogue and limply directed PG-13 violence.
10:56It certainly sounds like Paramount were cooking up a decidedly more daring film at one point
11:01before they decided to scrap the entire third act and replace it with the safest slot we
11:06got in the end.
11:07But all the same, this is maddeningly dull for a $200 million blockbuster about Brad Pitt
11:12fighting the undead.
11:13That a sequel still hasn't materialised despite the fact that this movie somehow managed to
11:17gross $540 million worldwide perhaps speaks to how utterly beige and forgettable World War
11:23Z actually was from start to finish, much as fans of the book above all others don't
11:28want to admit it.
11:29But whatever brings them joy, I guess.
11:31Bye-bye!