Roger ebert top 10 worst movies

Feature By: Calum Cooper

If one were to ask who the greatest film critic of all-time was, Roger Ebert is the name that would likely be voiced the most. While strong cases could be made for critics like Pauline Kael and Leonard Maltin, Ebert, alongside fellow critic Gene Siskel, bridged the divide between critics and the general populace through his TV show, which broadcasted his infectious admiration and vast knowledge of movies for all to see. His Great Movies collection, which can be found on his website, contains extraordinary reviews of over 350 titles, each one an ode to the magic that movies at their best can bring. Over a decade after his passing, his legacy of championing both movies and their makers has continued to inspire cinephiles everywhere.

Yet Ebert was arguably at his most entertaining when he loathed a movie. His most iconic review? Perhaps that of Rob Reiner’s misguided comedy, North, where Ebert coined the infamous sentence: “[I] hated hated hated hated hated this movie”. Where positive reviews from Ebert would offer compelling insights into a film’s emotional impact, thematic depth, or mastery of craft, the most negative of his reviews took no prisoners, something that was especially brutal when one considers how Ebert was generally kinder to films than the average critic of his time. Take Speed 2 or Cop and a Half, two movies largely maligned, yet Ebert found a soft spot for them.

In 2005, Ebert released a list of 56 films that he considered his most hated of all-time. Among these films were choices that would’ve been obvious to anyone who’s followed his career – North, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Caligula – as well as more niche pictures like The First Time and The Devil’s Rain, and even contrarian choices in The Usual Suspects and Taste of Cherry. One glance through these reviews show how little he minced his words

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sometimes, Roger Ebert is exposed to bad movies. When that happens, it is his duty — if not necessarily his pleasure — to report them (fairly, accurately) as he sees them. Whether they’re so bad they’re funny, so bad they’re not funny, or so unfunny they’re not funny, he must critique them. From bad Elvis to Deuce Bigalow, these are excerpts from reviews of some of the worst movies he’s ever seen. (Click on the titles for the full reviews.) It’s not just their measly ratings — from zero to 1.5 stars — but what Ebert has to say about them that really conveys their true awfulness.

Alleged comedies

“Joe Dirt“

We professional movie critics count it a banner week when only one movie involves eating, falling into or being covered by excrement (or a cameo appearance by Carson Daly). We are not prudes. We are prepared to laugh. But what these movies, including “Joe Dirt,” often do not understand is that the act of being buried in crap is not in and of itself funny.

“North“

I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.

“One Woman or Two“

Add it all up, and what you’ve got here is a waste of good electricity. I’m not talking about the electricity between the actors. I’m talking about the current to the projector.

“Mad Dog Time“

“Mad Dog Time” is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. Oh, I’ve seen bad movies before. But they usually made me care about how bad they were. Watching “Mad Dog Time” is like waiting for the bus in a city where youR

Before the rating aggregator Rotten Tomatoes was the dominating provider of critiques on movies, Roger Ebert was that go-to source. He worked and critiqued alongside Gene Siskel until Siskel's untimely death in 1999. Roger Ebert made a career out of talking about movies. He talked about them so much that he reigned as a well-respected movie authority for the majority of the 1990s.

Ebert's thumbs up or thumbs down could make or break an opening weekend for a film. As passionately as Ebert spoke about movies he loved, he had no problem doing the same for movies he hated. There are movies he barely rated a star and then there are movies he vehemently gave a thumbs down to. A handful of those films stuck out like sore thumbs, with aggregated scores matching his sentiments completely.

10 Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo Caused Audience Suffering

2005

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo follows Deuce, a male gigolo, as his operation expands outside the United States. The first film, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, had a solid fan base, so the creators felt the need to follow up with a sequel. They even recruited the late Norm MacDonald for it.

Ebert tore apart the follow-up movie, not even giving it any stars and giving it an angry thumbs down. The first movie was all over the place, but still grounded in silly humor and a silly love story. Given the usual expectations of a Happy Madison Production film, the same was expected for the sequel. Ebert went as far as to say that to sit through this film was to cause suffering in the audience.

9 Sour Grapes Is an Unfunny Comedy Written and Directed by Larry Da

Roger Ebert's reviews are hardly a dull read, whether scathing or praising. The Chicago Sun-Times film critic boldly took aim at movies the general population adored while simultaneously leading the charge on the movies no one liked. For every greatest movie of all time, according to Ebert, there is a bad counterpart. The movies he deemed the worst of all time earned not even half a star, but rather a disappointing and generally warranted thumbs down. Some of his choices for the worst are titles that either kicked off a franchise that never earned positive reviews or ended one that began as an Oscar-winning monolith.

What made these movies so bad was a lack of awareness and inability to read the moviegoers in the room with premises that ranged from failures to wildly inappropriate. Ebert's choices are a blend of genres, including horror, thriller, comedy, and family adventure, proving that no category of films gets a pass for being terrible just because it's a "stupid comedy" or "mindless kids movie." For Ebert, movies served multiple purposes, but their most important one was to entertain with strategic narratives that included genre-specific tropes while remaining creatively original. The worst movies of all time fail to do that, in his opinion.

10 'Mad Dog Time' (1996)

Directed by Larry Bishop

A movie is truly bad when an acclaimed critic (and audiences) don't care to investigate the why and how, especially with a star-studded cast. The mafia drama Mad Dog Time is one of those movies. After a mob boss named Vic (Richard Dreyfuss) is institutionalized, his top associate Mickey (Jeff Goldblum) takes over the nightclub while a slew of rival criminals line up to disassemble the empire. When Vic returns, the entire operation falls into disarray under Mickey's watch. Even with an ensemble that includes Gabriel Byrne, Michael J. Pollard, Diane Lane, and more, Ebert gave