Irreversible is often praised for bold storytelling and committed performances, especially from Monica Bellucci. At the same time, its extended scenes of graphic violence make it an experience many viewers simply don’t want to revisit. The reverse structure may deepen the tragedy, but the intensity is so overwhelming that for a lot of people, it crosses the line from challenging cinema into something they’d rather never sit through again. | © Lionsgate
The Emoji Movie is technically an animated comedy, but the “comedy” part is up for debate. What you mostly get are loud colors and relentless product placements dressed up as jokes. Instead of clever satire about digital life, the film feels like a feature-length ad, and sitting through it can feel longer than your entire screen time for the day. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
On paper, The Snowman had everything going for it: Michael Fassbender, a bestselling novel, and a chilling serial killer hook. What ended up on screen feels strangely incomplete, with scenes that don’t connect and plot threads that seem to vanish mid-thought. The director later admitted that parts of the script were never filmed, and you can feel those missing pieces the entire time. | © Universal Studios
Collateral Beauty boasts a stacked cast led by Will Smith, which makes its failure even more surprising. The premise (writing letters to Love, Time, and Death after personal tragedy) aims for profundity but often lands closer to heavy-handedness. Instead of earning its emotional moments, the film pushes hard for tears, and the manipulation becomes impossible to ignore. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
A Thousand Words gives Eddie Murphy a high-concept setup that sounds promising on paper. The catch is that the story forces him to stop talking, which sidelines the very comedic timing and rapid-fire delivery that made him famous. Without sharp jokes or a strong script to back him up, the film feels oddly muted and frustrating to sit through. | © DreamWorks Pictures
A biopic about infamous mob boss John Gotti sounds like it should write itself. Instead, Gotti became notorious for all the wrong reasons, from messy development to dialogue that feels oddly lifeless. With a rare 0% critics score and performances that can’t overcome the script’s flatness, it’s a less gripping crime drama and more cautionary tale about how not to tell a larger-than-life story. | © Paramount Pictures
Son of the Mask feels like a sequel made because a title was available, not because a story demanded it. Jim Carrey wisely stayed away, leaving Jamie Kennedy to wrestle with noisy CGI and jokes that barely land. The original thrived on sharp physical comedy; this one buries everything under effects and chaos, making it a tough sit even for the most forgiving fans. | © New Line Cinema
Zoolander 2 throws celebrity cameos at the screen like that alone should count as comedy. The problem is, jokes matter, and repeating Blue Steel poses can only carry you so far before the laughs dry up. Instead of building on what made the original sharp and weirdly clever, the sequel feels like a string of references waiting for punchlines that never arrive. | © Paramount Pictures
Catwoman aimed to launch a bold new superhero franchise, but instead became shorthand for comic book misfires. The film swept the Razzies, including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for Halle Berry, and scenes like the now-infamous basketball showdown feel unintentionally absurd. It’s not campy enough to be fun and not coherent enough to be gripping, which makes sitting through it more exhausting than entertaining. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
The Last Airbender had all the ingredients for a franchise, especially with M. Night Shyamalan adapting a beloved animated series. Instead, it flattened a vibrant world into stiff dialogue, awkward pacing, and action that somehow felt small. Fans of the original can’t get past what was lost, and newcomers are left wondering how something built on elemental powers turned out this lifeless. | © Paramount Pictures
Gigi swept the Oscars and dazzled audiences with lush costumes and catchy songs, but the story underneath is harder to sit through today. The plot centers on a teenage girl being groomed for wealthy men, all framed as a charming tradition rather than something troubling. When a musical number cheerfully celebrates “little girls” growing up for male attention, the romance starts to feel less enchanting and more deeply uncomfortable. | © MGM
The Blue Lagoon was once pitched as a dreamy survival romance, but it’s hard to separate it from the controversy that followed. Brooke Shields was only 14 during production, and the way the film frames her character’s sexuality has made audiences uneasy for decades. Even beyond that, the story drifts along at a sluggish pace, aiming for poetic innocence yet landing somewhere between awkward and exploitative. | © Columbia Pictures
Cleopatra was once sold as the ultimate Hollywood epic, complete with a record-breaking budget and the off-screen drama of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Today, it feels like four hours of spectacle struggling to justify itself, weighed down by sluggish pacing and dated ideas of exoticism and casting. The costumes and sets are still impressive, but the story underneath them moves at a crawl, making the film more fascinating as a cautionary tale of studio excess than as actual entertainment. | © 20th Century Studios
Sixteen Candles is often remembered as a sweet ’80s teen classic, but rewatching it now can feel uncomfortable fast. The portrayal of Long Duk Dong leans hard into racial stereotypes, turning him into a running joke that hasn’t aged well at all. Add in a subplot where consent is treated like a punchline, and what once felt rebellious now plays more like a reminder of how much cultural standards have shifted. | © Universal Pictures
A Serbian Film isn’t just controversial, it’s infamous. The movie leans so heavily into extreme, graphic shock value that any attempt at story or commentary gets buried under the next disturbing image. For many viewers, it stops being a film to analyze and becomes a test of endurance, which is why it’s often cited as something people regret watching at all. | © Unearthed Films
Some movies age badly. Others feel impossible to sit through the moment they start. Whether it’s offensive humor, shocking content, or just painfully weak storytelling, these films test patience in ways few others do. Watching them today is just exhausting.
