Mistakes from the 100 worst movies of all time – KAKE

Mistakes from the 100 worst movies of all time

The best movies create worlds with seemingly effortless magic. When a movie works, the audience doesnt notice the elements that construct a coherent sense of time and space. Theyre not thinking about lighting, camera movements, or the set because theyre immersed in the onscreen world. Continuity is invisible. A character opens a door, and the next cut shows a continuous action as the door opens in the next space with the characters hair and costume identical even if the two shots were filmed months apart. Good movies dont draw attention to their production.

In contrast, the hallmarks of truly terrible films include all the ways they make their seams visible and obvious. They conspicuously draw attention to their production, and especially all the mistakes, inconsistencies, and gaffes that get in the way of continuity. Continuity gaffes include obvious mistakes in editing. Drinks at a bar are full in one shot, in the next empty, then full again. Production equipment like boom mics, camera shadows, and safety wires appear on-screen. Obvious changes in wardrobe and makeup occur from shot-to-shot. Locations dont match and weather changes. The worst movies draw attention to the fact that theyre moviesshots of staged scenes edited together, while the best movies allow the audience to immerse themselves in a world where they forget that a camera was ever-present.

To illustrate this point, Stacker gathered data on IMDbs 100 worst movies as of September 2019 and ranked them according to IMDb user votes with ties broken by vote count, #1 carrying the title for worst. Only feature, English-language films with more than 10,000 user votes were considered. For each of the worst movies in this gallery, we've highlighted a mistake (or several) ranging from minor to major slips.

The worst films are usually sequels, third or fourth or even seventh installments, remakes, video game adaptations, spoofs, and parodies, or offshoots of a franchise that refuses to die. Because these movies implicitly refer to the original film, theyre already up against impossible odds as they try to recapture and re-create what worked the first time. These types of films often have inferior budgets and star D-list or unknown actors. The obvious fact that these films follow a template or formula contributes to their inferiority. The audience arrives with preloaded expectations. Theyre aware of patterns, templates, formulas, and clichsso plots, stock characters, and set-ups come across as obviously constructed. Good movies encourage suspended belief, while the bad ones let it fall and splatter.

Some bad films, like Ed Woods Plan Nine From Outer Space or Tommy Wiseaus The Room, possess a delectable charm that comes from the unintended exposure of their flaws. However, the good-bad film is a rare treasure. Most of the ones here on our list are just plain, and painfully, awful.

#100. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Directed by Joe Berlinger

- IMDb user rating: 3.9- Votes: 34,221- Metascore: 15- Runtime: 90 min

This quickly released sequel to the found-footage blockbuster, The Blair Witch Project, seems thrown together and doesnt capture the freaky, low-tech horror of the original. There are glaring continuity errors involving destroyed files of research in a scene where the campers awaken to find papers torn apart and scattered. The shots switch from close and medium to long, and the character holding files sometimes has them, then doesnt, then holds a notably different pile throughout the scene.

#99. The Cat in the Hat (2003)

- IMDb user rating: 3.9- Votes: 47,175- Metascore: 19- Runtime: 82 min

This adaptation of the popular Dr. Seuss book failed to capture the whimsy of the original story, despite Mike Myerss enthusiastic performance as the rascally cat. In the sequence where Thing 1 and Thing 2 spew pink goo all over the living room, close-up shots show splatter on the kids faceswhich are miraculously clear in the very next shot.

#98. Street Fighter (1994)

Directed by Steven E. de Souza

- IMDb user rating: 3.9- Votes: 61,920- Metascore: null- Runtime: 102 min

Jean-Claude Van Damme brings his characteristic inelegance to the brawler role in this action movie based on a video game. The film includes a science lab cave lair where tortuous experiments take place. Props include smoking beakers and neon-hued liquid in IV bags. When a doctor takes a seat before his giant computer terminal the whole contraption jostles with his movement, clearly a light prop.

#97. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

- IMDb user rating: 3.9- Votes: 70,565- Metascore: 23- Runtime: 121 min

The sequel to the smash hit Speed, set on a cruise ship upon the open sea, is a masterwork of nautical implausibility. In one stupendous action scene, an ocean liner crashes into a port town and covers several blocks of land before stopping against a bell tower and tipping sideways, propped against slanted, weak-looking houses. This sequence displays incongruence between exterior and interior shots. The events inside the vessel (harrowing slants and jarring crashes) mismatch with the outdoor footage where the ship steadily crushes the neighborhood without plausible rocking or movement onboard.

#96. Caddyshack II (1988)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 14,129- Metascore: 7- Runtime: 98 min

The first Caddyshack, starring Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, was a hit despite its jocular slapstick silliness. The second entry brings back Chase but doesnt reach the comedy highs of the first film despite trying. The whole film could be considered a gigantic goof, but in one scene with Dan Aykroyd (as a zany military man), a watermelon explodes before impact with the cause of the explosiona skull and crossbones imprinted golf ball.

#95. Furry Vengeance (2010)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 14,888- Metascore: 23- Runtime: 92 min

Brendan Fraser stars in this eco-comedy about animals who take vengeance upon real-estate developers. A raccoon and ferret design slingshot weaponry that causes gigantic boulders to careen into the cars of their enemies. The visual rendering of the big rocks look obviously digitized and in other shots seem to be made from props that are light and bouncy.

#94. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 20,075- Metascore: 39- Runtime: 117 min

The sequel to the runaway box office hit, The Exorcist, suffers from taking itself way too seriously. Starring Linda Blair as Regan again, this time four years older and still demonic, several scenes are set on a mirrored skyscraper rooftop. Mirror shots require intensive technical prowess, such as in the hall of mirrors scene in Orson Welless The Lady from Shanghai. Similar visuals in this film show in one scene what appears to be the fingers of a cameraman in one of the mirrors.

#93. Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 21,190- Metascore: 41- Runtime: 91 min

Drew Barrymore voices the eponymous canine, and Piper Perabo plays the woman assigned to dogsit. In one sequence, the chihuahua deposits dog food in her sitters shoes. This reveals a conspicuous mistake since the same shoes were just on feet, then off, and next, located across the room in a prime spot for the doggy prank, but at the expense of sacrificing spatial logic.

#92. Holmes & Watson (2018)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 22,021- Metascore: 24- Runtime: 90 min

This clunker begins with a Hannah Montana quote about love over logic, so the films blatant anachronisms align with its general spirit. One of its major plot points involves Queen Victoria aboard the Titanicwhich took its notorious voyage over a decade after she died.

Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films (EFO Films)

#91. Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018)

Directed by Steven C. Miller

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 22,533- Metascore: null- Runtime: 96 min

This direct-to-video sequel to the equally absurd Escape Plan, concerns another harrowing breakout from another off-the-grid slammer. The films slipshod aesthetic works to mask its limitations. A shaky camera, dark lighting with a blue-green overtint, background mist, and blurred visuals both reveal and hide the films focal imprecision.

Castle Rock Entertainment

#90. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Directed by Ron Underwood

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 23,256- Metascore: 12- Runtime: 95 min

Eddie Murphys sci-fi comedy is still one of the biggest box office flops of all time. Its budget was more than$100 million and the film only grossed $4 million. When adjusted for inflation,the film lost more than $145 million. Despite the large production budget, this film set on the moon looks cheap and hokeyespecially the CGI effects in a body modification scene where Murphy and co-star Rosario Dawson morph into overlarge body builders.

#89. You Got Served (2004)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 25,287- Metascore: 37- Runtime: 95 min

You Got Served, a film about urban dance-off competitions, features striking choreography in itsmany dance sequences. However, some scenes have continuity errors around dancers costumes. In an early dance competition, an actress unzips her hoodie only to repeat the same movement in the very next shot.

Six Entertainment Company

#88. The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 33,215- Metascore: 17- Runtime: 91 min

Esteemed film critic Roger Ebert called this sequel an affront...to human decency. The premise, mouth-to-anus surgery of multiple humans, continues with zero cinematic artsiness to counteract the repugnance. In one scene, a victim removes a funnel from a hose and commits a likely deserved atrocity with it (involving an orifice and an insect.) Moments later, the contraption is seen assembled again in the blurry background.

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 39,264- Metascore: 12- Runtime: 89 min

Adapted from a 1960s television series, this movie version starred Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes as expert spies. During the opening sequence, Fiennes as John Steed places a bakery box on a doctors deskin the very next shot, the box turns a different direction breaking continuity.

Boll Kino Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG

#86. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 42,677- Metascore: 15- Runtime: 127 min

Director Uwe Boll, who has a doctorate in German Literature, spent $60 million on In the Name of the King, which only grossed $6 million. Bolls films, often video game adaptations, are known for their shoddy production technique and incoherent plotting. Set in the middle ages, this one features Burt Reynolds and Ray Liotta alongside Jason Statham. Reynolds performance as a king is particularly hammy as it clashes with typecasting in scenes where he sits atop a horse, costumed in armor.

#85. The Love Guru (2008)

Directed by Marco Schnabel

- IMDb user rating: 3.8- Votes: 48,283- Metascore: 24- Runtime: 87 min

Mike Myerss brownface performance of an Indian guru is one of many insipid attributes in this comedy. The ensemble cast features Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, and Steven Colbert. The bar fight scene is notable for two continuity gaffes. In the first, the guru and his sidekick can be seen moving apart in a long shot. The next cut goes closer on the pair and theyre still close together. In another sequence two birthday girls wallop the guru, one on each sidein subsequent shots, the girls have switched positions.

#84. Extreme Movie (2008)

Directed by Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 10,428- Metascore: null- Runtime: 86 min

This direct-to-video spoof of teen sex comedies boasts ridiculous scenes such as a high school class where a variety of dildos get passed out. In a bit involving a sexual fetish for Abraham Lincoln, a boy takes his time machine back to the day Lincoln was assassinated and they have sex just before the event. The sequence uses silent film style though there were no motion pictures during Lincolns era. However, this point matters little in a film chock-full of preposterous nonsense.

#83. Double Dragon (1994)

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 10,429- Metascore: null- Runtime: 96 min

Robert Patrick plays the villain Koga Shuko in this cheesy action film based on a video game. In an extended fight scene in a decrepit theater, Shuko rips through the same painted backdrop twice. Theres also a bit where a broom handle comes off in a fight, but theres a quick shot of the broom handle back on before the reaction shot of it off. Alyssa Milano also stars.

#82. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

Directed by Wych Kaosayananda

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 18,413- Metascore: 19- Runtime: 91 min

One reviewer called this action film a generic blur of metallic blue and fireball orange. Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas play special agent adversaries. In a sequence when Lius agent burns a bus carrying the Banderas character, the inflamed bus crushes a small car that somehow remains intact. Soon after, Banderas hops on a previously crashed and skidded motorcycle, somehow unscathed and propped up despite having been in the direct path of the burning bus.

#81. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)

Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 22,077- Metascore: 17- Runtime: 96 min

Known for his wooden delivery, actor Chris Klein gives a particularly bad performance in this franchise film based on a video game. Actor Neal McDonough also stars as the evil Bison, who performs with an off-kilter Irish accent that goes in and out.

Directed by Rupert Wainwright

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 33,437- Metascore: 27- Runtime: 100 min

The 1980 thriller used stylized terror in its depiction of a coastal town haunted by ghosts. The 2005 update doesnt deliver the same creepy scares and often comes across as silly when juxtaposing old-timey pirate tragedy with modern-day teens. One such flashback comes when Elizabeth (Maggie Grace) gets knocked unconscious in a car cabin after a crash. Post-flashback, shes inexplicably alone in the center of a road with no clear indication of how she ended up there.

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 36,432- Metascore: 27- Runtime: 99 min

Dennis Quaid plays the leading man in this slow-paced follow-up to the suspenseful original from 1975. In this films climax (when the shark rams through the glass into an underwater control room) the creature has no movement and proceeds two-dimensionally, coming to a complete stop before the glass shatters in what appears to be an illustration. The effect may have been less bumbling when viewed in 3D.

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 37,670- Metascore: 24- Runtime: 83 min

Directed by John Gulager, of Project Greenlight fame, this aspires-to-be-campy entry into the Piranha franchise comes across as banal and dull despite efforts to shock. In a climactic scene when a pitchfork impales an eye, the actor obviously wears a visor-type headpiece pressing against his closed eye.

#77. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Directed by Sidney J. Furie

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 40,074- Metascore: 24- Runtime: 90 min

This was the last film in the franchise to feature Christopher Reeve as the caped hero and it was also considered the worst, boasting bad acting, a tired script, visible harness wires, and Gene Hackmans Lex Luther mispronouncing nuclear. Its such a disaster that Honest Trailers mocked the once-forgotten film in 2013.

#76. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Directed by John R. Leonetti

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 43,467- Metascore: 11- Runtime: 95 min

Early in the film when a missile explodes, the movie uses the low-budget technique of moving the camera up and down to create a sense of shaking ground. This video game movie franchise sequel displays inglorious effects throughoutincluding cheap costumes and second rate sets. In one scene as Sonya (Sandra Hess) fightsMileena (Dana Hee)in the mud pit, Sonja lands on a big boulder at one point that movesunder her weight.

#75. The Wicker Man (2006)

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 61,155- Metascore: 36- Runtime: 102 min

Neil LaButes horror film about a sinister matriarchal culture suffers from, as one review puts it, a comical lack of menace or peril. Even scenery-chewing Nicolas Cage seems to dial it in. In one shot reverse shot sequence, the actors jacket goes from open to buttoned and then back to open as he has a slow-paced conversation with a co-star.

- IMDb user rating: 3.7- Votes: 74,139- Metascore: 9- Runtime: 99 min

Directed by hapless auteur Tommy Wiseau, The Room, reportedly autobiographical, is considered the quintessential good bad movie filled with production errors, bad dialogue, and rampant inanity. The first two love scenes between Wiseau (who also stars) and his leading lady contain what is obviously the same footage. The films badness has a strange allure, and is the basis for James Francos acclaimed The Disaster Artist, that portrays the source material lovingly.

#73. Batman & Robin (1997)

Directed by Joel Schumacher

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Mistakes from the 100 worst movies of all time - KAKE