Entertainment
The 10 Worst Romantic Movies in Film History
Though the overall market presence of romantic movies in theaters has somewhat declined over the course of the last couple of decades, one thing is undeniable: This remains one of the most historically important, beloved, and influential genres in the history of cinema, one which has given us several of the greatest motion pictures the big screen has ever seen. For every great romance film, however, there’s at least one other one out there that’s… not quite as good.
At best, a mediocre romantic movie can be completely inoffensive. At worst, though, the bottom of the barrel of what the genre has had to offer throughout history has delivered disasterpieces that are often counted among the worst feature films the world has ever seen. From so-bad-they’re-good classics like The Room to movies that are just plain awful, film history has seen the release of many an embarrassing attempt at a “romantic” movie.
10
‘The Room’ (2003)
People who think that there’s no such thing as an objectively bad movie have most likely never experienced Tommy Wiseau‘s The Room. This is the sort of film that feels like it was made by an alien on his first visit to Earth, a cinematic catastrophe that’s incompetently put-together in each and every single department of filmmaking imaginable. Strictly speaking, it may very well be the worst film ever made, but there’s one thing that makes it one of the most beloved cult classics of the 2000s: It’s oh so much fun.
Indeed, The Room is so hilarious, so quotable, and so iconic that it’s perhaps the best so-bad-it’s-good movie classic of all time. It is, at its core, a “story” (if you can even call it that) about a messy love triangle. Wiseau has such a fundamental misunderstanding of how storytelling itself works, however, that The Room ends up doing all manner of other silly things that make it delectably bizarre.
9
‘Date Movie’ (2006)
-10.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2)
Parody and spoof filmmaking has always been a very valid form of comedy cinema, one which has delivered many a great classic throughout movie history. However, after the tremendous success of Scary Movie in the year 2000, a craze of cheap parody movies blew up and led to one of the most catastrophic things ever to have happened to comedy cinema: the movies of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg.
These shameful attempts at “comedy” (if you can even call it that) assaulted audiences who didn’t know any better throughout the 2000s and well into the early 2010s, and it all began with Date Movie. One of the most universally disliked movies of all time, it’s packed with low-effort gross-out humor, lazy pop-culture references, and cringe-worthy moments that make the entire experience of watching the film something akin to Medieval torture.
8
‘Gigli’ (2003)
Speaking of the most universally disliked movies of all time is a conversation never complete without at least mentioning Martin Brest‘s Gigli, led by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez delivering the most shameful work of their entire careers. It’s far and away one of the worst R-rated comedies of the 2000s, a sad attempt at a “rom-com” (if you can even call it that) crime flick whose every effort to be charming falls flat.
The tonal shifts between Gigli‘s dark mob thriller tropes and ridiculous attempts at lightweight comedy and romance are beyond jarring, which is but one of the many reasons why the film was such a colossal financial failure at the time of its release. Add to that some truly bizarre and cringe-worthy dialogue, zero on-screen chemistry between Affleck and Lopez (despite the fact that they were the biggest celebrity power couple in the world at the time), and several offensive character tropes, and you get one of the least surprising disasterpieces in film history.
7
‘Ben & Arthur’ (2002)
Comedy is such a tough genre to get right that it’s rather unsurprising that several of the worst romantic movies in history are failed attempts at romantic comedies, but that is by no means to say that the romantic drama genre has no atrocious outings. Case in point: Sam Mraovich‘s Ben & Arthur, which he also wrote, produced, and starred in. As far as gay romance “dramas” (if you can even call it that) go, it doesn’t get much more awful than this.
The most common way for a romantic drama to be awful is for it to be unbearably boring. Thankfully, much like The Room, Ben & Arthur is a failed passion project that at least has the decency to be entertainingly awful. Amateurishly made in every technical sense imaginable, full of scenes that are supposed to be dark and serious but are so poorly executed that they’re instead hilarious, and imbued with a sense of unintentional camp that’s hard to resist, it’s a must-see for anyone who loves fun yet atrocious romance movies.
6
‘From Justin to Kelly’ (2003)
American Idol creator Simon Fuller came up with an “idea” (if you can even call it that): Make a musical film to function as a corporate tie-in to capitalize on the massive success of the show’s first season, and then continue making musicals starring each subsequent season’s winner and runner-up. The first of those films, From Justin to Kelly, was such an embarrassing disaster that the mere prospect of continuing with the series was laughed out of existence.
Where can one even begin listing the myriad of reasons why From Justin to Kelly is terrible? For one, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini (who were contractually obligated to star in the film) are awful and virtually devoid of any chemistry. Then, there’s the laughably paper-thin plot, the abysmal lip-syncing and choreography, and the cheap look of the whole thing. Intensely corporate cinema never works out, and From Justin to Kelly is undeniable proof of that.
5
‘The Hottie & the Nottie’ (2008)
From the moment it hit theater screens, The Hottie & the Nottie was almost universally panned as one of the worst films ever made. Almost 20 years after its release, that consensus hasn’t changed. Devised as a commercial star vehicle for Paris Hilton, the movie instead ended up delivering some of the most painfully unappealing gross-out comedy that the world has ever seen.
It’s one thing for a movie to be intentionally gross, but it’s a whole other thing for it to be as crass, juvenile, and disgustingly misogynistic as The Hottie & the Nottie, far and away one of the worst movies of the last 40 years. Mean-spirited, superficial, and ruined by Hilton delivering one of the worst “performances” (if you can even call it that) that the movies saw at any point during the 2000s, it’s a film that should be avoided by the plague by all those who prefer movies that don’t suck.
4
‘365 Days’ (2020)
Over the course of the years during which they’ve been making original films, Netflix have delivered some truly exceptional masterpieces that have gone down in history as some of the best movies of the 21st century. However, they have also made some atrocious disasters, including some of the worst movies of the last six years; and among those films, Barbara Białowąs and Tomasz Mandes‘ 365 Days trilogy reigns supreme as the bottom of the barrel.
The original 365 Days may be the least awful of the three, but that’s like saying that getting kicked in the shin is preferable to getting kicked in the face. It may be true, but it’s still not an experience that anyone in their right minds would like to have. This Polish absurdity is a horrible attempt at an “erotic drama” (if you can even call it that) that’s just about as erotic or romantic as watching paint dry.
3
‘The Next 365 Days’ (2022)
The third and final installment in the 365 Days trilogy achieved a tremendous feat: completing a film series where each installment has the approval of exactly 0% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s hardly surprising. This whole trilogy is nothing but a poorly-made glamorization of kidnapping and Stockholm syndrome, and The Next 365 Days does nothing but add more fluff to that mountain of misogyny that makes up one of the worst film trilogies in history.
Very far from just being thematically problematic, though, The Next 365 Days has a “plot” (if you can even call it that) that you could summarize in its entirety on half a napkin, the most boring love triangle in film history, and attempts at dreamlike surrealism so pathetic that they’re difficult to even laugh at. And the worst part? It’s impossible to imagine someone who would watching this entire trilogy of their own accord, but if they were to do so, they’d run into a cliffhanger ending whose non-finality is as laughable as it is infuriating.
2
‘Titanic II’ (2010)
The world of straight-to-video cinema is one so filled to the brim with awful movies that one could never even attempt to watch all of them; but if someone were to watch only one straight-to-video romance film worthy of being counted among the genre’s worst, it would have to be Shane Van Dyke‘s Titanic II. It’s a disaster drama that’s not actually a sequel to James Cameron‘s Oscar-winning epic, but rather about a replica Titanic that tries to replicate the ship’s maiden voyage in reverse but (oh surprise!) also begins to sink.
“Disaster movie” is a label that applies to Titanic II not only because it’s the genre it tries to belong to. Shot on a shoestring budget in an attempt to capitalize on the success of disaster B-movies like Sharknado, Titanic II is a tastelessly absurd film that, instead of leaning into the camp of its mere premise, tries to play it ridiculously straight. The result is a modern cult “classic” (if you cane even call it that) that doesn’t even have the decency to be funny enough to be a must-see so-bad-it’s-good movie.
1
‘365 Days: This Day’ (2022)
After 365 Days came 365 Days: This Day, and like all sequels should, it completely one-upped its predecessor in virtually every way. The only problem? In this case, that only means that the “film” (if you can even call it that) is even worse. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would watch the first movie in the trilogy and then willingly choose to go into its sequel, but should they do that, they’d be treated to one of the worst dramas the streaming era has thus far seen, and the single worst romance drama in film history.
This is one of those movie trilogies that are awful from start to finish, but the middle installment in the series is on a tier of badness all of its own. It’s an offensively misogynistic, completely pointless cinematic mutation composed of lazy music videos, anti-erotic softcore sex scenes, and virtually no compelling plot points to speak of. From the writing to the direction to pretty much anything and everything else, it’s an affront to film history that should be avoided at all costs.
365 Days: This Day
- Release Date
-
April 26, 2022
- Runtime
-
111 minutes
- Director
-
Barbara Białowąs
- Writers
-
Mojca Tirs
-
Michele Morrone
Massimo Torricelli / Adriano Torricelli
-
Anna-Maria Sieklucka
Laura Torricelli
-
Simone Susinna
Marcelo ‘Nacho’ Matos
-
You must be logged in to post a comment Login