As the year draws to a close, film critics are reflecting on the cinematic highs and lows of 2025. While there have been celebrated hits, a dozen films have been singled out as spectacular disasters, earning the dubious honour of being named among the year's worst by The Guardian's reviewers.
Big-Budget Blunders and Franchise Failures
The list of turkeys features several high-profile releases that failed to deliver. Leading the charge is Jared Leto's sci-fi sequel, Tron: Ares, which was dismissed as a 'mind-bendingly dull' experience more akin to a screensaver than a movie, with critics noting it had 'no drama or jeopardy'.
Equally panned was the live-action Snow White remake, starring Rachel Zegler. Labelled a 'pointless' and 'merch-enabling money machine', the film was criticised for its 'carefully curated revisionist tweaks' that felt like obvious attempts to second-guess potential backlash.
Another major letdown was the action film Mission Alarum, featuring Sylvester Stallone. The review suggested the film was so poor it 'shames American cinema itself', particularly noting the irony given Stallone's role as a US special ambassador.
Star-Studded Stinkers
It wasn't just franchise films that disappointed. Several movies boasting A-list talent landed with a thud. George Clooney's film, Jay Kelly, was described as 'dire, sentimental and self-indulgent', with the star himself appearing deeply uncomfortable.
John Travolta led the cast of High Rollers, a casino heist movie derided as a 'cheap-ass knockoff of Ocean's Eleven' that was 'ineptly made and quite frankly dull'. The review brutally stated it made Steven Soderbergh's original classic look like a work by arthouse masters Ingmar Bergman or Andrei Tarkovsky.
In a bizarre comedic misfire, John Malkovich attempted French in Mr Blake at Your Service!, resulting in line-readings so slow and American-accented he was compared to 'Dr Hannibal Lecter having smoked a hundredweight of weed'.
Festival Flops and Seasonal Letdowns
The Cannes Film Festival opening gala was not immune, with the musical Partir un Jour branded a 'squawking overfed turkey'. The film, intended to celebrate heartwarming hometown values, was said to 'flatline like a hedgehog run over by an 18-wheeler' the moment its female lead began to sing.
Even the festive season offered no respite, with the Christmas film Christmas Karma—a new take on A Christmas Carol from director Gurinder Chadha—being labelled 'leaden' and 'about as welcome as a dead rat in the eggnog'.
The full list of the year's 12 worst films, as compiled by The Guardian's critics Peter Bradshaw, Leslie Felperin, and Catherine Bray, also includes the overwrought drama Alpha, the annoying animated adventure Jungle Trouble, the painfully pointless The Boatyard, and the Saturday Night Live-inspired film Saturday Night, which was accused of 'unbearable self-indulgence'.
This collection of critical catastrophes serves as a stark reminder that big names and big budgets are no guarantee of quality, with 2025 providing a rich harvest of cinematic disappointments for reviewers to dissect.
