The 40 Worst Movies of the Last 40 Years

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Cannon building is an interesting subject. How big should the barrel be? What type of muzzle? How large do you make the cascabel? All very good questions.

But canon building is something even more fascinating (not to mention far more relevant) to the readership of ScreenCrush, who are generally much more interested in famous films than the precise shape of trunnions. And while canons are typically discussed in terms of all-time of cinema masterpieces, they cut both ways — the all time masterpieces, and the all-time disasterpieces. Those are the types of movies we’ll be discussing today: The 40 worst movies of the last 40 years.

No one except for Bialystock and Bloom ever set out to make a bad movie, and as such, there is no guaranteed way to make a massive cinematic calamity. Some of the films below were taken away from their directors and recut into incoherence. Others hewed closely to their filmmakers’ original vision; alas, the filmmaker’s vision formula was abjectly horrible to begin with.

Some are unfunny comedies, others are unexciting thrillers. There are animated movies, superhero films, adaptations of classic works of literature, and even a Jerky Boy or two. You just never know how something will turn out until you make it and then people watch it. Sadly, I’ve watched all 40 of these movies. They sure do stink. (And if you do want to read more about cannon building, don’t get your chase girdle in a twist; there’s a quite lot you can learn just from reading the cannon page on Wikipedia.)