The 15 worst original movies Netflix released in 2024, according to critics
Netflix
- Netflix released dozens of original movies last year, both good and bad.
- While some Netflix originals may be getting Oscar buzz, not all of them can be great.
- "Mother of the Bride," "Rebel Moon," and "Uglies" are some of the streamer's worst 2024 releases.
Since Netflix released its first original film 10 years ago, it's become a giant studio, releasing hundreds of films that have been shown in millions of homes worldwide and generating billions of dollars in revenue.
But even though the streaming service is, by all accounts, a success, that doesn't mean it only releases films that are loved by critics. In fact, these movies were almost universally panned by critics when they were released in 2024.
We used Rotten Tomatoes to determine the worst original movies released by Netflix last year. Here were the 15 lowest-ranked films.
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"The Union," released in August, stars Mark Wahlberg as Mike McKenna, a regular guy working in construction who is recruited into a secret organization known as The Union by his ex-high school sweetheart Roxanne, played by Halle Berry.
"'The Union' defies logic to such an extent that no amount of suspension of disbelief could ever justify it," wrote Newsday's Robert Levin.
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In June, Nicole Kidman began her summer of Netflix domination with "A Family Affair," in which she stars as a widowed mother who begins a secret relationship with mega-movie star Chris Cole, played by Zac Efron. The only catch? Her daughter Zara (Joey King) is Chris' assistant whom he constantly takes advantage of.
"This fantasy where everyone gets what they want is made awkward and uncomfortable by the lack of chemistry between its stars," wrote Emily Zemler for the Observer.
Chuck Zlotnick/Netflix
"Our Little Secret" is one of this year's holiday offerings released by Netflix. In this one, Lindsay Lohan plays Avery, and Ian Harding plays Logan, two exes who are thrown back together after 10 years when they realize their respective significant others are siblings. When Avery convinces Logan to pretend they've never met, things get messy.
"A typically formulaic seasonal sugar rush that's only blandly mediocre, rather than so-bad-it's-good. But Lindsay Lohan's romcom-dominance cannot be denied," wrote Empire's John Nugent.
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You might remember "The Deliverance," which was released in August, when a few clips of Glenn Close's performance went viral online.
"The Deliverance," directed by Lee Daniels, stars Andra Day as Ebony, a woman struggling to balance taking care of her sick mother, Alberta (Close), and keeping her drinking in check to keep custody of her three kids. Add in some demonic possession, and you've got a movie that critics didn't love.
"With every over-the-top line of dialogue and tone-deaf gamble, 'The Deliverance' inches closer to becoming a parody of itself," wrote Jacob Oller for the AV Club.
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"Mary" is a biblical epic that tells the story of Mary (Jesus' mother) from the time of her own miraculous birth all the way through the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. It was released in December and stars Noa Cohen as Mary, Ido Tako as Joseph, and none other than Anthony Hopkins as King Herod.
"What we get here is no more real than a Hallmark card, except that it's a different kind of Hallmark card, one in which Mary has to jump off a roof to escape a burning building and Joseph gets into sword fights," wrote The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle.
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"Lift," released in January, stars Kevin Hart as Cyrus, a mastermind thief who is forced to team up with his ex Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an Interpol agent, to plan a giant heist on a plane while it's in the air to clear his name.
"The one saving grace of the many shenanigans in 'Lift' is that everything is so confusing that we don't get the chance to realize how punishingly implausible it all is," wrote Bilge Ebiri for Vulture.
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The August release "Incoming" is a simple story of a group of friends who are beginning their freshman year of high school, and attend their very first high school party … and a lot goes down, both good and bad.
"Some of the things people do in the cheerfully gross movie range from morally questionable to flat-out criminal," wrote Richard Roeper for the Chicago Sun-Times.
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In October's "Time Cut," "Outer Banks" star Madison Bailey plays Lucy, a teenager whose older sister Summer (Antonia Gentry) was brutally murdered by a serial killer known as the Sweetly Slasher 21 years prior, in 2003.
Lucy accidentally discovers a time machine that sends her back to 2003, just two days before Summer — whom she never met — is murdered. Lucy decides to try to change her fate by identifying the Slasher and stopping him before it's too late.
"The time travel stuff is mined for funny jokes for a few minutes and then the film shows zero interest in all the worms it's uncanned. It's a whole lot of 'what ifs' and not a lot of 'then whats,'" wrote The Wrap's William Bibbiani.
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"Trigger Warning" was star Jessica Alba's first film in five years — unfortunately, the movie, released in June, did not live up to the hype. In it, she plays a Special Forces agent who is forced to return home when her father dies under mysterious circumstances. When she discovers how organized crime has taken over her town, she decides to intervene.
"At some point along the way, the powers that be appear to have decided that 'Trigger Warning' didn't have to be good, it just had to be something that people might succumb to on a Friday night when they don't have the energy to seek out something better," wrote David Ehrlich for IndieWire.
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In April, the sequel to 2017's "Woody Woodpecker" dropped on Netflix. This time, Woody (an animated woodpecker voiced by Eric Bauza) goes to Camp Woo Hoo and meets new friends (all humans), but predictably causes a little trip too.
Charles Solomon of NPR called the film "excruciating."
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"Atlas," which was released in May, has an all-star cast of Jennifer Lopez, Sterling K. Brown, and Simu Liu, but that didn't stop critics from tearing it apart.
"Atlas" takes place in a dystopian future where humans and AI have been fighting for years. Lopez plays Atlas, our hero who is dedicated to stopping the AI terrorist Harland (Liu), with whom she has a personal relationship.
"J. Lo may be fighting for the very existence of the human race, but there's nothing at stake between you and the screen," wrote Slate's Sam Adams.
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"Mea Culpa," released in February, was directed by Tyler Perry and stars Kelly Rowland as Mea Harper, a defense attorney who takes on the defense of Zyair Mallory (Trevante Rhodes), who was charged with murdering his girlfriend. Making things more complicated? Mea's brother-in-law Ray (Nick Sagar) is prosecuting the case.
"While it might start out as an erotic thriller, it slows down to a damp relationship drama before meandering its way to a climax hinged on head-scratching twists that make little to zero sense," wrote Benjamin Lee for The Guardian.
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Based on the beloved YA series of the same name, "Uglies" stars Joey King as Tally, a 15-year-old girl living in a society in which everyone, on their 16th birthdays, undergoes surgery to make them "pretty." But while everyone seems more than happy to let things continue as they are, Tally discovers that there are dark secrets about her life, her family, and her friends. It was released in September.
"Despite a committed young cast, director McG's unexciting franchise-starter doesn't say anything all that meaningful about inner beauty and warped beauty standards," wrote Variety's Tomris Laffly.
Clay Enos / Netflix
"Scargiver," released in April, picks up where the first installment leaves off, with Kora (Sofia Boutella), rallying rebels from across the universe to go up against the tyrannical Imperium.
"Turn away from your screens. Go for a walk. Start your own wheat-threshing collective. Anything but suffer through this," wrote David Fear for Rolling Stone.
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Netflix's worst movie of 2024, according to critics, was released in May and stars Brooke Shields, Miranda Cosgrove, Benjamin Bratt, Sean Teale, and Chad Michael Murray.
In the film, social-media influencer Emma (Cosgrove) shocks her mother, Lana (Shields), by announcing she's getting married in Thailand to RJ (Teale), a man Lana has never even heard of, let alone met. When Lana makes her way to the nuptials, she discovers that RJ's father is Will (Bratt), a man who shattered her heart in college and hasn't seen since.
"I won't go so far as to say that 'Mother of the Bride' feels like an AI creation but it does feel at least a little stitched together from pieces of other romantic comedies of varying quality," wrote Lindsey Behr for the Associated Press.