15 Most Cringe-Worthy Movies of the Last Couple of Years

15 Most Cringe-Worthy Movies of the Last Couple of Years

2025 was supposed to be the year Hollywood flexed its muscles and reminded everyone why blockbuster season still matters.

Instead, it gifted us a spectacular parade of questionable creative choices, baffling scenes, and “who approved this?” moments that instantly carved themselves into movie-night infamy.

From disastrous climaxes to tonal disasters to adaptations that completely missed what fans loved, the year delivered plenty of cinematic faceplants worth revisiting.

So grab your popcorn, silence your phone, and prepare to relive fifteen moments that left audiences groaning, laughing at the wrong times, or whispering “oh no… absolutely not.”

Let’s take a walk through the most memorably bad movie moments of 2025.

1. War of the Worlds

Nothing prepares you for the bizarre turn this film takes in its final moments.

After an hour of building tension and alien dread, the story suddenly derails into a delivery-service advertisement disguised as a plot device.

A drone swoops in to hand over a flash drive, shattering any illusion of suspense the movie fought so hard to create.

Audiences didn’t gasp because the twist was clever — they gasped because it felt embarrassingly out of place.

The moment instantly became infamous as one of the most tone-deaf sci-fi endings in recent memory.

It’s the cinematic equivalent of leaving a horror movie only to find yourself standing in a shopping mall.

2. The Alto Knights

Gangster dramas typically thrive on tension, atmosphere, and moral complexity.

This film offers glimpses of those ingredients but never blends them into something satisfying.

Conversations that should crackle with menace instead fall strangely flat.

The pacing drags through scenes that fail to build emotional or narrative momentum.

Characters seem trapped in a story with little urgency or purpose.

By the time the final conflict rolls around, the film’s energy has long since dissipated into a slow fade.

3. Hurry Up Tomorrow

Psychological thrillers depend on emotional investment, yet this film struggles to give viewers anything solid to hold onto.

Characters wander through scenes that feel disconnected from their motivations.

The tension rises so slowly that it barely registers at all.

Moments meant to shock instead feel oddly muted.

Every dramatic setup dissolves into anticlimax.

By the end, it’s hard to remember a single scene that carried weight, leaving the entire movie feeling like an empty shell.

4. Love Hurts

Genre-blending can create brilliance, but here it leads to pure chaos.

The film jumps between action, romance, and comedy with little warning.

Emotional moments crash into slapstick humor without transition.

Action sequences feel generic, leaving no lasting impression.

Romantic chemistry flickers inconsistently, never finding authenticity.

The entire experience becomes an uneven ride that never settles long enough to win viewers over.

5. Snow White

Nothing says “fairy-tale magic” like abruptly shifting into a rebellious Robin Hood spinoff halfway through a classic story.

The film’s attempt to modernize the narrative ends up feeling disjointed and oddly hollow.

Audiences found themselves wondering how a poisoned-apple tale suddenly became a liberation movement with no real emotional buildup.

Things get even stranger when the CGI dwarfs appear, each one rendered with an uncanny look that feels closer to lawn ornaments than beloved characters.

Instead of whimsical charm, viewers got a case of the uncanny-valley chills.

By the end, nostalgia had been replaced with confusion, and many fans of the original felt the magic slip right through their fingertips.

6. Until Dawn

Atmosphere should creep, but the film keeps flipping light switches. Choices feel on rails, draining agency that made the game tense. You keep waiting for the butterfly to flap and nothing moves.

Jump scares announce themselves like calendar reminders. Mystery threads tangle into a bland knot with no payoff. It is adaptation by checklist, minus the beating heart.

As scenes drag, you start solving puzzles the script never writes. The lodge setting begs for dread and gets drywall. The cringe comes from watching potential suffocate under safe decisions.

7. Shadow Force

Thrillers rely on momentum, but this movie shoots itself in the foot before it ever picks up speed.

The plot twists feel more confusing than clever, sending viewers into narrative dead ends.

Action sequences lack tension, unfolding with a predictable rhythm that never raises the pulse.

Characters seem strangely detached from the stakes unfolding around them.

Even dramatic confrontations fail to ignite any sparks.

The end result is a film that feels like a thriller assembled from mismatched spare parts.

8. Back in Action

Action-comedies deserve credit when they deliver charm, energy, and quick wit.

Unfortunately, this film struggles to generate any of those qualities.

The humor feels recycled from earlier, better movies.

Action scenes unfold without flair, making even high-stakes sequences feel oddly bland.

Character chemistry never fully ignites, leaving emotional beats without payoff.

By the end, the movie feels like a missed opportunity trapped inside a formula it can’t quite master.

9. Fountain of Youth

A high-concept premise should inspire wonder, but this movie slowly drains its own magic.

Moments intended to feel profound instead come off as vague and undercooked.

The narrative wanders without clear purpose, making major emotional beats feel unearned.

Characters make choices that lack motivation or clarity.

Scenes drift by without anchoring the audience in stakes that feel meaningful.

The finished product resembles an outline that never grew into a full story.

10. Star Trek: Section 31

Federation intrigue should snap like a cold star, but this one drifts. Big lore teases arrive with small payoff, and the moral gray stays beige. You feel the franchise weight pressing down instead of lifting off.

Dialogue promises chess and delivers checkers. Action beats refuse to escalate, looping back into committee talk. It is a covert op where the secret is there is no thrill.

Fans deserved sharper edges and bolder choices. Instead we got a whisper stretched thin across a galaxy. The cringe is disappointment scaled to warp speed.

11. Megalopolis

Ambition practically oozes from every frame of this film, yet the execution stumbles in the most frustrating ways.

Heavy-handed political themes drown the narrative, turning potentially compelling ideas into overcrowded lectures.

Scenes jump between grand spectacle and muddled symbolism without giving viewers time to settle into either.

The visually striking world-building can’t compensate for a plot that feels directionless.

Characters speak in monologues that aspire to profundity but land with awkward thuds.

While the film aimed for visionary brilliance, it instead delivered a dizzyingly scattered experience that left audiences exhausted rather than inspired.

12. Madame Web

Confusion becomes the dominant emotion in this superhero entry long before the credits roll.

The plot feels tangled beyond repair, weighed down by exposition that seems determined to explain everything while clarifying nothing.

Viewers found themselves lost in scenes that seemed stitched together without rhythm or purpose.

The action sequences don’t help, coming across more like early-2000s video-game cutscenes than modern superhero spectacle.

The acting brings no rescue, as emotional moments collapse under stiff deliveries and awkward timing.

By the time the final showdown arrives, most audiences had already checked out mentally, accepting this film as one of the genre’s most unintentionally painful entries.

13. Joker: Folie à Deux

Fans walked into this sequel expecting raw intensity and psychological depth.

What they got instead was a puzzling blend of musical interludes and melodrama that derails the film’s darker themes.

Songs arrive at odd moments, stretching emotional beats far beyond their welcome.

The tension that made the first film unforgettable dissolves into theatrical spectacle that feels strangely hollow.

Characters wander through scenes that seem more concerned with visual flair than meaningful storytelling.

By the end, even loyal fans found themselves questioning how such a promising concept spiraled into stylistic confusion.

14. Reagan

Biopics thrive on emotional honesty, but this one struggles to find its footing from the first moment.

Aging makeup distracts more than it enhances, creating scenes that unintentionally edge into parody.

Performances reach for gravitas but often slip into overwrought territory, leaving viewers unsure how seriously to take the drama.

Dialogue stretches into long, heavy passages that lack subtlety or nuance.

Key historical moments feel theatrical rather than meaningful, robbing the narrative of its intended impact.

By the time the film reaches its final act, the emotional connection has thinned to almost nothing.

15. Borderlands

Fans of the video game walked into this movie hoping for chaotic energy, sharp humor, and wild personalities.

Instead, they were greeted with a surprisingly tame and watered-down version of that world.

The film tries to mimic the game’s style but never commits to the off-the-wall tone that made the franchise iconic.

Every joke seems to miss by a mile, and every character feels like a muted version of their expected counterpart.

Even the action arrives without the adrenaline and swagger fans had imagined.

What should have been a wild ride ends up feeling like a scenic route through mediocrity.