Film critics at The Guardian have compiled their definitive list of the year's biggest cinematic calamities, highlighting a dozen films deemed so dire they warrant only one star. While 2025 delivered its share of cinematic triumphs, it also produced a bumper crop of what the reviewers have labelled 'overfed turkeys' – films ranging from bloated franchise entries to charmless knock-offs and painfully self-indulgent dramas.
Blockbuster Busts and Franchise Failures
The list takes aim at several high-profile releases. Jared Leto stars in the sci-fi sequel Tron: Ares, which critic Peter Bradshaw dismissed as a 'mind-bendingly dull' experience with no drama or human interest, comparing the franchise's relevance to an 'in-car CD player'. The live-action Snow White, featuring Rachel Zegler, was criticised as a 'pointless' and 'merch-enabling money machine' filled with 'agonising and backlash-second-guessing' revisionist tweaks.
In the action genre, Sylvester Stallone's Mission Alarum was singled out for being 'so bad it shames American cinema itself'. Meanwhile, John Travolta's casino heist film High Rollers was described as a 'cheap-ass knockoff of Ocean’s Eleven' and a 'heart-slowing work of staggering stupidity'.
A-List Actors in Critical Crosshairs
The review round-up spares no A-lister. George Clooney was panned for his role in Jay Kelly, with Bradshaw noting he had 'the look of a man who has found strychnine in his Nespresso pod'. John Malkovich faced criticism for his performance in the French-language Mr Blake at Your Service!, where his 'laboriously slow and unmistakably American accent' was compared to 'Dr Hannibal Lecter having smoked a hundredweight of weed'.
The Cannes Film Festival's opening gala film, Partir un Jour, was labelled a 'squawking overfed turkey', a 'listless and supercilious musical' that allegedly 'flatlines like a hedgehog run over by an 18-wheeler'.
Comedy Misfires and Seasonal Letdowns
Even comedy and festive films failed to escape the critics' wrath. Saturday Night, Jason Reitman's film about the legendary US TV show Saturday Night Live, was accused of 'unbearable self-indulgence and self-adoration'. The jungle animation Jungle Trouble was described as a 'cruddy Frankenstein’s monster' sewn together from 'the corpses of other shoddy animations'.
Gurinder Chadha's Christmas film, Christmas Karma, a new riff on A Christmas Carol, was called 'leaden' and 'about as welcome as a dead rat in the eggnog'. Other notable inclusions were the 'madly, bafflingly overwrought' drama Alpha and the 'dispiriting' and 'pointless' British film The Boatyard.
The consensus from The Guardian's critics is clear: for every cinematic success in 2025, there was a high-profile, star-studded disaster waiting in the wings, proving that big budgets and famous names are no guarantee of quality.
