I think I’m pretty lenient when I rate movies—rarely anything gets below a 4 out of 10. Or maybe that’s because you can usually tell if a movie is going to be below a 4, and you don’t waste your time watching it.
Why am I babbling about my own personal ratings system, you ask? Because I was reminded of what was possibly the worst movie I have EVER seen in the theater. Yes, I said ever. A movie that I actually rated a 1 out of 10. Of all the movies I’ve seen, less than 0.5% have “earned” a 1 out of 10.
The movie I speak of is Autumn in New York.
Released in 2000, this movie must’ve been part of a mother-daughter summer outing before my college break came to an end. And my God was it awful. I can’t even remember who picked it, so I’ll blame it on my Mom. I remember us talking through the whole thing, shocked at just how awful it truly was.
Now I’m not one who’s comfortable with May-December romance cinema to begin with, let alone mother-and-daughter-sharing-the-same-lover stories. The pairing of Richard Gere and Winona Ryder was just atrocious. Granted I do not like Gere, but still…there was no chemistry, it was just repulsive. And their 22-year age difference did not help matters.
We laughed through the sad parts. We gagged through the love 
scenes. Why my Mom and I did not walk out of the movie I do not know. Perhaps it was because I try to always finish a movie, no matter how awful it may be. But to this day we still joke about it, leaving messages for one another like, “Your favorite movie is on TV tonight!” I even told her I was penning a blog entry titled “Worst Movie Seen in Theaters” and she remarked, “Oh, you mean Autumn in New York?”
So Autumn in New York has my vote. What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen in the theater? Or the lowest rating you’ve given a movie in general?
4 comments:
I have never seen Autumn in New York, but that's mostly because I figured that it had to be incredibly implausible. (Is that the right prefix on that word? You know what I mean.)
Worst movie I *ever* saw in a theater....hmmm.
I think my problem with answering this question is that I don't go to the theater very often. I also have Netflix and tend to watch most movies at home. When I'm really interested in something, I'll head to the theater, so the worst movie I've ever seen is different from the worst movie I've seen in a theater.
The one that comes to mind for me is Shallow Hal. I know a lot of people really like that movie, but for me it was a total waste of money. Maybe I'm just one of those people that's overly sensitive to fat jokes, but I didn't find any of them funny. I went in giving the movie a chance and really wanting to like it, but I don't find things like "this girl is so fat she's gonna tip a park bench" to be funny. A lot of the reason I don't like the jokes in it too, is that they're overdone! I felt like the whole movie was cliche. You can't build up how unattractive someone is when they're overweight (and in contrast, how a skinnier version of them is so perfect) and then at the end expect everyone to fall in love with the heavy person because the main character had a late realization. Overall, I thought it was a boring movie full of cliche fat jokes and an unrealistic ending. So, I'm sorry to those who love Shallow Hal, but that's my vote.
Good post. It is definitely an intriguing thought to pick out the worst. Although, like Eileen, I rarely get to go to the movies and those times are usually reserved for what I consider "sure things".
The last truly bad movie I can remember seeing in the theatre was when i was in high school. My friends and I saw Jane Austen's Mafia! starring Jay Mohr. The jokes were incredibly cliche and the movie was just lame. I wanted to walk out but my 'friends' at the time enjoyed it.
Granted my taste in movies has greatly matured since then, but I doubt my interest in the movie would increase were I to watch it today. Bride of Chuckie probably comes in a close second. But at least I saw that at Movies 10 for a dollar. And it gets a reprieve because that is when I first discovered the beautiful Katherine Heigl.
As for Autumn in New York I never saw it. Gere and Ryder do seem to be an odd combination. Since you didn't like May-December romances I wonder if you would also dislike Venus. Now that had a truly eye-opening age difference.
You know I had Venus in my queue before the Oscars, but since I didn't get to see it in time before the awards show I took it out. You're right, I might not be able to handle it!
Jane Austen's Mafia! does sound pretty bad. Shallow Hal was pretty dumb and with not much humor.
Bride of Chuckie I have fond memories of, only because it was one of those movies I watched with a group of friends KNOWING it was going to be horrible, and thus making fun of it. I remember how awful it was when the two dolls are having sex, and the girl asks if Chuckie has "a rubber" and he says "I'm made of rubber!" Plus the doll giving birth scene...
The relationship in Venus definitely bordered on creepy but in a bit of a sweet way. Nothing really happened and in the end it is almost sweet. But if you do watch it just prepare yourself for creepy old-man comments. But O'Toole was fantastic in it.
I almost forgot another stinker I was forced to see in theaters. Again this was at Movies 10. My ex dragged me to see Freddy Vs. Jason. I was never a huge fan of either of those horror series to begin with. It wasn't much of a consolation afterwards when she admitted how horrible it was.
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