10 Of The Worst Movies On Netflix Right Now

It wasn't that long ago that access to entertainment media came at a premium. Choices were limited to whatever was airing on live television and what you owned in your personal home movie library. If you wanted to see something new, you had to check the programming schedule and set a reminder, visit a theater, or take an outing to the video store for the latest VHS tapes. So hungry for stories were we that we'd happily drop several dollars a day to rent a movie and watch it at home.

These days, consumers have the opposite problem. We are constantly flooded with wave after wave of movies, all delivered automatically to television screens through the internet tubes. Even if Netflix never added another piece of content to its library, you could probably spend a lifetime watching and never get to the end. That said, not all movies are created equally. Unless you actually have a lifetime to devote to consuming stories, some are better left on the shelf.

Of course, this list isn't meant to yuck anyone's yum. There's a movie for every person and a person for every movie. Still, if you're looking for a quality cinema experience, you might want to avoid these titles on Netflix.

On paper, Netflix's "The Bubble" should have been an instant classic. Written and directed by Judd Apatow, the reigning king of theatrical comedy, it's supported by a star-studded cast including Karen Gillan, Fred Armisen, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann, Kate McKinnon, and Pedro Pascal.

While much of popular culture has entirely ignored the COVID-19 pandemic, "The Bubble" not only acknowledged the existence of the coronavirus and the ensuring string of quarantines we endured, but also made it a central plot point. The story follows a collection of B-list celebrities holed up in a hotel together while they make the latest in a string of hokey science fiction films, where things go terribly wrong. Unfortunately, in an effort to make a comedy about a bad movie, Apatow and co. instead just made a bad movie. 

By the time the credits roll, we end up with a movie about a movie about another movie — which is the perfect example of how the movie gets so navel-gazey that it curls up into itself and dies. "The Bubble" might have been an opportunity for a bunch of funny and talented people to poke fun at a global trauma we all experienced, but the execution just didn't work. In the end, "The Bubble" is left feeling forced and flat.

In the not-so-distant future, humanity is on its way down the proverbial drain unless we can come up with a long-term renewable energy solution. Researchers develop a powerful particle accelerator which could solve our problems, but it might also rip a hole in reality. In an attempt to protect the Earth from the potential side effects of the accelerator, they put it into low orbit with a crew of astronauts on a mission to save our species. 

There were similar concerns with the CERN supercollider before it fired up, with some believing it would open up a black hole and swallow the world. In "The Cloverfield Paradox," those fears are borne out when the accelerator tosses the crew into a parallel reality.

Originally based on a spec script called "God Particle," the movie was eventually folded into the "Cloverfield" mythos under the direction of J.J. Abrams. That was achieved after the fact, by adding scenes and tacking on references to the Cloverfield phenomenon. The result is a movie fighting against itself. There are some sequences which work really well, but the slapdash creative process bleeds through. 

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about "The Cloverfield Paradox" is the ghost of the movie it might have been. Iin an attempt to pull it into an existing mythos, the creators harmed the movie they were making and the existing IP they wanted to round out.

Following the success of the Jim Carrey-starring adaptation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Universal and DreamWorks were keen on keeping the Seuss train chugging along, and "The Cat in the Hat" was the obvious choice.

Based on the 1957 children's book of the same name, "The Cat in the Hat" follows the misadventures of two ordinary children named Conrad and Sally (Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning, respectively), who are left at home with a babysitter while their mother is out of the house. A sequence of increasingly wacky misadventures leaves the house in tatters and the clock is ticking before mom comes home. 

The movie isn't all bad. Production designers largely succeeded in capturing the feel of Seuss' fictional world, and even the cat himself (played by Mike Meyers) looks like a character who might actually exist in that world. It appears, however, that so much focus was put on design that none was left for a good script. The pedigree of the source material, the people involved, and Seuss' trademark aesthetic design should have made "The Cat in the Hat" a slam dunk, but it somehow fails to be either entertaining or funny. Perhaps stretching 20 page children's books into two hour movies is a bad idea.

Listen, we love Keanu Reeves. We want that on front street before anything else is said. But Reeves doesn't always choose the highest caliber projects, and his particular style of acting isn't always right for every role. Such is the problem with "Replicas."

The story follows William Foster (Reeves), a neuroscientist working on a process for transferring human consciousness into synthetic or cloned bodies. The work is slow going and has hit some considerable roadblocks, but Foster gets a burst of motivation when his entire family is killed in a car accident. Foster steals equipment from the lab in a frantic attempt to resurrect his family before it's too late. Of course, things go terribly wrong, and the immortal house of cards Foster has built begins to crumble around him.

The trouble with "Replicas" is that you're never quite sure if Foster is a man on a noble quest to save his family or a madman with a god complex. As a result, you'll find yourself simultaneously rooting for Foster to succeed and regain the life he lost and for someone to kick down the door and put him in handcuffs. Despite an interesting concept and the presence of Reeves, there's just not enough to make "Replicas" worth resurrecting for a rewatch.

"The Silence" was a victim of lackluster execution and poor timing. Based on the novel of the same name, "The Silence" takes place in a post-apocalyptic world under attack. Mysterious flying creatures patrol the skies of the world, hunting down every human they can find using sound.

The story follows one particular family, including their deaf daughter, as they try to survive the end of the world. If all of that sounds familiar, it's because "The Silence" shares a lot in common with "A Quiet Place," which hit theaters a year earlier to plenty of acclaim.

It's not that "The Silence" is a copy of "A Quiet Place." It isn't, but the premises are too similar to avoid comparison. "The Silence" had plenty to work with, but just doesn't capitalize on the premise in a meaningful way and is likely to be forever overshadowed by its more successful counterpart. It's evidence that a cool idea will only get you so far; it's the execution that really matters.