10 Verified Hot Movies On Rotten Tomatoes That Critics Hated

10 of Rotten Tomatoes' Verified Hot titles were despised by critics despite audiences loving them. On August 21, the review aggregator site introduced the Verified Hot badge, a way to honor movies that earned high audience scores (on what is now dubbed the Popcornmeter) comparable to the Certified Fresh badge earned by movies with high critic scores on the official Tomatometer. To kick things off, they shared a list of more than 200 theatrical movies released between 2019 and August 2024 that qualified for the Verified Hot badge.

Quite a few of the Verified Hot movies were also Certified Fresh by critics. This includes titles as varied as the MCU's 2024 box office hit Deadpool & Wolverine, the 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite, the 2023 meta slasher sequel Scream VI, the 2023 wrestling biopic The Iron Claw, and the 2019 Pedro Almodóvar drama Pain and Glory. However, despite this substantial overlap, there were more than three dozen titles that were officially Verified Fresh despite earning Rotten splats on the Tomatometer, some of which were heavily lambasted across the board by critics.

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10 Uncharted (2022)

Tomatometer Score: 40%

The Uncharted Rotten Tomatoes score features one of the biggest gulfs between critics and audiences. On the Tomatometer, the video game adaptation only earned 40%. While critics generally praised the cast, which includes Spider-Man : Homecoming's Tom Holland in the lead role as a young Nathan Drake and two-time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg as his adventuring companion Victor Sullivan, the movie was deemed to be a pale imitation of titles like the Indiana Jones franchise.

Audiences seemed to find the movie's adventure genre throwbacks much more charming, however, honoring the project with a 90% score, exactly hitting the threshold for the project to earn its Verified Hot status. The movie also generally appealed to fans of the games, breaking through the initial skepticism that many had had about it being a prequel to Nathan Drake's in-game story.

9 The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (2021)

Tomatometer Score: 40%

The Girl Who Believes in Miracles was another movie to receive a thoroughly Rotten 40% score on the Tomatometer. The movie had significantly fewer reviews than many other Verified Hot titles, with just five critics weighing in. However, those who delivered Rotten reviews seemed to agree that it has its heart in the right place with its storytelling, but the execution is lukewarm and tedious.

However, the movie's Popcornmeter showed an even stronger 93%, with many audience reviews calling it heartwarming. This strong score may also be the case because faith-based movies court self-selecting audiences who look to be affirmed in their faith, which is not the goal of most critics when approaching a movie for a review. While The Girl Who Believes in Miracles is one of the lowest-rated, there are quite a few faith-based movies on the Verified Hot list including Jesus Revolution, I Still Believe, and Sound of Freedom.

8 Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)

Tomatometer Score: 39%

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil reviews were overwhelmingly negative, earning the sequel to the live-action Disney movie Maleficent a Tomatometer score of 39%. Critics did not adore the original 2014 movie either, giving that title 54%, but their reviews for the follow-up were even more scathing, calling it a wearisome waste of its cast, which included Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

The movie's 95% Popcornmeter score, an overwhelming improvement on the original Maleficent's 70%, tells an entirely different story, however. A great many reviews specifically point to Angelina Jolie's performance as the iconic Disney villain as being a reason the movie is worth watching, but others explain that their love for the sequel in particular stems from the fact that it leans into its subversive, dark fantasy vision, on top of enjoying its swift pace and the sight of Maleficent squaring off against Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith.

7 A Journal for Jordan (2021)

Tomatometer Score: 39%

The Denzel Washington-directed biographical drama A Journal for Jordan, which starred Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adamsm was another title to which critics turned a cold shoulder, giving it a Tomatometer score of 39%. Ultimately, critics found the story to be trite and treacly, with direction that was too flat to make it into anything particularly kinetic and interesting.

Whether or not a movie is overtly faith-based or simply heartwarming in a secular manner, it seems that audiences may have a certain fearlessness in embracing heartwarming drama in general, even in the face of critics' dismissal. A Journal for Jordan earned a stunning 95% Popcornmeter score, with audience reviews praising it for being an effective and powerful tearjerker. Many pointed to the fact that it is based on a true story as a reason for connecting with the material so strongly.

6 Angel Has Fallen (2019)

Tomatometer Score: 38%

The third and so far final installment of the Has Fallen movies pending the upcoming Night Has Fallen, Angel Has Fallen earned the second-worst Tomatometer score of the bunch with 38%. While critics loathed it less than its predecessor London Has Fallen, which earned 28%, they lambasted the movie for leaning in on the same shopworn action tropes as the rest of the franchise, concluding the trilogy in an anticlimactic fashion.

However, audiences disagreed with critics entirely, giving the movie a Popcornmeter score of 93%, which far exceeds the score of either previous installment. According to user reviews, the reason for this is the fact that it is action-packed, leaning in on the strengths of its ensemble cast, which includes action icon Gerard Butler as well as Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lance Reddick.

5 Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Tomatometer Score: 34%

The literary adaptation Where the Crawdads Sing was not at all well-received by critics when it premiered, earning 34% on the Tomatometer. Critics had plenty of kind words to say for star Daisy Edgar-Jones, who was then fresh off her stint in the popular miniseries Normal People, but they found the movie to be a leaden interpretation of the source material that failed to bring the story from the pages to life in an engaging way.

In spite of those dismal Where the Crawdads Sing reviews, audiences nevertheless gave the movie a 96% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes. Viewers had no such qualms about the movie's qualities as an adaptation, enjoying its vision of the world and characters of the original Delia Owens novel on top of the Edgar-Jones performance, which similarly drew praise from general audiences.

4 Shaft (2019)

Tomatometer Score: 34%

The 2019 legacy sequel Shaft failed to ignite the love of critics, who gave the movie 34% on the Tomatometer. Many reviewers found that the movie had not successfully adapted to the modern era of filmmaking, dusting off old, well-used jokes and action tropes to little effect.

On the other hand, Shaft earned a 94% score on the Popcornmeter. Its strong performance with audiences seems to have much to do with the power of legacy. In addition to seeing one more propulsive story being told in the franchise's universe, many users responded well to the nostalgia value of seeing Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree reprising their original roles onscreen once more. Legacy sequels have made strong showings on the Verified Hot list in general, with titles such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick also making the cut.

3 Nefarious (2023)

​​​​​​​Tomatometer Score: 33%

The 2023 possession horror movie Nefarious failed to capture the hearts of critics, who gave it a dismal 33%. While some found kind words to spare for its direction and its cast, in particular the performances of stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Jordan Belfi, the movie's script was heavily criticized for overplaying its Christian themes with a glaring lack of subtlety, leaning heavily on religion at the expense of character and story.

However, Nefarious was another faith-based movie to become a hit with its core audience, earning a Popcornmeter score of 96%. In addition to simply appealing to the core values of its viewers, it was widely praised for its filmmaking. Audiences saw the same strengths that critics did, which compounded with a lack of trepidation about the storytelling itself to create a much more solid sense of satisfaction.

2 ​​​​​​​Super 30 (2019)

Tomatometer Score: 31%

Super 30 landed one of the worst Tomatometer scores on the entire Verified Hot list at the time of writing with 31%. Critics found the Indian biopic to be scatterbrained and flat, leading it to be an unengaging slog despite there being a certain spark in some of its aesthetic elements. Others found the lead actor, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara star Hrithik Roshan, to be miscast in the role of mathematician Anand Kumar.

However, Super 30 is a movie that appealed to its core audience by delivering a strong message, regardless of its filmmaking elements. The movie earned a 92% Popcornmeter score, seemingly also getting a boost due to the fact that it was based on a true story, with many audience reviews calling out that fact in particular as a reason it had personal resonance.

1 ​​​​​​​Redeeming Love (2022)

Tomatometer Score: 11%

By a substantial margin, the 2022 Christian Western romance movie Redeeming Love is the worst-reviewed title on the list, with a dismal Tomatometer score of 11%, meaning that roughly 1 in 10 critics gave it a positive review. Critics took umbrage with many different facets of the production, from its extensive 134-minute run time to its didactic screenplay to the chemistry between leads Abigail Cowen and Tom Lewis. Multiple reviews also compared the movie's production value to that of community theater.

However, the movie earned an undeniably strong 95% Popcornmeter score, based on a trifecta of appealing elements. As a faith-based movie, it successfully struck its core audience, but it also successfully connected with fans of the Francine Rivers novel from which it is adapted, as well as viewers in search of heartwarming romance in general.