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Big-budget movies come with high expectations. Audiences anticipate impressive visuals, immersive sets, and cutting-edge special effects. Yet, many big-budget films, despite their hefty price tags, end up looking surprisingly cheap. Their problems range from poorly rendered CGI to bland set designs and lackluster costumes, or even just a total lack of scenes demanding above-average visuals.
With this in mind, this list considers some of the worst big-budget offenders out there. These films range across genres—from action blockbusters to fantasy epics and even comedies—but they're united by a mismatch between the aesthetics and the money invested. They make for the kinds of jarring or boring viewing experiences one would expect more from the direct-to-video set than the pinnacle of Hollywood.
10 'Red Notice' (2021)
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Image via Netflix "That’s why they call it a confidence game." This action comedy follows FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) as he teams up with art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) to track down a notorious criminal known as The Bishop (Gal Gadot). Despite a reported $200 million budget, the film's globe-trotting heist scenes feel half-baked, with obvious green-screen backdrops and artificial-looking action sequences.
The charismatic leads do a lot of heavy lifting, compensating considerably for the subpar script and lame dialogue. Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot are always watchable but, on paper, the characters are underdeveloped, reduced to quippy caricatures without depth or backstory. This lack of substance undercuts the emotional impact of the numerous twists, double-crosses, and triple-crosses. Indeed, the plot is jam-packed with curveballs, but most of them seem highly inorganic; forced rather than flowing naturally from the story. All told, Red Notice gives the impression of a cast and crew content with mediocrity.
Runtime 118 minutes
Writers Rawson Marshall Thurber
9 'The Munsters' (2022)
Directed by Rob Zombie
Image via The Arthur Company & MCA TV "Welcome to Transylvania, land of the weird and wonderful!" The Munsters franchise revolves around a family of Universal monsters living in the suburbs of modern-day America. Rob Zombie's feature adaptation aimed to bring the beloved sitcom family into a new era with a splash of color and quirky charm. However, the film's production values don't live up to its ambition, with sets that look like sound stages and visuals that feel more suited to a made-for-TV special than a feature film.
Indeed, the garish lighting and overly simplistic props look more like a Halloween party set than a vibrant world of monsters. Basically, The Munsters doesn't look like a movie that cost a rumored $40m (though Zombie has disputed this number). Everything else is similarly over-the-top, and the film leans into corny humor and exaggerated performances that will delight younger viewers but leave everyone else cold. In short, the movie isn't awful, but it falls short of its potential.
Reboot of "The Munsters," that followed a family of monsters who moves from Transylvania to an American suburb.
Runtime 109 Minutes
Writers Rob Zombie
8 'Gemini Man' (2019)
Directed by Ang Lee
Image Via Paramount Pictures "I know every move you’re going to make." Gemini Man stars Will Smith in a dual role, playing both an aging assassin and his younger clone. While the de-aging technology was supposed to be the film's main draw, the CGI ends up looking inconsistent, with certain scenes revealing the limitations of the digital effects. Likewise, the action sequences rely so heavily on CGI that they lack the visceral excitement of real stunts. There are video game cutscenes with more punch.
The movie's high frame rate is also more jarring than immersive. The most disappointing thing of all was that the movie was helmed by the legendary Ang Lee, who has demonstrated his visual brilliance on earlier projects like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life of Pi. For this reason, Gemini Man should have been awesome, but really it's just fairly lame. And that's without even getting started on the script and the shaky cloning science.
Gemini Man
Runtime 117 minutes
Writers David Benioff , Jonathan Hensleigh , Darren Lemke , Andrew Niccol , Stephen J. Rivele , Christopher Wilkinson
7 'Justice League' (2017)
Directed by Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon
"Save one person." The infamous Zack Snyder Justice League features heavyweights like Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, and Jason Momoa as the DC heroes, though the finished product was more controversial than charming. The movie was meant to be a grand convergence of iconic characters, but production issues, including a change of directors, left it feeling decidedly disjointed. Despite its massive budget, the visuals—particularly the CGI—are shockingly unpolished, with Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), the villain, looking like a poorly rendered video game character.
Plus, as with Gemini Man, the use of CGI to obscure or entirely replace authentic stunts and fight choreography drains the sequences of any real excitement. The much-discussed digital removal of Cavill's mustache also stands out as a glaring example of the film's rushed visual effects. Ultimately, the clashing tones and visual inconsistencies leave Justice League looking unfinished, though its defenders would argue that the Snyder cut ameliorates many of these problems.
6 'Green Lantern' (2011)
Directed by Martin Campbell
Image via Warner Bros. "In brightest day, in blackest night...." In yet another case of wasted potential, Green Lantern enlists Ryan Reynolds to play the iconic test-pilot-turned-superhero chosen to join an intergalactic police force. With a hefty budget, the film should have been a visual spectacle, but its CGI-heavy world falls disappointingly flat. They're not terrible but they're not great either. The Green Lantern suit, entirely CGI, appears detached from Reynolds's body, giving it an oddly cartoonish quality. The alien landscapes look similarly flimsy.
Then there's the underwhelming 3D, which comes across as gimmicky; perhaps meant as a distraction from the movie's other problems, like the shaky script and tepid story. Worst of all, the plot seems intended to please everybody, and is thus spread fairly thin and pulled in competing directions. Director Martin Campbell (The Legend of Zorro, Casino Royale) has admitted that the project was a mess. "The film did not work, really," he has said. "Superhero movies are not my cup of tea."
Green Lantern
Reckless test pilot Hal Jordan is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers that inducts him into an intergalactic police force, the Green Lantern Corps.
Runtime 114 minutes
5 'How Do You Know' (2010)
Directed by James L. Brooks
Image via Sony/Columbia Pictures "You have no idea what a horrible week I’ve had." This rom-com revolves around the love triangle of Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a professional athlete, businessman George (Paul Rudd) and baseball star Matty (Owen Wilson). One would assume that such a movie, requiring no elaborate sets or CGI, would have been relatively cheap. Instead, How Do You Know cost a whopping $120m, with much of that going toward the salaries of the A-list cast (Witherspoon alone reportedly earned $15m).
The cinematography does not reflect this mammoth budget. It's fine, but it's nothing special; serviceable and run-of-the-mill, like something out of an indie project. The rest of the movie was not received much more warmly. Most critics panned the humor, writing, and genre clichés, as well as the drawn-out length (it clocks in at about two hours, though much of the runtime is taken up by filler). The stars also seem to do the bare minimum.
How Do You Know
Runtime 116
Writers James L. Brooks
4 'Fantastic Four' (2015)
Directed by Josh Trank
"It’s clobberin’ time!" Yet another stinker of a superhero flick, Josh Trank's failed reboot of Marvel's first family sees Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell stepping into the lead roles, though none of them particularly excited to be there. The problems run deep here, from the haphazard narrative structure and general lack of logic to the boring scenes where the heroes do little more than talk.
The visual presentation is likewise poor for a project of this scope, with uninspired sets and CGI that essentially looks incomplete. Many scenes are set in drab, empty rooms, giving the film an oddly confined, low-stakes feel. Fantastic Four's lack of ambition or artistry renders it inert and forgettable. Unsurprisingly, many Marvel die-hards were highly displeased with it, and its box office performance was relatively weak for the franchise. It makes the earlier Fantastic Four movies seem better in hindsight, which is saying something.
3 'Jack and Jill' (2011)
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Image via Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group "I’m a twin. I’m a normal twin. This is a freak." One of Adam Sandler's very worst projects, Jack and Jill finds the funnyman pulling double duty as Jack, a successful advertising executive, and Jill, his quirky twin sister. Whereas other movies on the list required extensive visual effects and production design, Jack and Jill is basically just people in rooms talking, meaning that its staggering $79m budget is a genuine head-scratcher.
Where did all that money go? It's not like split-screen is a particularly challenging effect to achieve, nor is the makeup elaborate (or, for that matter, effective). There clearly weren't a ton of revisions or rewrites to the script either, which very much has a 'first thing that came to the writer's head vibe'. There's not enough actual humor here to fill an SNL skit. Unsurprisingly, most critics eviscerated Jack and Jill, with the movie sweeping all ten categories at that year's Razzie Awards.
Family guy, Jack Sadelstein, prepares for the annual event he always dreads--the Thanksgiving visit of his fraternal twin sister, the needy, and passive-aggressive Jill, who then refuses to leave.
Runtime 91
Writers Steve Koren , Ben Zook
2 'Cats' (2019)
Directed by Tom Hooper
Image Via Universal Pictures "A cat is not a dog." While several films on this took great source material and ruined it, the notorious Cats movie exists on a plane unto itself when it comes to utterly obliterating beloved IP. The movie took an iconic stage production and awkwardly translated it to the screen, using digital effects to create uncanny valley human-feline hybrids. Many of the characters loom genuinely unsettling, not to mention unfinished.
Despite a budget of at least $80m, the effects look amateurish, leaving viewers distracted by the bizarre visuals instead of immersed in the story. For example, in the initial theatrical release, Judi Dench's character has the wrong number of fingers, among other glaring errors. Consequently, Cats was widely hated on release (including by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who penned the original musical) and failed to recoup its budget. It's one of the more memorable misfires of the last decade.
Cats
A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.
Runtime 110 minutes
1 'Battlefield Earth' (2000)
Directed by Roger Christian
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures "Man is an endangered species." When it comes to expensive movies that look cheap, it's hard to find a more egregious offender than Battlefield Earth, which is widely viewed as one of the worst sci-fi movies ever made. Based on an L. Ron Hubbard story, it takes place in a dystopian future where humanity is enslaved by an alien race known as the Psychlos. John Travolta (for whom this was a passion project) plays their ruthless leader.
The finished product is a smoldering dumpster fire in every conceivable way. It cost at least $44m to make, yet the camerawork looks like it was conjured up by a first-year film student with delusions of grandeur. There are weird, tilted angles, alongside low-grade costumes, cluttered set designs, melodramatic lighting, and laughably bad CGI. The end result is a sci-fi travesty, 2001: A Space Odyssey's dark matter opposite. It's actively unpleasant to watch.
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