50 Worst Movies Based on True Events

This comedy about two brothers who place an ad to find dates for a wedding is loosely based on true events. Reviewing this film for Rogerebert.com, critic Christy Lemire wrote that it “confuses repetitive raunchiness with daring humor [and] hammers us over the head with the same handful of jokes in hopes of beating us into submission.” A 36% score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer suggests that Lemire wasn’t the only one who wasn’t amused.

Australian slasher film “Wolf Creek” takes inspiration from two real life figures — murderer Bradley John Murdoch, who killed a backpacker in the early aughts, and serial killer Ivan Milat, who tortured and killed hitchhikers in the early 1990s. Only 52% of critics and 49% of audiences gave the violent movie a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.

Whether or not the supposed alien abduction at the heart of this movie is true is besides the point as while more than half the audience reviews recorded on Rotten Tomatoes were favorable, the critics nudged the site’s Tomatometer only up as far as 39%.

“Goya’s Ghosts” is based on the story of a model of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya and the Inquisition, although many aspects may be historically inaccurate. Despite a strong cast featuring Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman, the film only managed to accumulate positive reviews from 30% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Flyboys” is a fictionalized take on World War I fighter pilot squadron Lafayette Escadrille. This adventure movie cost an estimated $60 million to produce, but a year after its release it had recorded a worldwide cumulative gross of only just under $18 million. “Why make such a corny and incredibly predictable film?” asked critic Richard Roeper.

“Windtalkers” is based on the Navajo code talkers the Marines used in World War II, although the film has been criticized for straying from this central premise. The movie bombed at the domestic box office, grossing just over $40 million against its $115 million production budget.

This action-horror flick is based on a book by a real-life cop who joins forces with a Catholic priest specializing in exorcisms. The movie made money but failed to impress critics, who panned “the random, far-fetched storytelling” (Time Out) and called it “a routing procedural with unremarkable frights” (Chicago Sun-Times).

“Copying Beethoven” portrays the master composer at the end of his life as he writes his Ninth Symphony. The film also introduces some fictional aspects such as a love interest for Beethoven. Only 28% of critics gave the movie a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics liked this comedy-drama about an agribusiness whistleblower — Rotten Tomatoes praised its “consistently ironic tone” and the “charismatic turn by star Matt Damon,” and it received an 80% score on the Tomatometer. Audiences, however, were considerably less impressed. A mere 44% of them gave it a thumbs up.

The Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring martial arts film “Bloodsport” is based on Frank Dux, who participated in an international fighting tournament that supposedly took place in the Bahamas. Dux has been accused of telling tall tales, however. Regardless, the film is described as cliched and “virtually plotless” in Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus.

Only 28% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked this ironically unimaginative biopic of Steve Jobs, one of the most imaginative innovators in recent history. Critics quoted by the site call it “bland and bloated,” “the equivalent of a feature-length slow clap,” and “a missed opportunity.”

“Not Without My Daughter” is based on Betty Mahmoody’s memoir detailing her and her daughter’s escape from Iran. While 71% of audiences on Rotten Tomatoes liked the movie, only half of critics did.

Cate Blanchett was nominated for an Academy Award for this costume drama about England’s Queen Elizabeth I and her struggles with the Spanish — and the movie won an Oscar for Costume Design. The New York Times, however, found it to be “A kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns and wild energy” and “distorted and deliriously far-fetched” — and its Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes is a mere 34%.

“Hyde Park on Hudson” tells the story of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s relationship with his cousin Margaret “Daisy” Suckley. While the performances of the film’s lead actors were praised, only 37% of critics approved of the overall film as did just 31% of audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics were apparently turned off (to the tune of a 28% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes) by this film version of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s best-selling memoir of the same name because they found the main character so unsympathetic. Rotten Tomatoes quotes critics who call her “a whiny, navel-gazing Harvard student,” a “self-centered brat,” and “a first class a-hole.”

The 2001 Drew Barrymore comedy “Riding in Cars with Boys” is based on the autobiography of writer Beverly Donofrio. Many critics felt that the movie didn’t quite pull off its mix of comedy and darker elements.

This tearjerker about a couple trying to save their children from a rare and deadly genetic condition with the help of a brilliant but short-tempered medical researcher was panned by Roger Ebert as “an ordinary film with ordinary characters in a story too big for it.” A paltry 29% of critics found that it had merit, according to the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.

The 3-D film “47 Ronin” is based on the true Japanese story of a group of samurai who set out for revenge following the wrongful death of their lord. The movie was panned by critics and did terribly at the domestic box office, grossing just over $38 million after costing $175 million to produce.

With a 32% critics score and a 35% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, this comedy thriller about murder and grave-robbing was described as “a macabre British period piece that’s nowhere near as funny as it thinks” by the Boston Globe, which also said, “Rarely has the ratio of quality talent to dismal returns been as high…”

Director Luc Besson and star Milla Jovovich filmed “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” after working on the successful “The Fifth Element” together. The movie was criticized for — among other things — being heavy handed, and it flopped at the box office, grossing $14.3 million domestically against a reported $85 million budget.

“Party Monster” is based on the true story of a New York City club kid who killed his drug-dealing roommate and then bragged about it on TV. This low-budget crime drama (it was reportedly made for about $5 million) tanked at the box office — it took in about $743,000 domestically — and rated 29% among critics, according to the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. Audiences were considerably more generous, though, giving it a 75% score.

“Factory Girl” tells the story of Andy Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick. The film has an abysmal 19% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although some, like Richard Roeper, praised Sienna Miller’s performance as Sedgwick.

Despite the best efforts of skilled scenery-chewers Johnny Depp and John Malkovich, the critics were largely unimpressed with this biographical portrait of John Wilmot, the decadent 17th-century English poet also known as the Earl of Rochester. The Toronto Star denounced it as a “bilious murk” and “a sad picture,” and to Movies.com it was a “Big dull drag of a movie.”

“At First Sight” is based on a case study by neurologist Oliver Sacks in which an adult blind man regains his sight. While the premise is unique, critics such as Roger Ebert took issue with the film’s formulaic studio plot.

It certainly happens that audiences like a movie while critics don’t, but rarely is the gap this great. The audience rating for this grim retelling of the story of real-like English football thug-turned-gangster Carlton Leach may be 83%, but the critics score is a paltry 14%.

Formulaic comedy “The Replacements” is based on the experiences of replacement football players that were hired during the 1987 NFL strike. Only 41% of critics approved of the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The film just broke even at the worldwide box office.

A military thriller set during the Bosnian War, this film managed no more than a 37% score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. The critics consensus was that the plot was “more jingoistic than credible,” and Richard Roeper cut to the chase, calling it “A piece of junk.”

“Taking Woodstock” is a dramatic comedy based on the memoir “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life” by Elliott Tiber and Tom Monte on the origin of the Woodstock music festival. Critics and audiences were generally underwhelmed by the movie, which grossed less than $10 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $30 million.

This is the story of talented and influential rapper Tupac Shakur, from his early days in New York City to his tragically early death. Though more than half the audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were favorable, an astonishingly small 18% of critics found the film had merit.

Ridley Scott’s “1492: Conquest of Paradise” centers on Christopher Columbus, who is played in the film by Gérard Depardieu. The 142-minute epic was a flop with critics, only 33% of whom enjoyed it, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and two women he loved are the focus of this romantic drama. Managing only a 37% critics score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, the movie seems to disappoint reviewers rather than offend them. Though it never completely falls apart, according to a review in the San Francisco Chronicle, “it’s ultimately not the movie it might have been.”

“Savage Grace” — which stars Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne — tells the true story of wealthy married couple Barbara Daly and Brooks Baekeland and their son Tony. Only 38% of both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes liked the film, which is filled with unlikable characters.

According to Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus, “Pearl Harbor tries to be the Titanic of war movies, but it’s just a tedious romance filled with laughably bad dialogue.” Its Tomatometer score is 24%, thanks to opinions like that of the Wall Street Journal, which found this depiction of the event that brought the U.S. into World War II to be “a blockheaded, hollow-hearted industrial enterprise.”

The 2016 comedy is based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery that took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many moviegoers and critics found the film — which has the same director as 2004’s “Napoleon Dynamite” — to be a little too wacky.

An injured quarterback becomes an adviser to gamblers, and no good comes of it in this uneven drama. Empire Online called it “A preposterous, steroidal mess” with “an incoherent script.” Less than half the audience approve of the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, while the Tomatometer score is an even lower 22%.

“Dangerous Minds” is based on a 1992 book by LouAnne Johnson, “My Posse Don’t Do Homework.” A former Marine Corps officer and U.S. Navy journalist, Johnson’s book details her experiences teaching at-risk teens in Belmont, California. A mere 28% of critics gave the movie a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.

An “overly sentimental script and a number of historical inaccuracies” help bring this German effort about the World War I flying ace (and Snoopy nemesis) Baron Manfred von Richthofen down to a 20% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Running With Scissors” is based on writer Augusten Burroughs’ memoir of the same name. While the book was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, the movie was received less warmly, with a 31% positive critics rating.

A 3-D action thriller about a team of cave divers trapped underground by a flash flood, produced by blockbuster-maven James Cameron, didn’t score much better with audiences than it did with critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes. According to DVD Talk, it runs “through every cliché movie line from the last century-plus of cinema.”

“Walking Tall” is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name. Both are based on the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, yet while the original received positive reviews from 75% of critics accounted for on Rotten Tomatoes, the 2004 version only impressed 26%.

“What about this movie is supposed to scare us?” asks Grantland of this derivative horror movie. Even the positive reviews are lukewarm, with Time magazine suggesting that “Quality is often irrelevant in a horror movie; shock is the key” and the Village Voice praising it for “occasionally being scary.”

“Patch Adams,” which stars Robin Williams in the titular role, is based on the life of a real doctor with the same name. While the movie was a financial success — it was the 10th highest grossing film of 1998 — it was liked by only 22% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, who found the movie “syrupy.”

Based on the life of rapper 50 Cent, who stars in the movie, this “distinctly tedious piece of work” (according to Reel Film Reviews) obviously resonated with its audience, but its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score is an abysmal 16%.

Horror film “The Haunting in Connecticut” is based on the alleged experiences of the Snedeker family, who hired “demonologists” to cleanse their haunted New England abode. Novelist Ray Garton first recounted the events in his 1992 book “In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting,” but later admitted that he had fabricated numerous parts.

A strong cast and a notable director couldn’t save this true-life historical crime drama from a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 27% and Tomatometer ranking of 33%. “It suffers,” according to the critics consensus, “from subpar performances, a convoluted story, and the inevitable comparisons to other, more successful films of its genre.”

“Domino” was inspired by the life of Domino Harvey, a former model, bounty hunter, and daughter of actor Laurence Harvey. The movie failed to inspire critics, with only 19% giving it a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.

With a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 19%, this sequel to the original “Haunting in Connecticut” (see No. 7) was very slightly better liked than its predecessor, which only managed a 17% score. It is, however, “Ultimately nothing more than a decrepit vehicle for the moldiest of scary-movie clichés,” according to Time Out.

“Amelia” is based on the life of famed pilot Amelia Earhart, who is portrayed by Hilary Swank in the film. Only 20% of critics and 31% of audiences gave the movie a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. It also failed to gross even one-half of its reported $40 million budget worldwide.

Based on the true story of witchcraft and sexual abuse in 19th-century Tennessee, “An American Haunting” was nominated as Least Scary Horror Movie in the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. It managed no more than a 13% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Crocodile-horror film “Primeval” is based on the Burundi crocodile — rumored to measure up to 20 feet long and to have eaten hundreds of men. The movie is a failure in the eyes of both critics and audiences, receiving 18% and 31% positive reviews from each, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus is that it’s of low quality and “inane political messages.” The movie mixes “Hotel Rwanda” atrocities with an animated crocodile — a losing combination.