Ever since ancient civilizations started telling stories, romance was a genre that immediately sprung up and proved to be there to stay. This continued on until the arrival of movies, where grand romantic tales of love, heartbreak, and deep emotion have been among the most popular kinds of films since cinema became a storytelling art form.
Some of the greatest movies of all time are romantic films. However, as it happens, so are some of the worst. A particularly grave mistake for a romance movie to make is to be poorly written,and unfortunately, there are countless examples of such films with terrible screenplays. Whether they’re emotionally manipulative, full of crass humor, or just plain dumb, these scripts prove that not even the most popular genres are safe from bad writers.
10’The Notebook' (2004)
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
The romantic epicThe Notebookstarts off with an elderly man reading to a woman with dementia the story of two young lovers whose romance is threatened by their social class difference.What follows is a decades-spanning melodrama full of tears, yelling, and passionate kissing. This has become one of the most iconic romance movies of the 21st century in the years since its release, but a simple look under the hood reveals something much worse.
Those who like saccharine romances with tons and tons of melodrama shouldn’t have difficulty enjoyingThe Notebook—at least on paper. But the fact that the movie is so manipulative and that the romance at the core of the narrative is so disgustingly toxic certainly doesn’t help things.Ryan GoslingandRachel McAdamsare superb, andNick Cassavetesshows some brief flashes of directing talent, but the script is so fundamentally wrong on every level thatThe Notebookis hard to have a good time with without turning one’s brain off.
The Notebook
9’The Kissing Booth 3' (2021)
Directed by Vince Marcello
Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, Netflix has proved time and time again that, great though their library of original films may be overall, romance is a genre that they don’t precisely excel at. Even then, theirThe Kissing Boothhas become a guilty pleasure for many in its own right, while its first sequel is a not-too-dissimilar silly time.The Kissing Booth 3, however, is just inexcusably terrible. It chronicles the summer before Elle leaves for college, and she has a big decision to make.
While the first two installments were a surprisingly charming kind of bad YA romance movies,The Kissing Booth 3is a disappointment all around, and one ofthe worst movies of the 2020sthus far. There’s an embarrassing narrative stagnation for everything here: Storylines go nowhere,character arcs feel dead in the water, and the drama that fuels the story is barely dramatic at all. The cast does as good a job as they can with the material they’re given, but that’s just the thing: The material isn’t any good.
The Kissing Booth 3
8'365 Days' (2020)
Directed by Barbara Białowąs and Tomasz Mandes
Oh, Netflix. Even without their atrocious365 Daystrilogy, it would be reasonable to call them one of the worst studios making romance films nowadays. But with the existence ofthis terrible Polish “erotic” film franchise, the streaming giant is the current king of bad romance. The first in the series introduces audiences to Massimo, a member of the Sicilian Mafia, and Laura, a sales director. On a trip to Sicily to save their relationship, Massimo kidnaps Laura and gives her a year to fall in love with him.
From the premise alone, one might expect365 Daysto be a terrifying psychological thriller, but it’s not. Instead,thisFifty Shades of Greywannabeis one of the most misogynistic, least steamy erotic dramas in the genre’s history. The directing, acting, and music are terrible enough, but it’s the screenplay that’s the main antagonist here. Everything, from the movie’s depictions of gender and desire, to its characters, to its dialogue, are some of the worst-written in the history of modern cinema.
7’Tall Girl 2' (2022)
Directed by Emily Ting
The firstTall Girlwent viral when it came out due to how dumb it was, so audiences were surprised that its sequel,Tall Girl 2, managed to be even dumber. In it, after becoming popular, Jodi’s communication issues start causing rifts with those around her. Now, she really needs to stand tall. Similar to what happened with theKissing Boothtrilogy, the first one was enjoyable enough, but this sequel just doesn’t reach the heights of its predecessor.
Tall Girlat least offered a ludicrous enough premise to be funny, but by the timeTall Girl 2rolls in, the premise has grown stale. Now,the film feels so packed with predictable clichés that it’s not even fun as background noise. It truly feels likeTall Girl 2’s screenplay is less of an actual script and more of a collage made with cutouts from other bad teen rom-coms of the 2000s and 2010s.
Tall Girl 2
Watch on Netflix
6’Mr. Wrong' (1996)
Directed by Nick Castle
Of course, she’s best known for her TV work, butEllen DeGeneres has also done some movies… Just not always with good results. The worst result is perhapsMr. Wrong, a painfully unfunny rom-com where a lonely single woman finds the seemingly-perfect man to date. Soon enough, though, she starts regretting her decision to date him when his deranged, possessive, Hyde-to-his-Jekyll personality starts emerging.
Although it’s not often talked about today (for good reason),Mr. Wrongis easily one ofthe worst movies of the ’90s, even outside of its genre. Neither DeGeneres norBill Pullmanare at their best here, but they’re all right. What’s not all right is the script. There isn’t a single funny joke in this mean-spirited mess of a movie, which never knows when to quit assailing the audience with its sloppy sense of humor and uninteresting characters.
Watch on Hoopla
5’The Next 365 Days' (2022)
Oh, Netflix. When a studio’s movie is derided as one of the worst-ever examples of its genre,said studio should probably take the hint and not greenlight any sequels—let alone two. But, of course, the streaming giant isn’t too keen on learning from their mistakes. So, they releasedThe Next 365 Days, the third installment of the trilogy, where Massimo and Laura’s relationship hangs by a thread as another man, Nacho, tries to pull them apart.
The Next 365 Daysis, at the very least, slightly not-as-horrible as its predecessor, but that’s as big a compliment as one can give it. It’s one ofthe worst erotic movies ever made, a completely vapid and pointless waste of time so poorly written that it doesn’t even offer any value for ironic hate-watching. It’s not even two hours long and yet it’s more tedious than any 4-hour-long epic, with some of the most boring characters and stories and some of the stupidest dialogue ever put on screen.
4’Gigli' (2003)
Directed by Martin Brest
Jennifer LopezandBen Affleckhad to workreallyhard to get their 2000s acting careers out of the bottomless pit that the absolute travesty that isGiglithrew them into. This crime rom-com is about Larry Gigli, a man assigned by a crime boss to kidnap the brother of a prominent district attorney. A beautiful woman known as Ricki is then sent to stay with him to make sure he doesn’t mess up the job.
The movie’s main problems stem from the screenplay. It’s painfully unfunny, poorly plotted, and terribly tone-deaf.
Saying thatGigliis one ofthe worst comedies of the 2000sis a bit of a silly truism.The performances are bad and the massive $54 million-dollar budget is nowhere to be seen, but the movie’s main problems stem from the screenplay. It’s painfully unfunny, poorly plotted, and terribly tone-deaf, like a dreadful first draft that never got polished and somehow saw the light of day in its most primitive form.
Rent on Apple TV
3’The Hottie & the Nottie' (2008)
Directed by Tom Putnam
Saying that the story ofThe Hottie & the Nottieis outdated isn’t exactly true, because this movie was simply never funny or acceptable in any way. It’s the story of a woman who agrees to go on a date with a man, but only if he can find a suitor for her unattractive best friend. It’s by far one ofthe worst romantic movies ever made, with some of the most unbearably crass gross-out comedy that the 2000s ever saw—and that’s sayinga lot.
The movie’s screenplay finds a way tosomehow be both full of unpleasant surprises and entirely predictable, a repulsive combination that’s just as boring as it sounds. Grossly sexist, absolutely nonsensical, and so unfunny that it’s more reasonable to catalog the film as a horror drama than as a rom-com,The Hottie & the Nottieis what happens when you take a script that was better-suited as toilet paper and decide to make an actual movie out of it.
The Hottie & the Nottie
2'365 Days: This Day' (2022)
Oh, Netflix. How a studio can make365: This Dayand still be considered prestigious is trully a remarkable feat. The second installment in the365 Daystrilogy, as well as arguably the worst one, sees Massimo and Laura back together and stronger than ever. However, Massimo’s family ties and a mysterious man craving Laura’s heart complicate their lives.
According to Letterboxd, this is one ofthe worst movies of the 2020s, and it’s extremely hard to disagree. At least the sequel does away with the first movie’s disturbing portrayal of sex trafficking as romantic, but worry not: It still finds all sorts of ways to bevapid, morally reprehensible, and absolutely horrendous in its portrayal of sex, women, and BDSM. This is also the least steamy and most boring of the three, making it even more of a waste of time than its predecessor and its sequel.
365 Days: This Day
1’The Room' (2003)
Directed by Tommy Wiseau
There are many who call the cult classicThe Roomthe single worst film ever made, and they’re probably right, but anyone who has ever seen even a fraction ofTommy Wiseau’s magnum opus of terribleness will agree that it’s also one of the funniest and most entertaining movies of the 21st century. However, there’s no denying the facts: Nothing aboutThe Room, especially not Wiseau’s script, is any good.
The screenplay ofThe Roomis so stupidly bad that it’s iconic in its own right.This abysmal vanity projecthas some of the most hilariously dumb dialogue ever written, no sense of structure or narrative progression, a bunch of twists and characters that come out of nowhere and add absolutely nothing, and a general lack of understanding of human behavior and speech that simply must be seen to be believed. There’s a reason whyThe Roomis universally considered so legendarily bad.
The Roomis currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.
