Ke Huy Quan: ‘Love Hurts’ and ‘The Electric State’
Ke Huy Quan is the nicest man in the world, and nothing will ever change that, but unfortunately, that doesn’t mean he always makes the savviest business decisions.
Ever since his heartwarming Oscar victory back in 2023, the Vietnamese-born star has been incredibly in-demand, but nothing he’s done in that time has been anywhere near as good. Just look at Love Hurts, an action comedy starring Quan as a realtor with a shady past, which had the potential to be really fun, but through tired clichés, abominable writing, and even worse supporting performances, it’s easily one of the worst efforts of the entire year.
Then came The Electric State, Netflix’s attempt to prove how much money they could waste in a single go, making for a mind-bogglingly expensive science fiction adventure with absolutely zero substance. The movie drew in several big names, possibly because they believed in the project, but almost certainly because they were promised a boatload of cash, and Quan was one of them.
He is by no means responsible for the film’s lacklustre sheen, but his name is attached to it nonetheless, and while he doesn’t do too badly in either of these films, even his adorable little face couldn’t prevent them from sucking.
Eva Longoria: ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘The Pickup’ 
You can’t talk about bad movies in 2025 without mentioning the utterly baffling car crash that is Ice Cube’s War of the Worlds.
A screenlife take on the classic sci-fi story, the film is utter garbage, replete with bad acting, bad writing, poorly executed source material, a sickening amount of product placement, with very few (if any) redeeming features to be found in this crime against cinema. It simply had to feature on this list, but since it was Mr Cube’s only release this year, the responsibility falls solely on the shoulders of Eva Longoria.
The former Desperate Housewives star plays a NASA scientist in this abomination, with her other releases this year being Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip, which got very average reviews, and an action comedy called The Pickup. Directed by Tim Story of Fantastic Four fame, the film also stars Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson as two security guards charged with protecting a truck full of cash, and Longoria plays Murphy’s character’s wife in a story that was roundly mocked across the board, making for a very poor year for the Latina icon.
Hannah Waddingham: ‘Smurfs’ and ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’
To be fair to Hannah Waddingham, when you’re in literally every film and TV show, you’re bound to get stuck with some stinkers.
Since her breakout role in Ted Lasso, the golden-voiced Englishwoman has snapped up pretty much every opportunity she’s been offered, which led to her 2025 featuring two very prominent blockbusters in the form of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and the live-action reboot of Lilo & Stitch, and two other films that turned out to be far less lucrative.
First up, we have Smurfs (not The Smurfs), the latest in a long line of cinematic outings for the little blue freaks, a hideous kiddie flick featuring an all-star cast, including Rihanna, John Goodman, Jimmy Kimmel, and our old friend Ms Waddingham. Three months after that cheap, nasty take on a beloved classic was dumped onto screens, Netflix gave the world The Woman in Cabin 10, a Keira Knightley-led mystery set aboard a luxury yacht, which sees Waddingham appear as one of the guests/suspects in this lacklustre Death on the Nile rip-off.
Naturally, critics cared for neither of these releases, ending the year on a sour note for the famously optimistic Briton.
Mark Wahlberg: ‘Flight Risk’, ‘Play Dirty’, and ’The Family Plan 2’
In a world full of uncertainty, in a universe where one day even the brightest star in the sky will burn itself out, you can always rely on one thing: Mark Wahlberg making a crap movie.
The most Boston man to ever Boston starred in not one, not two, but three stinkers across 2025. The first was Flight Risk, a film as ridiculous as Marky Mark’s hairpiece, which finds him playing a pilot transporting a US Marshal and a wanted criminal, only for it to be revealed he’s actually a hitman sent to eliminate a key witness; it’s shockingly bad, even by Wahlberg’s rock-bottom standards.
He followed this up with Play Dirty, a heist thriller that also featured LaKeith Stanfield, whom I really hate to mention in a list like this. It was better than Flight Risk, but in the way that being kicked in the face by a horse is better than being kicked in the face by a brachiosaurus. Wahlberg wrapped up his annus horribilis with The Family Plan 2, an Apple TV+ original’s yuletide take on the first film, which is about a family man revealed to be a former assassin that racked up negative reviews decrying its lazy action sequences, forced emotions, and bland performances.
Robert De Niro: ‘The Alto Knights’ and ‘Tin Soldier’
If you thought that Robert De Niro’s reunion with Martin Scorsese on Killers of the Flower Moon would be the start of a late-stage resurgence for the great actor, then I’m afraid to say you were dead wrong. After taking 2024 off, the double Oscar winner returned with two movies in 2025, both of which went very, very wrong.
First, we have The Alto Knights, a mob drama in which De Niro plays two legendary gangsters for the price of one, but alas, even Bobby-squared couldn’t rescue this uninspired slog from the doldrums of the year’s release schedule.
And if you thought that was bad, try Tin Soldier on for size, a by-the-numbers action shoot-a-thon starring Scott ‘how the hell are you Clint’s son’ Eastwood, all-exploding, no-sense-making travesty that makes The Expendables look like King Lear.
De Niro plays an ageing military man who comes to the aid of the protagonist, but nothing could rescue this film from comfortably being one of the worst of the entire year. It brings me no great joy to put De Niro on a list like this, but if he keeps making bad movies, then he’s only got himself to blame.