Romance is hard. Making a good romantic movie is even harder. For every When Harry Met Sally or Pride & Prejudice, there are dozens of films that miss the mark so badly they become legend. Some are cynical cash grabs. Some are misguided passion projects. And some are so bafflingly awful they achieve a kind of accidental greatness.
We’ve scoured critic scores, audience ratings, and decades of collective groaning to bring you the 10 worst romantic movies ever made. These aren’t just bad films. These are films that made us question whether love was worth the ticket price.
1. Gigli (2003)
The crime: A mob comedy-romance so toxic it killed a real-life celebrity couple. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez star as a hitman and a lesbian gangster who are forced to work together — and inexplicably fall in love. The dialogue is excruciating, the plot is nonsensical, and the phrase “It’s turkey time” will haunt you forever.
What critics said: “Not merely the worst love story ever made, this is potentially the worst film ever made, bar none”. It holds a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest scores of any major studio release. It swept the Razzie Awards, winning Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.
2. Valentine’s Day (2010)
The crime: An ensemble rom-com with more stars than a galaxy and less chemistry than a middle school dance. Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, and a dozen other A-listers wander through interlocking vignettes that range from tedious to offensive. It’s a movie about love that feels like it was written by an algorithm.
What critics said: “A spectacular waste of time and talent”. The film holds a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for multiple Razzies. It somehow spawned a sequel — New Year’s Eve — which was even worse.
3. The Hottie & the Nottie (2008)
The crime: Paris Hilton stars as Cristabel, a woman so beautiful that men worship her, while her best friend June (Christine Lakin) is so “ugly” that she’s practically invisible. The premise is shallow, the execution is embarrassing, and the message is actively harmful. The film attempts to be a sweet romance about looking past appearances, but it’s too busy mocking the “ugly” friend to notice.
What critics said: One of the lowest-rated films in Rotten Tomatoes history, with a 6% score. It won three Razzies, including Worst Actress for Hilton. The less said about it, the better.
4. Because I Said So (2007)
The crime: Diane Keaton plays an overbearing mother who places a personal ad to find a husband for her youngest daughter (Mandy Moore). The result is a film that critics called “an unfunny, cliché-ridden mess”. It’s 102 minutes of a legendary actress being humiliated by a screenplay that treats women as neurotic stereotypes.
What critics said: Rotten Tomatoes ranked it the worst romantic comedy of all time with a 3% Tomatometer score. Critics said it was “overly reliant on caricatures and lacking any human insight”. The audience score was 65%, suggesting people watched it but probably shouldn’t have.
5. Autumn in New York (2000)
The crime: Richard Gere plays an aging playboy who falls for a beautiful young woman (Winona Ryder). She’s dying. He’s smirky. The film wants you to cry, but you’ll mostly cringe. It’s a Nicholas Sparks-adjacent weepie that mistakes terminal illness for character development.
What critics said: “By the time Gere starts quoting Edna St. Vincent Millay, you’ll wish the whole cast would expire. Quickly”. It holds a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.
6. Message in a Bottle (1999)
The crime: Kevin Costner plays a grieving widower who writes letters to his dead wife and throws them into the ocean. Robin Wright plays a reporter who finds one and tracks him down. It’s based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, which means someone dies, someone cries, and the ocean is involved.
What critics said: “Even the presence of Paul Newman can’t save this melodrama,” one critic wrote. “Yawn… otherwise, barf. From a Nicholas Sparks novel. Double barf”. It holds a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
7. The Vow (2012)
The crime: Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams star as a married couple whose relationship is erased when she suffers amnesia after a car accident. He must win her back from scratch — while fending off her creepy ex-boyfriend. It’s a Nicholas Sparks-style romantic drama (though not actually based on his work) that hits every predictable beat.
What critics said: “Entirely dubious story”. The film holds a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. It made money, which is a tragedy in itself.
8. The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
The crime: Two teenagers with cancer fall in love, travel to Amsterdam, and — spoiler alert — one of them dies. The film adapts John Green’s best-selling novel, but the tonal whiplash between quippy teen banter and terminal illness is jarring. It’s a movie that wants you to feel deeply, but mostly feels manipulative.
What critics said: “Isn’t teenage life tough enough without tossing in a terminal illness? What the hell is wrong with you people?”. It holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, which proves that critics and audiences will forgive a lot if the tears flow freely.
9. Swept Away (2002)
The crime: Guy Ritchie directed his then-wife Madonna in this remake of a 1974 Italian film about a wealthy woman stranded on a desert island with a sailor who abuses her — and then she falls in love with him. It’s a romantic comedy about Stockholm syndrome, and it’s as unpleasant as it sounds.
What critics said: The film holds a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and won five Razzies, including Worst Actress for Madonna and Worst Director for Ritchie. It’s a masterclass in how not to make a romantic comedy.
10. Love on a Leash (2011)
The crime: A woman falls in love with a golden retriever. Not a man who turns into a dog. Not a dog who talks. A literal golden retriever. The film was abandoned on YouTube in 2011 and became a cult curiosity precisely because it’s so bafflingly, inexplicably bad.
What critics said: IndieWire called it “a rom-com so baffling, it’s routinely described as one of the worst films ever made”. It’s the kind of movie you watch to understand how something like this gets made — and you leave with more questions than answers.
The worst romantic
movies fail for different reasons. Some are cynical, some are clueless, and some are just profoundly misguided. But they share one thing in common: they mistake romance for something easy. They assume that if you put two attractive people on screen and play some music, audiences will feel something.
They don’t. Love on screen, as in life, requires chemistry, honesty, and a little bit of magic. These movies have none of it. And that’s why we remember them — not for the love, but for the spectacular failure.
