Sometimes the critics just get it wrong, and a great movie is given a rating it doesn’t deserve.
Rotten Tomatoes may offer an aggregate score based on reviews from critics, but oftentimes that doesn’t really reflect the true quality of a movie.
Art is more than just a simple number, after all.
This March, Watch With Us has taken to Netflix to pick out three of our favorite movies with bad Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Our first choice is the ensemble zombie-comedy movie The Dead Don’t Die starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton.
‘The Dead Don’t Die’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 55 percent
In the small, rural town of Centerville, USA, strange things start happening seemingly out of nowhere. In addition to unusually long hours of daylight and an oppressively large moon hanging in the sky, animals begin behaving in an odd manner and the dead are reanimating from their graves. After Police Chief Cliff Robertson (Murray) and Officer Ronnie Peterson (Driver) respond to a report involving a missing chicken, two corpses kill two employees at a diner, and the cops are suddenly involved in the weirdest night of their lives.
Jim Jarmusch‘s absurdist horror-comedy The Dead Don’t Die polarized audiences and critics at the Cannes Film Festival, and it has continued to divide viewers for its off-kilter, languid atmosphere that shifts between disparate tones with an inelegant lack of ease. Nevertheless, the screenplay is full of deadpan wit and manages to be constantly entertaining. Plus, the ensemble cast is superb, and includes Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Chloë Sevigny and Iggy Pop.
‘Honey Don’t!’ (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 45 percent
Private eye Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) investigates the death of Mia Novotny (Kara Petersen), a woman who had reached out to Honey fearing for her life, and whose dead body has been subsequently found in a wrecked car. Seeing that Mia’s body was actually stabbed first, then placed into the car, Honey investigates further. She discovers that Mia had possessed belongings related to a mysterious religious organization known as the Four-Way Temple, run by the charismatic preacher Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans), who uses his church for nefarious purposes.
Honey Don’t! has been viewed by some critics as too chaotic and empty to be a good film, let alone a decent neo-noir. However, the performances — particularly from Qualley — and the sheer number of goofy gags, slapstick humor and “live-action cartoon” vibes make Honey Don’t! a rollicking good time for those of us who like having one. The terrific supporting cast also includes Charlie Day, Aubrey Plaza and Billy Eichner.
‘The Kissing Booth’ (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 17 percent
Late-blooming teenager Elle (Joey King) enters junior year of high school and finds herself surprised by the amount of attention she’s suddenly getting from her male classmates. Elle agrees to run the kissing booth at her school’s upcoming fundraiser, and a snafu causes her to accidentally kiss her lifelong best friend’s older brother, Noah (Jacob Elordi). Having had a secret crush on Noah for years, Elle finds herself torn between her close friendship with Noah’s younger brother, Lee (Joel Courtney), and her budding romance with Noah.
Maybe this recommendation doesn’t really count for this particular article, but we’re going to include it anyway. You see, The Kissing Booth isn’t a good movie; it’s a really bad movie, and so are the subsequent sequel films, The Kissing Booth 2 and The Kissing Booth 3. But The Kissing Booth movies are so bad that they actually wrap around to being good. They feature an unbelievably bad lead performance from King, a pre-Euphoria Elordi doing his best and a very stupid plot. And you know what? It is so awesome to behold.
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