
Most widely watched but universally hated movies of all time
Most widely watched but universally hated movies of all time
Still fresh on people's minds, 2017's "The Disaster Artist" tells the story behind the making of "The Room," one of the most famous turkeys of all time. Like Tim Burton's "Ed Wood," James Franco's flick is also a testament to the power of clueless filmmaking itself, and the ridiculous movies that emerge as a result. These are the true rotten tomatoes and Golden Raspberry Award winners, at least some of which have garnered shocking levels of attention or success in spite of—or most often because of—their sheer terribleness.
In honor of bad cinema, Stacker has accumulated a list of the most widely watched but universally hated, movies of all time. For the data, Stacker searched IMDB for movies with over 25,000 user ratings, aggregating and weighting ratings from IMDB and Metacritic to create a proprietary Stacker Score for each film. Using this score, Stacker ranked the top 50 films, counting down from worse to worst. Ties were broken by Metascore and further ties were broken by votes. Without further delay, here are the most widely watched, but universally hated, movies of all time.
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#50. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
- Director: Jan de Bont
- Stacker score: 32.3
- Metascore: 23
- IMDb user rating: 3.9
- Runtime: 121 minutes
The absence of Keanu Reeves was greatly felt in this maligned sequel, which put the action at sea and relied on far too many cliches. Pair that with blatantly bad dialogue and you end up with a movie that should have called it quits as soon as Keanu did.
#49. My Boss's Daughter (2003)
- Director: David Zucker
- Stacker score: 32.3
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 4.7
- Runtime: 86 minutes
From the director of hits like "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun" came this comedy dud. While house sitting for his boss, an awkward employee (Ashton Kutcher) encounters a series of escalating catastrophes. Critic Erin Podolsky called it "a stinker from start to endless finish."
#48. Catwoman (2004)
- Director: Pitof
- Stacker score: 31.8
- Metascore: 27
- IMDb user rating: 3.4
- Runtime: 104 minutes
Halle Berry's star power wasn't enough to save this action flick from the doldrums of bad moviemaking. Thanks to inane dialogue and clunky directing, the naughty comic book character landed on the screen with a dull thud. Berry regrets nothing and certainly not the paycheck.
#47. Piranha 3DD (2012)
- Director: John Gulager
- Stacker score: 31.8
- Metascore: 24
- IMDb user rating: 3.7
- Runtime: 83 minutes
Aiming for guilty pleasure indulgence perhaps, but this campy cash grab can barely keep its story afloat. A follow-up to 2010's "Piranha 3D," it unleashes a horde of deadly piranhas upon unwitting waterpark guests. The title pretty much says it all.
#46. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
- Director: Sidney J. Furie
- Stacker score: 31.8
- Metascore: 24
- IMDb user rating: 3.7
- Runtime: 90 minutes
Middle-aged adults who enjoyed this film as kids are in for quite the disappointment should they choose to revisit it. Loaded with bad special effects, it pits the titular man of steel (Christopher Reeve) against a radioactive nemesis named Nuclear Man. Anyone not wearing Superman underwear has no excuse for sticking around until the end credits.
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#45. Movie 43 (2013)
- Directors: Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken, Bob Odenkirk
- Stacker score: 31.8
- Metascore: 18
- IMDb user rating: 4.3
- Runtime: 94 minutes
This unfunny anthology film was crafted in the spirit of camp classics like "The Kentucky Fried Movie." It was a star-studded affair that duly failed to live up to its ambitions, and thankfully didn't kill any careers. So bad was the movie that critic Richard Roeper famously referred to it as the "Citizen Kane of awful."
#44. Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989)
- Director: Peter Bonerz
- Stacker score: 31.8
- Metascore: 16
- IMDb user rating: 4.5
- Runtime: 84 minutes
The "Police Academy" franchise took a critical licking and kept on ticking throughout the 1980s and beyond. In this particularly bad installment, the world's most inept officers try to stop a growing crime wave. Continuing a trend of diminishing returns, the film performed significantly worse at the box office than its immediate predecessor.
#43. Cats (2019)
- Director: Tom Hooper
- Stacker score: 31.3
- Metascore: 32
- IMDb user rating: 2.8
- Runtime: 110 minutes
Based on an award-winning musical, this epic misfire depicts a humanlike cat tribe and their bizarre annual tradition. Something called "digital fur technology" helped turn the actors into cats and set the stage for a disastrous marketing rollout. The only viewers who weren't disappointed were the ones who went in expecting awfulness...and even they had occasional complaints.
#42. The Last Airbender (2010)
- Director: M. Night Shyamalan
- Stacker score: 31.3
- Metascore: 20
- IMDb user rating: 4.0
- Runtime: 103 minutes
Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" represented a departure for the director, who was best known for thrillers with twist endings. Yet it still fell into many of the same traps as his worst efforts to date. Among the gravest offenses was the fact that, in spite of an intriguing premise and visually enticing trailer, the film was utterly boring.
#41. The Devil Inside (2012)
- Director: William Brent Bell
- Stacker score: 31.3
- Metascore: 18
- IMDb user rating: 4.2
- Runtime: 83 minutes
Horror movies are so commonly cheesy that they often get graded on a curve by both audiences and critics. Not so with "The Devil Inside," which was harshly panned across the board. The mockumentary-style film tells the story of a young woman who undergoes a series of ritualistic exorcisms while looking for her mother.
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#40. Kangaroo Jack (2003)
- Director: David McNally
- Stacker score: 31.3
- Metascore: 16
- IMDb user rating: 4.4
- Runtime: 89 minutes
Mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer is behind some of the biggest box office smashes of all time, but that doesn't make him impervious to the occasional flop. For proof, look no further than "Kangaroo Jack," in which two friends lose $50,000 in mob money to a computer-animated kangaroo. According to star Jerry O'Connell, the original script was much darker...and better.
#39. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Director: Rob Hedden
- Stacker score: 31.3
- Metascore: 14
- IMDb user rating: 4.6
- Runtime: 100 minutes
Masked maniac Jason heads to Manhattan and wreaks poorly-aged havoc in this plodding installment. Shot on a reported budget of $5 million, the film earned just over $14 million at the worldwide box office. And so the tired franchise lived on...
#38. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
- Director: Rick Rosenthal
- Stacker score: 30.7
- Metascore: 19
- IMDb user rating: 4.0
- Runtime: 94 minutes
Franchises tend to lose steam over time, but that hardly explains the outright terribleness of this eighth "Halloween" installment. Here's the pitch: Michael Myers crashes a reality TV show set in his former home. Even a celebrity-studded cast—including scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis—couldn't save this turkey from being dead on arrival.
#37. The Cat in the Hat (2003)
- Director: Bo Welch
- Stacker score: 30.7
- Metascore: 19
- IMDb user rating: 4.0
- Runtime: 82 minutes
Shortly after Ron Howard's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came this obnoxious Dr. Seuss adaptation from Bo Welch. The former was box office gold. The latter was a critical flop with the Golden Raspberry Award to show for it. Lauded primarily for its crude content, over the top performances, and ADD-like pacing, it butchered the story's legacy in more or less every single frame.
#36. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
- Director: Adam Marcus
- Stacker score: 30.7
- Metascore: 17
- IMDb user rating: 4.2
- Runtime: 87 minutes
Jason went to hell and so too did audiences—albeit temporarily—for this mind-numbing entry. Upon his return from the netherworld, the masked killer heads back to Crystal Lake for some good old-fashioned slicing and dicing. It promised to be the "Final Friday" and lived up to that promise for eight whole years.
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#35. Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
- Director: Tom Green
- Stacker score: 30.7
- Metascore: 13
- IMDb user rating: 4.6
- Runtime: 87 minutes
In his full-length feature debut, former MTV icon Tom Green takes his particular brand of shock humor to intolerable extremes. He stars as a struggling cartoonist named Gord Brody, who spreads a vicious rumor about his own father (Rip Torn). While not short on detractors, the movie has gained something of a cult appreciation.
#34. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
- Director: Joe Chappelle
- Stacker score: 30.2
- Metascore: 10
- IMDb user rating: 4.8
- Runtime: 87 minutes
Michael Myers is back and more contrived than ever before in this convoluted mess of a horror flick. On the bright side, it marks an early film performance from actor Paul Rudd. He plays an older version of Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie Strode babysat in the first film.
#33. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)
- Director: Andy Fickman
- Stacker score: 29.7
- Metascore: 13
- IMDb user rating: 4.4
- Runtime: 94 minutes
The original "Paul Blart" was a surprise hit in spite of its questionable quality. Enter "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2," which took the action to Las Vegas and cranked up the awfulness dial. Leave it to Hollywood to ruin an already fairly bad thing.
#32. Jack and Jill (2011)
- Director: Dennis Dugan
- Stacker score: 29.2
- Metascore: 23
- IMDb user rating: 3.3
- Runtime: 91 minutes
No stranger to making terrible movies for lots of money, Adam Sandler delivered his worst one to date. Tackling dual roles, he plays both a middle-of-the-road family man and the man's overbearing sister. Films don't get much more cloying than this one.
#31. Prom Night (2008)
- Director: Nelson McCormick
- Stacker score: 29.2
- Metascore: 17
- IMDb user rating: 3.9
- Runtime: 88 minutes
A PG-13 remake of a (marginally) superior film, 2008's "Prom Night" aimed squarely for the teen market and sacrificed genuine thrills as a result. What could have been the terrifying tale of a teenage girl and her friends being stalked by a sadistic killer on prom night was instead another cliche-ridden piece of drivel churned out by the Hollywood factory.
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#30. The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)
- Director: Tom Six
- Stacker score: 28.6
- Metascore: 17
- IMDb user rating: 3.8
- Runtime: 91 minutes
While not "widely watched" in the traditional sense, this tasteless dreck landed on more eyeballs than it should have. Follow a depraved man as he catches the first "Human Centipede" film and then tries to recreate its events. Director Tom Six proves once again that he has no instinct for anything but revolting torture scenes.
#29. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
- Director: Joe Berlinger
- Stacker score: 28.6
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 4.0
- Runtime: 90 minutes
As an early example of found footage horror, 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" terrified audiences and left a substantial impact on the industry as a whole. Released a year later, "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" was missing everything that made its predecessor so unique. It focuses on a group of tourists who watch the original film and then visit the same mythical woods, only to find rote genre cliches.
#28. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003)
- Director: Troy Miller
- Stacker score: 27.6
- Metascore: 19
- IMDb user rating: 3.4
- Runtime: 85 minutes
Not one to let the absence of two essential actors get in the way, Hollywood churned out this universally despised prequel. It takes viewers back to high school, where young Harry met young Lloyd. If there's anything dumber than dumberer, it's this film.
#27. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)
- Director: Uwe Boll
- Stacker score: 27.6
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 3.8
- Runtime: 127 minutes
Synonymous with bad filmmaking, Uwe Boll has earned himself a reputation as being one of the world's worst directors. You certainly won't find evidence to the contrary when watching this fantasy-based action film. Starring Jason Statham as a man who sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and avenge his son's death, it's too painfully boring to even qualify as camp.
#26. Vampires Suck (2010)
- Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
- Stacker score: 27.1
- Metascore: 18
- IMDb user rating: 3.4
- Runtime: 82 minutes
Spoofing vampire movies might have seemed like a fairly easy task in 2010, but this paltry parody still managed to screw it up. Ripping a plotline straight out of "Twilight," it brought whole new levels of meaning to the word "suck." Expect an endless series of bad sight gags and obvious jokes, all of it delivered to diligently unfunny effect.
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#25. I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
- Director: Chris Sivertson
- Stacker score: 27.1
- Metascore: 16
- IMDb user rating: 3.6
- Runtime: 105 minutes
Lindsay Lohan's life and career were in freefall by the time she starred in this psychological thriller. She plays high school student Aubrey Fleming, who gets kidnapped one night and later returns under mysterious circumstances. Critic Steve Davis described it as "a gruesome whodunit that's missing more than a few brain cells."
#24. Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
- Director: Courtney Solomon
- Stacker score: 26.0
- Metascore: 14
- IMDb user rating: 3.6
- Runtime: 107 minutes
Awash with cheap special effects and bad dialogue, "Dungeons & Dragons" was a massively disappointing adaptation of the popular role playing game. Considering how the game itself requires intelligence, imagination, and talent, one must wonder why the movie was missing all of those things and more. This one was a true bomb that only looks worse with age.
#23. The Avengers (1998)
- Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
- Stacker score: 26.0
- Metascore: 12
- IMDb user rating: 3.8
- Runtime: 89 minutes
No, not that "Avengers." Based on a TV series of the same name, this one pits two British agents (Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes) against a madman with plans for world domination. It managed to offend virtually everyone, meaning fans of the original TV show, critics, and general audiences alike. One reviewer would go on to say that it gave "other cinematic clunkers like 'Ishtar' and 'Howard the Duck' a good name."
#22. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
- Director: John R. Leonetti
- Stacker score: 25
- Metascore: 11
- IMDb user rating: 3.7
- Runtime: 95 minutes
By staying true to its source, 1995's "Mortal Kombat" was among the better video game-to-film adaptations of its time. The sequel, however, was a pure cash grab brimming with bad graphics and redundant action sequences. Extreme fighting never felt so monotonous as it does here, no matter how much cheesy electronic music is involved.
#21. BloodRayne (2005)
- Director: Uwe Boll
- Stacker score: 24.5
- Metascore: 18
- IMDb user rating: 2.9
- Runtime: 95 minutes
Master of schlock Uwe Boll makes another appearance on the list with 2005's "BloodRayne." Adapted from a video game, it tells the story of a vampire who avenges the assault of her mother. In addition to being a painful watch, the film was also a box office disaster. Of course, that wasn't going to stop Boll from making a bunch of a direct-to-video follow-ups.
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#20. Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994)
- Director: Alan Metter
- Stacker score: 24.5
- Metascore: 11
- IMDb user rating: 3.6
- Runtime: 83 minutes
The seventh installment in the "Police Academy" series finds the squad going to Russia to take on the local mob. Its slapstick hijinks were inadequate enough to end the franchise for good. Like a cold Russian winter, "Mission to Moscow" was starkly unfunny.
#19. Scary Movie V (2013)
- Directors: Malcolm D. Lee, David Zucker
- Stacker score: 24
- Metascore: 11
- IMDb user rating: 3.5
- Runtime: 86 minutes
The "Scary Movie" franchise reached an embarrassing nadir with this crude collage of cheap pop culture references. Parodying "Paranormal Activity" and other horror flicks, it conjures neither scares nor laughs. What is scary is that the film earned just under $80 million at the worldwide box office.
#18. The Room (2003)
- Director: Tommy Wiseau
- Stacker score: 24
- Metascore: 9
- IMDb user rating: 3.7
- Runtime: 99 minutes
Tommy Wiseau's famous folly is shrouded in mystery, such as the mystery of how it ever found an audience. The story involves a sex-packed love triangle between three urban dwellers, or something like that. Bankrolled by Wiseau himself, it's reportedly grossed more than $30 million to date.
#17. Bio-Dome (1996)
- Director: Jason Bloom
- Stacker score: 24
- Metascore: 1
- IMDb user rating: 4.5
- Runtime: 88 minutes
Pauly Shore fatigue set in with a vengeance when this half-baked stoner comedy arrived in theaters. Confined to a biodome for an entire year, two clueless friends (Shore and Stephen Baldwin) become environmental heroes. A veritable flop, it won Shore his third Razzie Award.
#16. Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
- Director: Joseph Sargent
- Stacker score: 23.4
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 3.0
- Runtime: 89 minutes
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into a movie theater, 1987's "Jaws: The Revenge" managed to lower the bar. Recipient of the prestigious 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, it strikes an impressive balance between bad acting, writing, and directing. Everything about the movie said "rush job" and our favorite murderous sea creature hasn't reared his head since.
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#15. Rollerball (2002)
- Director: John McTiernan
- Stacker score: 23.4
- Metascore: 14
- IMDb user rating: 3.1
- Runtime: 98 minutes
In a twist of irony, this awful remake feels as though it were made by the very corporate culture skewered by the 1975 original. Set in the ultra-futuristic year of 2005, it follows various players of the world's most dangerous sport. Plagued by reshoots and other production issues, it opened to disappointing box office numbers and went downhill from there.
#14. The Emoji Movie (2017)
- Director: Tony Leondis
- Stacker score: 23.4
- Metascore: 12
- IMDb user rating: 3.3
- Runtime: 86 minutes
As it turns out, movies featuring talking poop emojis don't make for the greatest of films. "The Emoji Movie" learned that the hard way, as evidenced by its ultra-low IMDB score of 3.3. According to actor T.J. Miller, it was the fastest-produced animated film in history. Well, it showed.
#13. Gigli (2003)
- Director: Martin Brest
- Stacker score: 22.4
- Metascore: 18
- IMDb user rating: 2.5
- Runtime: 121 minutes
Sometimes a film is so bad that the public seems to take it personally. So went "Gigli," the 2003 Martin Brest movie starring then-couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. For the media and masses alike, it became open season on the celebrity couple. Lopez would later claim that being eviscerated by the press over the movie prompted her to question whether she belonged in the business at all.
#12. Left Behind (2014)
- Director: Vic Armstrong
- Stacker score: 22.4
- Metascore: 12
- IMDb user rating: 3.1
- Runtime: 110 minutes
Who knew the Rapture could make for such lackluster cinema? Thanks to "Left Behind," we all know now. The 2014 film stars Nicolas Cage as one among many people stuck on earth after millions vanish. Sadly, it was pure amateur hour on all fronts. We'll go ahead and assume this movie just outright doesn't exist in heaven.
#11. Son of the Mask (2005)
- Director: Lawrence Guterman
- Stacker score: 21.9
- Metascore: 20
- IMDb user rating: 2.2
- Runtime: 94 minutes
They say like father, like son, but "Son of the Mask" argues otherwise. The aggressively stupid sequel to 1995's "The Mask" sees Jamie Kennedy trying to fill Jim Carrey's shoes and failing miserably. No cult following in the world can put this box office dud in the black.
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#10. Epic Movie (2007)
- Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
- Stacker score: 21.4
- Metascore: 17
- IMDb user rating: 2.4
- Runtime: 86 minutes
Like all the other parodies from Friedberg and Seltzer, "Epic Movie" earns its terrible reputation one lame joke at a time. It takes on the big franchises of its era and musters nary a laugh. Future historians might one day see this abomination and wonder if our society was suffering from some sort of cultural dementia. Then they'll notice that "Epic Movie" actually made money and have their suspicions confirmed.
#9. Date Movie (2006)
- Directors: Aaron Seltzer, Jason Friedberg
- Stacker score: 20.3
- Metascore: 11
- IMDb user rating: 2.8
- Runtime: 83 minutes
There was once a time when parodies were actually funny. The 2000s was not that time. Take "Date Movie" for instance, which puts romantic comedies in its crosshairs and misses the target by a wide margin. Despite the poor reviews, it still took in nearly $50 million at the domestic box office on an estimated budget of $20 million.
#8. Meet the Spartans (2008)
- Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
- Stacker score: 19.3
- Metascore: 9
- IMDb user rating: 2.8
- Runtime: 87 minutes
Poking fun at movies like "300" along with other sword-and-sandal epics, "Meet the Spartans" is yet one more sterile parody from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. In addition to the obvious homages, it freely tosses in a healthy mix of pop culture references. Naturally, it made money.
#7. House of the Dead (2003)
- Director: Uwe Boll
- Stacker score: 18.2
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 2.0
- Runtime: 90 minutes
Rumor has it if you misbehave in film school, they lock you in a theater and play nothing but Uwe Boll movies. If such a thing is true, that's far scarier than anything you'll find in 2003's "House of the Dead." The movie is supposed to be about zombies—instead it looks like it was made by one.
#6. Disaster Movie (2008)
- Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
- Stacker score: 17.7
- Metascore: 15
- IMDb user rating: 1.9
- Runtime: 87 minutes
The team behind all the other insufferable 2000s parodies finally delivered a film worthy of its name: "Disaster Movie." This shoddy attempt at cinema tries to mock disaster flicks, but mostly ends up mocking itself. An appearance by Kim Kardashian just makes a bad thing that much worse.
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#5. Battlefield Earth (2000)
- Director: Roger Christian
- Stacker score: 17.7
- Metascore: 9
- IMDb user rating: 2.5
- Runtime: 118 minutes
John Travolta didn't do Scientology any favors when he produced and starred in 2000's epic failure, "Battlefield Earth." The movie deals with mankind's enslavement to a futuristic alien race. Ultimately, it was the audience who felt tortured.
#4. Alone in the Dark (2005)
- Director: Uwe Boll
- Stacker score: 17.2
- Metascore: 9
- IMDb user rating: 2.4
- Runtime: 96 minutes
Touted as a modern-day Ed Wood, Uwe Boll served up all the inferior filmmaking, minus the unintentional laughs. While Boll's films might have been labors of love, for viewers and critics they were just straight laborious. "Alone in the Dark" ranks as Boll's worst film, which accordingly puts it among the worst of all time.
#3. Baby Geniuses (1999)
- Director: Bob Clark
- Stacker score: 17.2
- Metascore: 6
- IMDb user rating: 2.7
- Runtime: 97 minutes
Babies might be irresistible in real life, but not so much in this cloying comedy. As two mad scientists (Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd) try to crack the code of "baby talk," viewer patience is likewise put to the test. The film holds a 2% critic score and 24% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and somehow those scores seem high.
#2. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004)
- Director: Bob Clark
- Stacker score: 14.6
- Metascore: 9
- IMDb user rating: 1.9
- Runtime: 88 minutes
Continuing the adventures of super-intelligent babies who communicate to one another using "baby talk," this unnecessary sequel failed in virtually every possible regard. Widely-watched and universally-hated, it has no real cult status to speak of. May we all learn from its many grave mistakes.
#1. The Hottie & the Nottie (2008)
- Director: Tom Putnam
- Stacker score: 13.5
- Metascore: 7
- IMDb user rating: 1.9
- Runtime: 91 minutes
Paris Hilton plays the "hottie" in mention, who only agrees to go out with a guy if he can find someone to date her unattractive friend (the "nottie"). The boldly shallow movie opened to an anemic $27,000 on a $9 million budget. There might be some justice in this world, after all.
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