The 15 Worst Movies of 2022

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 17, 2022

The gallery on this page contains the lowest-scoring films released in the United States between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Films are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades given by top professional critics) prior to rounding, and any titles with fewer than 4 reviews are excluded. All scores are from December 16, 2022.

8 of 16 photo by Ben King/Open Road Films

27 Blacklight

(#8) Here's another one of those generic action-thrillers we just talked about, though this one actually features a current movie star (Liam Neeson) rather than a former one (like a Willis or Travolta). It even has a slightly bigger budget ... but that only made Blacklight a bigger box office bomb as it failed to gross even half of its $43 million production budget. Neeson plays Travis Block, a Vietnam veteran turned secret FBI fixer who becomes caught in one of those government conspiracies that are always popping up in this sort of film—and, no, this isn't a particularly clever example of one. Is it the worst movie of Neeson's career? Close, but not quite: Taken 3 actually scored one point lower.

“Much as I have enjoyed the actor’s embrace of scuzzy revenge-thrillers, he may have hit the point of diminishing returns. Put it this way: Blacklight is a movie that Bruce Willis would deem below his standards.” —Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail

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