Hopefully you didn't waste your time on too many of these
Look, Netflix is great. In fact, at various points (this year especially), their wide variety and quality TV series and movies kept us sane. But as with anything, the streaming service ain't perfect. It has undoubtedly produced some stinkers this year.
Having recently looked at this year's best of Netflix, we now turn to the worst of Netflix 2020.
We've said before that their original movies tend to be hit and miss. And while this year saw some great films like 'Enola Holmes', 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' and Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods' hit the service, there was a lot of rubbish spewed out over the last ten months too.
Documentaries and series proved stronger - though there were a couple of the latter which proved to be a total waste of time.
Without further ado, here's our pick of the worst of Netflix 2020...
Coffee & Kareem
'Coffee & Kareem' takes the often-visited, and incredibly overdone, buddy-cop comedy formula and ensures that fans of the genre have something barely watchable to add to their collection. The storyline follows James Coffee (played by 'The Hangover' and 'The Office US' star Ed Helms), a goofy cop who just started a relatively new relationship with Vanessa ('Hidden Figures' star Taraji P. Henson). Her foul-mouthed son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) has taken it upon himself to plot the pair's break-up.
Cursed
In this latest iteration of the legend of King Arthur, we see events from the perspective of Nimue (played by '13 Reasons Why' star Katherine Langford), who would eventually become the Lady of the Lake. Everything about 'Cursed' feels poorly developed. It's all just very safe and dull and samey. It feels like it's borrowing from a whole lot of other fantasy texts in a hope that there'll be some sort of emotional resonance. In the end, it's 10 hours of utter trite.
The Wrong Missy
Getting mixed up between their names on his phone, Tim (David Spade) accidentally invites a nightmare blind date, Missy (Lauren Lapkus) instead of the woman of his dreams to a work retreat on an island resort. What follows is an predictable, unfunny, utterly repulsive feature with deeply unlikable characters and an over reliance on crass humour. 'The Wrong Missy' may not just be one of the year's worst comedies, but one of Netflix's worst comedies ever.
Hubie Halloween
Adam Sandler plays Hubie in this "comedy" feature, a self-appointed whistleblower and protector to his hometown of Salem. When locals start to disappear on Halloween night, just when an inmate has escaped, Hubie takes it upon himself to investigate the situation. 'Hubie Halloween' is barely a movie. It’s more like watching a bunch of sketches that didn't make it into the final cut of other movies, strewn together. It's not only humourless, heartless and vulgar, it also drags and drags.
Space Force
'Space Force' had such promise with a cast that included Steve Carell, Lisa Kudrow, Ben Schwartz, Jane Lynch, and the sadly departed Fred Willard. Moreover, Carell wrote it with Greg Daniels (known for his work on 'The Office' and 'Parks and Rec'). But it fails to launch. Carell plays a four-star general and decorated pilot with dreams of running the Air Force. Instead he is tasked with leading the newly formed sixth branch of the US Armed Forces: Space Force.
The Kissing Booth 2
The first 'The Kissing Booth' was woeful enough. But viewers at home loved it - it was even the most watched movie on Irish Netflix in 2018. In the follow-up, Elle (Joey King) and Noah (Jacob Elordi) are trying long distance. But a new boy at school named Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) has caught Elle's eye. As stupid, unrealistic, formulaic and sexist as its predecessor, it's also over 2 hours long. There are sooooo many montages and at least 20 minutes of cute couple shots that could have been taken out. Painful viewing.
Spenser Confidential
After Detective Spenser (Mark Wahlberg) assaults a cop, he loses his badge and does time in jail. Five years later, he gets out, and when two Boston police officers are murdered, he teams up his new roommate Hawk (Winston Duke) on the case. 'Spenser Confidential' is so over reliant on the most obvious of cliches that it feels more like a computer wrote the script than a person. The action choreography is crap, the sense of mystery is crap, and the script is crap.
Sergio
The main issue with 'Sergio', while it takes a worthy subject matter, is that it's ultimately very dull. It sees the life and work of United Nations diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, played by Wagner Moura, brought to the screen. Ana de Armas ('Blade Runner 2049', 'Knives Out') and Irish actor Brían F. O'Byrne ('Love/Hate') prove solid supports. But 'Sergio' suffers from an issue it has in common with politics: too much talking. Around an hour in (with about an hour to go), any sense of momentum has grounded to a halt.
Project Power
We've bemoaned the formulaic nature of a number of titles so far. 'Project Power' may feel the most churned out of all. When a new drug which give users superpowers for five minutes, comes to town, the lives of a cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a teenage drug dealer (Dominique Fishback), and a marine (Jamie Foxx) collide. It's basically trying to be a superhero movie without being a superhero movie and is thoroughly silly, overly violent and quite basic.
Fatal Affair
If you surrender yourself to the absolute ridiculousness of 'Fatal Affair', you may find it vaguely enjoyable. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good movie. The 'Fatal Attraction' gender swap (it wasn't advertised as such, but that's basically what it is) sees a married woman, Ellie (Nia Long), consider having an affair with an old friend, David (Omar Epps), but decides to call it off last minute. As Ellie tries to repair her marriage, David proceeds to stalk her and her loved ones. Dun dun duuuuun...