Netflix has the magical ability to take even explicitly awful movies and turn them into the most-watched offering in America for a time, at least based on the reach of its subscription base. That’s precisely what happened with Trigger Warning, the terribly-reviewed Jessica Alba action film that was #1 on the movie Top 10 list for more than week. But no more.
Rather, a new movie has replaced it featuring A-list stars and at least somewhat better reviews. But not good reviews. Definitely not good. That would be A Family Affair starring Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman and Netflix-favorite Joey King. Kidman players her mother, and King is an assistant to her movie star boss, Efron.
Neither of these movies are good, according to all metrics. Trigger Warning has a rather shocking 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, but even worse, a 15% audience score, which rarely happens when something is already that low. People must really hate this movie, and as much as I would love to see a Jessica Alba renaissance, I am not gonna watch this thing with scores that low.
A Family Affair fares a little better, but not by much. It also had a pair of low scores, 44% from critics and again, an even lower 34% from audiences, albeit with not that many reviews in yet. It is not uncommon for these #1 movies to be terrible, but we did have the good fortune recently of Hit Man being #1, a genuinely great 96% comedy starring Glenn Powell, though now that’s down to #9.
The rest of the list is mostly kids movies, which are always popular, Minions, Home, Shrek and Boss Baby. And of course Super Mario Bros. which I do not believe has left this list in like four months.
A new, high-profile licensed film is The Flash, currently at #3, and for some, the movie that was sort of the last dying breath of the DCEU. I wouldn’t say it’s worse than Black Adam or Shazam 2, certainly, but it was about a major Justice League member, featured an awesome Supergirl adaptation and the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman. And it was still very not good, hampered in part by poor CGI in a movie that really, really needed good CGI. The final cameo-filled sequence is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie.
A Family Affair is probably going to stay #1 for a while given its star power. Maybe as more reviews come in, those scores will tick up, but anecdotally my wife quit this movie about 20 minutes in, so I’m not so sure.
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