The 6 Worst Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies, Ranked
Arnold Schwarzenegger made several movies during the heyday of his acting career that made him a Hollywood legend. True Lies, Kindergarten Cop, and the first two Terminator rank among the essential Schwarzenegger movies. Still, the former Mr. Universe has made a few clunkers during his nearly four decades as a headliner. These are the six worst Schwarzenegger movies, ranked from somewhat watchable to unfathomably bad.
A quick note: We based our list on Rotten Tomatoes ratings. We only included feature films Schwarzenegger acted in after he established himself (so no Hercules in New York or The Villain), and we didn’t include documentaries or movies he produced.
6. ‘Iron Mask’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 22% fresh
Pairing two 1990s action movie stars — Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan — in something of a period piece set in the 1700s probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Still, the execution led to this being one of the worst Schwarzenegger movies.
Seeing Chan vs. Schwarzenegger appealed to some critics, but phrases such as “mess,” “convoluted,” “compounding inertia,” and “anemic” cropped up among some of Rotten Tomatoes’ professional critics.
5. ‘Red Sonja’ (1985)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 21% fresh
Schwarzenegger starred in two Conan movies in the early 1980s, which helped establish him as an action movie star. Red Sonja sits adjacent to those movies, but Schwarzenegger plays Kalidor instead of Conan since producers did not have the rights to the name, per IMDb trivia.
What was supposed to be a cameo appearance alongside Brigitte Nielsen turned into a full-fledged role. Filmmakers kept Schwarzenegger on set far longer than promised and used multiple cameras during each shot to capture extra footage of him.
Schwarzenegger’s rising fame wasn’t enough to save the film. Despite a handful of favorable reviews, critics and fans both panned what was ostensibly the third Conan movie, and an inferior one at that.
4. ‘Jingle All the Way’ (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 20% fresh
Schwarzenegger had established himself as a capable comic actor with Twins and Kindergarten Cop. His attempt at a holiday comedy didn’t work out as well as his previous comedic movies.
Its Rotten Tomatoes score has improved slightly since Showbiz Cheat Sheet ranked it one of the worst holiday movies ever, but that’s not saying much. Jingle All the Way is light on plot and substance and plays up the materialism of the holiday season, which doesn’t necessarily add up to a cheerful film. So not only is it a lackluster holiday tale, it’s one of the worst Schwarzenegger movies tainting his resumé.
3. ‘Collateral Damage’ (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 19% fresh
Collateral Damage had the makings of a solid action movie. The Fugitive director Andrew Davis helmed it, and it includes a strong cast that includes Elias Koteas, Cliff Curtis, John Turturro, and John Leguizamo. The movie fell pretty far short of all theirs and Schwarzenegger’s high-water marks, though.
The tale of a man (Schwarzenegger) single-handedly tracking down and exacting vengeance on the mysterious terrorist bomber who killed his wife and son was a tough watch just months after the events of 9/11. Some critics enjoyed it, but by and large, they termed it “average,” “routine,” and “predictable.”
2. ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 12% fresh
The story goes that Michael Keaton, the first modern big-screen Batman, forgot George Clooney also donned the cowl and cape. Schwarzenegger and the other stars might wish they could forget Batman & Robin, too.
The 1997 outing seems unlikely to shake its standing as the worst Batman movie ever. Even Schwarzenegger’s broad shoulders couldn’t carry the weight of a mind-boggling script, cheesy visuals, and inconsistent tone. The Christopher Nolan trilogy successfully resurrected the character a few years later, but Batman & Robin is the worst caped crusader film and one of the worst Schwarzenegger movies, period.
1. ‘End of Days’ (1999)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 11% fresh
Twenty-three years after End of Days hit theaters, Schwarzenegger’s co-star told the story of how he deliberately farted on her face during the shoot. That revelation might be the most interesting part of the movie.
End of Days stars Schwarzenegger as the only person standing in the way of Satan impregnating an innocent woman to give birth to the antichrist. The movie never commits to being either a full-on horror thriller or an action film. There’s a chance End of Days could have avoided its dismal Rotten Tomatoes score with a better lead actor, but we’ll never know.
The Rotten Tomatoes’ critics called it overblown, formulaic, and poorly acted, and End of Days stands as the worst movie of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career.
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