15 Annoying Movies We Just Can’t Seem to Get Away From
Thanks to the way publicity works nowadays, trying to not think about a movie or franchise becomes increasingly impossible. It matters little if you’re often out and about or if you spend most of the day at home, ads for these films are everywhere, even though their quality is up for debate.
Our specific focus is mass produced movies with big names, yet seemingly small scripts, since nothing of value is earned when you give in and watch them. Be them eternal franchises or direct-to-streaming, we’ve gathered the ones that seemed inescapable from the last few years.
Fast X
Fast X arrived as the tenth main Fast & Furious film, complete with returning stars, globe-spanning action, and another cliffhanger. Universal has already announced Fast Forever for 2028, meaning even this supposedly final stretch still has another sequel coming.
Scary Movie
The sixth Scary Movie arrived in 2026, bringing Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, and Regina Hall back after thirteen years away. It is another reminder that Hollywood’s parody machine apparently refuses to stay buried.
Jurassic World Rebirth
Jurassic World Rebirth restarted the dinosaur franchise with a new cast led by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey. Released just three years after Dominion, it proved Hollywood was not finished extracting life from Jurassic Park.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was marketed as the franchise’s concluding chapter, but “final” feels increasingly flexible. After decades of sequels and escalating stunts, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt still seems determined to accept one more impossible mission.
Expendables 4
The Expendables 4 arrived nearly a decade after its predecessor, yet revived a franchise built around assembling aging action stars. Despite lukewarm reviews and modest box-office results, the series demonstrated Hollywood’s enduring faith in nostalgia, explosions, and enormous casts.
Venom: The Last Dance
Venom: The Last Dance was billed as the final chapter of Tom Hardy’s symbiote trilogy, arriving after two previous films that established the character as an unlikely blockbuster. Somehow, even the finale kept the door open for more.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire continued a franchise that has survived multiple generations, reboots, and decades of nostalgia. The 2024 sequel expanded the Spengler family story while bringing back legacy characters, proving the proton packs are apparently never staying in storage.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrived after years of superhero saturation and became another reminder that comic-book franchises rarely know when to quit. Jason Momoa returned as Arthur Curry for a second solo adventure despite a changing DC universe.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Bad Boys: Ride or Die brought Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back for their fourth buddy-cop adventure, thirty years after the original. Even after a long gap between installments, Hollywood still found another excuse for Miami, mayhem, and explosions.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrived fifteen years after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, asking audiences to believe Harrison Ford could outrun everything. It was officially the fifth and final film, yet the franchise remains hard to leave.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F brought Eddie Murphy back as Axel Foley forty years after the original and nearly thirty years after its predecessor. Netflix turned the revival into another example of a beloved eighties property refusing to stay.
The Electric State
The Electric State became Netflix’s most expensive original movie, reportedly costing around $320 million, despite arriving on the streamer. Its 14% Rotten Tomatoes score made the enormous investment particularly difficult to ignore, especially for viewers wondering where that money went.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver followed Zack Snyder’s first Netflix space opera just four months later. With a 16% Rotten Tomatoes score, it became the second chapter of a franchise that felt exhausting before it had properly begun.
Atlas
Atlas gave Netflix another enormous science-fiction spectacle, starring Jennifer Lopez alongside Sterling K. Brown and Simu Liu. Its 17% Rotten Tomatoes score made the expensive-looking AI adventure another streamer blockbuster that seemed better suited to headlines than movie theaters.
Heart of Stone
Heart of Stone attempted to launch a new spy franchise with Gal Gadot as an agent working for a secret organization. Netflix released it as a streaming event, but its 31% Rotten Tomatoes score suggested audiences had seen this before.