15 Critically Mauled Movies (That Aren't Actually That Bad)

4. Pompeii

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27%

Consensus: "This big-budget sword-and-sandal adventure lacks the energy and storytelling heft to amount to more than a guilty pleasure."

Pompeii looked awful. It's the Titanic formula all over again, with a romance happening in the setting of a big disaster, it's by the usually unsuccessful director Paul W.S. Anderson and it generally looked terrible. It's actually not bad at all and is easily the most underrated film of 2014.

This is yet another film which was only aiming to be a fun, low-key B-Movie. It knows that it's a silly bit of trash cinema and delivers scenery-chewing performances, epic action and plenty of silliness with admirable enthusiasm, but it also turns out to be a movie which does make you feel something.

It's immensely likable, the close friendship between Kit Harington's protagonist and a fellow gladiator is genuinely touching and the ending is surprisingly moving. This is exactly how you should do a guilty-pleasure movie and it's one you shouldn't be ashamed to like.

You can't help but feel sorry for Baz Luhrmann and Michael Bay. Their Titanic rip-offs (Australia and Pearl Harbor) got eclipsed by a Paul W.S. Anderson B-Movie.