New Netflix movie earns a scorchingly bad zero on Rotten Tomatoes

It is difficult for a film to be generally hated. Even a till bomb like John Travolta’s infamous 2000 film Battlefield Earth has a positive rating of 3 percent at Rotten Tomatoes. But the new Netflix film The Last Days of American Crime, released on June 5, has managed to land a rare zero rating on the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer as of Tuesday. At CNET sister site Metacritic, it is slightly better and scores 16.

This zero rating means that none of the 24 critics’ ratings at Rotten Tomatoes is positive. It is slightly better for regular viewers and, according to 161 user ratings, reaches 27 percent of the audience.

The plot based on Rick Remender’s graphic novel sounds fascinating. The US government “plans to send a signal that will not allow anyone to knowingly commit illegal acts.” Before the crime is effectively recorded in the history books, a group of criminals is planning a major raid.

But action can only take you so far. Filmmakers also have to implement the idea.

“You are not interested in stories, characters or words, but love violence? You will also be disappointed,” writes Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post.

“It looks like fun on paper. It’s a shame it’s no fun at all,” says John Serba of Decider.

“Poorly written, improperly directed, and possibly the longest film ever made,” writes Brian Tallerico on RogerEbert.com. (The film runs a whopping two hours and 28 minutes.)

Nevertheless, people watch: On Tuesday, Netflix listed the film at number 7 on its “Top 10 in the USA today” list, before the children’s film “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and the popular one Avatar: The last Airbender animation series. And Uproxx reported that The Last Days of American Crime was Netflix’s top film of the weekend.

A viewer wrote about Rotten Tomatoes: “I would give it -15% because I wasted 15 minutes of my life that I never get back.”

And even though it’s not exactly in good company, the zero rating brings The Last Days of American Crime to some kind of society. Other films that deserve a zero on the tomatometer include Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever from 2002, Return to the Blue Lagoon from 1991 and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 from 2004.