10 Worst War Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked

If only every war film in the 21st century was a cinematic masterpiece. But alas, they were not. Despite being one of history’s most iconic and revered filmmaking styles, the war genre, especially in the modern century, didn’t always produce high-quality, thrilling films. While the last few decades have seen many incredible achievements, like Inglourious Basterds, The Pianist, 1917, and Hacksaw Ridge, these were also marked by notorious blunders that stood out in spectacular bad ways.

Make no mistake, the war genre is thriving these days, and the number of great films far outweigh the bad, but it’s worth pointing out the notable flops that have been released in the last several decades since 2001. These were bloated, clichéd, over-acted, or disrespectful, and historically inaccurate movies that failed to captivate audiences. They stood out the most for being incredibly awful or spectacularly underwhelming war films that undoubtedly represent the worst of the 21st century.

10 ‘Flyboys’ (2006)

Directed by Tony Bill

Flyboys is a 2006 action war drama directed by Tony Bill and starring James Franco, Jean Reno, and Tyler Labine. Set during the grueling midst of the First World War, it tells the story of a small group of brave young American volunteers who train to become pilots in the French Lafayette Escadrille fighter squadron. But as they gain their first bit of combat experience, it soon dawns on them about the true horrors of war, and they know every mission might be their last.

Though action-packed and featuring a few decent battle sequences, Flyboys isn’t one of the best aerial war movies. For starters, the aerial combat moments, while not the worst looking, rely heavily on CGI and are not the most convincing. The acting isn’t all that great either, especially since the performances seem one-dimensional, and the actors are sometimes given dialog that gets incredibly cheesy. Upon release, Flyboys was a box office disaster, gaining $17 million on a $60 million budget. It was critically panned and harshly criticized for its historical inaccuracies. While it’s not entirely awful, it doesn’t really seem that entirely worth a watch.

9 ‘The Alamo’ (2004)

Directed by John Lee Hancock

John Lee Hancock‘s 2004 historical war epic The Alamo is a big-budget film adaption depicting the iconic 13-day siege of the Alamo fortress during the Texas Revolution. Starring a rather impressive cast of well-known stars, including Dennis Quad, Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Wilson, and Jordi Mollà, it tells the story of the final days of the Texan defenders and the outcome of the siege which led to the Texan victory in the battle of San Jacinto and Texas’ independence.

Today, The Alamo is widely seen as one of the biggest box office flops of all time. Grossing only $25 million on an enormous $107 million budget, it was a financial disaster greatly overshadowed at the time by the much more profitable Mel Gibson film Passion of the Christ. Aside from its abysmal ticket sales, it was also critically panned for its dull pace and lack of excitement. Though it strove for historical accuracy, it came across as trying too hard. It missed an opportunity to tell a more realistic and thrilling adaption that could have otherwise outshined the John Wayne version from 1960. While not frustratingly terrible, ’04’s The Alamo feels like an unnecessary snooze fest that fails tremendously to draw viewers into its story.

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8 ‘Red Tails’ (2012)

Directed by Anthony Hemingway

Red Tails is a 2012 action war drama depicting the heroic acts of the Tuskegee Airmen of the African-American United States Army Air Forces during their service in the European Theater during WWII. Fighting prejudice and discrimination, they prove their worth and bravery as they go on some of the riskiest aerial assignments of the entire war.

While mostly visually stellar and noble in its attempt to honor these real-life heroes, Red Tails is not the most well-put-together film. Its writing feels lazy and full of overused war movie tropes. The characters are one-dimensional, and the dialog is littered with clichés. It fails to stand out in any way, and it just feels like its plot is playing things too safely. It’s a very predictable story that’s nothing really to get that emotionally invested in.

Release Date

January 19, 2012

Runtime

120

7 ‘Pearl Harbor’ (2001)

Directed by Michael Bay

Saying 2001’s Pearl Harbor is a cheesy, clichéd mess these days is about as obvious as saying its director, Michael Bay, loves over-the-top explosions. It’s about two ace fighter pilot buddies and a beautiful nurse whose awkward love triangle gets interrupted when they’re all present for the Japanese surprise attack on the military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Indeed, this loud, obnoxiously-acted, overblown, and unnecessarily long war epic is a notorious stand out of the war genre, one that’s often fun to pick apart its many flaws. It’s well-known to be incredibly inaccurate to the real history of the tragic event and seems only to have been made to cash in on the romance-tragedy formula created by 1998’s Titanic. Though it boasts incredible action, explosions, and stunts, and the actual attack looks visually impressive, it doesn’t compensate for the weak plot and acting. It just comes across as a flashy, blockbuster mess without any resembling a decent story.

Pearl Harbor

A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.

Release Date

May 21, 2001

Runtime

3h 3m

6 ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ (2001)

Directed by John Madden

Based on a 1994 novel by Louis de Berniès, 2001’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a romantic war drama directed by John Madden and starring Academy Award-winning actors Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz. Set on the tranquil island of Cephalonia during the Italian and German Occupation of Greece, it follows an Italian officer as he tries to cooperate with the locals while falling in love with a beautiful fisherman’s wife.

Though it’s beautifully shot with gorgeous sets and picturesque scenery, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin mostly feels like a clichéd melodrama lacking any real intrigue. It’s not the best well-acted, even though its romantic parts are the selling point of the story. And it’s hard getting around the film’s biggest flaw: Nicolas Cage. He, though for the most part a competent and entertaining performer, is totally miscast in the lead role of Captain Antonio Corelli. The bizarre, incredibly unconvincing Italian accent he uses throughout the film is hard to ignore, and it takes away from much of the story. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin has glaring issues that don’t make it the best war movie-watching experience. However, it can be fun to watch Cage in his over-the-top glory at certain points.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Release Date

April 18, 2001

Director

John Madden

Cast

Nicolas Cage , Penélope Cruz , John Hurt , Christian Bale , David Morrissey , Irene Papas , Gerasimos Skiadaresis , Aspasia Kralli , Mihalis Giannatos , Dimitris Kamberidis , Pietro Sarubbi , Viki Maragaki , Joanna-Daria Adraktas , Ira Tavlaridis , Katerina Didaskalou , Nikos Karathanos , Antonis Antoniou , Giorgos Kotanidis , Tasos Palatzidis , Kostas Filippoglou , Dina Kafterani , Panos Thanassoulis , Alexia Bouloukou , Gerasimos Typaldos Iakovatos , Nikos Kalogiratos

Runtime

131 minutes

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5 ‘USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage’ (2016)

Directed by Mario Van Peebles

USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is a 2016 war disaster drama directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Nicolas Cage, the late Tom Sizemore, and Thomas Jane. It tells the harrowing tale of the crew of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis as it’s struck by a Japanese sub while sailing back home after delivering the parts for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. For five grueling days, the men brave harsh waters, exposure, desperation, and a few hungry sharks.

Now, telling the incredible true survival story of one of the most devastating losses of life in U.S. Navy history could make for a compelling and dramatic war film, but sadly, this dub sank to the bottom of the ocean.USS Indianapolis was an unfortunate misfire that failed to pay respect to this tragic event. The CGI is unconvincing, the acting is subpar, it has questionable casting choices, and worse, unfaithful to the real story. In some ways, it could have worked, but this film’s flaws are hard to look over, making it difficult to watch at times.

USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage

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4 ‘Alexander’ (2004)

Directed by Oliver Stone

The great Oliver Stone has had a long-lasting mark on cinema. From Platoon to JFK, some of his most outstanding war and historical films are worth remembering. But that’s not the case for arguably his weakest effort, 2004’s Alexander, a dull, overlong biographical war drama starring Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great from his rise to power, his conquest of much of the known world, to his eventual demise at age 32.

Today, seen as one of the worst period films ever made, Alexander is a spectacular blunder that fails to deliver anything worth watching. To give credit, it is one of the more historically accurate films compared to most other entries on this list, but that’s the only thing right about this mess. It’s badly paced, poorly acted, narratively unfocused, and almost every character besides Alexander is incredibly underwhelming and forgettable. It’s an unfortunate and bland misfire that is often hard to sit through.

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3 ‘Jarhead 2: Field of Fire’ (2014)

Directed Don Michael Paul

Directed by Don Michael Paul, Jarhead 2: Field of Fire is a direct-to-video action war film sequel to the 2005 Sam Mendes-directed movie Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Amid the U.S.-led Afghanistan war, a hardened Corporal and his unit must help a Navy SEAL escort an anti-Taliban activist through the war-torn countryside without support or sufficient firepower.

Jarhead 2: Field of Fire feels like a generic action flick lacking real depth or intrigue. Compared to the gritty realism, stunning visuals, and expertly acted performances from the original, this one is noticeably missing all of that. Instead, it’s replaced with confusing, dull battle sequences, an unfocused plot, and underdeveloped characters. It has a low-quality feel to it and barely strives for anything realistic in its depiction of warfare. And, besides the title, it has absolutely no connection to its predecessor.

2 ‘Air Strike’ (2018)

Directed by Xiao Feng

With big-name American stars like Bruce Willis and Adrian Brody in the movie, it seemed like 2018’s Air Strike could be an enjoyable, albeit ridiculous, war flick. But boy, did this film fumble spectacularly. Directed by Xiao Feng, it’s a story that follows multiple perspectives set before and during the Japanese bombings of Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Not even its well-established cast and significant budget could save this film from total disaster. Air Strike is an absolute mess of terrible writing, lackluster dialog, and abysmal CGI effects. Despite so much money put into it ($65 million), hardly any of it shows on screen and instead comes across as a low-quality, bargain-bin movie.

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1 ‘Sniper: Special Ops’ (2016)

Directed by Fred Olen Ray

Steven Seagal‘s acting career is a rocky one, to say the least. Though one of the most recognizable stars of the action genre, it’s easy to see why most of his films are genuinely considered schlock. Though there’s a laundry list to choose from, one that stands out the most comes from the war genre, and it is Sniper: Special Ops. In it, he plays an elite U.S. sniper who, along with a wounded teammate, must hold out and wait for rescue after being trapped behind enemy lines in an Afghan village.

This incoherent, badly acted, and spectacularly underwhelming mess takes its place as the worst war movie of the 21st century so far. It’s the kind of film one could expect when watching a modern Seagal film. Here, he seems bored and disinterested, just mumbles through his cringy dialog without a care in the world. The action is confusing, the characters are underdeveloped, and just nothing seems to be going right throughout its entire run. It’s almost worth watching just to experience its awfulness.

Sniper: Special Ops

Release Date

April 3, 2016

Director

Fred Olen Ray

Cast

steven seagal , Tim Abell , Rob Szatkowski , Dale Dye , Charlene Amoia , Jason-Shane Scott , Daniel Booko , Anthony Batarse , Gerald Webb , Jeff Bosley , Matthew Anderson , Paul Logan , John Henry Richardson , Rita Khori , Jim Poole , Shary Nassimi , Scott Thomas Reynolds , J Ferguson , Rydell Danzie , Trevor Scott , Brad Monclova

Runtime

84 minutes

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