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Review Ironic Echo

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"'This sucks on so many levels.' — Dialogue from Jason X. Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself."

A stock part of reviews, usually critical ones.

This is when the reviewer takes a line from the work being reviewed and points out how it describes the work as a whole. For example, if a character in a film says “This is too confusing!” or "Quit insulting my intelligence!", the reviewer might quote it and mention that they felt the same way after watching the movie.

It can also be done with unintentionally self-critical sounding titles. Indeed, if your terrible movie is named along the lines of Disaster or Finally Over, you can bet every reviewer will gleefully turn that into a punchline, or at least allude to the possibility of doing so.

This is sort of an inversion of Quotes Fit for a Trailer when the work's creators or publicizers use a work's own lines to promote it. Of course, reviewers can do this trope "positively" and creators can do that one "negatively", but such instances are comparatively rare (especially the latter for a certain reason). Compare Spoofed with Their Own Words.

See also Ironic Echo, for ironic reuse of words or actions within a work.


Examples (by source material being reviewed or discussed):

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • At one point in the "Big Green Dub" version of Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, Vegeta turns off a TV and says "not worth watching". At least one person used this moment to sum up the Big Green Dub as a whole.
  • Detractors of Failure Frame claim it to be an aptly-named failure.
  • Detractors of Fairy Gone say it has an accurate name due to the fairies having zero connection or meaning to the humans they're bonded with, thus having no plot relevance.
  • Any review of Garzey's Wing will inevitably use the line "I must somehow make sense of our convoluted situations" to describe the plot.
  • Ice-Head Gill: "No one can beat me when it comes to axes!" The series was cancelled ("axed") after 20 chapters.
  • Carl Ross's review of the non-hentai OVA adaptation of One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e on T.H.E.M Anime claimed that the title of One was the number of stars he awarded "this boring, listless OVA".
  • The Dogasu's Backpack review of the Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire episode "Solid as a Solrock" opened with a quote from the dub that sums up a lot of people's feelings on the battle and its infamous Deus ex Machina ending: "I can't believe that worked!"
  • Detractors of Steins;Gate 0 will call it stuff like "Steins;Gate Zero Character", "Steins;Gate Zero Excitement" "Steins;Gate Zero Animation" "Steins;Gate Zero Reason to Exist" and "Steins;Gate Zero is the MAL Score it Deserves".
  • Transformers: Energon: "Something cool finally happened!", originally referring to a Running Gag in the Japanese version, quickly became embraced by detractors to celebrate that the show was over.

    Comic Books 
  • Fear of this killed a proposed The Flash series titled All-Flashnote . Editorial was scared that detractors would use the phrase "All Flash and no substance" to insult the book. This was sufficient for them to back off the idea entirely. A one-shot using the name would eventually get off the ground, though there is no word on whether DC's fear did come to pass or not.

    Films — Animation 
  • When he was ranking all of Disney's Direct-to-DVD sequels, Brian Hull said Cinderella II: Dreams Come True did not make his dreams come true.
  • Detractors of Ice Age Boiling Point say their anger reached a boiling point.
  • Some of the more negative professional reviews of My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) noted that they found themselves empathizing with the Storm King when he complains about the overwhelming cuteness.
    • From Hollywood Reporter: "Summing it all up is [Liev] Schreiber’s Storm King, who at one point late in the proceedings moans, "I'm so totally over the cute pony thing!" Pretty much."
    • And Slant: "When late in the film, the Storm King complains, "I'm so over the cute pony thing," it's hard not to agree with him."
  • Wish (2023)
    • The movie's lukewarm reception included a few remarks from reviewers that they wished for it to be better than it was, quoting/paraphrasing the key lyric from the Award-Bait Song "This Wish" in particular: "And so I make this wish/To have something more for us than this!"
    • On the opposite end, fans of the movie also enjoy quoting the title phrase from Magnifico's Villain Song, "This is the thanks I get!?" in response to its reviews.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 300: Negative reviews had a lot of fun with the line "You will not enjoy this". It helps that it was actually plastered over some of the movie's posters.
  • All I Want for Christmas: "All I want for Christmas is to never see All I Want for Christmas again." He used the same line in his show with Gene Siskel, with some added lampshading:
    Ebert: All I want for Christmas is to forget I ever saw this movie.
    Siskel: Oh, clever with the title.
    Ebert: I think every critic in the country is gonna use that same line; I hope I was first.
    [both chuckle]
  • Alvin and the Chipmunks 1: When The Nostalgia Critic reviews it, the film opens with the very first song the chipmunks sing being "Bad Day". He notes it's a perfect tune to foreshadow the next hour-and-a-half.
  • Anaconda (1997): This review from a blog reassessing movie reviews by Roger Ebert hated it a lot more than Ebert (who thought it was So Bad, It's Good at best himself). Near the end the reviewer notes Jennifer Lopez's character, commenting on the In-Universe documentary they are shooting, "This film was supposed to be my big break, it's turned out to be a big disaster", and says he loves truth in movies.
  • Beastly: Spill review:
    Co-Host 3000: I will give the movie credit though: You are given a fair warning at the very beginning, where you see one of the fucking err … fugly Olsen twin—
    Leon: Olsen twin?
    Co-Host 3000: —addresses the screen and addresses the audiences by tell[ing] them "Get ready to embrace the suck."
    (Spill crew's laughter)
    Co-Host 3000: Wow, you really embrace it.
    Leon: That-that is ballsy for a movie to look you in the eyes and tell you "Embrace the suck".
    Korey: By the way, none of us embrace this, okay? It was forced upon us.
    Cyrus: However, we acknowledge that it did in fact, suck.
  • Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: Once an Episode on his "Canuxploitation-a-thon" monthly projects (which have showcased some of the flat-out dumbest fully Canadian B-Movie productions), Brandon has done a Face Palm and an annoyed "oh, Canada!".
  • The Cabin in the Woods: Spill review: "It gave me a cabin in the wood" — guest reviewer Brian Salisbury.
  • Captive State: The critics' consensus reads: "This sci-fi thriller may not necessarily leave viewers in a Captive State, but it offers reasonably diverting alien invasion action with ambitious political undertones."
  • The Cinema Snob:
    • Started his review of the movie Bummer! with the following quote:
      Snob: Oh hey, it's a movie called Bummer!. I haven't been this excited about sitting through a movie since that time I watched Disappointment.
  • Cop Out: Spill review: "I mean, just think about — Okay, the name of this movie is 'Cop Out', and this … that name alone has so much more hidden meanings into it than we'll ever know because Holy Jesus! I cannot believe what I suffered through tonight." said Co-Host 3000.
  • Cosmic Sin: The typical review says it has a very fitting title.
  • Criminal (2016): Mark Kermode found that the title perfectly described the quality of the film.
  • Dear God: "Dear God is the kind of movie where you walk out repeating the title."
  • Death Of A Nation: The 2018 documentary film got a couple of these:
    • The Hollywood Reporter's review begins with the following:
      The opening scene of Dinesh D'Souza's new documentary depicts Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committing suicide in their bunker. Long before the painfully unendurable Death of a Nation reaches its conclusion, viewers looking for their own way out will be feeling envious.
    • The Detroit News' review ends with the following:
      D'Souza quotes Hitler (played by Pavel Kríz) in one scene as saying, "if you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." It’s a concept D'Souza has taken to heart.
  • Devil: Kinley Mochrie took the "random events" line from the trailer and said that it describes the film as a whole perfectly; everything that happens in the plot is random.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul: In the Midnight Screenings review, Brad Jones notes the subtitle is very fitting for how enduring the movie feels like, and goes on to blast the filmmakers for having the balls to title it as such.
  • The Disappointments Room: The title has been quite apt in summing up the film's critical reception (this review even opens with the statement "Despite Kate Beckinsale’s game efforts, D.J. Caruso's thriller proves altogether worthy of its title.") and its box-office performance. Quite a few people have pointed out that the movie having this as its title and being bad was positively begging to be made fun of.
  • Disaster Movie: This review. "Contender for most apt movie title ever."
  • Netflix released a horror Anthology Film entitled — in what was surely a case of Tempting FateDont Watch This. Naturally, many critics simply couldn't help themselves.
  • The Emoji Movie: Has a poop emoji (voiced by Patrick Stewart) as a character. Many critics have used said emoji to sum up the film's quality, Rotten Tomatoes also uses the no-entry emoji (🚫) as the critical consensus, and one review even mocks the film as "a big pile of Patrick Stewart".
  • Expend4bles: Critics treat it as expendable.
  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Many reviews said the biggest crime was the movie itself.
  • Fantastic Four (2015) was announced in 2009 and released in 2015 to poor critical and commercial reception. Between that, the $120 million budget, and the film's notoriously Troubled Production, viewers have latched onto the line "We gave you six years and millions of dollars, and you gave us nothing" as a perfect summation of the film.
  • Far and Away invited a few of these, such as "[Ron] Howard's family saga looks like far and away the grandest new-old movie of 1992" in the Hartford Courant and "a stinker of a picture ... which was far and away the worst film I have ever seen" in the Daily Mirror a few years later. The New York Times was even compelled to take a gratuitous potshot at it in a review for one of the director's other movies: "[Apollo 13] is far and away the best thing Mr. Howard has done (and Far and Away was one of the other kind)."
  • 5 Second Films: Do something similar, such as summarizing The Matrix with Neo's "Woah."
  • Free Birds: The critics' consensus on Free Birds is "begs unfortunate comparisons with the dim-witted fowl that inspired it."
  • From Hell: One review was simply the sentence, "And to Hell it can go!"
  • Get Out (2017): In their Half in the Bag review, Mike and Jay were mildly disappointed the film received such glowing praise from critics because it denied them the countless reviews advising viewers to "Get Out...of the theater."
  • God's Not Dead 2: The critics' consensus mocks the film as being "every bit the proselytizing lecture promised by its title".
  • A Good Day to Die Hard: Jack McClane's line, "Not really. I kinda thought we would just wing it, you know. Running in, guns blazing! Make it up as we go", is thrown back at the film as what its makers were thinking while shooting it.
  • Gotti got a couple of these:
    • The Daily Beast's review ends by saying:
      "Listen to me, and listen to me good. You never gonna see another guy like me if you live to be five thousand," [John] Travolta's Teflon Don boasts in the final scene. With any luck, we’ll never see another mob-movie misfire like this either.
    • Rolling Stone's review has the following:
      As the Teflon Don tells us upfront: "This life ends one of two ways: Dead, or in jail. I did both." Audiences, sentenced to do time with this corpse of a movie, will know the feeling.
  • Half Past Dead: The title perfectly sums up how the film was the Star-Derailing Role of Steven Seagal.
  • Several reviews of the Highlander sequels play on the tagline from the first movie by saying "There should have only been one".
  • Many reviews of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey picked up on Gandalf's line in response to being called out on telling a tall tale in the film "Well, all good stories deserve embellishment" that may or may not have been intended as a Take That, Critics! by Peter Jackson and certainly seems to embody Jackson's adaptational approach for better or worse.
  • Honest Trailers: Criticized The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as an excess of padding, they played that clip of Bilbo and followed it up by asking forlornly "What indeed, Bilbo?"
  • Holmes & Watson: Rolling Stone's review ends with the following:
    At one point in Holmes & Watson, a character goes undercover as a manure salesman and begins screaming, "Horseshit for sale! Will anyone buy my horse's shit?" It’s the one genuinely honest, self-aware moment in the movie.
    • The Razzies took note of this, and used the above quote when giving John C. Reilly the Razzie for "Worst Supporting Actor".
  • House at the End of the Street: At least five critics used the title acronym (spelled as "HATES") to describe how they feel about the movie.
  • House Party (2023): Lampshaded and ultimately averted by the A.V. Club's review:
    As House Party begins, co-protagonist Kevin (Jacob Latimore) tells us "There's some crazy, beautiful, weird-ass shit about to go down." When we meet his co-lead, Tosin Cole's Damon (pronounced duh-MON), another character declares "It smell like ass and onions in here!" Both offer reviewers irresistibly easy comparisons, but this attempted franchise reboot doesn't fully resemble either remark. Certainly, it works best when indulging its weird-ass side, but like onions, some scenes really could have used additional preparation to be more palatable.
  • I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) has had a number of negative reviews riff on the "Nostalgia is overrated" line late in the film.
  • In Time: Several critics declared "don't waste your time" with the movie.
  • Inspector Gadget: In Inspector Gadget, Dr. Claw at one point says to Gadget, "God, you're irritating". Cue the Nostalgia Critic editing that quote onto the DVD cover.
  • Jack and Jill: At the end, Al Pacino is being shown the incredibly cheesy Dunkin' Donuts commercial for which Jack hired him to perform. He tells Jack, "Burn this. This must never be seen... by anyone. All copies... destroy them." Cue several reviewers "wondering" if he was actually referring to the movie itself.
  • Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: Several of the many negative reviews said the film "should have taken its own advice", and Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus adds that its "title also serves as a warning."
  • Jason X: As stated in the page quote, "'This sucks on so many levels.' — Dialogue from Jason X. Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself."
    • The Cinema Snob lampshaded the quote in his review, saying that every negative review took the bait of using that quote in this fashion.
  • Joker (2019):
    • The first film has an in-universe example when Arthur Fleck's disastrous attempt at stand-up comedy is played on Murray's show.
      Arthur: It's funny. When I was a little boy and told people I was gonna be a comedian, everyone laughed at me. Well, no one's laughing now!
      Murray: You can say that again, pal!
    • The same line has been used by a number of fans and critics in light of the sequel's negative reception. Others have latched onto this exchange from the Joker and Harley duet of "To Love Somebody"-
      Joker: I got this sneaking suspicion we're not giving the people what they want!
      Harley: It's okay baby, you're right- let's give the people what they want.
  • Just Go with It: Holy Moly's review answers the title with "Don't go with it. You wouldn't like it".
  • Lake Dead: Dread Central resident Scott Foy's review:
    Foy: Just how bad is Lake Dead? There's a scene about an hour in when one of the girls in the movie freaks out over their situation and starts yelling, "This is so bad! This is awful!" Sitting in the theater I felt like that scene in The Terminator when the building super knocks on the door to ask The Terminator if everything is okay in there and multiple response choices began scrolling across the machine's field of sight. In this case, my options were: "No kidding!", "You're telling me?", "Ain't that the truth!", "Tell me something I don't know!", "Preach on, sister!", "Oh, so it's a self-reviewing movie?" The one the Terminator selected, "Fuck you, asshole!" might have fit here as well, if only out of sheer spite.
  • The Last Airbender: Roger Ebert's review ends with the line, "I close with the hope that the title proves prophetic."
  • The Last Thing He Wanted: The critics' consensus warranted the concise consensus "It'll be the last thing most viewers want, too."
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The critics' consensus begins with "Just ordinary."
  • Left Behind (2014): More than one reviewer claims to have left behind the audience.
  • The Lonely Lady: Ebert remarked that he walked out of The Lonely Lady saying the same "brilliant dialogue" that Pia Zadora's character writes for the star of her husband's movie to cry while kneeling beside an open grave: "Why? Why!!!"
  • Look Who's Talking Now: The critics' consensus reads: "Look Who's Talking Now: Look away."
  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park: This wiki's page on Jurassic Park isn't the only place that quotes Ian Malcolm's lines from the second movie to sum up the whole franchise:
    "Oooh, ahhh. That's how it always starts. Then later there's the running and the screaming."
  • Love Hurts (2025): Received a consensus reading, "Ouchie."
  • The Magnificent Seven (2016): A comparatively mild case; the critics' consensus states: "The Magnificent Seven never really lives up to the superlative in its title — or the classics from which it draws inspiration — but remains a moderately diverting action thriller on its own merits."
  • Marmaduke: Two quotes, both of which happen after he farts on his humans, are used to sum up the film's quality of reliance on juvenile humor.
    Marmaduke: I know it's juvenile, but it's all I've got.
    Marmaduke: It never gets old.
  • The Master of Disguise: The Nostalgia Critic points out how the lead character's girlfriend breaking up with him because "the silly voices and funny faces were only funny for a few seconds" pretty much sums up the movie.
  • The Matrix: Doug Walker's Five Second Movies do something similar, such as summarizing it with Neo's "Woah."
  • Mile 22: The critics' consensus runs as follows: "Mile 22 lets the bullets fly — and not much else — in a thrill-deficient action thriller whose title proves sadly fitting for a film that feels close to a marathon endurance test." For another coincidence, the percentage of fresh reviews was also at 22% at one point (it is currently at 23%).
  • A Minecraft Movie: Dawn's reaction upon seeing the cubic pink Minecraftian sheep, a confused "What the hell?" often gets used by people to explain how they feel about the Unintentional Uncanny Valley design of most of the Mobs. Reviewers have also had fun with this line from Natalie- "This place makes no sense."
  • Mission: Impossible – Fallout: A positive example; the critics' consensus states that the film "lives up to the "impossible" part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them."
  • Morbius (2022): Several reviews couldn't help but declare that the movie "sucks more than blood".
  • Muppets Most Wanted: Even some broadly positive reviews couldn't resist quoting the bit in "We're Doing a Sequel" where they acknowledge "And everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good!"
  • Mute (2018): The critics' consensus states that "Mute is a would-be sci-fi epic whose title serves as an unfortunate guide to how it might be best enjoyed".
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010): "The Nightmare on Elm Street remake lives up to its title in the worst possible way."
  • No Hard Feelings: The title and raunchy nature practically invited overuse of terms like "flaccid" and "limp" in coverage and reviews of it.
  • The Nostalgia Critic: Happens a good deal on the show.
  • Observe and Report: One character says "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's actually kind of sad", which is a perfect summary of the film itself according to at least one review.
  • Overdrawn at the Memory Bank: Midway through, Aram Fingal (trapped inside a computer simulation) is reenacting a usual day of his life. "This is so boring! I can't take it anymore!" he declares. Mike and the 'bots, watching the movie, wonder aloud, "Which one of us said that?"
  • Paycheck: Many reviewers mocked the title for being the likely reason that Ben Affleck signed on to it. Ben himself got on this when Conan O'Brien fed him the question about why he did the movie:
    Ben Affleck: The answer lies in the title.
  • Pet Sematary (2019): Was advertised with the tagline "Sometimes dead is better.", while the critics' consensus at one point read "Sometimes remade is better." (and then more negative reviews poured in, and while its score is still higher than the original, the consensus now reads that it "feels like an exhuming almost as often as it does a revival.").
  • Pixels: CinemaSins spotted this.
    Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler): What are we doing right now?
    Cinema Sins: Is this... almost self-awareness coming from Adam Sandler? And couldn't that question be applied to the movie itself?
  • Pod People: When they watch it, Joel and the bots are very critical of its misuse of the Hyperlink Story structure. Then, midway through the movie, there's a scene where Tommy tries to show his alien friend how to assemble a jigsaw puzzle: "See? The pieces fit together!" Tom Servo quickly replies, "If only the movie were so lucky."
  • The Rise of Skywalker: A lot of critics use Poe's line "Somehow, Palpatine returned." to criticize what they consider a lazy plot twist.
  • The Snowman (2017): The critics' consensus says that the film "feels as mashed together and perishable as its title".
  • The Room (2003): When Claudette walks in on two of Lisa's friends having sex, she exclaims, "What are these characters doing here?!" Both Obscurus Lupa and The Nostalgia Critic have pretty much the same question in their reviews, given that the scene in question adds nothing to the plot, and the characters in it are totally irrelevant.
  • Space Mutiny: One of the first things David Ryder does is flee from his damaged spacecraft after a crash landing, shouting "It's gonna blow!" Tom Servo quips "If the first ten minutes are any indication, this movie is gonna blow!"
  • Star Trek: Nemesis: Some snarky reviewers zeroed in on Riker's line "Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse". Indeed, it's widely considered to be either the first or second-poorly received Star Trek film featuring the Next Gen cast, competing for the title with its predecessor Star Trek: Insurrection.
  • Sticks And Stones: The critics' consensus for the controversial Netflix stand-up comedy special Dave Chappelle: Sticks and Stones notes that "Sticks and Stones won't break any bones, but it won't elicit many laughs, either."
  • Sucker Punch:
    • The review of Sucker Punch by Spill: "You know what? Take the 'Punch' out of it, just 'Sucker', alright?" — said Korey Coleman.
    • New York Times review: "But there is nothing here to enjoy, beyond the tiny satisfaction in noting that the movie lives up to its name."
  • Swordfish: The first line has a rant by Gabriel about how "Hollywood only makes shit". In its review of the movie, How Did This Get Made? discusses how dangerous it is to have a line like that in the movie, cause reviewers always latch onto it - "You've done it again, Hollywood".
  • A Thousand Words: Spill review:
    Co-Host 3000: Have we-Have we mentioned the title of this movie?
    Korey: A Thousand Words.
    Co-Host 3000: No, no. Actually, it's A Thousand Deaths of Eddie Murphy.
    (Korey's laughter)
    Co-Host 3000: 'Cause every goddamn frame is literally killing Eddie Murphy's career.
    Korey: Oh, I thought you were gonna say "A Thousand Words Can't Describe How Bad This Movie Is."
  • Timechasers: At the end, the protagonist decides his time machine is too dangerous, so he dismantles it and deletes all the associated computer code. When the computer prompts "DELETE ALL COPIES? Y/N", Mike responds, "Delete copies of film? Yes. Delete memory of film from mankind’s consciousness? Yes."
  • To Boldly Flee: In a series of DVD-exclusive reviews, The Nostalgia Critic reviews a series of films by "The Nostalgia Cricket" (not realizing that it's actually himself). At the end of the last review, he says, "And that was To Boldly Flee. And what a shock, it made me want to boldly flee."
  • Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: The Nostalgia Critic gets a lot of mileage out of the clip where Tom and Jerry beat their heads against a wall in the review.
  • Troll 2: The critics' consensus is the film's most infamous scene: "Oh my God".
  • Twister coined the term "the Suck Zone" to describe the point where a tornado lifts you into the air. Many reviewers found other creative uses for the term. At least the production team was smart enough not to go with their original idea for the tagline: "It Sucks."note 
  • The Ugly Truth: blu-ray.com's review opens with:
    What an appropriate title — with an emphasis on the "ugly"
  • Vampires Suck:
    • This review mentions that the title is "too apt."
    • The review in SFX starts off by saying it's almost too obvious to say that "Vampires Suck... does", but it's also entirely accurate.
    • Peter Travers wrote a zero-star, four-word review: "This film sucks more."
  • Venom (2018):
    • The critics' consensus has a variation: "Venom's first standalone movie turns out to be like the comics character in all the wrong ways - chaotic, noisy, and in desperate need of a stronger attachment to Spider-Man."
    • The Toronto Sun's review begins with:
    Funnily enough, the best line that one can use to sum up Venom comes from the titular anti-hero himself in the film’s final moments as he utters the phrase, "turd in the wind."
  • Violent Shit: In his review, The Cinema Snob covers a scene where two characters are listening to "The Torture Never Stops" by W.A.S.P., quipping "no, it certainly doesn't" in reference to how terrible the movie is.
  • War of the Worlds (2025): The movie's Tagline is "It's worse than you think". Critics agreed.
  • What's the Worst That Could Happen?: Reviewing the Martin Lawrence comedy, several critics answered, "This movie." One of the better one-sentence reviews simply read: "Everything else is sold out and the tickets are non-refundable."
  • Why Would I Lie: "I know this all sounds so stupid and offensive and unbelievably amateurish that it's hard to believe, but... Why Would I Lie?"
  • Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey: The critics' consensus is none other than Pooh's iconic Catchphrase "Oh, bother."
  • The Wizard: If we consider it as an ad for Nintendo products, The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of the Power Glove counts.
    "I love the Power Glove, it's so bad. And I mean bad."
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: Several reviewers who disliked it zeroed in on its scene wherein Cyclops, Jean, Jubilee, and Nightcrawler go to a theater playing Return of the Jedi. After leaving, they bicker over whether the original or The Empire Strikes Back was the best Star Wars movie, but come out agreeing, "The third movie is always the worst." Many real-life critics noted it could describe either X-Men: The Last Stand or Apocalypse, both of which were the third movies in their respective trilogies and were the worst-reviewed.
  • Yor: The Hunter from the Future: Pak says "we will need a lot more hemp before we're through" while working on a boat. Spoony used this line as a response to numerous weird and/or stupid events, implying that the best way to enjoy the movie is to Watch It Stoned.
  • You Again: "Oh no, not You Again."
  • Zardoz: Occasionally used by The Agony Booth, for example (in the recap):
    Frayn, apparently watching this movie, yells out, "A bore!" He then repeats, "How pointless!" a couple of times as he falls out of the mouth to his death. So, I guess he knows how the movie will end.
  • Zoom: Academy for Superheroes: Ty Burr's review gives us this gem:
    Exclaims Allen at one point, "I'm being asked to betray kids for money," and, by God, he’s right.

    Literature 
  • The Time Magazine review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince noted the book's parallels to the series' second installment and quotes the character Hagrid saying "Chamber o' Secrets all over again, isn't it?" British newspaper The Independent reviewed it in its media section with attention drawn to Hermione remarking "Then all of that was a complete waste of time!"
  • Not a review, but this article briefly touched upon a children's book entitled I Don't Think I'm Going to Like This.
    I just think it's a bit of a psychological mistake to title your book "I don't think I'm going to like this." It doesn't advertise well stored on its spine.
  • French Anarchist thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon wrote an essay, The Philosophy of Poverty, outlining his thesis against the Marxist concept of Dictatorship of the Proletariat (DotP), believing that the apparatus of a state could never be employed against the ruling class, and instead the working class must be educated in anarchist theory so they can be helped to achieve their own salvation through economic means. Karl Marx found this theory lacking; that denying the necessity of a transitional state away from capitalism was naive, that the working class would achieve consciousness naturally, that economy must done away with altogether, and that it touched not on the nature of currency as itself another form of private property, criticisms outlined in a polemic written in response. Its name? The Poverty of Philosophy.
    • Similarly, in the 11th century, the Muslim theologian al-Ghazali wrote the treatise The Incoherence of the Philosophers, criticizing scholars who he believed were being led astray by "pagan" (i.e. ancient Greek) schools of thought. The more tolerant Ibn Rushdnote  fired back with a work titled The Incoherence of "The Incoherence".
  • Will Errickson's review of the Ruby Jean Jensen horror novel Smoke says the book "offers about as much substance as its title".

    Live-Action TV 
  • When this contestant on America's Got Talent chose to audition with the Linda Ronstadt song "You're No Good", Piers Morgan remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen a singer choose a more appropriate song to sing. What was the lyric again? 'You're no good, you're no good, you're no good, you're no good!'"
  • When Dirty Dancing was remade as an ABC TV movie, several reviews remarked that the movie should be "put in a corner".
  • Doctor Who:
  • Not really critical, but in their video about shows switching genres, Ms Mojo said that by the end of the first season of Family Matters, the Winslow family didn't really matter as it became more of the Urkel show.
  • The snarkier judges on the various Idol series love trotting these out:
    • On American Idol, after performing a lackluster performance of "Never Can Say Goodbye" by The Jackson 5, contestant Jorge Nunez said he wasn't going to sing "Bad" by Michael Jackson. Simon Cowell responded, "You kind of did."
    • In the first season (before the show really took off), a would-be contestant sang "American Pie."
      Contestant: The day the music died...
      Simon: It just did.
    • An episode of Australian Idol had an auditioner singing Kasey Chambers' "Not Pretty Enough". Ian Dickson (Simon's counterpart at the time) responded with "You're not pretty enough, you're not cheerful enough, and you've got no talent."
    • In a non-Simon example, after Lil Rounds, who had been kind of uneven in her performance all season sang "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan, Kara Dioguardi remarked that she had been every woman on the stage and not in a good way.
  • Kamen Rider Decade: "Decade has no story." In-universe, it's the reveal that Decade is not meant to live in a world of his own, but drift from parallel world to parallel world to help others and be a supporting character in their stories. Out of universe, it instantly hit Memetic Mutation because of the series' increasingly messy, self-contradicting plot.
  • A positive example. Due to the warm critical reception and positive viewer response received for Nobody Wants This, it became clear that people did in fact want it.
  • When NBC aired a live production of Peter Pan, they asked viewers to tweet #Savetinkerbell in order to save her. Detractors also got #killtinkerbell trending.
  • In Power Rangers Megaforce, Vrak Handwaved something away with "It's far too complex for you to understand"; and Gosei did the same in the next season by saying "There's a simple explanation for that..." before being cut off. In his History of Power Rangers series, Linkara would sarcastically repeat the clips whenever their respective seasons attempted other gratuitous Handwaves.
  • Some reviewers of The Smile Has Left Your Eyes couldn't resist the temptation to snark that the series made the smile leave their eyes.
  • Negative reviews of Star Trek: Picard have used "Sheer fucking hubris" aplenty.
  • One reviewer's negative review of Take Me Out ended by quoting Paddy McGuinness telling the contestant, "If you don't like what you see, you can switch off at any time", before adding "Thanks. Click."
  • The opening credits of the The X-Files spin-off Millennium (1996) featured the floating words "wait", "worry", and "who cares?" Though this trope did come into play among those who did not, in fact, care, the last phrase mainly incited die-hard internet fans to cry out, "We do!"

    Music 
  • A positive example, when talking about "You Know You Like It" by Aluna George and DJ Snake, The Double Agent repeated the song's hook "You know you like it but it drives you insane" referring how the song is a total earworm.
  • Variation in Todd in the Shadows and The Rap Critic's take on "Accidental Racist", when Todd described it as being "extremely accidentally racist".
    • From his worst hit songs of 2012 "How fitting that a song called 'Whistle' totally blows."
    • Defied with regards to Drake's album Honestly, Nevermind.
      "Let me work for it, at least."
    • Subverted in his review of "Best Song Ever" by One Direction. He thought the song was actually pretty good, although not the best song ever and it certainly wasn't as bad as he thought it would be going in. Played straight in a positive example for His Best Hit Songs of 2013 video where he sings "And we danced all night to the 6th best song of 2013"
    • In his Trainwreckords video on Spin Doctors' Turn It Upside Down, he plays a clip of Chris Barron asking, "When was the last time you heard a weird, modal a cappella intro scat tune [...] that turned into a small medium-tempo funk [on the radio]?", discussing the album's lead single, "Cleopatra's Cat". He agrees that most people hadn't...and then points out that "Cleopatra's Cat" did not change that.
    • Both used and discussed in another Trainwreckords video with regards to The Clash's Cut the Crap, claiming that no album had teed itself up for critics like that since Spinal Tap's Shark Sandwich.
      Todd: They cut 12 whole tracks of crap.
  • Many negative reviews of the song "Basket Case" by Green Day take the first line of the song "Do you have the time to listen to me whine" and just answer no.
  • Psychedelic Rock band Bull released a 1970 album called This is Bull, and Robert Christgau's only comment in the Village Voice was "speak for yourself, Ferdinand."
  • Eyes Adrift's 2002 self-titled album was panned in a Rolling Stone review that used the headline "careers adrift" - this playing off the fact that they were a supergroup of musicians whose best-known work was back in the 90s (as members of Meat Puppets, Nirvana, and Sublime).
  • Happy Mondays' 1992 album ...Yes Please! practically begged for the two-word review it received in Melody Maker: "No thanks."
  • With Gotye stepping out of the spotlight and public consciousness right after the success of his one big hit song, no retrospective on his career can ever resist making a crack about how "now [he's] just somebody that [we] used to know".
  • Detractors of J. Cole's album Might Delete Later couldn't help themselves messaging him to "Delete it now".
  • Lee Hazlewood's 1973 album Poet, Fool or Bum was famously dismissed by Charles Shaar Murray in NME with a single word review: "bum". There's been some more recent re-evaluation of Hazlewood's work, and some modern reviewers now feel that the review, while funny, was unfair.
  • Pink Floyd fans who aren't pleased with A Momentary Lapse of Reason will often describe the album as a Momentary Lapse of Reason for David Gilmour. Ironically one of the other options for the title, 'Signs of Life', was rumoured to have been shot down to avoid this trope.
  • Pitbull's song for Aquaman (2018), "Ocean to Ocean", ended up one of the most disliked videos on YouTube within 24 hours of its upload for the combination of Pitbull's verses and its borderline cut-and-paste Sampling of Toto's "Africa", practically a Sacred Cow of Internet meme culture around the time of the song's release. Matters were not helped by the song opening with Pitbull saying "They tried to get rid of me" - quite a few commenters were quick to mock that line with statements along the lines of "We can see why" or "They should have tried harder".
  • When Remember Monday lost the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest with "What the Hell Just Happened?" they commented afterwards that the title had been an accidental gift to headline writers.
  • Rolling Stone magazine's infamous two-word review of Quiet Riot's Condition Critical album.
    "Condition Terminal."
  • The original edition of The Rolling Stone Record Guide had a few gems:
    • All three albums by early 1970s jazz rock band Chase received zero stars, and their entire output was summed up in a single word: "Flee."
    • Southern rock band Baby's 1976 album Where Did All the Money Go? received a single sentence review: "Not here, that's for sure."
  • Tantacrul's review of the music notation software MuseScore ends with a list of minor annoyances that he feels slow down the score writing process, prompting him to joke that using a Fermata in the logo was a fitting choice as the program will frequently make you "pause for an unspecified amount of time".
  • Several reviewers of Morgan Walen's album "I'm the Problem" found themselves agreeing that yes, he was the problem with the album.
  • Yes found themselves the butt of two of these: Melody Maker reviewed Tales from Topographic Oceans with nothing more than the word "no," riffing on the band name, while Musician Magazine's review of Talk was summarized simply with "Shut up."

    Theater 
  • A critical 1920 New York Times review of the play The Blue Flame highlights the line "I'm going to be so bad, I'll be remembered always" and mentions that "it would be ever so easy to write the review around that line."
  • Not Since Carrie, on the 1970 musical flop Gantry:
    When the audience arrived at Gantry, it was greeted with a show curtain painted to resemble the side of a worn revival tent. It bore the inscription "Where Will YOU Spend Eternity?"—the answer turned out to be, at Gantry.
  • In P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton's memoir Bring on the Girls!, the authors reflect on the unfortunate title chosen for the one Princess musical they refused to write, Go to It:
    Offer a dramatic critic something called Go to It, and he is immediately struck by the happy thought of saying that it should have been called Don't Go to It, for these dramatic critics are as quick as lightning.
  • Some people who didn't like Love Never Dies (the contentious sequel to The Phantom of the Opera) created a Facebook community called "Love Should Die".
  • Alexander Woolcott's review of the Broadway show Wham! simply read "Ouch!" It was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the shortest theatrical review ever written. note 
  • For his review of the 1948 musical You Were Meant for Me, James Agee wrote the single sentence "That's what you think."

    Video Games 
  • The 1989 Your Sinclair review of Aaargh! noted, in reference to the game's long loading times, that the game will "have you screaming its title each time you die and have to reload."
  • Ace Attorney fans who find Dual Destinies' constant references to the "dark age of the law" grating often find themselves quoting Athena after she hears one too many allusions to it herself:
    Athena: You mean that whole "dark age of the law" nonsense? I'm so sick of hearing about that!
  • Given the overall warm reception the game Awesomenauts has received, several reviews have noted that its title is, for the most part, well-earned.
  • Detractors of Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt unanimously agree with this in-game quote:
    Dr. Machino: "You're not so awesome!"
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance invites plenty of snarky comments about the title accurately representing its music's notoriously poor sound quality. (The Japanese title was the less exploitable Concerto of the Midnight Sun.)
  • Any time a Danganronpa reviewer or player is severely distraught at the directions taken by a new game in the series, expect them to say it has driven them to Despair. Conversely, any silver linings will fill them with hope.
  • Fallout 76's advertising prominently featured the song "Country Roads", which begins with the line "Almost heaven, West Virginia." When the game launched to less than stellar reception, PCWorld could only describe the game as "Almost hell, West Virginia".
  • A positive example, critics and players alike have described Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time as "the game that steals time" due to how addicting it is.
  • James & Mike Mondays: After encountering various Game Breaking Bugs in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, up to and including getting a poison status effect that persists even after game overs, James declares the true Infernal Machine to be the game itself.
  • The Last of Us Part II:
    • One infamous scene has Ellie kill a dog while shouting "stupid dog!" (which the player is later shamelessly guilt-tripped about even though there was no other option presented). Since the game was developed by Naughty Dog, detractors quickly latched on to the line and used it to criticize the studio.
    • In a flashback where Joel and Ellie visit an abandoned museum, the former tells the latter about Jurassic Park, briefly mentioning that it had a sequel that wasn't as good. Needless to say, detractors — especially ones who liked the first game — appropriated the lines to refer to the game itself.
  • Reviewers have used the title of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth both to criticize the game and to praise it. Some have criticized the game locking New Game Plus behind a paywall as the developers being greedy because they want "Infinite Wealth". On the other hand, people have praised the game for the Infinite Wealth of content it has, or have said the game is so good the developers deserve Infinite Wealth.
  • Used In-Universe in the video "Mario Rage Quits His Own Game", a video where voice actor Brian Hull plays Mario Wonder viewer levels with a Mario voice, Mario says something along the lines of "Mario wonders why you would make such a bad level"
  • Metroid: Other M had multiple lines that invited snarky responses:
    • The description for the Retsupurae: "'I'm gonna teach you a lesson about subtlety!' and other ironic quotes from Metroid: Other M."
    • As Adam discusses the current situation with Samus, he remarks, "But then again, none of this makes sense"; a phrase that's often used by detractors to describe the plot of the game.
    • A blog analyzing the game's story on this very site not only used the "subtlety" and "none of this makes sense" lines, but also "Out of nowhere, I suddenly found myself concerned with his opinion again" (quipping that Samus is admitting she's out-of-character); plus snarking more than once about Adam having "the perfect military mind" (as he was described in Metroid Fusion).
  • Laura Kate Dale's review of Mighty No. 9 for The Jimquisition took aim at an infamous line from the game's marketing by saying "Like an anime fan on prom night, I'd rather be playing Mega Man".
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents "Detective", like its source material, frequently uses this with regards to the Interactive Fiction game it riffs on. For example, when the player ends up in a closet that doubles as a dead end:
    Better get out.
    Tom: Of this game.
  • A DLC for Omerta: City of Gangsters, titled The Con Artist, has collected very unenthusiastic reviews from the customers, some of which point out how fitting the title is for a DLC that offers so little content for such a high price.
  • Ride to Hell: Retribution:
    • One of Scott The Woz's notes on his review of the game is as follows:
      Game dialogue: "You look like shit, Jake."
      Scott: Thank God this game is self-aware, now I don't need to comment on how the visuals look like if arthritis could code.
    • Many reviewers noted that the "1%"note  in the game's logo would be a fitting review score.
  • The Disaster trailer of SimCity (2013) featured the line "complete and utter disaster". Gamespot picked it up to close their video review of the game.
  • This review of Shattered - Tale of the Forgotten King claims it will wind up being as forgotten as its titular king.
  • Reviewers and Let's Players of Sonic Forces like to use the title as the start of a sentence (as in, Sonic Forces you to endure this awful game, Sonic Forces you to create a Fursona, etc.). Even those who like Forces are still prone to doing this when it comes up, because it's just fun to do.
  • People with more negative views towards Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels occasionally make jokes that the levels should've remained lost.
  • The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise has "Superman" by Goldfinger as its Bootstrapped Leitmotif, and Tony Hawk as its mascot. With the series' decline in recent years and the fact that skating is something associated with young people, many take note of the second refrain's lyrics: "So here I am, growing older all the time, looking older all the time." The following line "feeling younger in my mind" tends to be forgotten.
  • A disastrous motion controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Brøderbund Software's U-Force, was supposed to work by using infrared sensors to track the player's hand movements. It had the slogan "Don't Touch", which sites such as Kotaku considered rather good advice.
  • ProJared's review of Virtual Hydlide ends with him reading a line from the manual stating that thanks to the game's random map generator, "'it's impossible to play this game twice' ... well, they got that right!"
  • Zero Punctuation:
    • Discussed in the review of Remember Me, when Yahtzee quips that you shouldn't give your game a name that game journalists can twist into snarky headlines.
      Yahtzee: "Remember Me? Kinda forgettable!" Arf-arf!
    • He also commented that it was almost a shame that Painkiller was awesome because otherwise, he could quip "Painkiller: you'll certainly need one!"
    • He considered the title of the Just Cause franchise, with its Wide-Open Sandbox gameplay, to be such low-hanging fruit that he advised only doing this ironically.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY: Vexed Viewer brings up the Curious Cat's comment towards Neo moments before they possess her ("An empty host, perfect for me to fill!") to support his criticism of Neopolitan as a character, (or lack thereof in his words) feeling that she is too much of a Plot-Irrelevant Villain who lacks any agency or personality besides being Roman's sidekick and overstays her welcome despite not having any interesting qualities to justify her presence.

    Webcomics 
  • An Invoked Trope in the Paradox Space story "Summerteen Romance": Dave asks Karkat if they can agree that paradox space (the location) sucks, and Karkat replies that then people would take the panel out of context.

    Web Original 
  • The website Know Your Meme allows users to comment on research articles detailing the various internet memes circulating "teh interwebz." The website is pretty heavy on Self-Demonstrating Articles, especially made by those users in question, but whenever articles come along that people don't like or that are too forced, they will use these reviews to mock the one who attempted to make it. For instance...
  • In forums talking about TV Tropes, some people who didn't like how popular the site became or what changes were made to it over the years love using It's Popular, Now It Sucks! or They Changed It, Now It Sucks! to describe the sentiment.

    Web Video 

    Western Animation 
  • Family Guy:
    • A Running Gag in The Mysterious Mr. Enter's review of the episode "Fresh Heir" is describing the writers of the episode with a scene of Chris and Carter giggling to themselves while the latter sticks his finger into the former's arm fold to simulate penetrating a woman's privates.
    Carter: We're not supposed to be doing this. I bet we're not supposed to be doing this.
    • The infamous episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" has a scene where Peter offers the audience a remote advising them to change the channel, which several reviewers found to be good advice.
  • Platypus Comix:
  • The Real Ghostbusters got its name to distinguish it from Filmation's Ghostbusters. However, that cartoon is largely forgotten nowadays, and you will usually only hear about it when someone is trying to explain to you why The Real Ghostbusters is called that. Upon watching The Real Ghostbusters, you will quickly notice that the show does not use the likenesses or voices of the original actors. As such, uninformed viewers and reviewers are left with the feeling that even this show, despite its name, does not feature the Real Ghostbusters.
  • The Simpsons: In the episode The Joy of Sect, Homer uses the word "Jerkass" when shouting at someone in his car's path. Fans would later use the word to describe Homer himself, coining "Jerkass Homer" as a Fan Nickname to describe his Flanderization into a more selfish character.
  • During his review of the Top 10 Worst Episodes of South Park, Rowdy C of TV Trash said that title "More Crap" was very fitting.
  • Spaceballs The Animated Series: Many Spaceballs fans often derisively refer to the show as "Spaceballs: The Search for More Money", after a joke from the original movie.
  • Steven Universe: Many SU critical blogs, at least once, summed up their disappointment with the show's later seasons by using an episode title from the second: "It Could've Been Great".


 
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