r/moviecritic • u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 • 12d ago
Digger (2026) is the Worst Movie I've Ever Seen
Just watched Digger for the first time. It is rightfully tracking to be among the top 10 flops in movie history.
I actually liked and agreed with the message/punchline. Yes, billionaires definitely have caused so many of the problems in the world (not just in the big countries like the U.S. that get the fingers pointed at them, but also in China, UAE, Europe, Russia, etc), but if we are being honest, AI is the new enemy in this regard, not the old outdated "oil" drillers. And while sure everyone sits back and watches and gets entertainment on the satire of this, the movie is just a terrible watch.
Eddington was an excellent satire on what happened during the Covid crisis. I recently watched it, and I laughed and found great amusement in the jokes and pathetic nature of that era, but Digger felt 20 years too late in the same regard.
This movie was dung, absolute horse manure. There is no comedy that lands, a bunch of old men yelling at each other for 3 hours almost, a ridiculous pretentiousness.
A message doesn't make a good movie. In fact, great art has a messsage, but it tells it in a way that is entetaining and enjoyable. This is not that. This is an awful movie. It never should've had a budget beyond 100 million.
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u/maxboondoggle 4d ago edited 3d ago
You didn’t get the movie then. In the future, Diggers grandson nephew is still rich becuse he owns an “information firm”, information being the new oil. And Tom Cruise has no issue with him using his immense power to find his daughter.
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u/sowaleja 38m ago
He's a "security" contractor and he makes money off the drones and military equipment that are being used to keep the ordinary population in line. He can afford fancy tech, in the same way the audience all have high-tech respirators, while most people living out in the world don't have that luxury.
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u/Active-Ad9818 16m ago
Do you think he actually organised for the daughter to disappear to “buy” TCs character or just took advantage of the situation?
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u/angelbolanose 12d ago
Did you watched Birdman or Bardo? Or Babel? Or any other movie from the same director? I’m assuming you probably will hate all of his movies then, since this is basically his style for a while… his movies are not about a “message” is about how art and the real world interact within each other.
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u/Lord_Spy 7d ago
I loved Birdman. I liked Digger and thought as an art piece it's brilliant.
I absolutely loathed Babel.
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u/Suicidal-Ideation13 2d ago
Did you watched Birdman or Bardo? Or Babel?
Or Beetlejuice, or Better Off Dead, or Back to the Future, or Blue Ruin?
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
I did admire and respect Birdman. It's not my cup of tea, but a solid 6/10 for its novel artwork alone. Very innovative stuff. This is not that.
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u/huron9000 4d ago
Birdman was fantastic. Loved it. Left Digger early because I don’t need to be yelled at and hit over the head with a message that has only very juvenile comic relief.
Big swing, big miss.
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u/Cart__connoisseur 3d ago
Left early and spewing a bad take online smh checks out😂
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u/huron9000 3d ago
I consider your take a bad take 😂
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u/Cart__connoisseur 2d ago
Well yeah you can say that I have a bad take, but quite honestly you have an invalid take which is much worse. Walking out of a movie early and then saying it’s a bad movie is like telling me a certain food that you haven’t tried is bad.
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u/huron9000 2d ago
No. It’s more like I ate half the dish and decided I didn’t like it.
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u/Cart__connoisseur 2d ago
Not at all, ESPECIALLY with this movie, if you actually watched all of it I’d understand but hey some people just have TikTok level attention spans 🤷♂️
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u/huron9000 2d ago
lol someone with a TikTok level attention span would’ve left within five minutes, not over an hour in.
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u/Cart__connoisseur 2d ago
We can agree to disagree, if you can’t sit through a 2 hour movie to form a valid opinion on it then I don’t think we will ever agree on anything.
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u/ParrotChild 2d ago
It's more like walking out on half a tasting menu. So your point is still invalid.
This is like me picking only certain passages from any holy or revered text to make a point, all while actively avoiding a holistic understanding of wider content/context.
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u/listed_orange 2d ago
I can’t think of a movie that is more of a “don’t leave early or you won’t get it”. You can’t have an opinion on it if you didn’t watch the whole thing.
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u/Status_Confidence_26 2d ago
Man it’s like you agree with what the movie is saying but it all flew over your head. I guess you did leave early so maybe it didn’t come across yet.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 4d ago
100%.
The "message" works better in 3 brief sentences than 2 hours of rubbish as a movie, since that seems to be the only thing being praised by the small % of people who liked it.
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u/WakeAndShake88 4d ago
It’s so fascinating to me because I loved loved loved this movie, and don’t understand the criticisms. Is it a perfect film? No but I loved what it was trying to do and I think it largely accomplished that. For me it felt right on time not too late.
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u/unbreakablekango 1d ago
I agree, I watched it last night and I really enjoyed it. I love seeing people over-act and John Goodman put on a master-class performance of over-the-top vitriol spewing. His monologs make the whole thing worth it to me. I really liked the buy-in required from the audience to support the stories larger ambitions. I thought it was a great movie.
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u/False_Locksmith_1620 18h ago
It was so good..I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. If you don't know about future studies - it's a foresight piece. Do great
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u/Key-Marionberry-8794 7d ago
It's way more expensive than most dark comedies which is exactly why I went to see it , it's rare these kinds of movies get that kind of budget
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u/0valtine_Jenkins 3d ago
It's funny you mention it's 20 years too late, since it's a 25th anniversary retelling of Fossil Fools. It's meant to be an out of date satire to distract and give the modern populace someone to pin their woes on, who is no longer alive. This makes their feelings unactionable, which is ideal for the current era of Diggers.
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u/Glass_Duck 3d ago
The movie wasn't supposed to be funny, or there to make you laugh and absolve you. Literally the point of the movie, which you don't seem to get.
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u/Wide_Open_Buttcheeks 12d ago
Rofl, I cannot take people who use absolutes seriously
Bad or good, sure. Worst or best? Debatable
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u/Caughtinclay 12d ago
what the hell is this trend of not taking people who use absolutes seriously? It's called having a strong opinion, which art is 100 percent meant to elicit.
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u/Miserable-Study7399 3d ago
for one this guy should not be taken seriously as his explanation for why he hated it shows he doesn't even understand the movie AT ALL
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u/truckturner5164 12d ago
You're defending an absolute by using hyperbole yourself. A lot of art is meant to provoke, challenge, shock etc., but some art is created without any thought given to how it will be received. Thus a 'strong opinion' isn't always the goal.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
Again, I agree with the provocation and challenge of the movie, but the way it got there was bad.
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u/Caughtinclay 12d ago
i mean.. that's literally the entire point? I'm in support of absolutes... What's confusing there? you're acting like i'm acting hypocritical. I'm not.
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u/snacksandsoda 1d ago
This guy didn’t have a strong opinion, he just insulted the movie. That’s not a good review
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u/Springyardzon 3d ago
They didn't really use an absolute about 'worst'. They said 'I've ever seen', which implicitly acknowledges that personal experience/perception plays a part. And, even if they hadn't, if it's 'debatable' then debate them.
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u/Caughtinclay 12d ago
I don't think you actually got the message if you think the message was about the problems of the world are caused by the rich
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
...and how they solve the problems they cause, and how civilization still pays to watch their stories and then lives with their destruction and goes on with it.....What else?
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u/Revolutionary_Bee251 1d ago
Well, they're not not part of the cause of the problems either. We all have blood on our hands, some of us are just soaked in it.
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u/Used-Main-9086 10h ago
Exactly. The point of the movie is that humanity is addicted to destroying nature
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u/Active-Ad9818 10m ago
It was largely wasn’t it? …, plus “the opium of the masses” … snd how stupid the rest of us are and how easily we are duped /manipulated by them.
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u/nyee 12d ago
I laughed at Digger quite a bit. How exactly is Diggers late? I think in my state alone we had a record breaking amount of tornados this year thanks to climate change.
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u/FormerWelder1103 12d ago
That's fair, I can see why some people find it funny. The jokes just didn't land for me at all maybe I went in with wrong expectations
For me the message about oil billionaires feels stale because AI and tech billionaires are the ones causing chaos now, at least in my opinion. The movie acting like oil is still the big villain seem disconnected
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u/nyee 12d ago
Our consumption of energy without thinking about its ramifications was entirely the point. The message still applies towards datacenters and how much they consume in energy. And what you might have missed, Digger was protrayed as a villain but he was very much not. The only reason oil gets consumed is people demand it
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Every thinking adult already knows this. No reason to corral people into a theater at $15 a pop to hit them over their head with something they already know.
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u/Active-Ad9818 3m ago
Seriously do they? Because if ppl know this why did the US vote in Trump …. TWICE!!
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u/snacksandsoda 1d ago
That is not the point of the movie lol he was absolutely a villain
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u/biggy_egg 1d ago
He was the villain but he was portrayed as someone more sympathetic through satire. The actor even said in the videos he's was more callous and cold. Consumers aren't villains, consumers are a byproduct of manufactured convenience. To blame oil production on the consumer is crazy
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u/nyee 1d ago
Manufactured convenience by whom? Even digger himself is not the source of his own wealth, dude was born into it and given the family company. It was his grandpa who started the oil business.
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u/biggy_egg 15h ago
Manufactured convenience by billionaires in general. It's supply and then demand for a reason.. they supply and then we demand it and then we become so reliant on these things cause there's no other choice No one asked for the world to be destroyed for oil, no one asked for ai, no one asked for self driving cars. If none of that stuff got invented, we'd still be self sufficiently lighting our own fires
How can you see a movie where someone carelessly drills into the planet despite warning and not think he's the villain? It doesn't matter how he got there in the first place. Also you're seeing a twisted version of that story told through his nephews play adaptation. He's written digger to BE more sympathetic, but the actor playing him knows this isn't the case. The nephew hired that actor to play digger to humanise him. To make him appear goofy and silly to a room full of people who's planet he ruined
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u/Active-Ad9818 4m ago
I don’t think that detail matters .
Surely any billionaires manipulating govts and exploiting the rest of humanity for their own gain and damn the consequences is the point. … oil, IT, social media… the actual villain shifts over time. And using pretty basic tactics (like a play or movie or social media), to manipulate the population to shift the blame or to keep them happy so they don’t “rise up”.0
u/huron9000 3d ago
The humor was low level, juvenile slapstick, and that’s why it didn’t land. Many terrible choices by this director.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
Torcon tracking has advanced significantly in the last two decades. The rural areas that are now developed into housing today still got those same amounts of tornadoes, but it was unregistered by meteorologists and insignificant because it was over rural grasslands and flatlands with no population before. It's like shark attacks increasing because there was far less population in the waters 100 years ago.
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u/truckturner5164 12d ago
Just out of curiosity, how many movies have you seen and what would've been the previous worst? Gives us a bit of an idea of what you're bringing to the table here.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
3,000+ over 40 years.
Previous worst was most recently Nomadland, but at least that had its own vibe and point. This pretentious stuff doesn't work for me. You can make a meaningful film while still adding: humor, entertainment, suspense, thrills, and dialogue that is memorable.
Again, I agree with the themes. It's not the themes, but it's how they got there. It's an awfully conceived movie on every level. It's like if Birdman didn't have the novel and innovative 1-shot cinematography, less nuanced acting, and a bad script.
The conventional worst movies are meant to be bad so they are different. Bad horror movies from the 80s, for example, they don't take themselves seriously so they are awful, but they know they are. This actually thinks it is important so it's a different experience than bad 80s horror or a bad comedy.
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u/Junior-Broccoli7692 12d ago
I’m sorry, but I just hated Eddington. You think it has value?
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
Loved it. Except for that shootout devolution in the final 30 minutes, it was an excellent and fun watch, imo. The ending could've been better, but what a wild and entertaining watch it was!
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u/thecaramelbandit 4d ago
Did you miss the part where Digger is dead? The oil baron is dead and gone, and his digging ruined the planet.
But his nephew is now the trillionaire. With a digital security company that can find anyone anywhere on the planet in minutes with just a phone number. Who bought up the rights to a play and is putting it on to give some catharsis to the masses.
And the ultimate conceit of the movie is about *cognitive dissonance*. Happily using oil for cheap flights while demonizing oil companies. Happily using AI and social media while decrying the loss of privacy and the evils of Facebook. And knowing that movies and theater are ridiculous and not true and a farce, but believing them and buying into it anyway.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 4d ago
Yeah, okay, but we already know all of that? Why is this news? It's pretty obvious without sitting for 2 hours watching people shouting and screaming throughout the whole thing and with very little good humor too. Eddington had me laughing; Digger gave me a headache.
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u/HWsPhilosoper 3d ago
It's a powerful call to change. Do you want to leave the next event you go to with your Lungz strapped on while military patrols cruise flooded streets? No? Then stop doing nothing.
It was all in Jesse Plemons' speech. You're both right, but being right doesn't matter. Love Digger, hate Digger. We're all in the same mess and we need to stop demanding convenience at the expense of the planet (very much including AI as a massive problem).
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u/One-21-Gigawatts 4d ago
I honestly kind of think you must have undeveloped taste. This movie was incredible across every facet.
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u/WalterWilliams 17h ago
Just got out from watching this and I couldn't agree more. Love the message, lots of potential, and they really let the audience down. I was excited for this given that it had a lot of comparisons to Dr. StrangeLove but it ended up being a lot more like Idiocracy where I loved the message but not the delivery. I love humor and satire but this one only got one laugh out of me. There's only so many ass jokes you can make before it becomes boring.
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u/mafternoonshyamalan 12d ago
Worst movie you’ve ever seen? The negative criticism I’m ready is like when Bright came out and people were saying it’s “the worst movie ever made.” Is it good? No. But there have always been objectively worse movies.
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u/Dazzling-Cheetah5951 12d ago
It's debatable, but the truly worst movies aren't even marketable to begin with. They do not take themselves seriously and aim for "awards" and to be taken seriously. Of course, bad comedy and horror of the 80s, 90s, and even today are definitely worse, but nobody is wasting their time on them in a serious manner (nobody would show up opening weekend to buy a ticket for those types expecting a good movie). This is the worst that is meant to be a serious and good movie.
I loved Eddington's satire.
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u/Fee_monkey231 10d ago
The point of the movie wasn’t really blaming billionaires, climate change, a nuclear disaster, the Cold War, china, Russia or whatever. Or at least in my opinion….
What is truth, our truth and what is the narrative around it, as shown it can easily be swayed. Frankly, I actually dont believe this movie was political at all.
In one of the opening scenes, there is a close up of a painting of a lion eating its prey that may be at the edge of a cliff. It looks like that both would fall to their deaths. Think Aesop’s fable of the scorpion and the frog.
In the end, we just cant help ourselves. We exist, and continue to exist until we dont.
Digger says it at the end of the movie. When he is talking to his nephew, holding the remains of Maggie, his cat. He loved that cat more than anything, in the end it bit him and he killed it….. but he says to Kenneth, something along the lines of, “that’s my cat. In the end, we are all just dust, we could be kings or a cat. It doesnt matter, we end up the same”
Like Digger, life can be bleak, beautiful and sometimes a mess.
Try to laugh.
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u/Howy_the_Howizer 12d ago
Art evokes a feeling Ive been told. It doesnt have to be positive. But the timeliness and other issues of satire and story seem valid. Tom took a shot at an Oscar and its no bueno.
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u/Caughtinclay 12d ago
i'm sorry maybe you're a time traveler but did the oscars already happen?
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u/HWsPhilosoper 3d ago
Personally I think the Academy won't nominate this movie for a single category. It definitely afflicts the comfortable in a major way and offers no comfort. Oscars always reward movies that make people feel good about themselves.
I loved TC's performance and don't think it was a simple Oscar swing. I think it's to cement his legacy not as just an action legend but a lifelong actor.
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u/Caughtinclay 3d ago
It’s absolutely getting nominated for makeup and production design at least.
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u/Fit_Judgment_8924 2d ago
good review you should be a pardner in Ebert.com, you think its a sign that trump will keep the house and senate?
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u/ParrotChild 2d ago
Great art does not need to be entertaining or enjoyable.
You need to watch a lot more films if this is the worst thing movie you've ever seen
I think you may have misunderstood the broader message of the film.
Oil is still a massive problem and GenAI is doing a great job of shifting perception. GenAI is a problem, but it's still in the shadow of its predecessor.
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u/snacksandsoda 1d ago
You didn’t criticize the movie btw. You just said it was bad. That’s not a criticism that’s just an insult
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u/diarrheticdolphin 1d ago
Pretty much all criticism of the movie I've seen only engage with the movie in the most shallow of terms. "Big Oil Bad" is NOT the "message" of the film if there even is a message. To me there wasn't a solid thesis that could be encapsulated into a pithy truism. It's a commentary on the nature of satire itself in the face of impending catastrophe and interrogates the audience's complicity in the cycle of absurdist entertainment. It asks us how revolutionary can laughing at our own tragedy actually be? Can art be anything but placating? You being so wrapped up in how bored you were with the satire while the film is actively criticizing itself for the same thing is hilarious to me. It's like another level of the movie breached into reality. You are literally one of the audience members strapping his mask on, but shaking his head at how terrible Fossil Fools was while trundling out onto a cold flooded hellscape. We all are. To me, that level of commentary and self awareness transcends comedy into discomfort and shame and hopelessness back to comedy. It's sublime. And you not understanding that and comparing it disfavorably to other heavy handed satires only increases my enjoyment of the movie. I rarely stay past the credits, but I wanted to see more of that future world that is so scary because it's not really that far removed from the future we can already picture because its already happening. And after that image fades... The sound of a rainforest. Frogs and birds. Insects. The sound of rain on broad leaves. Sounds that are being actively silenced as I watched the movie. It was bittersweet because it felt like a eulogy. Those sounds are precious because they aren't going to last and a world I didn't choose, don't know how to stop is coming and all I can do is cheer and clap at a big empty screen.
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u/West-Needleworker-66 1d ago
Would it have been a different movie if they talked about AI instead of talking about oil? I don’t think so. If anything, it would have just been more trivial and just a political movie
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u/Illustrious-Music409 1h ago
This movie is not really about the "enemy." It is about entertainment itself.
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u/Dave_Fincher 12d ago
And I disagree. Laughed hard. Loved every minute. It was brilliant.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
What did you laugh hard at? The forced obvious jokes? The fart humor? Where the lady said the cat should be burned?
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u/Dave_Fincher 3d ago
That and the irony of so much of it. You'll have to forgive me it's been a week since I saw it. Goodmans performance. The stupidity of all the govt employees.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Extremely basic jokes that did not land. That’s why this movie has no legs and no word of mouth and will be a giant money loss for the studios – because the director thinks he’s so much smarter than everyone else. And yet his humor is so juvenile.
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u/Dave_Fincher 3d ago
Well 50% of people agree with you. I belong to the other half who enjoyed its humor and message and craft.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
You enjoyed it’s sophomoric fart humor, and laughed at it? Was there any high-level humor involved here?
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u/Dave_Fincher 3d ago
Yes in the very ideas the film presented. The political satire. The corporate greed and rich people. The complacency of the business and govt towards people's lives.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Really? Every one of these takes was a tired, worn out trope. Is this your first rodeo?
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u/Dave_Fincher 3d ago
Lol. Why so much hate? It's a film. I enjoyed it. You didn't.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Honestly? Because the message this film was apparently trying to deliver is very important, and it delivered it in an entirely slipshod, ridiculous infuriating way designed to irritate audiences
because the director thinks he’s above trying to convince the public of anything.
Climate change is a real real problem and this director just fucking muddied the waters with his arrogance. That’s why.
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u/Jackjec17 5d ago
Completely agree walked out of cinema with an hour left read the synopsis I thought when they showed it was a bad play they might go to the movie but they stuck with the awful play and had horrendous sound effects and was soo uncomfortable to sit through terrible idea for a film
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Same. Walked out with an hour left. Fuck this director, this movie deserves to lose a lot of money and for him to be slapped back. He thinks all of his audiences are idiots.
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u/HWsPhilosoper 3d ago
Lmao this movie trusts the audience so much actually. Builds it's real concept slowly and rewards patience. But you couldn't be bothered, your prerogative
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u/Jackjec17 3d ago
Mate you can’t say a good movie is one. That has been bad for soo long with no signs of being good haha
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u/Jackjec17 3d ago
It was just the worst thing I’ve ever seen nice concept but they should go to the actual movie at some point or not have it openly as bad over acting loud noises the trailer is almost fraud and misleading haha
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u/huron9000 4d ago
Saw it last night, walked out with an hour left. What an ordeal. None of the humor landed for me either.
Preachy, talking to its audience like we are a bunch of idiots, telling us a bunch of stuff we already know.
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u/cheshamfox 4d ago
You missed some very key parts if you left with an hour to go, the whole point and message of the film comes in the last 30-40 minutes
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u/huron9000 4d ago
Well, shame on the director for abusing his audience to the point that many- not just me -were so exhausted at being shouted at and talked down to, that we left.
Irresponsible and self-indulgent.
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u/Brave-Bit-252 4d ago
You didn’t get the message
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Actually, you didn’t get the message – the director thinks you’re an idiot.
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u/Brave-Bit-252 3d ago
Digger‘s message isn’t that billionairs are the problem. The movie‘s biggest scene is about how the world needs oil, everyone does. The only difference between Digger and the others is that they want to use it while still claiming moral superiority. They are hypocrits and in no way better than Digger. And same goes for you and me and every other person using oil every single day. Then we watch a ”smart satire“ (fossil fuels in the movie or smth like don’t look up irl) to feel like good people ”oh look at Digger, what an idiotic asshole, i‘m so much smarter and better than him”. The audience of fossil fuels, in the same way responsible for using oil every single day, laughs and claps at their ”big bad guy” dying only to then going back to their pathetic lifes. Then we, the movie audience do the exact same thing. You‘re one of the theater audience, you were looking for confirmation bias to your political believes and ate the shallow message of the satire theater play fossil fuels, you didn’t understand Digger.
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u/huron9000 3d ago
Lol. I wasn’t looking for any confirmation bias of my political position, I already know I use oil and my lifestyle would not be the same without it. I didn’t need to spend $15 per ticket for some self-indulgent director to tell me that.
It’s a money grab on the part of the Director. And he insults his audience in the process.
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u/Brave-Bit-252 3d ago
If you‘d want to frame it in a bad light, you could‘ve called ist Oscar bait. Money grab doesn’t make sense with that movie at all. And self indulgent doesn’t make even less sense as the director is actively reflecting on and critiquing is own movie in itself. But I guess you didn’t get that either and apparently didn’t even see it.
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u/supermuncher60 6d ago
The movie even comments on your comment that "AI is the new enemy in this regard, not the old outdated "oil" drillers"
The play is financed by Diggers nephew who owns a "security" company. Aka something probably like flock but worse. The play gives the audience someone to blame and hate, see the yelling at the end of the play. All while the new villains clap along with everyone else.