“The worst film” of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career is a reminder “to make sure it doesn’t happen again”
From the disaster romance Titanic to the greed-fuelled carnage of The Wolf of Wall Street, there’s a reason why Leonardo DiCaprio remains so lauded. He might have started life as a Hollywood heartthrob, but the actor quickly made himself a name to be reckoned with after a series of incredible, serious acting performances.
For the most part, DiCaprio has a remarkable knack for starring in successful films and lifting them with the broad scope of his talent. While some titles divide opinions among fans, his most recent performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a reminder of his talent. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would question DiCaprio’s standing amongst the very best in cinema.
A sharp character actor, the list of great movies that DiCaprio has lent his talent to is genuinely astounding. Outside of the aforementioned, he’s starred in Martin Scorsese’s biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can, played Howard Hughes in the same auteur’s The Aviator, tried his hand at survival drama in The Revenant, and even forayed into the vivid postmodern world of Quentin Tarantino in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Whether it be heroes, villains, or everything in between, DiCaprio has approached each role fearlessly across his four-decade career, creating many highlights.
Despite such a glowing account of his work, DiCaprio isn’t proud of every title he’s starred in, and regardless of their rarity, there are outright duds found in his oeuvre. Whilst most of these came at the start of his career, with the likes of 1992’s erotic thriller Poison Ivy and 1995’s The Basketball Diaries qualifiers, it is 1991’s Critters 3 that DiCaprio hates the most. He is so disdainful of the movie that he once labelled it “possibly one of the worst films of all time”.
In 1991, the young DiCaprio had shown some promise as an actor but nothing that made him stand out from the era’s myriad of young performers. In that year’s low-budget horror Critters 3, he played Josh, the stepson of a crooked landlord. As the film was heavily panned – currently holding 0% on Rotten Tomatoes – so too was the youthful DiCaprio, with one publication describing him as “your average, no-depth, standard kid with blonde hair”.
However, legend states that the hard lessons learnt from Critters 3 taught DiCaprio a lifelong lesson. It has much to do with why he has only starred in mostly quality movies since. He is quoted as saying: “[Critters 3 is] possibly one of the worst films of all time. I guess it was a good example to look back and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Now, there’s a reason to have a bad movie on your resume and to remind you to not make bad movies is a pretty good one. DiCaprio has clearly taken that seriously and has never come close to plumbing such depths ever again. Sure, some movies in his career are a little questionable. The Great Gatsby and Don’t Look Up stand out as modern missteps, but for the most part, he has delivered the goods.
