The 1999 Robert Downey Jr movie despised by the people who made it: “I hate that film most”

Robert Downey Jr's career hit a rough patch between 1998 and 2005, a period marked by turmoil in his personal life and a string of poorly received films, before his comeback with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Among these was 1999's In Dreams, a psychological thriller directed by Neil Jordan and co-written by celebrated screenwriter Bruce Robinson, which turned out so badly that Robinson has repeatedly and viciously denounced it in interviews since.

In the film, Downey Jr plays a red-haired serial killer who becomes psychically linked to Annette Bening's character, though her warnings go unheeded until her daughter is murdered. Robinson, the Oscar-nominated writer of Withnail & I, called In Dreams "a complete and utter mess from top to bottom" and said it was the project he hated most out of everything he had ever worked on, even ranking it worse than another film he disliked, Jennifer Eight. Director Neil Jordan has also acknowledged it as the worst film of his career, a reputation that has stuck with the picture ever since its release.