While movie legend Matthew McConaughey has been in more hits than we can count, not all his projects have been so well-received. But against all odds, one of his worst-reviewed films is proving a smash hit on the Netflix UK top-10 movies rankings.
This film is Failure to Launch from all the way back in 2006; the man was already a draw then but the likes of The Lincoln Lawyer, Interstellar or Dallas Buyers Club were still before him.
The movie was added to Netflix UK on Friday, October 20, and has rocketed up to become the streamer's fourth most-watched movie, after new originals Old Days and The Devil on Trial and popular Marvel movie Spider-Man: No Way Home. It's a big achievement for a nearly 20-year-old movie to get this high on the list!
Failure to Launch centers on McConaughey's Tripp, a 35-year-old bachelor who lives at home and doesn't form permanent relationships. When his parents hire an expert to try and solve his personal issues (and get him out of their nest), this woman ends up getting too attached to the man.
If that movie sounds very similar to the 2023 rom-com No Hard Feelings, it's because it is!
Sarah Jessica Parker also stars as Paula, the expert hired to solve Tripp's emotional issues, and the all-star cast is rounded out with Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha as Tripp's friends, Zooey Deschanel as Pauala's flatmate Kit and Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates as Tripp's parents.
Despite that stacked cast, Failure to Launch was absolutely hated by the critics; it has a disappointing 23% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its audience score is also rotten. Critics called it a formulaic rom-com with little to set it away from the crowd, and remember that in the mid-2000s the rom-coms were coming thick and fast, though a 23% rating seems a little harsh for this assessment!
The movie did make a profit and was actually the 20th highest-grossing movie in the US that year, but it's been completely forgotten about 17 years later. Well, that was the case, until Netflix movie fans started jumping onto it.
Looking at the rest of the Netflix movie top 10 liust, Failure to Launch is an outlier compared to the various horror and mystery options on the list. Perhaps that's why some streaming fans are jumping on it; some people will prefer a laugh to a jump scare!
