Top 20 Famous Actors That Keep Making Bad Movies
#20: Jamie Kennedy
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Yes, Jamie Kennedy was in the “Scream” movies, and we’re not taking those classic horror movies away from him. However, one look at the rest of his filmography and you’ll find yourself doing a lot of screaming at how scarily bad it is. Perhaps the most glaring example is “Son of the Mask”. After Jim Carrey refused to make a sequel to “The Mask,” Kennedy was hired, resulting in this terrible Golden Raspberry-nominated movie. This was Kennedy’s shot at stardom and it failed spectacularly. Since then, it’s been one obscure, low-quality film after another. Have you seen “Bending the Rules” or “Buddy Hutchins?” If you planned on doing so, to paraphrase the good “Mask” movie, somebody should STOP you.
#19: Jennifer Love Hewitt
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You know what Jennifer Love Hewitt did last summer? She made a bad movie. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t literally last summer, but throughout Hewitt’s lengthy career, if she’s appeared in a movie, you can almost guarantee that it’s a bad one. Scroll through her catalog on Rotten Tomatoes and you’ll notice something pretty amazing. Hewitt hasn’t made one movie that’s scored above 54% among critics, excluding “The Client List,” which was made-for-TV. And it’s not just the critics who aren’t impressed. Only a handful of her films have received positive audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, with “Can’t Hardly Wait” being maybe the most divisive.
#18: Jean-Claude Van Damme
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While most actors tend to make worse movies as their star power wanes, Jean-Claude Van Damme has actually delivered multiple commendable films in the 21st century. Perhaps the most notable of these is 2008’s “JCVD”. However, these few acclaimed works are completely overshadowed by the numerous mediocre movies the “muscles from Brussels” has made over his long career. Despite achieving box-office success with titles like “Universal Soldier” and “Time Cop,” many of Van Damme’s works have simply fallen short of greatness. If all it took to make a truly exceptional film was the ability to do the splits, then Van Damme might have the most impressive filmography ever. But clearly, it takes a little more than that.
#17: Jessica Biel
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Unfortunately for Jessica Biel, her time on “7th Heaven” didn’t garner her any good will from the movie gods. Since she departed the show, Biel’s extensive resume has been marked by a lot more misses than hits. In an attempt to diversify her roles, she ventured into sci-fi and action with films like “Blade: Trinity” and “Next,” to pretty unsuccessful results. She was even in that awful “Total Recall” remake in 2012. Biel has tried her hand at the rom-com thing as well, with turns in “Valentine's Day” and “New Year's Eve.” However, neither of those produced anything beyond the standard romantic comedy fare.
#16: Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler burst onto our radars with his star-making turn in Zack Snyder’s “300.” But even if we were to turn a blind eye to his earlier movies, the quality of his work since then has been just as bad, if not worse. We assume that with more fame comes a lot more choices. Unfortunately, some of the choices Butler has made have been questionable, to say the least. “Gamer” is an all-style-no-substance action movie, and the rom-coms “The Ugly Truth” and “The Bounty Hunter” possess neither believable romance nor clever comedy. 2011’s take on Shakespeare's “Coriolanus” may stand out as a rare high point, but films like the “Has Fallen” franchise only regress him into mediocrity.
#15: Jaden Smith
As a full-fledged nepo baby, Jaden Smith has enjoyed a lot more opportunities than many of his counterparts. However, as we’ve seen in his relatively small body of work, with said opportunities haven’t come the best choices. Although Smith showed promise with his movie debut in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” the quality of his projects since then have taken a steep downturn. Both “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “The Karate Kid” made money, but while the latter could be considered average, the former was disliked by both critics and audiences. Then in 2013, Smith reunited with his dad in “After Earth,” a movie so widely panned, the older Smith called it “the most painful failure in his career.”
#14: Katherine Heigl
While Katherine Heigl has had some negative things to say about “Knocked Up”, it still ranks as one of the top comedies of the 2000s. But while that film is a thumbs up on her IMDb page, our thumbs turn mostly down for the rest of her credits. Following “Knocked Up” Heigl had a rom-com run that stands out for how generally forgettable it was. “27 Dresses” has its fans, but there’s very little good to say about “The Ugly Truth”, “Life as We Know It” or “New Year's Eve”. The 2010s saw Heigl in a number of low-budget misses as well. Who remembers “Home Sweet Hell” and “Unforgettable”? Exactly.
#13: Pauly Shore
Pauly Shore’s tenure as an MTV VJ from 1989 to 1994 propelled him to considerable fame, particularly among younger audiences. That fame led to the making of “Encino Man”, which, despite the critical panning, managed to turn a modest profit and developed a dedicated fanbase. This was good for Shore, but bad for ‘90s film-goers, who were then inundated with a slew of Pauly Shore movies from “Son in Law” to “In the Army Now”, “Jury Duty” and “Bio-Dome”. But it wasn’t just the critics that hated these movies, the audience didn’t show much love to Shore as the decade went on either, as each movie earned lesser returns at the box office.
#12: Jennifer Lopez
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Jennifer Lopez rose to fame as the titular singer in the well-received 1997 film “Selena.” She quickly followed that up with the cult classic “Anaconda” and the great Steven Soderbergh film, “Out of Sight”. As the ‘90s came to a close, Lopez was a huge star, but with that stardom came a string of bad to mediocre rom-coms from “The Wedding Planner” to “The Back-up Plan”. And let’s not forget her two big flops with Ben Affleck: Kevin Smith’s disappointing “Jersey Girl” and the widely maligned “Gigli”. All of that just gets us to 2010. Since then, Lopez has appeared in movies like “Second Act” and “Shotgun Wedding,” whose mid-40s Rotten Tomatoes scores should tell you all you need to know.
#11: Nicolas Cage
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What happened to this career? Once an A-list actor, making huge paychecks for high profile roles, Nicolas Cage has since seemingly relegated himself to the realms of straight-to-DVD and video-on-demand. Well, as it turns out, financial mismanagement is to blame. Bad real estate investments and tax-related issues resulted in serious money problems for the California native, who reportedly responded by taking on as many acting gigs as possible in order to dig himself out of the hole. The severity of his debt can be measured by the huge number of films he’s starred in that you’ve probably never heard of like “The Runner,” “Pay the Ghost,” and “Vengeance: A Love Story.”
#10: Jessica Alba
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This California native first caught the attention of the masses as the star of “Dark Angel,” a James Cameron co-created TV series that actually earned Alba a Golden Globe nomination. Since then, she’s become a household name, and is widely considered one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Praise for her acting, however, has diminished. Many of her films have earned her Razzie nominations, including, but not limited to, “Into the Blue,” “Fantastic Four,” “Good Luck Chuck,” “The Love Guru,” and “Little Fockers.” These days, she is more famous as a businesswoman than as an actress.
#9: Jai Courtney
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When John McClane returned to the big screen with “Live Free or Die Hard,” critics and fans alike were pleasantly surprised by the strong outing. Then came the sequel, the critically reviled “A Good Day to Die Hard,” which introduced many to Jai Courtney in his first starring role. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t a good start for the “Spartacus” alumnus. Though he followed it up with the well-received Australian flick, “Felony”, roles in “I, Frankenstein,” and the “Divergent” series tipped the scale in the wrong direction. Courtney then left his mark on yet another classic action franchise with the poorly received “Terminator Genisys”. But the roles keep on coming!
#8: Jennifer Aniston
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Jennifer Aniston’s career will forever remain iconic for starring in one of the best sitcoms in TV history. She even made some great film choices as well - just look at the high-quality laugh-out-loud comedies, “Office Space” and “Horrible Bosses”. However, to paraphrase Ross, for much of her film career, it seems she was “on a break” from good movies. “Bruce Almighty” may have made a lot of money, but its mediocre reviews certainly didn’t bode well for Aniston. She followed that up with “Along Came Polly”, “Rumor Has It” and “The Break-Up,” which all have Rotten Tomatoes scores under 35%. As if to crown all of her lackluster efforts, Aniston ultimately earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for her turn in “Just Go with It”.
#7: Taylor Lautner
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Heartthrob though he may be, Taylor Lautner has seemingly struggled to land that transformative role to help him reinvent himself as a leading man. And let’s be honest, while they were financial juggernauts, the “Twilight” films weren’t exactly critical successes. Since then, Lautner has donned the mask of action hero in “Abduction” and “Tracers,” both of which flopped, as well as the guise of funnyman in “The Ridiculous 6,” which currently boasts 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. And sadly, his foray into indie drama, “Run the Tide,” didn’t land with critics either.
#6: Ashton Kutcher
Nothing hurts quite like giving it your all in a dramatic biopic only to have someone tell the same story two years later, to significantly better reviews. Sadly, this was Ashton Kutcher’s experience when he played tech visionary Steve Jobs in 2013, before Michael Fassbender took a crack at the role. Since his days on “That ‘70s Show,” Kutcher has put out a steady stream of films that, although often financially successful, have consistently been duds at least as far as critics are concerned. Movies like “New Year’s Eve,” “Valentine’s Day,” and “What Happens in Vegas”? We’re looking at you.
#5: Megan Fox
What is there to say about Megan Fox that hasn’t already been said? As a modern sex symbol, this actress has been typecast for her looks pretty much since day one. Though she’s never been regarded as a particularly gifted actress, in all fairness, the films in which she’s been cast haven’t exactly given her much to work with. You can’t help but respect the way she’s embraced her place in the film industry, though. Since becoming a mother, she’s publicly stated that she’s a mom full-time and an actress part-time, treating acting as a source of income rather than her true passion, but confident in getting roles to support her kids.
#4: Tyler Perry
Hey… if you find a character that works at the box office, why not just keep churning out movies? Tyler Perry has proven himself to be a talented actor, writer, and filmmaker, with a bank account to back it up, but the “Madea” film franchise he started with “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” has become a veritable Razzie magnet over the years. In the series, Perry plays the titular Madea, a “tough elderly black woman.” Despite the fact that critics have panned almost all of the “Madea” films, Perry keeps making them, and audiences keep coming back for more.
#3: Kevin James
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Like so many other Hollywood funnymen, Kevin James got his start in standup before breaking into television and landing his own series. Towards the end of “King of Queens,” James made the shift into film, a medium in which he has made quite the name for himself. His first starring role, in the romantic comedy “Hitch,” saw him playing the lovable, but bumbling, Albert Brennaman, and that movie actually did quite well. Since then however… the films in which he’s had a substantial role have all been widely panned as lowest common denominator family comedies, full of cheap laughs.
#2: Steven Seagal
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Steven Seagal made his film debut in 1988 and just four years later scored a box office and critical hit with “Under Siege.” From all indications, the martial artist and actor appeared to have a promising action movie career ahead of him. But instead, Seagal has spent the last three decades making one bad movie after another. Besides “Machete,” the man hasn’t been in one non-documentary feature film that’s scored more than 53% on Rotten Tomatoes by the critics or the audience. In fact, the only other “good” movie he made was “Executive Decision,” and he’s killed about one-third of the way into the film.
#1: Adam Sandler
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Of all the famous actors out there whose films have taken a nosedive in terms of quality, Adam Sandler has been going the longest and hardest. Even when he tries to do better with acclaimed films like “Punch-Drunk Love” and “Uncut Gems,” Sandler quickly reverts to default with a string of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movies. Despite starring in one critically loathed film after another, he keeps making money, and actually seems to be worth getting into business with. Netflix signed a film deal with the comedian and it’s been lucrative for both parties. Looks like Rob Schneider and the rest of the Happy Madison crew will have work for the foreseeable future!
