Even the most talented actors have found themselves giving an awful performance.
Can you name the acclaimed actor who was head-over-heels for Adam Sandler dressed up as a woman?
Or the famous actor and talk-show host who was legally forced to team up with a talking dinosaur?
Keep watching for more!
For such an awful movie, "Battlefield Earth" features some pretty amazing actors, including
Barry Pepper and John Travolta.
But if we had to pick the best actor to appear in this piece of sci-fi garbage, it's hard
to argue with Forest Whitaker.
The man won an Oscar for his powerful performance as the insane dictator Idi Amin in "The Last
King of Scotland."
He was the essence of cool in "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai," he tore at our heartstrings
in "The Crying Game," and he grabbed everybody's attention with his leading role in "Bird."
What's such a talented guy doing in one of the worst-reviewed films of all time?
A movie based on a novel written by the man who created Scientology, no less?
The answer is simple: he was delivering the worst performance of his career.
Playing Ker, an oversized alien with dreams of getting rich, Whitaker is forced to drop
insults like "corporate crap heads" and earnestly wonder why humans enjoy eating rats.
If this were a comedy, maybe it would work, but it's supposed to be deadly serious.
So when Whitaker delivers his lines in caveman fashion, it comes off as unintentionally hilarious.
“Stupid Humans”
His only saving grace is that he's partially shielded by Travolta's insane performance
as the power-hungry Terl.
Of course, even if Whitaker was doing an amazing job, it hardly would've mattered, as he's
buried under some pretty terrible makeup.
Jesse Eisenberg wowed everyone when he played Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network."
While we can argue all day about the accuracy of David Fincher's film, there's no denying
Eisenberg gave a powerhouse of a performance.
He was even nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.
In addition to playing the social media mogul, Eisenberg has left his mark on movies like
"The Double," "Roger Dodger," "The End of the Tour," and "The Squid and the Whale."
But every great actor has their cinematic Kryptonite, and in Eisenberg's case, that's
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."
The curly-haired star won a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie for his performance as Lex Luthor,
a role that was probably better suited for someone older and more menacing.
Honestly, Eisenberg is the worst Luthor of all time, especially when compared to the
likes of Gene Hackman and Michael Rosenbaum.
Eisenberg was just too loud and manic to play the Man of Steel's archenemy, and honestly,
he would've done a far better job as the Riddler or the Joker.
Putting a new spin on a classic character was a risky move on Eisenberg's part, and
sadly, it just didn't pay off.
“Ding, ding, ding, ding.”
For more than a decade Halle Berry was one of the most likable stars in Hollywood.
She starred in comedies like "Boomerang", serviceable dramas like "Losing Isaiah," and
action spectaculars like "X-Men."
Then, she delivered an absolutely devastating gut-punch of a performance in the sad, engrossing
2001 indie movie "Monster's Ball."
Her work as Leticia Musgrove, the grieving widow of an executed convict falling in love
with her husband's executioner, won Berry an Academy Award for Best Actress.
But the kind of showy, meaty scripts befitting a newly-minted Oscar winner didn't follow
for Berry.
After "Monster's Ball," Berry was a "Bond girl" in "Die Another Day," played Storm in
another X-Men" movie, and co-starred in the horror flick "Gothika."
Then, in 2004, she played the titular character in the Batman spinoff "Catwoman."
The film consists mainly of Berry strutting around Gotham City in a tight, flesh-baring
catsuit, smirking to herself as she commits crimes and avoids capture.
Keith Phipps of The AV Club wrote,
"Catwoman is essentially an excuse to pose Berry in ever-skimpier outfits."
Berry at least tried to save this bomb of a movie and give it her best.
Andrea Thompson of The Spool argued,
“Some sort of acting category should’ve been created just for her, and the amount
of effort she spent trying to salvage the unsalvageable, putting her all into every
idiotic line.”
“Oops, my bad.”
Berry herself called "Catwoman" a, quote, "piece of s---” and a “god-awful movie"
when she accepted her Razzie Award for Worst Actress in person.
In the first half of the 1980s, Eddie Murphy was the hottest star on TV, dominating "Saturday
Night Live" with hilarious characters like Velvet Jones, Buckwheat, and Mr. Robinson.
Then he became a major movie star, headlining classic comedies of the '80s and '90s including
"Beverly Hills Cop," "Trading Places," "Coming to America," and "The Nutty Professor."
After some box-office bombs such as "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" and "I Spy," Eddie Murphy was
back on top of Hollywood in 2006.
He earned plaudits for his rare dramatic turn as a tragic '60s R&B singer in the 2006 movie
adaptation of the musical "Dreamgirls."
Murphy received his first ever Academy Award nomination, and he was predicted by Oscars
pundits and experts to triumphantly take home a statuette.
But then "Norbit" came along, apparently derailing everything.
“Don’t you think I realize what’s going on here, miss.”
Murphy starred in "Norbit" as the titular character, a nerdy doormat who falls into
an abusive relationship with a mean woman named Rasputia Latimore.
With the aid of prosthetics and a cringe-inducing fake accent, Murphy also portrayed Chinese
orphanage caretaker Mr. Wong, and, with makeup, wigs, and a fat suit, played Raputia, too.
Critics hated the fart joke-heavy "Norbit," a film with a 9 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It's also entirely possible that Academy Award voters, seeing "Norbit" everywhere, thought
twice about checking the box for Murphy.
Alan Arkin ultimately won Best Supporting Actor for "Little Miss Sunshine" over Murphy.
In 2003, it had become something of a national pastime to rag on Gigli.
Part romantic comedy, part mob movie, potentially insulting to the LGBTQ community, Italians,
disabled people, and who knows how many other groups, "Gigli" was indeed a very bad movie.
Jennifer Lopez portrayed Ricki, a charming gangster sent to help out an inept, low-level
mob goon. Said goon was tasked with kidnapping the mentally disabled brother of a federal
prosecutor going after their syndicate.
Ricki is gay, but she somehow can't resist the charms of Affleck's Gigli — a sputtering,
clownish, Italian-American stereotype.
The Independent Critic found Affleck so terrific in "Argo," "Gone Girl," "The Way Back," and
"Good Will Hunting," as did many others.
So to see, as the outlet put it, that Affleck had no chemistry with Lopez, was disappointing,
especially since she was his fiancée at the time.
Joel Siegel of ABC News boldly wrote,
"Ben Affleck, an Oscar-winning screenwriter, is a man of many talents.
I'm not sure acting is among them."
In a career filled with silly, high-concept comedies loathed by critics, Adam Sandler's
"Jack and Jill" has the impressive distinction of being the most poorly-reviewed theatrical
film he has ever made.
It earned a woeful 3 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
It was also the first movie to sweep the Razzie Awards, winning 10 prizes for ineptitude in film.
Sandler plays the titular twins, both of them utterly unlikeable, a workaholic commercial
producer and his obnoxious, loud, emotionally fragile sister.
But while Sandler's broad style doesn't feel out of place in the wacky, physical comedy-oriented
flick, Al Pacino sure does.
Pacino works on a completely different level in the Adam Sandler comedy, surprisingly.
Known for the intense skills he put to good use in cinematic touchstones like "Dog Day
Afternoon," "Serpico" and the "Godfather" films, those same skills simply paint Pacino
as unhinged in "Jack and Jill."
But what's strange is that Pacino's worst performance has him misplaying ... himself.
The sole motivation of his character to romance Jill, Adam Sandler in women's clothes and
a wig, leaves him with nothing to work with.
All we see is a perverse fascination with an utterly unappealing woman.
Pacino aggressively makes unwanted advances toward Jill, groping her, touching her, and
trying to show her how to play Brooklyn-style stickball.
Though, he does take breaks to go off on long, meandering, mumbled tangents about his life,
work, and wealth with a wide and wild-eyed stare that uncomfortably penetrates other
characters and the audience, too.
After starring in masterpieces like "Taxi Driver," "The Godfather: Part II," "The Deer
Hunter," and "Raging Bull," Robert De Niro built up a legendary career as one of the
most respected actors of his generation.
He followed that up by spending most of the new millennium playing grumpy old men.
This strategy may have worked out commercially with "Meet the Parents" and its sequels, but
not so much with "The Big Wedding," "Everybody's Fine," "The War with Grandpa," or "Dirty Grandpa."
De Niro, so frequently the orchestrator of singular roles with singular talent and detail,
has been reduced to portraying the cliched lusty old man who wants to party hard and
make Viagra jokes.
He tricks his buttoned-up grandson into taking him to Daytona Beach for spring break festivities.
He is, in other words, exactly what the title says he is: a dirty grandpa.
Flavorwire's Jason Bailey called the movie,
"The absolute nadir of late-period Robert De Niro, which is really saying something,"
Critic Richard Crouse said,
"[It’s] the kind of film that, one day, De Niro's great-grandchildren will watch and
wonder what all the fuss about him was."
Jon Voight‘s career has spanned seven decades, beginning in the 1960s and exploding with
an Oscar-nominated breakout role as a naive sex worker in the 1969 Best Picture winner
"Midnight Cowboy."
A decade later, he gave voice to the experience of hundreds of thousands of American men as
a Vietnam War veteran readjusting to civilian life in "Coming Home," for which he won the
Oscar for Best Actor.
In 2001, Voight was nominated again for playing Howard Cosell in the Muhammad Ali biopic "Ali."
In recent years, Voight has turned to TV, earning accolades and awards for his roles
on "24" and "Ray Donovan."
But Voight doesn't only appear in prestigious projects.
He's a prolific actor who has sometimes, unapologetically, taken paychecks wherever they present themselves.
Certainly, the rock bottom of his resume of 100 projects is "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2."
Voight plays the villainous Bill Biscane, a German tycoon with a bad blond wig, locked
in an endless battle with a James Bond-type baby.
"Superbabies" scored a perfect 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics blaming
the film's awfulness squarely on Voight.
The Austin Chronicle called his performance that of a superhammy nincompoop, while the
San Francisco Chronicle's critic said they felt embarrassed for the actor.
USA Today said that Voight looked more comfortable when he was regurgitated in the snake-based
horror movie "Anaconda."
"Theodore Rex" is a movie so strange, misbegotten, and largely forgotten that it feels like a
fake movie you'd see in a real one making fun of the entertainment industry.
But no, Whoopi Goldberg really did star in a gritty police movie about a human and a
dinosaur, paired up as detectives trying to solve a crime in a world where people and
talking dinosaurs co-exist.
Whoopi Goldberg played the human half of the detective duo in "Theodore Rex."
Her performance as a futuristic police officer, acting opposite a pretend dinosaur, does not
rank with her iconic roles, such as in "The Color Purple," "Ghost," or "Sister Act."
Goldberg seems alternately bored, annoyed, anxious, and wooden, and with good reason.
After trying to back out of a promise to star in the movie, producers sued Goldberg in 1993.
After much legal wrangling, the actor was essentially forced by the courts to act in "Theodore Rex."
Looking at her performance all these years later, it sure seems like she was determined
to put in as little effort as humanly possible.
“Thank you, sir.”
"Cats" is an extremely theatrical experience, which is probably why it took so long to make
it into a movie.
The 2019 film's sprawling cast included nearly 80 actors, many of whom have won all sorts
of awards.
And what did director Tom Hooper do with so many talented actors, including Dame Judi
Dench, Jennifer Hudson, and Idris Elba?
He dressed them up in shabby cat costumes and had them prance around a soundstage while
singing nonsensical songs about cat life, while CGI technology shrank them down to cat size.
The whole idea should have been relegated to the litter box.
"Cats" features such hard-to-watch scenes as McKellen, best known as the mighty Gandalf
in the iconic "The Lord of the Rings" films, lamenting his glory days as a young theater cat.
"Cats" was nominated for nine Razzie Awards, with Dench singled out for her particularly
imperfect performance.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about the movies we love to hate are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.