The Hollywood ladder is unstable! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for poorly received movies after that hindered their lead actor’s commercial demand or employability.
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00:00 While you were still learning how to spell your name, I was being trained to conquer
00:06 galaxies.
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for poorly received movies
00:13 that hindered their lead actors' commercial demand or employability.
00:17 We will be excluding actors whose careers were completely decimated by the film in question,
00:21 like Elizabeth Berkley with Showgirls.
00:23 Where are you from?
00:27 Back East.
00:28 From where back East?
00:32 Different places.
00:34 Number 10.
00:35 Lucky Number Slevin - Josh Hartnett Rising to prominence in the late 90s with
00:39 Halloween H20, Josh Hartnett was one of the biggest leading men of the early 2000s.
00:45 He starred in the likes of Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor before appearing alongside
00:49 Bruce Willis in Lucky Number Slevin.
00:54 The movie was met with ho-hum reviews and grossed a middling $56 million.
01:00 It wasn't an outright disaster or anything, but it was enough to sink Hartnett's career
01:04 as a leading man.
01:06 Following 30 Days of Night, which came shortly after Slevin, Hartnett was relegated to supporting
01:10 roles in little-known movies.
01:13 Just, you forgot this.
01:15 Luckily, he would make a comeback of sorts in 2014 by starring in the Showtime horror
01:20 drama Penny Dreadful.
01:25 Number 9.
01:26 Elizabeth Town - Orlando Bloom It didn't get much bigger than Orlando Bloom
01:30 in the early 2000s.
01:39 The star of mega-blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and
01:43 Troy, Bloom was considered a huge box office draw.
01:47 And yes, his looks helped as well.
01:49 There's no denying it.
01:53 But in 2005, Bloom decided to tone down the heroics and star as the depressed Drew Baylor
01:58 in Cameron Crowe's Elizabeth Town.
02:01 It was not a good career move.
02:04 The movie and Bloom's performance were quite heavily criticized, and it did not fare well
02:09 at the box office.
02:10 Luckily, Bloom had his franchises to coast on, but his time as the up-and-coming action
02:14 star with a keen eye for new blockbusters was over.
02:23 Number 8.
02:24 Superman Returns - Kate Bosworth Usually, big movies like Superman make careers.
02:30 Well, not in this unfortunate case.
02:33 Kate Bosworth saw her popularity grow after the surfing drama Blue Crush and became a
02:37 highly sought-after actress.
02:41 She landed roles in the likes of When a Date with Tad Hamilton and Beyond the Sea opposite
02:46 Kevin Spacey.
02:47 This all led to a role of a lifetime, Lois Lane, in 2006's Superman Returns.
02:53 Remember that?
02:54 Yeah, no one really does.
03:03 The movie didn't come to much, and Bosworth's performance as Lois Lane was widely criticized,
03:10 leading to a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.
03:13 And that was pretty much that.
03:17 Number 7.
03:18 Abduction - Taylor Lautner Want to feel nostalgic?
03:22 Think about Twilight and Taylor Lautner.
03:25 The Twilight films launched Lautner to superstardom, and he became the biggest teen idol in the
03:30 world.
03:34 But unlike his fictional rival Robert Pattinson, Lautner was unable to make the transition
03:38 to big boy movies.
03:42 It certainly wasn't for a lack of trying.
03:44 Shortly before Breaking Dawn, Lautner starred in Abduction, which attempted to make him
03:48 an action star.
03:54 It didn't work.
03:55 Like, not at all.
03:56 Abduction has just 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Lautner's performance was playfully torn
04:01 apart by critics, leading to a Razzie nomination for Worst Actor.
04:06 The first Breaking Dawn came out later that year, but it wasn't enough to save his career
04:10 as a leading man.
04:12 Number 6.
04:13 Batman and Robin - Alicia Silverstone For her 1993 film The Crush, Alicia Silverstone
04:19 won an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.
04:23 That was putting it mildly.
04:26 Silverstone became a teen idol and starred in a little movie called Clueless.
04:30 You may have heard of it.
04:43 But Silverstone fell as quickly as she rose.
04:46 Like Kate Bosworth, her newfound popularity led to a role in a superhero film, in this
04:51 case 1997's Batman and Robin.
04:54 You may have heard of it, but not in the good Clueless way.
04:58 The movie was an unmitigated disaster, and nearly killed both Silverstone's career and
05:03 the entire Batman franchise.
05:07 While she still landed many roles, Silverstone was definitely knocked off the A-list.
05:13 Number 5.
05:14 Boat Trip and Radio - Cuba Gooding Jr To be honest, we don't know what Cuba Gooding
05:19 Jr was thinking with Boat Trip.
05:21 This guy was on the tippy top of the A-list, especially after winning an Oscar for Jerry
05:26 Maguire.
05:32 And then came this truly awful comedy.
05:40 Not only was the film critically reviled, but it was also accused of being homophobic.
05:45 Gooding attempted a comeback with the Oscar-baity role of Radio Kennedy in the football drama
05:50 Radio, but this was also considered offensive and terrible.
05:57 The films turned the Oscar winner into a Razzie nominee, and they all but killed his career.
06:02 Gooding would make a few sorta comebacks throughout the years, but his time on the A-list was
06:06 officially over.
06:08 Number 4.
06:09 I Know Who Killed Me - Lindsay Lohan The mid-2000s was not a good time for teen
06:13 idol Lindsay Lohan.
06:15 After striking it big as a movie star, Lohan struggled with both legal issues and substance
06:20 abuse, resulting in a highly publicized downfall.
06:23 I Know Who Killed Me was released in the midst of this downfall, and it certainly didn't
06:27 help with her reputation.
06:28 While it's now something of a cult film, I Know Who Killed Me was viciously criticized
06:32 at the time and won seven Razzies, including Worst Actress for Lohan.
06:41 It proved that she could not be taken seriously as a leading dramatic actress, and when combined
06:45 with the aforementioned controversies, it resulted in a total collapse of her potential.
06:52 Number 3.
06:53 Waterworld and The Postman - Kevin Costner Waterworld dried up like the Sahara, and Kevin
06:59 Costner sure did pay for it.
07:01 This film from Kevin Reynolds was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, coming
07:05 with a price tag of $175 million.
07:20 But it grossed just $264 million, making it an enormous financial disappointment.
07:26 This was followed by the action drama The Postman, which won five Razzies, including
07:30 Worst Pitcher.
07:42 It's funny, both movies are about the post-apocalypse, and both are responsible for destroying Costner's
07:47 career as a leading man.
07:49 But Costner never gave up acting, and he would later win an Emmy for the History Channel
07:52 miniseries Hatfields and McCoys.
08:02 Number 2.
08:03 Battlefield Earth - John Travolta There are bad movies, and there are legendarily
08:09 bad movies.
08:10 Battlefield Earth is the latter.
08:15 The story behind this film is pretty interesting.
08:17 John Travolta is no stranger to career slumps, having suffered a major one throughout the
08:21 1980s.
08:23 But Pulp Fiction revitalized his career, and he used his newfound power to adapt L. Ron
08:28 Hubbard's Battlefield Earth.
08:31 This was a passion project for Travolta, as he has been a member of Scientology since
08:36 the mid-70s, and was personally asked by Hubbard to adapt his novel.
08:41 But all his hard work and lobbying were for naught.
08:43 The film was an instant failure.
08:46 Disregarded as one of the worst movies ever made, and it sent Travolta into his second
08:52 career slump.
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09:12 Number 1.
09:13 The Love Guru, Mike Myers.
09:15 It seemed like this comedian would be around forever.
09:20 Throughout the 90s and 2000s, it was just hit after hit, classic after classic.
09:29 Minus maybe the cat in the hat.
09:35 And then came The Love Guru, and everything just fell apart.
09:40 It's quite amazing how one bad film can completely derail a career of this caliber.
09:45 But The Love Guru wasn't just bad, it was horrid.
09:49 Probably one of the worst comedies of the 21st century.
09:51 And that was pretty much it for Myers as a leading comedy actor.
09:59 He still pops up in the odd film, and always to a pleasant, "Hey look, it's Mike Myers."
10:04 But his time in the spotlight has long since passed, however unfortunate that may be.
10:09 You feel inadequate because he has plenty of clarity, organization, charm, and knowledge.
10:16 What actor were you sad to see drop off the A-list?
10:18 Let us know in the comments.
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10:31 [music]