10. Mariah Carey
Like Spears, Mariah Carey‘s film was built expressly for her. And while no one can deny her vocal abilities, everyone can and did criticize her acting abilities. Glitter flopped in every way a film can. The studio even forced Carey to hold off on producing a soundtrack in favour of a compilation album just to distance itself from the project.
Critics and bloggers took almost sadistic glee in calling the singer’s acting “one-note.” They got pun-happy. Sadly, after witnessing such an atrocious performance, it’s hard to disagree with them. Carey hasn’t gotten the message though, continuing to appear in films such as You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,Precious and The Butler.
9. James Taylor
James Taylor is world-famous for touring and sharing his boring old white man music with fans who had already OD’d on Jimmy Buffet and had to switch off the hard stuff. Monte Hellman’s road movie Two-Lane Blacktop starred Taylor, in his only role, as “The Driver” who, alongside his mechanic, aimlessly wander through America. It’s like Easy Rider without any semblance of plot or motivation. At the time, it wasn’t well-received but has been re-evaluated as a time-capsule classic.
The dialogue is minimal, and doesn’t require much of its two unnamed leads. It’s the side characters such as Warren Oates’ GTO and Harry Dean Stanton‘s gay hitchhiker that provide most of the fun. Taylor is just a blank slate.
Years later, he had a cameo in Judd Apatow‘s Funny People as himself, wherein we learned that the blank slate approach might be the only one Taylor has. The man couldn’t even land a joke.
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