7. Angelina Jolie
A little tabloid sizzle was good enough to make a hit out of Jolie's 2005 action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but that was Jolie's first "big" movie to really pay off since the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie in 2001. Otherwise, her '00s have been spent heading down the road toward becoming famous for being famous. In spite of high-profile appearances in Alexander and Beowulf, and well-meaning prestige efforts like Beyond Borders and A Mighty Heart, Jolie is less a movie star now than a daytime-TV celebrity. Her main problem may be overexposure: Why would anyone pay to see her on the big screen when her romantic travails, mothering adventures, and political perspectives constantly clutter up the small one?
8. Nicolas Cage
Cage's current showing at the box office in National Treasure 2 not only stands as proof that he hasn't been dragged down into unemployment by his many flops, it's an object lesson in why. While a large percentage of his films over the past dozen years or so have been moderate-to-catastrophic financial failures—for instance,Next, The Weather Man, The Wicker Man, Lord Of War, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Windtalkers, Bringing Out The Dead, and Snake Eyes—he still manages to pull off a National Treasure or a (gulp) Ghost Rider every now and then, reminding Hollywood of the massive payoffs of his back-to-back '90s hits, Leaving Las Vegas, Con Air, The Rock, and Face/Off. Still, he's established a pretty clear track record at this point. He makes money in big, dumb action films, and loses it everywhere else. Looking at the bottom line, it's hard to understand why Hollywood keeps trying to plug him into quirky, personality-driven fare, especially since as an actor, he generally just has the one personality to offer.
9. Keanu Reeves
And speaking of one-note acting, Reeves had the great fortune to start out his career with a handful of films that made his limited range, from blank affability to blank rigidity, look like carefully crafted acting: His roles in River's Edge, Dangerous Liaisons, the Bill & Ted movies, Parenthood, and My Own Private Idaho all pinpointed appropriate aspects of his little-changing affect so cleverly that it looked like he had range. By the time films like Dracula, Much Ado About Nothing, Johnny Mnemonic, and A Walk In The Clouds proved otherwise, it was too late—he already had a juggernaut career. And the success of The Matrix sealed the deal. Not even theatrical flops like The Watcher, Sweet November, Thumbsucker, Constantine, A Scanner Darkly, and even The Matrix Revolutions have been able to stop him from getting work, even though the closest thing he's had to a hit lately was the so-so 2006 love story The Lake House. Coming later this year: Reeves as Klaatu in a remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. No, seriously, we aren't kidding even a little bit.
10. Hilary Swank
Having two Oscars in the can will buy anyone's floundering career a stay of execution, but apart from committed, powerful performances in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, Swank has a résumé spottier than a leopard with severe acne. Remember The Affair Of The Necklace, a period piece from the co-director of the Father Of The Bride remakes? No? How about The Core, a sub-Armageddon knock-off about the burbling apocalypse under our feet? Speaking of apocalypse, there's also Swank's blinkered turn in The Reaping, a horror film about 10 biblical plagues that's the most hilariously batshit movie of its kind since Demi Moore in The Seventh Sign. Swank also looked conspicuously out of place as a mysterious sex kitten in The Black Dahlia, and she hooked up twice with writer-director Richard LaGravenese, first with the well-meaning treacle Freedom Writers, and recently with P.S. I Love You, which found her character getting romantically stalked from beyond the grave.
11. Jessica Alba
If star status were based only on "world's hottest chicks!" lists, Jessica Alba would be bigger than Jesus. But her cinematic résumé isn't nearly as sexy. Supporting roles in decent-sized hits like Sin City and the Fantastic Four movies keep her from being a total box-office washout, but the bulk of her oeuvre is made up of non-starter romantic comedies and horror movies like 2007's toxic tandem Good Luck Chuck and Awake. And upcoming projects like The Eye (yet another forgettable-looking remake of a Hong Kong horror flick) and the Mike Myers vehicle The Love Guru indicate Alba is in no hurry to pursue a prestige project showing she can, you know, act. But since youth and beauty last forever, Alba obviously has nothing to worry about.
12. Sandra Bullock
Bullock won filmgoers' hearts with Speed, While You Were Sleeping, and the Miss Congeniality movies, then tested their patience with flops like Two If By Sea, Gun Shy, Speed 2, Forces Of Nature, and Murder By Numbers. Yet she remains a big box-office attraction, commanding huge salaries ($15 million for Murder By Numbers) and regularly headlining big studio movies. Bullock wisely segued into character-actor roles as her box-office power steadily waned, with supporting parts in movies like Crash and Infamous, but it'll be interesting to see if she can hold onto her superstar status once she hits the far side of her 40s and ages out of romantic-comedy leads. If nothing else, there's always Speed 3.
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