13. Samuel L. Jackson
On the other hand, Samuel L. Jackson's career didn't take off until he was well into his 40s. He seems intent on making up for lost time by ascribing to the Christopher Walken school of accepting any role offered him, no matter how ridiculous or undignified. Since his Jungle Fever breakthrough, Jackson has appeared in a punishing gauntlet of flops like The Long Kiss Goodnight, 187, Sphere, Rules Of Engagement, Formula 51, Twisted, In My Country (a.k.a. Country Of My Skull), The Man, Snakes On A Plane, and Home Of The Brave. Then again, Jackson's cult fan base seldom holds him responsible for his bad/failed movies, and a Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, or Negotiator every couple of years goes an awfully long way toward winning back fans' hearts.
14. Jennifer Aniston
Romantic comedies are the grist fueling the Hollywood machine, so Jennifer Aniston's star status is hardly a mystery. But while the public adored Aniston playing the "will they or won't they?" game with Ross on Friends—as well as the real-life romantic comedy that was her love triangle with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie—hearts didn't exactly swoon over the likes of Friends With Money, Along Came Polly, and Rumor Has It… Her 2006 effort The Break-Up grossed $118 million, but that was largely due to publicity over her behind-the-scenes affair with Vince Vaughn, showing once again that Aniston might be a bigger hit playing romantic leads in the tabloids than on screen.
15. Halle Berry
Halle Berry's place in movie history is secure as the first African-American to win a Best Actress Oscar. But she's aggressively attempted to wipe away any of her lingering star power since her overrated award-baiting performance in 2001's Monster's Ball. Still, even after undistinguished failures like Gothika, Catwoman, and last year's perfectly crappy thriller Perfect Stranger, Berry's status as a bankable female star remains strangely, stubbornly intact. A lead role in an upcoming John Singleton drama about a Texas attorney working to exonerate a group of wrongly convicted drug dealers looks promising, but at this point, it hardly seems necessary for Berry to do quality (or even commercially successful) work to sustain her career.
16. Scarlett Johansson
Perhaps no single film has done more for an actor's career in recent years than what Lost In Translation did for Scarlett Johansson. Blessed with sensual beauty and (at least the appearance of) wisdom and depth beyond her years, Johansson looked, walked, and talked like a natural-born movie star in Sofia Coppola's critically-adored second directorial effort. Five years later, Johansson still reaps the benefits of her star-making turn, even though she rarely performs like a movie star at the box office. She's made some good movies—most notably Match Point and The Prestige—but they're outnumbered by out-and-out disasters like The Island, The Black Dahlia, and A Love Song For Bobby Long. Last year's The Nanny Diaries was another disappointment.
17. Mandy Moore
It should be said upfront that Moore is an appealing screen presence, with more commitment to the craft than most of her would-be pop-star crossover contemporaries. And yet that appeal has never quite translated into a film anyone would want to watch. Save for A Walk To Remember, a gooey Christian-themed redux of the already-gooey-enough Love Story, Moore hasn't appeared in a single successful movie, yet her star seems perpetually on the rise. In some cases, she acquits herself in unworthy films, usually by making her natural buoyancy seem diabolical: as a fanatical Christian in the strident indie comedy Saved! or as an opportunistic reality-show contestant in the dismal satire American Dreamz. But Moore seems intent on becoming the next Meg Ryan, and her efforts on this front have met with ignominious failure, from her 'tween turn as the President's daughter in Chasing Liberty to the back-to-back 2007 rom-com flops Because I Said So and License To Wed. And with her blink-or-you'll-miss-it turn in Richard Kelly's already-infamous science-fiction comedy Southland Tales, she pulled off a 2007 stinkeroo trifecta.
18. Josh Hartnett
As the lithe-framed object of desire in 1999's The Virgin Suicides, Hartnett must have looked like a certain up-and-coming star, with a face destined to fill young girls' journals with heart-shaped stickers. Though there turned out to be perilously little beyond those hooded eyes, Harnett has never been in want of major roles in major bombs. After stopping by for a bit part in the notorious $90 million comedy Town & Country, Hartnett moved on to play one corner of Pearl Harbor's anemic love triangle, opposite Ben Affleck (who finally lost his flop imperviousness with the career-killing Gigli) and Kate Beckinsale. The long-delayed O, an updated Othello for teenagers, finally used Hartnett's enigmatic woodenness to decent effect, but he's proven himself incapable of carrying an entire movie—or, in the case, of the cop comedy Hollywood Homicide, half a movie—on his limited charisma. Remarkably, 40 Days And 40 Nights kept the Hartnett dream alive even though nobody liked it, but subsequent star vehicles like Wicker Park and the unfortunately titled Lucky Number Slevin haven't succeeded. And then there's The Black Dahlia, which co-starred fellow listmakers Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank, thus making it the Bermuda Triangle of flops its actors will survive.
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