This may seem like an odd choice for a list, but it came to me as I surveyed the rather depressing slate of new releases that weekend in wide-release world.

Though I can finally, and will, go see “There Will Be Blood” again, the other choices just do nothing but form me cringe, which in two cases is a real shame considering the flicks star two humans who I really like.

Paul Rudd nearly managed to walk away with “Knocked Up” even though he was surrounded by a slew of very funny humans, but I just don’t think there’s any way I’ll be able to watch him sleepwalk through “Over My Dead Body” that weekend. Likewise, Steve Zahn’s performance as Glenn Michaels in “Out of Sight” stands up as one of my favorites, but is there really anything that can be good about “Strange Wilderness,” which, as far as I can tell, appears to be a stoner comedy about Bigfoot?

This dose of the January movie blues got me to thinking about actors and actresses I usually like and their most regrettable (in my eyes, at least) movie roles. Here goes:

Billy Bob Thornton
Just how poor was Billy Bob in “School for Scoundrels”? I think the reply can be summed up thusly: Even worse than Jon Heder, who has been basically playing an increasingly lame version of “Napoleon Dynamite” since that extremely likable flick thrust him upon the world. There’s just not one good thing I can say about that thoroughly unnecessary Todd Phillips remake, so please don’t rent it for any reason whatsoever.

Kirsten Dunst
It feels a little rotten to pick on Ms. Dunst so severely, but a look through her movie resume turned up three movie I just can’t stand, even though I still do like her most of the times she turns up in movies. The big three: “Spider-Man 3,” in which she looked just as miserable as everyone else in Sam Raimi’s catastrophe; “Marie Antoinette,” which was just one of the most empty movies I’ve seen in many, many years, and “Elizabethtown.” In regards to the latter, I have just one question: How in the world could you (the previously great Cameron Crowe) manage to assemble a movie in which Kirsten Dunst flirts on the phone whilst taking a bath, and still manage to have it just suck from start to finish?

Tim Roth and Naomi Watts
OK, I haven’t seen “Funny Games,” Michael Haneke’s English-language remake of his own movie, yet, but I’ve seen the rather wretched trailer so many times now that it feels like I’ve seen the flick at least twice. I’ll never bother to see the real thing, so whether you do and there’s some redeeming value here that I’m just lost please let me

Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston
Did anyone enjoy “The Break-Up”? When it comes to romantic “comedies” I usually have little moment for flicks that delight the masses, but here’s one case where just about everyone I know just hated watching Vince and Jen yell at each other for 90 minutes. Just an amazingly poor movie.

Paul Giamatti
OK, we’re getting into a stretch here of society who it really pains me to include on that list, but when you seem in a movie as poor as “Lady in the Water” I really can’t give you a pass. Granted, Mr. Giamatti did work very hard to try and save that, but M. Night’s “fairy tale” just had very little wonder to it at all and was, frankly, just a tremendous bore.

Samuel L. Jackson
I decided to give both Sam the man and Christina Ricci a pass for “Black Snake Moan” considering, as much as I just detested that Craig Brewer movie, I’m willing to concede that perhaps I just didn’t get it. With “Freedomland,” however, I can state unequivocally that Mr. Jackson just made a horrendous choice. Richard Price has written some fairly great books, but that flick which additionally starred Julianne Moore just had no business ever getting made.

Catherine Keener
I love Catherine Keener more than just about any actress (except for perhaps Laura Linney) in the entire world, but Nicole Holofcener’s “Friends With Money” just made me want to claw my own eyes out to build it stop. The duo have made two much better movies in “Lovely & Amazing” and “Walking and Talking,” and they’re set to collaborate again soon on something that’s still just called an “untitled Nicole Holofcener project,” so there’s plenty of great stuff coming and already here to help wipe that blight from my memory.

Audrey Tautou
I made a pledge to myself to never watch “The Da Vinci Code” which I unfortunately broke once the movie came out on DVD. I really have to learn to trust my instincts a lot more, considering although the movie as a whole was one big stinker, watching Amelie just mope her way through it made it all the more painful to watch.

And there you have it. Two that didn’t compose the cut simply considering I still have to end that at some point and go to my paying job were Penelope Cruz in “Vanilla Sky” and Owen Wilson in “The Darjeeling Limited.” Please feel free to add any movies that have just made stars you like look really poor, and let me know whether there’s any reason at all to go see either “Over Her Dead Body” or “Strange Wilderness” that weekend. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic