There have been tons of celebrity cameos in movies over the years. Heck, Adam Sandler has made a career out of shoving random celebrities into his movies.
Happy Gilmore featured The Price is Right host Bob Barker beating the crap of the title character. The Waterboy saw former NFL player Lawrence Taylor seeking the advice of Bobby Boucher. Little Nicky, meanwhile, contained a slew of cameos including one by Ozzy Osbourne that saw the musician bite the head off of a bat.
He’s not the only one. Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West were filled with high-profile cameos.
Also, Will Ferrell followed up on Anchorman’s gang fight by essentially doubling down in Anchorman 2 with a newscaster war that included the likes of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kanye West, Jim Carrey, Marion Cotillard, Will Smith, Liam Neeson and others.
Celebrity cameos can be a lot of fun, but they can also be downright awful. We already covered some of the best and worst to hit the big screen, and now we’ve got some more.
Here are the 7 Worst A-Lister Cameos In Movies (And 8 That Stole The Spotlight).
Stole: Chuck Norris in Dodgeball
When Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story first hit theaters in 2004, there was no telling just how successful it would become.
Not only did it crush the box office to the tune of $167 million worldwide (on a relatively small $20 million budget), but it also developed a cult following of hardcore fans who are still hoping for a sequel more than a decade later.
The movie features two notable cameos. One is by Lance Armstrong (which loses some of its prestige due to the cyclist’s fall from grace) and the other by none other than Chuck Norris.
With the Average Joe’s needing two out of three votes from the championship game’s judges to allow them to compete, the deciding vote comes down to Norris (playing himself of course).
Norris gives the team a thumbs up, and the final match proceeds as planned.
The cameo is completely random, but absolutely works.
didn’t work: Vanilla Ice in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II
When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first hit the big screen in 1990, children across the world rejoiced and turned the movie into a global hit.
Parents, however, weren’t too thrilled with the movies’ language and violence so things were significantly toned down in the sequel.
In fact, the turtles barely use their trademark weapons in the film, opting instead to use all sorts of household items (which probably isn’t very bright considering those are the exact items children have at home).
The movie’s cringe-inducing cameo comes toward the end when the turtles fight their way into a Vanilla Ice concert where the man himself is performing on stage.
Upon seeing the turtles, Ice naturally improvises a song about the quartet. Alas, Ice’s “Ninja Rap” is born.
It’s safe to say the scene holds up for TMNT fans who first saw it as kids. For others, not so much.
Stole: Megan Fox in The Dictator
Ever since Sacha Baron Cohen burst onto the scene following Borat, his movies have experienced diminishing returns in terms of overall quality and at the box office.
Borat was a smash hit both financially and critically. Bruno wasn’t as favorably reviewed and grossed less at the box office. Then The Dictator continued the downward trajectory.
One of the movie’s highlights comes when we see Baron Cohen’s Aladeen in bed with Megan Fox in a cameo as herself.
In exchange for sleeping with Aladeen, Fox receives a goodie bag that contains a gold Rolex before saying, “Katy Perry said she got a diamond Rolex.”
The two then take an awkward Polaroid together, which Aladeen places on the wall beside a similar Polaroid of himself and Lindsay Lohan.
We then see individual photos of Aladeen with a slew of celebrities including Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey, and a despondent Arnold Schwarzenegger.
didn’t work: Shaquille o’neal in grown ups 2
Earlier in his career, Adam Sandler movie cameos seemed to make sense (for the most part). Bob Barker appeared in Happy Gilmore because the title character was participating in a celebrity Pro-Am golf competition.
Lawrence Taylor’s cameo in The Waterboy worked because Taylor is a retired NFL linebacker and Sandler’s Bobby Boucher played the same position.
Shaquille O’Neal’s appearance in Grown Ups 2 is not only nonsensical, it’s also not very funny, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone considering Sandler’s track record as of late.
The cameo comes after Sandler and Kevin James discuss how to “burp snart” (burp, sneeze, then fart one right after the other) when Shaq shows up as a police officer.
He exchanges some lame dialogue with the group and then accompanies them to a dance recital.
The whole encounter is pretty lame, but so is the movie.
stole: billy idol in the wedding singer
Now this is one Adam Sandler movie cameo that will stand the test of time. The Wedding Singer is still one of Adam Sandler’s best-reviewed movies and with good reason.
It’s funny, heartwarming, and features an amazing cameo by Billy Idol as himself.
While on a flight to Las Vegas to stop the love of his life Julia (Drew Barrymore) from eloping, Sandler’s Robby Hart tells everyone in first class the story of Julia and her awful boyfriend Glenn.
Idol empathizes completely with Hart, prompting the latter to hilariously remark, “See? Billy Idol gets it. I don’t know why she doesn’t get it.”
One of the many highlights of the scene comes when one of the first class passengers innocently asks, “what’s the mile-high club?" In response, Idol turns and shoots her a knowing grin.
The cameo is certainly random, but also well-acted by Idol and it fits in well with the rest of the film.
didn’t work: john cena in trainwreck
Like Dwayne Johnson before him, John Cena is well on his way to transitioning from WWE superstar to Hollywood actor.
Cena got his first shot at acting as the star of several WWE Studios films including The Marine and 12 Rounds before breaking into the mainstream with 2015’s Trainwreck.
Cena plays the role of Steven, the boyfriend of Amy Schumer’s Amy who also seems to be in the closet.
This fact is hinted at several times throughout the movie with Steven making all sorts of confusing intimate threats to another man while watching a movie with Amy, and also climaxing in bed to the thought of Amy looking like a man.
Unfortunately, Cena didn’t have the acting chops to make the role believable. The writing didn’t do him any favors but it’s possible another actor with more experience could have made it work.
His lack of chemistry with Schumer certainly didn’t help matters either.
stole: hugh jackman in x-men: first class
After 2000’s X-Men successfully launched the mutant franchise and X2: X-Men United improved on the original in almost every way, the franchise kind of fell off a freaking cliff with the third and fourth entries.
After X-Men Origins: Wolverine failed with critics and audiences, the franchise was rebooted with X-Men: First Class, which focused on younger versions of the characters audiences knew and loved.
The scene-stealing cameo comes around halfway through the movie while Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) are recruiting mutants for a battle with Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). The two enter a bar and approach Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
They introduce themselves and are immediately told to go “f**k yourself.” Xavier and Lehnsherr promptly leave the bar without another word. Wolverine watches them go before silently ordering another drink. End scene.
The cameo was short, sweet, hysterical, and true to the character of Wolverine.
didn’t work: David Hasselhoff in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a welcomed entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that promised to finally reveal the identity of Peter Quill’s father.
In the movie, audiences learn not only that Ego is Quill’s dad, but also that Ego destroyed Quill’s mother by putting a tumor in her brain (although it’s never quite revealed just how the heck Ego managed that feat).
Unfortunately, what should have been a highly-emotional scene for Quill is undercut by an awful cameo by David Hasselhoff.
In an ill-timed moment of levity, Ego shape-shifts into Hasselhoff, Quill’s hero when he was a boy.
The problem is the cameo comes while Quill (and the audience) is still coping with the truth surrounding his mother’s demise.
Instead of giving the scene a moment to breathe, director James Gunn jumps directly into another gag to the detriment of the film overall.
stole: Liam neeson in Ted 2
Liam Nelson is hilarious. This may not seem obvious to casual moviegoers accustomed to seeing the Irish actor in more of his dramatic roles such as Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List or his more recent action roles in the Taken trilogy, but it’s true.
Neeson’s stoic, dry delivery works beautifully in comedic roles.
Ted 2 wasn’t as critically acclaimed as its predecessor, but there’s no denying Neeson’s cameo steals the show.
Neeson (presumably as himself) enters Ted’s grocery store and attempts to purchase a box of Trix cereal, explaining that he would like to do so despite the box being “for kids.”
Neeson’s delivery is flawless. His concern over the cereal being just for kids is utterly believable and hilarious.
Better yet, the gag’s pay off comes in the movie’s post-credits scene when a badly injured Neeson returns to the grocery store and returns the unopened box of Trix.
didn’t work: christopher lloyd in A Million ways to die in the west
This is a cameo that should have been amazing and would have absolutely stolen the show if it hadn’t been for one small problem, which we’ll get to.
Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West wasn’t very well received by critics and didn’t do well at the box office ($87 million gross on a $40 million budget), but it does have a pretty awesome cameo by Christopher Lloyd as Back to the Future’s Doc Brown.
For those unfamiliar with the time-traveling franchise, the third entry sees Lloyd’s Doc Brown stuck in the old west and trying to fix his time machine for a return trip to the future.
It would have been amazing for audiences to see a surprise cameo by Brown and his time-traveling DeLorean. Unfortunately, the surprise was spoiled when the scene was included in the trailers for the film. Oops.
stole: brett favre in there’s something about mary
The Farrelly Brothers’ movies have been filled with athlete cameos over the years. MLB pitcher Roger Clemens showed up in Kingpin, NHL player Cam Neely made an appearance in Dumb and Dumber, and Johnny Damon (and other Red Sox) cameoed in Fever Pitch.
The best cameo, by far, is Brett Favre in There’s Something About Mary.
The movie centers around Cameron Diaz’s Mary, a woman who inadvertently causes men to fall in love with her everywhere she goes, and is peppered with casual references to one of her exes, a man named Brett.
Audiences are led to believe Brett is just some average Joe until the film’s end when the Brett in question is revealed to be none other than Brett Favre.
The icing on the cake comes when a shocked Matt Dillon asks, “what the hell is Brett Favre doing here?” to which Favre casually replies, “I’m in town to play the dolphins, you dumbass!”
didn’t work: dwayne johnson in the mummy returns
Long before he became Hollywood’s most sought-after leading man and one of the biggest box office draws in the world, Dwayne Johnson was known simply as “The Rock,” WWE superstar trying to transition into movie.
It was at this time that he received his first role as the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns.
The movie didn’t receive the same glowing reviews as the original and one of the biggest issues was Johnson’s cameo.
He’s fine in the film’s opening but is completely missing from the climax, which is a big problem since the story is centered around his eventual return.
Instead of the much-hyped, knockdown, drag out fight between Rick O’Connell, Ihmotep, and the Rock that audiences expected, they received a CGI half human, half-scorpion nightmare.
Plus, lets not forget the cameo gave rise to the Scorpion King spin-off movie and three awful sequels, but we’ll forgive Johnson for those.
stole: bill murray in space jam
Bill Murray has had quite a few hilarious cameos in his career. His appearance in Zombieland took the number one spot in our last list, and this time around he’s number 3 for his role in Space Jam.
The 1996 Looney Tunes movie features a slew of cameos by NBA players including Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Larry Bird, but it’s Murray’s appearance as himself that steals the show.
His early scenes feature the actor asking Michael Jordan and the aforementioned Bird whether or not they think he should join the NBA. Naturally, both men think it’s a bad idea.
The highlight of the movie comes later on when Murray inexplicably shows up to join Jordan’s tune squad during the movie’s climax (and casually breaks the fourth wall by telling Daffy Duck a teamster dropped him off). He even has the gall to ask for the ball from MJ during the game’s final play. Awesome.
didn’t work: hugh jackman in X-men: apocalypse
After X-Men: First Class successfully rebooted the franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past managed to combine the old and new casts and make one heck of an entertaining movie that seemed to end the franchise on a high note. Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox had different ideas.
X-Men: Apocalypse (which was largely panned by critics) features a rather awful cameo by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The First Class cameo worked because it fit the character nicely and actually made sense in the timeline of the film.
When audiences last saw Wolverine at the end of the Days of Future Past (in the past, not the present), he was being pulled out of the water by Mystique posing as William Stryker. Then he turns up in Apocalypse in the possession of the real Stryker.
The cameo is fun, but illogical and serves more as a distraction than anything else.
Stole: Emma Watson, Channing Tatum, and Michael Cera in This is the End
This is the End is the brainchild of childhood friends Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and tells the story of celebrities surviving the end of the world.
Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson star as themselves, but there are plenty of celebrity cameos sprinkled throughout.
Kevin Hart, Rihanna, Mindy Kaeling, Aziz Ansari, and others all appear, but it’s the cameos by Michael Cera, Emma Watson, and Channing Tatum that steal the show.
Cera plays a coked-out partygoer, Watson a shelter-seeking rebel, and Tatum a role that is too good to be spoiled .
All three cameos are utterly insane, but absolutely hilarious and need to be seen on the screen.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, then go out of your way to watch. These three cameos alone are some of the best to ever appear on the big screen.
What did you think of these cameos? Are there any others that didn’t work or stole the show? Let us know in the comments!
