Terrible Movies Stranger Things Actors Hope Fans Forget About

With the fifth and final season of "Stranger Things" on its way, Netflix's mega-hit has almost reached its conclusion. We've watched the "Stranger Things" kids grow up into teenagers and seen the teens turn to full-fledged adults. Actors like Joe Keery and Millie Bobby Brown (to only name a couple) have turned the show's success into Hollywood careers.

Now that we've seen so much of the "Stranger Things" cast elsewhere, we can't lie and say they've all chosen the best projects every time. Many of the young adult actors have already been in some critically panned movies. Plus, let's not forget about the awesome adults that lead the show. Winona Ryder and David Harbour are great as Joyce and Hopper respectively, but in their long and storied careers they've been in their fair share of stinkers. Between all the "Stranger Things" actors, these are the most terrible movies they probably wish you would just forget already.

Millie Bobby Brown was the biggest breakout star of the original group of "Stranger Things" kids. This led to the actress who plays Eleven soon being cast in starring gigs like the title role in Netflix's "Enola Holmes" and its upcoming sequel. Her biggest Hollywood spotlight, though, is as Madison Russell in the recent "Godzilla" movies.

While Adam Wingard's "Godzilla vs. Kong" was relatively well-received, its predecessor "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" was a bit of a wash (Rotten Tomatoes). In "King of the Monsters," Brown's Madison is the daughter of a paleobiologist couple (played by Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga). Coincidentally, she witnesses the birth of Mothra. In trying to protect the larva Madison and her mother are kidnapped by eco-terrorists, which begins an overstuffed globe trot of a film. "King of the Monsters" attempts to include all of Godzilla's most powerful nemeses, but this comes at the cost of the story being even remotely coherent. Plus, Brown's character gets much more fleshed out (and less annoying) in "Godzilla vs. Kong."

The first season of "Stranger Things" originally set up Mike (Finn Wolfhard) as its protagonist. In the recent seasons, though, Wolfhard's character has done a lot of sitting on the sidelines. Thankfully the teenage actor is doing plenty of work elsewhere, in blockbusters such as "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." And while the new "Ghostbusters" wasn't universally loved, it's far from the worst project Wolfhard has been involved with. One look at the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes proves that (dis)honor has to go to "The Goldfinch," a misguided adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning Donna Tartt novel.

The film stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Jeffrey Wright, and Sarah Paulson in a coming of age story about a boy, Theo Decker, who loses his mother in a museum bombing. Theo (Oakes Fergley/Elgort) escapes with the painting The Goldfinch, and both of these significant moments from the tragedy shape his life forever. Wolfhard plays the young version of Theo's friend Boris, a young wealthy Ukrainian boy. If a teenage Canadian actor putting on an Eastern European accent while trying to play an extremely serious role sounds like a formula for disaster to you, well, you'd be correct.

One of the most disastrous superhero movie releases ever, "The New Mutants" was delayed into oblivion before it finally came out to little fanfare. Finished in 2017, the movie wasn't released until Summer 2020, sent to theaters to die in the middle of what was still a lockdown in most countries. The horror-inspired "X-Men" spin-off ultimately wasn't very compelling, and even the co-creator of the "New Mutants" comics wasn't a fan of the adaptation — nor were critics or audiences.

Even though it was brimming with a cast full of talented up-and-comers including Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy, the characters were lifeless. Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan in "Stranger Things," tries to turn in a Southern accent as Sam Guthrie, aka Cannonball, but the character is ultimately out of his range. It isn't Heaton's fault the movie fails, nor is it any of the young actors who were cast, but his performance ends up feeling like the rest of the movie — entirely unremarkable.

You may not even remember that David Harbour was in the universally panned "Suicide Squad," and we don't blame you. Frankly, there's not much worth remembering at all about the movie. This outing that birthed Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is a messy film full of characters that get half-introduced, a nonsense plot, and some generally questionable filmmaking. On top of all that, Jared Leto's Joker made the man an edgelord meme long before "Morbius" came out.

The man famous for being everyone's favorite cop dad on "Stranger Things" had a small role in the 2016 DC flop. Harbour played Dexter Tolliver, a National Security Advisor for the U.S. President. He acts as a right hand man to Amanda Waller and helps her convince the government to go through with the Task Force X (aka Suicide Squad) project. Technically inspired by a comic character who eventually betrayed Waller, Tolliver was still alive at the end of the 2016 "Suicide Squad." However, since he didn't show up in James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," it's likely Harbour's time in the DC Universe has come to a close.

Another failed superhero movie Harbour was unfortunately attached to, "The Green Hornet" is actually based on a classic radio show. A contemporary to the old "Superman" radio show of the '40s, "The Green Hornet" aired from 1936 until 1952. The masked vigilante was best known for solving crimes with his sidekick Kato, played by Bruce Lee in the 1967 TV adaptation. For the 2011 cinematic reboot, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg decided to go in a markedly different direction from any "Green Hornet" adaptation before it. The result didn't impress anyone.

The movie had the talent to back it up, with director Michel Gondry at the helm and Cameron Diaz as co-star, but ultimately the schlubby stoner comedy formula didn't translate well at all to crime fighting. Sorely miscasting himself as Britt Reid (the Green Hornet), Rogen led the movie alongside a surprisingly charming Jay Chou as Kato. Not even a little chemistry could save the film from being a tonal mess, though. In the movie, Harbour plays corrupt District Attorney Frank Scanlon, a dirty politician in the pocket of the film's villain Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz).

Okay, it's not their fault that David Harbour's agent (or whoever is booking auditions for the actor) can't seem to tell which superhero movies are going to flop. Nobody is claiming to tell the future, but we could have told you that trying to fill Ron Perlman's shoes was going to be a nigh impossible task. Even without having Guillermo del Toro's movies to compare it to, David Harbour's "Hellboy" was a disappointing outing for the character and the actor.

The 2019 "Hellboy" tried and failed to reboot the series into a more adult (read: way more blood and guts) version of the comic. As the half-demon Hellboy, Harbour takes on the recently resurrected Nimue the Blood Queen (Mila Jovovich) in a gore-fueled quest to prevent the apocalypse. Everything that was magical about the characters and visuals of Del Toro's "Hellboy" is absent in Neil Marshall's 2019 version. The nuance and political allegory of 2004's "Hellboy" is tossed aside for an over-the-top intensity that doesn't quite work.

While he might be best known as of late for his controversial Instagram drama with Doja Cat, Noah Schnapp still has a fairly small filmography. The young actor who plays Will Byers on "Stranger Things" has only recently begun expanding into movies.

The most recent of these is the Adam Sandler holiday comedy "Hubie Halloween." The Razzie-nominated Sandler vehicle is the story of Hubie Dubois, a Halloween-obsessed deli worker. He stumbles into a real murder investigation in this Netflix film that really wants you to laugh at every single one of the constant jokes and jabs. You have the standard Sandler co-stars like Kevin James and Rob Schneider doing their thing, for better and worse (mostly the latter). Schnapp plays Tommy, the adopted son of Hubie's love interest Violet Valentine (Julie Bowen).

The beats of "Hubie Halloween" skew pretty close to the ones in the '90s cult classic "Earnest Scared Stupid." So hey, maybe just go watch that instead.

The debut season of "Stranger Things" was a huge comeback moment for Winona Ryder. To understand what exactly the actress was coming back from, you'll have to see the 2002 comedy "Mr. Deeds." Actually, scratch that — please don't see it. One of the worst movies of Ryder's career, "Mr. Deeds" caused the talented actress to retire from acting for nearly a decade.

Coming off the height of her career in the '90s, Ryder starred alongside Adam Sandler in this buffoonish remake of Frank Capra's classic "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town." The reviled comedy follows Sandler as Mr. Deeds, a naïve young man who suddenly comes into a great inheritance. This remake takes all the nuances of the original comedy and boils it down to lazy jokes and tantrums. Oh, and Ryder's character is literally named Babe Bennet. A conniving journalist who lies to Deeds to get a story, it's beyond inevitable that the two end up falling in love — but only after the woman sees the error of her ways. Ugh.

The 1990s were a golden era for Winona Ryder — at least for the most part. But somewhere between "Edward Scissorhands " and "Girl, Interrupted," mistakes were made. The biggest one would have to be "Alien Resurrection," the fourth movie in the "Alien" franchise.

The 1997 sequel is the worst in the "Alien" series by a good margin. Though Ripley died at the end of "Alien 3," Sigourney Weaver returns here as a Ripley clone enhanced with Xenomorph DNA. A group of mercenaries arrive on her planet, among them Call (Ryder), who is immediately in favor of disposing of the Ripley clone due to its dangerous potential to create more Xenomorphs. Naturally, chaos ensues and it's up to Call and Ripley to save the day. It doesn't take long for "Resurrection" to devolve into a monster-squashing rampage that lacks any of the substance of Ridley Scott's "Alien" or James Cameron's "Aliens."

Sean Astin's career has been an absolute roller coaster, to say the least. In the years between "Lord of the Rings" and "Stranger Things," Astin was no stranger to acting in terrible movies. The strangest of these would have to be "Cabin Fever: Patient Zero," a cheesy horror threequel that you wouldn't expect to see any big name actors in. And yet, there Sean Astin was.

A prequel to Eli Roth's "Cabin Fever," this piece of low budget shlock stars Astin as Porter, a quarantined patient who has been infected with a flesh-eating virus. Porter is "Patient Zero," as it were. From the start, you know exactly how this one is going to end, but to get there, you have to endure 90 minutes of choppy dialogue and an unnecessary amount of visceral gore. Brian Tellerico of RogerEbert.com wrote, "The first act of 'Cabin Fever: Patient Zero' is so defiantly stupid that I imagine most who rent it or struggle through it in a theater won't care that there's actually some material in the final act that clicks." If you enjoy dark, cynical horror we recommend you stick to the Roth original. Watching "Patient Zero" is asking for disappointment.

Another critical miss that Sean Astin was involved with following his success as a Hobbit was the 2006 Adam Sandler vehicle "Click." The premise centered around Sandler's character, Michael Newman, buying a "universal" remote that allows him to pause, rewind, and fast-forward time. The remote begins to get a mind of its own, and Michael finds that no matter how hard he tries he can't dispose of it. Soon his life begins slipping away before his eyes. If that sounds silly to you, it gets worse.

Astin plays Michael's son's swimming coach, Bill. As Michael begins to rapidly fast-forward through life, he discovers his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) divorces him and ends up marrying Bill. The ridiculous thing about "Click" is how serious and dour it gets at the end, before immediately undercutting all that drama. If you are somehow invested enough in the movie to feel sympathy for Michael in the film's climactic moments, then the "it was all a dream" ending will likely be the final straw.

Some critics might have given Ang Lee a pass on "Hulk" based on the merits of the director's previous work, but fans weren't as foolhardy (see the dichotomy on Rotten Tomatoes). Eric Bana played Bruce Banner in this superhero effort co-starring Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, and Nick Nolte. Ultimately, "Hulk" takes too many liberties with the character and doesn't go anywhere with the themes it admittedly at least touches on. Lee's efforts to make the movie a more personal character-driven journey compared to its contemporaries ended up weighing the action of the movie down.

Cara Buono, known as Mike and Nancy's mother on "Stranger Things," plays another mother in "Hulk." The core of 2003's "Hulk" focuses on Bruce's origin, which this time goes all the way back to his parents. Buono plays Edith Banner in flashbacks that show how she died saving a young Bruce from his father's (Nolte) wrath. Her voice is heard throughout the film as Bruce taps into his true Hulk and uncovers the repressed memories of his past.

Best known for playing the marine known as Joker in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," Matthew Modine has since had a long career in TV and film acting, eventually landing him the role of Dr. Martin Brenner on "Stranger Things" (but you might know him better as Papa). However, in 2017 he took a role in "47 Meters Down," a deeply forgettable entry in everyone's favorite trashy subgenre, shark horror.

Also known as "In the Deep" in certain territories, this by-the-numbers thriller lacks bite. When sisters Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) vacation on Captain Taylor's (Modine) boat, they soon find themselves in shark-infested waters. Modine gives the closest thing in the movie to an appropriately campy performance, but ultimately "47 Meters Down" fails to commit to either irrevocable camp or dire realism. The absurd twist ending doesn't do it any favors, either. Honestly, you'd have more fun watching "Sharknado."

If you have already forgotten that they released a "Power Rangers" movie a few years back, that's understandable. The disappointing reboot of the "Power Rangers" franchise was a box office bomb that lacked any heart or ambition. Its most ambitious choice was casting relatively unknown actors as the rangers, but ultimately this was part of its failure. Even Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa and Bryan Cranston as Zordon couldn't get butts in seats. Before Dacre Montgomery joined "Stranger Things" Season 3 as Billy Hargrove, Max's bully of a brother who eventually goes full evil, he was this movie's Red Ranger.

The movie begins in the small town of Angel Grove with high school student Jason Scott (Montgomery) meeting the friends that will eventually become his fellow Power Rangers. There are some attempts at LGBTQ and neurodivergent representation, but they feel like pandering more than important elements of the characters. And while Montgomery does a fine job as Jason Scott, "Power Rangers" never quite hits the right tone that the more fun parts of the franchise are known for.

"Mad About You" and "Aliens" star Paul Reiser landed in the Upside Down on "Stranger Things" Season 2. As Dr. Sam Owens, Reiser plays the open-minded foil to Matthew Modine's Dr. Brenner. Ultimately, despite working in the Hawkins lab, Owens ends up siding with Joyce and Hopper. Reiser's had a long career, so it's no shock to see him in a flop or two. What's rare, though, is starring in a movie hated by pretty much everyone who watched it. That's what happened with 2006's "The Darkness," which wound up scoring a measly 3% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

"The Darkness" is cheap thrills masquerading as a horror movie. Starring Kevin Bacon, this supernatural thriller is filled to the brim with tropes and clichés. When Pete Taylor's (Bacon) son Michael (David Mazouz) starts acting strangely after returning from a vacation, the Taylor family finds themselves haunted by a supernatural force. Reiser plays Simon Richards, Pete's well-meaning supervisor at work. 

The nature of the evil force ends up lacking in the scare factor, and instead winds up being the movie's own Achilles' heel. Where "The Darkness" does excel is in dabbling in racial stereotypes and misappropriating Native American culture, making it near unwatchable by today's standards.