10 Most Wildly Inconsistent Actors In Movie History

7. Cuba Gooding Jr.

For a while, Cuba Gooding Jr. looked as though he was set to become one of the leading actors of his generation - and yet, somewhere along the line, it sort of fell apart, and everybody seemed to forget why he was all that big a deal to begin with. You'll remember that Gooding Jr. won an Oscar for his role in Jerry Maguire, of course, and was excellent in roles in Boys 'N the Hood and A Few Good Men before even then. Check Cuba Gooding out nowadays, though, and something's clearly missing: he's been phoning it in for near-on 10 years. Say what? Now and again, there have been moments to savour, but - generally speaking - the last twenty or so movies that Cuba has made have ranged between "meh" and "this is unbearably bad, please take me outside and shoot me." Hyperbolic? Perhaps. What's strange, however, is how an actor capable of turns like the ones in As Good As It Gets and What Dreams May Come has made so little impact in everything else. And given how eccentric and fun he is in Jerry Maguire, it's also weird to notice that - fairly frequently - Cuba winds up being so stiff and boring.
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.