10 Great Blockbusters Held Back By A Terrible Lead Performance

10. Ryan Reynolds - Safe House

Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds are two of the most consistently watchable and charismatic actors in the business, so the prospect of seeing the two sharing the screen in the sort of star-powered two-hander with a decent budget that Hollywood rarely tends to make anymore initially made Safe House a hugely exciting prospect.

While Denzel is on typically great form as criminal mastermind Tobin Frost, Reynolds lets the side down with a disappointingly flat turn as rookie agent Matt Weston, with his performance as bland and formulaic as his character's backstory as he finds himself being easily overpowered by the sheer wattage of his adversary's star power.

It seemed as though Reynolds was under instructions to deliver the most derivative version of his established screen persona as possible as the cookie-cutter 'untested agent out of his depth and forced to improvise' archetype. Ultimately, this hurt the quality of the final product as his fellow A-lister easily stole the show without coming close to capitalizing on the potential chemistry between them.