10 Actors That Tried Being Action Heroes And Failed Miserably

Sean Penn is without a doubt one of the finest actors of his generation, having won two Academy Awards from five nominations, but the actor's notoriously outspoken and prickly persona hasn't exactly won him a devoted and loyal following.

Presumably casting envious glances at the success his peer Liam Neeson was enjoying after becoming Hollywood's biggest unlikely action hero, Penn decided to throw his hat into the ring and do a little bit of running and gunning of his own, but his brief foray into the genre was terrible and almost instantly forgotten about.

Sean Penn starring in an action flick from the director of Taken was certainly enough to pique some curiosity, especially when The Gunman boasted a star-studded ensemble cast that also included Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance and Ray Winstone.

The leading man's focus seemed to mostly be on getting insanely ripped instead of trying to make his character interesting, and despite strutting around with the body of an action star the rest of his performance is about as one-dimensional and sleepy as the rest of the movie that surrounded him.