15 Worst Performances In 2016 Films (So Far)

A fascinating year in film in prospect, 2016 has been an unequivocal disappointment thus far. Highly anticipated tentpole projects The Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War hit the mark, Disney delivered with Finding Dory and Zootopia, and the Coen brothers reminded us why they are revered by so many with Hail, Caesar!, though for every great movie there has been a handful of terrible ones.

While the overall quality of a film is of course intrinsically linked with the ability of the actors involved, a bad movie isn't always born of a bad performance, and we've seen a few instances of this already this year. Kevin Costner and a talented cast did their utmost to save formulaic thriller Criminal and Chloë Grace Moretz still managed to be watchable while swimming against the tide in supposed franchise starter The 5th Wave, though a good number of their peers have failed to conduct themselves with the same level of dignity.

The early part of the year is traditionally seen as a dumping ground for genre films, teen movies and projects that had poorer than expected test screenings, though the so-called dump months seem to have been extended beyond January and February in 2016.

March, April and May had precious little to get excited about in terms of memorable performances, and most of the movies reserved for the prime time summer slots have been littered with B-movie standard acting.

From rising stars making bad missteps to industry legends throwing in the towel, here are the 15 worst performances in 2016 films so far...

The unwanted sequel to the equally awful Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen takes the same premise that the first film was built around and moves it across the Atlantic. Gerard Butler returns as Mike Banning, head of the Secret Service and personal bodyguard to the President (Aaron Eckhart), and this time POTUS finds his life under threat while attending the funeral of the British Prime Minister.

While Eckhart is wasted (and mis-cast) as the defenceless President Asher, the failings in his character are overshadowed by Butler's crass and at times cringe-worthy performance. His American accent is so over the top that the film seems to border on parody, and the fact that his character seems to be impervious to bullets only makes London Has Fallen all the more laughable.

Much like the first movie, Butler's performance was action-thriller by numbers and really doesn't deserve to be excused, though the one and only thing you can say in defence of the British actor is that the script he was working with was just as bad.

Packed full of tired action-thriller cliches made even more unbearable by a xenophobic lead character, this movie will hopefully be the end Mike Banning.