The film cameo has become a common practice within contemporary Hollywood cinema and can be used to generate humour or surprise that is intended to endear the audience toward the film. While some are successful in doing so, others do not and can have the effect of pulling the audience away from the film. Normally, a cameo can be associated to those popular within culture at the respective time of the films release, with the intention of provoking a positive reaction from the viewer. Including a celebrity within a film also has the benefit of providing additional press coverage for the film, exposing it to a broader audience. This exposure thus leads to film producers to target at a specific audience in order to maximise the amount of money a film generates. Naturally, some film cameos can be seen as cynical inclusions. While in the past film cameos have been successful, I will be detailing those which only serve to provide cringe-worthy moments of wooden line delivery and corny, over the top acting. So here are what I consider to be 5 of the most awful, pointless, unpleasantly superfluous cameos film has offered us.
5. Matt Damon - Finding Forrester
Finding Forrester was a film directed by Gus Van Sant that followed the main protagonist Jamal Wallace, an underprivileged literary genius who befriends a man with a beard and through this relationship allows Jamal to hone his natural gift and find his true identity. Sound familiar? While the film does have its merits and does feature Sean Connery in one of his last roles it includes none other than Matt Damon at the very end. The problem with this cameo is that the film inexplicably exposes the weakness of the film. Its an incredibly similar plot and more importantly an inferior film to Good Will Hunting, another Gus Van Sant film. If the role Matt Damon played had any real development then his presence could be glossed over, but his role could so easily have been played by anybody else and the same emotive impact would have been achieved. Including Matt Damon doomed the film to comparisons of the superior Good Will Hunting. Shame.