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If you’re reading this article, you probably enjoy kicking back and watching movies on the regular. You probably have dozens of favorite films, and dozens more favorite characters in those movies. And if you’re a well-versed cinephile, you’ll know that one obnoxious character—typically played by a godawful fail of an actor—can derail an entire movie.
Over the years, countless child actors, wannabe comedians, and quippy sidekicks have ruined otherwise great films. A movie can survive one or two irritating supporting characters, but it’s not often that it can survive an insufferable lead. Whether it’s the script, the actor, or both, sometimes a character just doesn’t click, no matter how hard the filmmakers try. (Sometimes even great directors drop bombs.)
Complex conjures up bad memories from cinema’s past with a countdown of The 25 Most Annoying Movie Characters, because, let’s face it, it’s just fun to hate.
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Written by Jason Serafino (serafinoj1)
25. Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Played by: Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell has been hit-or-miss ever since 2006, when he played Ricky Bobby, a NASCAR driver looking to win the Talladega 500. The problem with this role is that it depended on Farrell’s southern accent and numerous clichés to succeed, and after a while those began to wear incredibly thin. Unlike in Anchorman, where Farrell’s comedic repertoire was varied and unpredictable, his Ricky Bobby character was decidedly one-note, and the jokes seem lazily improvised.
But instead of just being a disappointing performance, Farrell’s broad performance made it impossible to tune Ricky Bobby out, especially since he was in nearly every frame of the picture. Again, this wouldn’t have been so bad in small doses, but given that he’s the cartoonish lead in the movie, his act quickly grew stale and annoying.
24. The Riddler, Batman Forever (1995)
Played by: Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey could have brought something unique to the coveted role of the Riddler in Batman Forever, but all he did was gobble up scenery as he went completely over the top to bring this trickster to life. Sporting a random orange wig and spewing awful dialogue at the top of his lungs, Carrey's Riddler came off like Ace Ventura on coke in a pair of green underroos.
But let’s go back to that hair for a second. Was it a wig, or did the Riddler just sit there for an hour with a can of colored hairspray before hitting the town every night? Honestly, none of it was explained, which only added to our annoyance with the character.
23. Nicky, Little Nicky (2000)
Played by: Adam Sandler
When coming up with the most annoying characters in movies, we have the veritable pick of the litter in Adam Sandler's consistently grating roles, but nothing even comes close to his turn in Little Nicky. Complete with a bad haircut and a torturous speech impediment, Sandler’s performance made every moment of the movie pure agony.
It seemed like the success of the film was predicated on Sandler’s bizarre accent for Nicky, the devil's son, but that character choice proved to be unbearable after a few minutes. Unfortunately, the movie then dragged on for an hour and a half. Sandler absolutely ruled the ‘90s, but his first movie of the new millennium seemingly set the tone for what was his eventual fall from grace.
22. Rachel Ferrier, War of the Worlds (2005)
Played by: Dakota Fanning
A crying, screaming child is perhaps the most annoying thing to have to endure while at the movies. Well, if that logic applies to the audience, it should also apply to the film itself. In War of the Worlds, Dakota Fanning plays Rachel Ferrier, the daughter of Tom Cruise’s character, and basically all she does through the whole alien invasion pic is scream her pretty blonde head off.
To this day, we still don't understand how she didn't ruin her vocal chords with all of the shrieking she did. We understand that the Earth was under attack by aliens at the time, but even that doesn't justify the decibels this girl reached, especially at a time when hushing the fuck up to hide would be advisable.
21. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, Scent of a Woman (1992)
Played by: Al Pacino
Yes, Pacino won an Oscar for this role, but it's not like the Academy Awards ever get it right, and his scenery chewing and incessant “Hoo-ahs” are the reason a countdown such as this exists. The character of blind army veteran Lt. Col. Frank Slade isn’t annoying in small doses, but over the movie’s nearly three-hour length his little idiosyncrasies turn into gigantic irritations. The gravely voice, the tango-dancing, the hoo-ah—it‘s all too much to bear. The Academy awarded Pacino with a golden statue for this role—over Denzel Washington, who was amazing playing Malcolm X—but not for his stellar work in Serpico, The Godfather, or Dog Day Afternoon. Go figure.
20. Mutt Williams, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Played by: Shia LaBeouf
Another Indiana Jones sidekick, another complete failure. We still can't explain why Steven Spielberg and George Lucas felt it was necessary to sully a great movie franchise by giving Jones such a whiny, bratty kid for what should have been the character's grand swan song. Shia LaBeouf adds absolutely nothing to this movie, other than an attempt to draw a younger audience into it, and no young people we know vibed on Mutt, a greaser wannabe who spends his time trying to be a wise-ass and failing at it.
Mutt came along at a time when LaBeouf was thought to be the next Hollywood heavyweight, but he was woefully overmatched here as he just seemed like a kid in a man’s world.
19. Ruby Rhod, The Fifth Element (1997)
Played by: Chris Tucker
As the androgynous radio DJ from The Fifth Element, Chris Tucker’s job was to be as over-the-top as possible, yet we don’t think anyone expected him to be quite so unbearable as Ruby Rhod. It’s not that Tucker did a poor job here, it’s just that he was so good at being annoying that nearly every scene he was in made us want to claw at the screen.
Seriously, his screams sound like the type of blaring horn that would make schoolchildren duck and cover in preparation for a bomb-dropping back in the hysterical ‘50s. If that weren't grating enough, he also sports some gravity-defying hair and a garish wardrobe that makes Prince look like a sanitation worker in Soviet Russia.
18. The Ewoks, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
Played by: Warwick Davis, Various
And thus begins our Star Wars trifecta. It seems like for every good decision George Lucas made during the span of six movies, there were two or three truly terrible ones that people seem to remember more. And one of the first big missteps of the franchise was the inclusion of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. Obviously existing purely to entertain kids and boost toy sales, these pint-size teddy bears were so excruciatingly annoying that they poisoned what should have been the trilogy’s finest moment.
Ewoks, who were intended to be the antithesis to technologically advanced society, carry spears and rocks, yet they illogically manage to take down an entire platoon of Imperial troops that was powerful enough to enslave planets in the past. It’s simply inexplicable. We dare you to watch Jedi again and not find yourself rooting for the Storm Troopers.
17. Derek Zoolander, Zoolander (2001)
Played by: Ben Stiller
Zoolander is adored by many, and we can see why: Male models deserve to be mocked. But Ben Stiller’s performance as the titular idiotic pretty boy is so extra that it begins to wear thin at the film's halfway point. He’s a spiky-haired quote machine, which is good for a few laughs, but that actually proved to be a bad thing when, in the years following the movie’s release, nearly everyone with the ability to speak did an obnoxious Zoolander impersonation, presumably to annoy us. No doubt the character was written to be irritating, so in that respect we have to give props to the portrayal. But even Stiller, who must have had Derek Zoolander quotes yelled at him a zillion times, would probably concede that he was too successful at it.
16. Tim and Lex Murphy, Jurassic Park (1993)
Played by: Joseph Mazzello (Tim), Ariana Richards (Lex)
We’re lumping these two together simply because they complement each other in such irritating fashion. Tim and Lex Murphy weren’t just annoying by child star standards; they broke new barriers for obnoxious movie characters in general by giving a new name to stupidity.
These two couldn't follow directions if their lives depended on it, which, ironically, they do in the dinosaur park. Spitting in the face of logic, these brother and sister find themselves at death’s door countless times during the movie simply because they aren't playing attention to what everyone around them is screaming for them to do.
Oddly enough, the girl, Lex, proves to be a capable computer hacker, but even that is annoying because she has a smug attitude about it. Sure, she can hack into complex computer systems, but she can’t do simple things like close a door before a velociraptor attack or turn on a Jeep. How we wish those raptors finished these two off in the kitchen.
15. Juno, Juno (2007)
Played by: Ellen Page
We like Ellen Page as an actress, but annoying-ass screenwriter Diablo Cody over-wrote her snarky role with such bullshit teenage slang that it completely wasted her talent. Seriously, with her rapid-fire quips and comebacks, all of Juno’s dialogue felt so unnatural and forced that it was obvious she was reading from a script (composed by a writer who was trying too hard).
Her sarcastic nature was charming and fresh for the first third of the movie but listening to her talk soon became exhausting and the character grew cartoonish. It makes it very hard to relate to her situation when everything out of her mouth seems so carefully manicured and unbelievable.
14. Staff Sgt. Sean Dignam, The Departed (2006)
Played by: Mark Wahlberg
In The Departed, Mark Wahlberg played the type of hot-headed Irish cop that we just couldn’t stand. He was brash and ill-mannered, with the mouth of a disgruntled high school jock. But as Capt. Queenan’s right-hand man, Dignam also had the authority to act like the biggest tool imaginable and get away with it. This part called for someone who could get under our skin in a hurry, and it turns out that Mark Wahlberg was the man for the job. And when Dignam’s big reveal came at the end, it just added to his overall scumbaggery.
13. Austin Powers, Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Played by: Mike Myers
The Austin Powers franchise was a juggernaut in the late ‘90s, yet by the time the third installment rolled around, all of the novelty had worn off and the movies crossed the line from slapstick humor to just plain irritating. And it was the character of Powers himself that suffered the most in Goldmember.
The accent and sex jokes that once made him such a sensation felt forced and flat this time around, especially since most of the gags were recycled from earlier installments. (It was just as bad when Myers changed to an Indian accent in his racist dud The Love Guru and dropped more stale dick jokes.) The problem with a character like Powers is that he’s incredibly broad, so once the charm wore off, there was nothing to fall back on.
12. Peter Banning/Peter Pan, Hook (1991)
Played by: Robin Williams
We bet you that Steven Spielberg still wishes that he could have a mulligan on Hook. The story of an aging Peter Pan regaining his mojo and battling a swashbuckling Dustin Hoffman is one of the goofier ideas the great director’s embraced. The failure begins and ends with Williams' turn as Peter Pan. At an almost two-and-a-half-hour run time, it takes forever for Williams to finally transform himself back into Peter Pan. In the meantime we’re forced to watch him mope around in truly annoying fashion.
Unfortunately, once he does turn back into Peter Pan, it’s nothing more special than a humorless Robin Williams in a pair of green tights and a neck beard. This is a man known for his over-the-top personality and he brought none of it to the character. Whether that was an explicit decision by Spielberg, or by Williams himself, is unknown. It's not often that boredom turns to annoyance, but Williams and Spielberg pulled it off.
11. Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Played by: Josh Heder
With his curly hair, thick glasses, and open-mouthed expression of continual stupidity, Napoleon Dynamite burst onto the scene in 2004 in what many considered to be an indie gem. But that doesn’t stop Napoleon from landing on this list as one of the most annoying characters ever to hit the big screen. His voice alone could drive a man mad (the incessant Napoleon imitations that followed the film's release was reason to drive off a cliff).
Oddly enough, the idea of finding Napoleon to be unbearably annoying seems to have been the objective here, as we found ourselves hating him, yet, at the same time, still curious about what happens to him in the end. This movie is the perfect statement on the type of manufactured individuality that a lot of people think they have in them, and how in the end it all turns out to be a facade. Annoyance with a purpose—what a novel concept.
10. Short Round, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Played by: Jonathan Ke Quan
In an attempt to appeal to children in an otherwise darker sequel, Steven Spielberg introduced the world to Short Round, Indiana Jones’ insufferable sidekick, in 1984’s Temple of Doom. But all this smart-mouthed, adolescent, Chinese orphan did was drag the movie down and contribute to its already evident racism. We’re really not fans of kid sidekicks, and Short Round exhibited every reason why. First off, he was a walking quip machine. Secondly, it’s completely unbelievable that a kid would be able to avoid death for so long. And again, he was terribly stereotypical and a little offensive.
From what we can tell, Short Round was a Spielberg idea, which is surprising because the whole concept is right in George Lucas’ wheelhouse. Frankly, we don’t like our main heroes to be overshadowed, but that’s just what Short Round managed to do—in a bad way.
9. Steve Stifler, The American Pie series (1999-Present)
Played by: Seann William Scott
Take the most annoying kid in your high school class, amplify his personality by 10, then pay $10 for a ticket to see him up on the big screen and you’ll get an idea of what it’s like to experience watching Steve Stifler in the American Pie series. This sex-obsessed, beer-swigging party boy hit a little too close to home when the series debuted in 1999 because of Seann William Scott’s uncanny ability to tap into the American frat boy mentality perfectly.
This is one of those annoying characters that lands on this list not because the actor playing him got under our skin, but because Scott did everything so well that he brought every irritating inch of Stifler to life. There is only so much obnoxious drunkenness we can take before we wind up grinding our teeth to dust.
8. Pvt. William Hudson, Aliens (1986)
Played by: Bill Paxton
It’s always a sin when an otherwise great movie (one of the 10 best action movie ever, in fact) features one character that makes you want to pull your hair out, and in Aliens, Bill Paxton’s performance as Private Hudson does just that. With the attitude of a boorish high school football team captain, Hudson spends his time as the ship’s resident jackass. He mocks the crew constantly, makes lame jokes, and is constantly trying to prove his masculinity to others.
It’s depressing to know that people will still act like this in the future, according to James Cameron. Somehow all of this flexing and jockish behavior was all worth it when he met his grisly end later on in the film. It's always torture sitting through a movie with a character like this, yet if they take it on the chin later in the film we usually wind up satisfied.
7. Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
Played by: Hayden Christensen
How do you take the galaxy’s biggest badass and turn him into nothing more than a whiny emo kid? Easy: You just cast Hayden Christensen as a young Anakin Skywalker and make him read from a script that wouldn’t cut the mustard in your high school creative writing class. Whether he’s attempting to look angry while slowly turning to the dark side, or taking part in a creeptastic romance with Natalie Portman, Christensen found every way to get under our skin as a pre-James Earl Jones Darth Vader.
Every line of dialogue out of his mouth was tantamount to sucking on a lemon wedge after a root canal; it’s seriously that bad. It’s impossible to just blame Christensen, though, because we’re sure Marlon Brando would have a hard time bringing life to this character with the way George Lucas wrote him.
6. Skids and Mudflap, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Played by: Tom Kenny (Skids), Reno Wilson (Mudflap)
You would think that a Transformers movie would be the last place anyone would find even a hint of racism, but Michael Bay proved us all wrong when he introduced us to the Twins. These two Autobots were jive-talking stereotypes that seemed to be taken right out of a 1930's Disney cartoon. Like Jar Jar Binks did for the Star Wars prequels, these Twins absolutely ruined every scene they were in with their offensive dialogue and accents.
It’s bad enough that these Transformers movies are an absolute torture to sit through; we then had to deal with some racist robots that Michael Bay and company thought were funny. We’re glad these two got thrown in the scrapheap for the sequel.
5. Wendy Torrance, The Shining (1980)
Played by: Shelley Duvall
It’s not often that we urge—nay, beg—the killer in a horror movie to gut the main characters, but we make an exception for The Shining. Shelley Duvall is just so whiny and dense as increasingly unstable Jack Torrance's wife that it makes it nearly impossible not to root for him to turn her into a lampshade for the hotel lobby. Her high-pitched speaking voice and shrieks just add fuel to our rage, as she spends most of the movie nervously going from room to room turning herself into a spectacle of anxiety.
For the entire two-and-a-half hour run time of the movie, Wendy shows off little depth other than just being a stock character for Jack to go after. Some people like to say it’s the hotel that made Jack go nuts, but you can’t discount what marriage to a woman like this can do to a man.
4. Mr. Yunioshi, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Played by: Mickey Rooney
Ready for some old-school Hollywood racism? In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Mickey Rooney played Mr. Yunioshi, Holly Golightly’s landlord. To play a Japanese man, Rooney slapped on a pair of buckteeth, thick glasses, and spoke in a caricature accent that was completely tasteless—even by WWII propaganda film standards.
Every scene with him was like nails on a chalkboard. Plus, anyone with a conscience should also find it a sickening slap in the face to the Asian community. This character has become infamous over the years, and its existence is still debated today.
3. Mary Corleone, The Godfather Part III (1990)
Played by: Sofia Coppola
Not even trying to hide his nepotism, Francis Ford Coppola cast his daughter, Sofia, as Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III, and the results were horrifying. The character's conflict with her father (Al Pacino), and creepy romance with her cousin (Andy Garcia), was supposed to be the emotional driving force of the film. However, Coppola brought such a stiff, wooden performance to the role that you can’t help but hate her by the end.
This is an example of one wrong casting decision affecting an entire film. Her lack of believability as an actress made Mary a frustrating character to watch. In turn, it made the entire movie frustrating to watch, and a huge letdown after two phenomenal films. Rival mob families couldn’t bring down the Corleone’s, but some amateur acting sure did.
2. Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003)
Played by: Sean Astin
Have you ever gone on a long car ride with a group of friends, only to have one of them complain the whole time about the length of the trip? Well, imagine that, but over the course of a trilogy of three-hour movies, and you;ll understand why Samwise Gamgee makes this list. Throughout the Lord of the Rings films, Gamgee is like a big fat anchor weighing Frodo down and testing our patience.
When not complaining about being hungry, Gamgee is reminiscing about his time on the Shire or going on faux-philosophical rants about his place in the world. How Frodo had the self-control not to pop that gold ring on his finger and lace chubby right in the chops is beyond us.
1. Jar Jar Binks, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
Voiced by: Ahmed Best
Well, here it is, the most annoying character to ever grace the big screen: Jar Jar Binks. Seemingly created out of pure spite by George Lucas, this quip-slinging CGI monstrosity and racist caricature of carefree Jamaican Rastafarians completely ruined the Star Wars prequels. Like something out of a Looney Tunes short, Jar Jar sullied the once-reputable Star Wars brand, and lowered the franchise to nothing more than child’s play.
To this day, we can’t imagine the thought process and committee thinking behind the creation of such a character. It seemed like a cruel joke at the time, but about an hour into the movie we learned that it was all too real. Though he was phased out in Episode II and III, Jar Jar still left a stain on the franchise that will never be removed, no matter how hard anyone's tries.