Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali – “Predators”
As a veteran character actor, Mahershala Ali’s had his fair share of thankless cop or criminal roles on TV, but his movie credits are actually mostly pretty credible, with directors like David Fincher and Derek Cianfrance on his CV. But the film that probably did him the least justice was his appearance in the Robert Rodriguez-produced, Nimród Antal-directed sci-fi sequel “Predators.” It’s a film that’s never quite as scary, exciting or fun as its premise (a bunch of hardened killers are transported to the Predator’s home planet to be hunted) or strong cast might suggest. And of all the cast, Ali, as a Sierra Leonean death-squad soldier called Mombasa, might get the rawest end of the deal — he’s not quite the first to die, but he definitely gets the least to do, and feels pretty squandered as a result, given how talented he’s always been.
Jeff Bridges – “Seventh Son”/“R.I.P.D”
We had to end up splitting the honors for Jeff Bridges’ least-fine hour, if only because “Seventh Son” and “R.I.P.D.” are both equally terrible flop would-be blockbusters, and because Bridges gives virtually the same performance in each, which is impressive given that one is a period fantasy movie and the other a buddy cop picture. In the former, he plays a grizzled, Bane-voiced witch-hunter forced to train up an apprentice (Ben Barnes); in the other, he plays a grizzled ghost cop (a former Wild West lawman) who has to train up an apprentice (Ryan Reynolds). Both essentially cash-ins on his “Crazy Heart” Oscar, his villainous turn in “Iron Man” and his box-office success with “True Grit,” they’re equally awful in ways that might seem different but are actually fairly similar: too much CGI, not enough script.
Lucas Hedges – “Arthur Newman”
At just 20, Lucas Hedges sort of gets a pass here — though he’s been acting for a while (first popping up aged 11 in “Dan In Real Life”), Hedges has only really moved into more sizable roles with “Manchester By The Sea,” his earlier turns mostly being brief, and when the movies have been bad, that’s certainly not been his fault. In fact, Hedges has been lucky on the whole — he first turned heads in “Moonrise Kingdom” five years ago, and had a major role with Christoph Waltz in Terry Gilliam’s rather underrated “The Zero Theorem.” Not everything he’s done has been killer — he’s in both Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day” and Jeremy Renner vehicle “Kill The Messenger” — but he’s had a better run than most teen actors. For consistency’s sake, we’ve put down his tiny role as Colin Firth’s son in the virtually unseen dark comedy “Arthur Newman,” co-starring Emily Blunt, but we suspect Hedges’ greatest embarrassments are still to come.
Dev Patel – “The Last Airbender”
From playing an awkward teen on “Skins” to Oscar-winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” from “The Newsroom” to his first Oscar nod for “Lion,” Dev Patel has had a consistently surprising and unexpected career, but he’d probably rather forget about his biggest brush with the tentpole world, in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender.” Patel was probably the biggest name in the movie, as the villainous Prince Zuko, who can control fire and sets out to capture a little bald boy or something. Shyamalan’s adaptation of the popular animation series was dreadful even by his often patchy standards, and it’s the rare film where every single performer is bad in it, even the otherwise reliable Patel, who’s saddled with a shaky accent and some of the worst lines of dialogue in recent cinema history.
Michael Shannon – “Kangaroo Jack”
Like any once-jobbing actor, Michael Shannon has a few questionable spots on his resumé, including two small roles in Michael Bay movies (“Pearl Harbor” and “Bad Boys II”); a cameo in “Jonah Hex,” one of the worst movies ever made; and his disappointingly drab take on General Zod in “Man Of Steel.” But the absolute worst might be his presence as the villain in ludicrously stupid Jerry Bruckheimer-produced family comedy “Kangaroo Jack.” The film sees Shannon play the apprentice of a mobster (Christopher Walken) who hires Jerry O’Connell and Anthony Anderson to deliver some money in Australia, only for the cash to be stolen by a CGI, reaction-shot-loving kangaroo. It’s an utterly baffling movie (one that was intended as a “Midnight Run”-style adult comedy but recut to be a family movie in post), reliant on slapstick to the exclusion of anything else, but at least Shannon mostly comes out of it with his dignity intact.
