A movie cameo can make a great movie even better or fall completely flat, leaving the audience wondering what they just saw. Mike Meyers' appearance in the Queen biopic as the record exec who hated "Bohemian Rhapsody" was brilliant because one of his most famous characters rocked out to that song in Wayne's World.
On the other hand, Madonna's cameo in Die Another Day was an awkward attempt to cash in on her star power, while giving James Bond another opportunity to engage in innuendo banter. The Stan Lee appearances in MCU movies weren't just relevant — they were loved. Unfortunately, too many times a cameo seems forced, inappropriate, or just plain weird.
10 Dwayne Johnson Doesn't Rock The Mummy Returns
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a huge pro wrestling star, whose film career was just getting under way when he was thrown into The Mummy Returns. The small role of the evil Scorpion King was a tragic casting mistake, because Johnson is a charismatic and likable good guy to his core.
Being miscast only touches the surface of why The Rock's cameo is so bad in this film. It was the utterly horrible CGI rendering that made this such a catastrophe. Not only did The Rock come out looking goofy and misshapen, the computer-generated model was complete garbage.
9 Michael Bolton Melts Snow Dogs
A light comedy about a Miami dentist who inherits a dogsled team in Alaska was never going to be an Oscar contender, but Snow Dogs wasn't without its entertainment value. The film however did suffer from an awful Michael Bolton cameo that knocked the overall quality down a few pegs.
The mild-sauce R&B imposter appeared in a dream with Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character in the form of a talking CD cover to ask for some cookies. Taking the cameo from bad to slightly racist, Bolton — who is white — "whitesplained" to the black character that, "No matter what color you are, you can still have soul." Yikes.
8 Al Pacino Raps In Jack and Jill
If anyone has ever said they wanted to see Al Pacino rap, they were probably joking. In Jack and Jill, the joke was on the audience because that's just what the otherwise talented actor did. What was supposed to be a moment of humor did nothing but induce cringe.
Pacino (playing himself) is tricked into doing a Dunkin' Donuts commercial, which sounds like part of the plot, but is actually a real-life casting ruse pulled over on the veteran actor. Seeing someone of Pacino's stature rapping about "Dunkachino" coffee makes one forget how brilliant he was in The Godfather and Serpcio.
7 David Beckham Bends It In King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Super-star David Beckham is dynamic, photogenic, and internationally recognized, which should have added up to a smooth transition from soccer to film. His uncomfortable cameo in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword however shows he's better at delivering passes than lines.
As King Arthur prepares to pull the sword Excalibur from the stone, Beckham's character delivers the hilariously bad line: "Oi, with both hands!" After King Arthur successfully draws the sword, Beckham's character makes a funny face and hisses like a cat. With that, "Bend it like Beckham" took on a strange new meaning.
6 The Secret Of Vanilla Ice's Ooze
It's tempting to say that any Vanilla Ice cameo is weird, but he was actually hilarious in That's My Boy. The same can't be said for his appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. In an attempt to capitalize on the rapper's fifteen minutes of fame about fifteen minutes too late, he was thrown into the bad film, making it worse.
In one of the most contrived scenes ever, the Turtles begin the final boss battle at a club where it just so happens Vanilla Ice is performing. Thanks to the power of the "Ninja Rap," the Turtles are able to Kung-Fu and breakdance their way through dozens of baddies. Thankfully Vanilla Ice didn't punctuate this shameful moment by telling Shredder "Word to your mother."
5 M. Night Shyamalan Shows Signs Of Bad Acting
Since the big shock ending of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan's twists have been steadily declining. By the time he got Signs, the big reveal was that he can't act. Casting himself in the cameo of a veterinarian who accidentally killed somebody, the suspense director nearly killed his movie.
In one of the worst performances in any movie, Shyamalan's acting technique was to look at the floor frequently, as if he was reading the lines from a carefully placed script, while making a sad duck face. Shyamalan threw in numerous awkward pauses to drag this excruciating scene out for what seemed like an eternity.
4 Shaquille O'neal Is Juvenile In Grown Ups 2
Ex NBAstar Shaquille O'Neal has had cameos in several movies as himself, which is fine in theory since he is who he is. In Grown Ups 2 however, Shaq made an appearance as balding cop who dances. Not only was the scene tragically unfunny and juvenile, but it also didn't drive the story whatsoever.
Cameos from other Adam Sandler movies like Billy Idol in The Wedding Singer or Ozzy Osborne in Little Nicky worked because they were relevant to the story. Had Shaq's appearance been left on the cutting room floor, audiences wouldn't have been left scratching their heads, and the movie could have continued on without him.
3 Kanye West Loves Hockey In The Love Guru
In a movie filled with tired potty humor, where all the character's names are sexual innuendos, and elephants get intimate during a hockey game, somehow Kanye West's cameo in The Love Guru seems weirdest. West popped up for a couple seconds with Mike Meyers in a scene that had no point.
Presumably this was an attempt to play on the bizarre Hurricane Katrina video Meyers and West made in which the rapper blurted out "George Bush doesn't care about black people." That however was not referenced in the film, with West instead proclaiming, "I love hockey!" On top of lacking any comedic value, the cameo didn't make sense.
2 Alien Michael Jackson Creeps Out The Men In Black
At a certain point in Michael Jackson's career everything he did was weird and his Men in Black 2 cameo is no different, Playing the part of an alien being who wants to be part of the team was maybe good casting, but Jackson came off as both cheesy and creepy, in no small part due to the extreme lengths he took to change his appearance.
Jackson turned down an opportunity to be in the first Men in Black film because he didn't want to be portrayed as an alien weirdo. After seeing the film, he wept and begged director Barry Sonnenfeld to be in the sequel. Apparently he realized he had the capacity to be bizarre and unsettling.
1 Donald Trump's Home Alone 2 Power Play
Before he was a controversial and polarizing president, Donald Trump was a controversial and polarizing billionaire media figure. True to form, his cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was contentious, as director Chris Columbus said the billionaire "bullied" his way into the film.
The film called for a scene in New York's iconic Plaza Hotel, which happened to be owned by Trump at the time. If they wanted to shoot on his property, Trump demanded he be written into the film. The result was young Kevin, once again abandoned, asking for directions with Trump smugly pointing the way.