Actors Who Ripped Into The Critics Who Didn't Like Their Movie

A lot of people will reduce film criticism down to simply saying whether or not you liked a movie, but that is selling critics short. True film criticism involves a conversation, where the critic responds to what they have seen and the points that it raised. However, every now and then, actors and directors have decided that they should join in on this conversation as well.

While many people believe that art should simply speak for itself, these actors disagreed, and they fired back, ripping into critics who didn't like their movies. In some cases, the critics had gone too far and deserved to be called out. Other times, the actors were just sour about a negative review. Regardless, the retorts are often amusing, as many film critics are quite good at snarky comebacks and put-downs. Let's take a look at some actors who ripped into the critics who didn't like their movie.

A few years ago, when people heard about the musical "Cats," they thought of the long-running Broadway show. The stage musical may not have been a critical darling, but it was charming in its own way. However, when people hear about "Cats" now, they immediately think of the absolute disaster that was the 2019 CGI adaptation. Despite its all-star cast and huge budget, the film was an infamous critical flop, with the hilariously negative reviews rolling in before it hit theaters. Variety's Peter Debruge called it "one of those once-in-a-blue-moon embarrassments," and the Los Angeles Times' Justin Chang said it was "as uneasy on the eyes as a Hollywood spectacle can be."

While most people were simply enjoying the ridiculous reviews, star Jason Derulo decided to weigh in (likely after singing his own name, of course). Derulo told TMZ that he was excited for "the people to actually see it, because reviewers, I mean, what the hell do they know?" In addition to suggesting that movie critics aren't human, Derulo promised that the film would be a "deportation to another dimension." While he probably meant that viewers would be "transported" to another dimension, it is pretty amusing that he chose a word that suggests people would only watch the movie by force.

Rex Reed of The New York Observer has been a film critic for quite some time, but he is probably best known for his rude and careless reviews in recent years. Take, for example, his original review of "The Shape of Water," (via IndieWire) where he claimed the director was Benicio Del Toro (it was Guillermo Del Toro) and that he was from Spain (neither Guillermo nor Benicio is). He also spent a good portion of his review of Edward Norton's 2019 film "Motherless Brooklyn" mocking Tourette's Syndrome, but perhaps his most famous incident was when he body shamed Melissa McCarthy in his review of "Identity Thief."

The majority of critics gave "Identity Thief" a negative review, but most of them criticized it for lacking any actual humor, instead of attacking McCarthy herself. Reed, however, made many disparaging remarks about the actress's weight throughout his review, calling her a "hippo" and "tractor sized." This quickly earned him the ire of even the film's harshest critics. McCarthy took some time to respond, but when she did, she took the high road, telling The New York Times, "I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate," adding that, "I just thought, that's someone who's in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot." Seeing as how Reed continues to write spiteful reviews, he clearly remains in a really bad spot.

Adam McKay's epic comedy "Don't Look Up" seemingly starred every A-lister in Hollywood, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, and many more, but the cavalcade of stars didn't mean universal acclaim. Critics and viewers alike were split down the middle, as some thought it was perfectly funny, while others thought its message was too on-the-nose or simply not handled well. However, mixed reviews weren't good enough for Ron Perlman, who played Colonel Benedict Drask in the film.

In a 2022 interview with The Independent, Perlman spoke out against anyone who didn't like the movie, saying, "F*** you and your self-importance and this self-perpetuating need to say everything bad about something just so that you can get some attention for something that you had no idea about creating." Perlman is just one of many actors who has said that critics need to be filmmakers themselves to say a film is bad, which is kind of like saying you need to be an architect to point out that a house is ugly.

Making the initial switch from standup comedy to film isn't always easy, so comedians need a vehicle that capitalizes on their talent without just feeling like they're recycling material wholesale from their act. Amy Schumer managed to find just the right balance in the raunchy romantic comedy "Trainwreck." For the most part, critics were impressed, but Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells decided that he would make fun of Schumer's appearance in his review (which he wisely took down, but is documented in this Nylon article). Wells said of her, "There's no way she'd be an object of heated romantic interest in the real world," and compared her to "a blonde Lou Costello."

Thankfully, Wells did offer up an apology once his trainwreck review of "Trainwreck" was criticized, but that wasn't the end of it. At a Hollywood Reporter roundtable, Schumer said that only one critic criticized her appearance in their review of "Trainwreck," but "people really attacked him, and then he redacted that and wanted to date me." She never called out Wells by name, but it's quite clear who she was talking about. We feel like it's safe to assume that he never went out with her and ended up being embarrassed twice over.

Before there was the critically acclaimed "The Suicide Squad," there was the not-so-critically acclaimed "Suicide Squad." Many critics called the film out for having too many characters and trying too many things, especially since its runtime was only around two hours. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said, "In a word, 'Suicide Squad' is trash. In two words, it's ugly trash," and went so far as to call it "an all-out attack on the whole idea of entertainment." Some of the cast members were not having it, including Cara Delevingne, who played the villainous Enchantress.

In an interview with Reuters, Delevingne said the critics had been "absolutely horrific, they're really, really horrible," chalking up their negative reviews to the fact that they didn't like superhero movies. Of course, "Suicide Squad" came out in 2016, at which point superhero movies regularly got positive critical reception. She added that the movie was for fans, not critics — which is pretty much a given with any movie, seeing as how a big poster saying "This Film Is Not For Fans" would probably not do well at the box office.

While plenty of films are well-known for getting bad reviews, "The Brown Bunny," directed by and starring Vincent Gallo, is a rare film that is more famous for its critical reception than its actual content. In 2003, Roger Ebert declared it "The worst film in the history of the [Cannes Film] Festival," and wrote a scathing review on his website, where he called it "the most anti-American film at Cannes, because it is so anti-American to show it as an example of American filmmaking." Gallo decided to trash Ebert publicly, telling the New York Observer that Ebert had "the physique of a slave trader" and claimed he cursed Ebert's prostate, which came after another remark where he claimed to have hexed his colon.

Of course, Gallo forgot the first rule of film criticism, which is to never get in a sarcasm war with Roger Ebert. "I had a colonoscopy once," wrote Ebert in a response, "and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than 'The Brown Bunny.'" Ebert addressed the weight comments as well, ending his piece with, "It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of 'The Brown Bunny.'" However, after all of the back-and-forth, Gallo made a considerable edit to the film, and Ebert ended up giving it a positive review.