The 50 Worst Decisions in Movie History

“Rolling Stone” put together a list of the 50 Worst Decisions in Movie History.

Their top spot went to the 1956 movie “The Conqueror”.  Not only did it star noted white guy John Wayneas the Asian warlord Genghis Khan. . . they also filmed it at nuclear testing sites in Utah.

41% of the crew ended up getting cancer in the following decades, and 21% died from it . . . including Wayne.  While it can’t be proven that they got cancer from working on the movie, it seems pretty suspect.

Here are some of the other bad choices, and how they ranked:

2.  Burt Reynolds turns down James Bond, “The Godfather”, “Star Wars”, “Pretty Woman”, and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.  That is an EPIC run of bad decisions.

3.  Blockbuster turns down an offer to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000.

4.  Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars.

5.  Matt Damon turns down “Avatar”, including 10% of the back end.  He would have made $250 MILLION on the deal.

10.  The movie “Roar” uses real, untrained lions.  Pretty much every member of the cast and crew got attacked at some point . . . including a 20-something Melanie Griffith, who was almost scalped and needed 50 stitches.

15.  MGM gets a teenage Judy Garland hooked on drugs so she could do “The Wizard of Oz”.  With 18-hour shooting days, they gave her downers to help her sleep, and amphetamines to wake her up.  She became an addict and died at 47.

16.  Jar Jar Binks.

21.  Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are handed the wrong envelope while announcing Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars.

27.  “The Blind Side” portraying Michael Oher as a simpleton who has to be taught football by Sandra Bullock.  It wasn’t true, and it’s had a negative effect on how people treat Oher.

29.  “Howard the Duck”.  An absolute disaster, and technically the first-ever Marvel movie.  It came out in 1986.  George Lucas was a producer.

30.  “American Beauty” wins Best Picture in 1999.  In retrospect, it’s really kind of a dark, ugly, and gross movie . . . and there were so many better films that year.

39.  Making “The Hobbit” into three movies.

41.  The rape scene in “Revenge of the Nerds”.  Okay, the ’80s were a different time.  But in real life, a guy disguising himself as a woman’s boyfriend in order to trick her into having sex with him IS rape.  We all know that now and SHOULD have known it then.  Also, even in the ’80s, I can’t believe a woman would immediately FALL IN LOVE with her assailant.

44.  Warner Brothers gives Kevin Costner $80 million to make “The Postman”.  And this was AFTER “Waterworld”!

49.  Will Smith turns down “The Matrix” and “Django Unchained”.  The worst part:  He passed on “The Matrix” to make “Wild Wild West”.

(Check out the complete list here.)