Kid actors that ruin films.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I watched the Blind Side a couple weeks ago, and the kid that played the roughly 11-12 year old boy was uber-obnoxious. Characters of a certain age, say between 7 and 14, very often ruin movies because the kids are so obnoxious. I'm not sure if its the kids themselves or the way the characters are written.

My top 10 films/TV shows containing kid actors/characters that should have been left out (few will actually recognize the kids' names themselves):

1. Different Strokes. The red-headed kid on the show (Sam) during the later seasons single-handidly created the popular expression "beaten like a red-headed step child."

2. The Phantom Menace. If you think Jar Jar Binks was the most annoying character in this movie, then I beg to differ.

3. I Am Sam. I found myself heartily rooting against the possibility that Sean Penn could keep his daughter and I blame it on the annoying Dakota Fanning. What Robert Downey Jr's character failed to mention during Tropic Thunder was that Sean Penn's turn going "full retard" wasn't wholly responsible for his failure to win an Oscar, most of the voters couldn't watch half the movie because of Dakota Fanning.

4. Terminator 2. Too bad the Terminator didn't turn bad again by the end of the movie. The thought that the whiny kid would later save human civilization makes a movie about robots from the future totally implausible.

5. The Blind Side. I wish the actor that played Michael Oher would have blind-sided that kid.

6. Home Alone. I think I'd leave McCauley Culkin home alone also.

7. Small Wonder. Before he fronted Smashing Pumpkins, Jamie from Small Wonder was very annoying.

8. Shane. Somehow this Western shows up on many "best of" lists. If you've seen it, you know that this kid has the eight year old boy version of Rosie Perez's insanity inducing voice only without the spanish inflection.

9. The Brady Bunch. Not Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marsha, Jan or Cindy- it was OLIVER.

10. Last Action Hero. Okay there were a lot of other things wrong in this movie than just the kid.

[MarkGrace]

I agree with the kid from the Blindside. This is what I said in that thread:

The other thing I was going to mention was that the little kid in the movie was just totally annoying. The role they had him in is kind of tricky, as there's typically a fine line between charmingly precocious and outright obnoxious. Unfortunately I felt this kid was the latter.

[MarkGrace]

The other one that gets to me is the cliched spooky-little-kid-in-a-horror-film role. Can we please just get over this one already? The last time it worked was in The Shining.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I agree with the kid from the Blindside. This is what I said in that thread:

I didn't see your original post on this. That kid could have gone higher on the list if he played a more major part in that movie. I think these kids are often just naturally annoying but the characters are also written that way. The casting directors are looking for a kid that they think fits the role and they often end up with the loud, obnoxious kid.

[Jarid in Cedar]

2. The Phantom Menace. If you think Jar Jar Binks was the most annoying character in this movie, then I beg to differ.

.

Jake Lloyd was hoorrrrriiibbllle.

"Sand storms are very....very....dangerous"

Followed very closely by Shmi:

"You gave hope to those who had none"

[SuperGabers]

Jake Lloyd was hoorrrrriiibbllle.

"Sand storms are very....very....dangerous"

Followed very closely by Shmi:

"You gave hope to those who had none"

Is that what his name is? HE WAS SO EFFING ANNOYING! Worst acting EVER!

[Commando]

2. The Phantom Menace. If you think Jar Jar Binks was the most annoying character in this movie, then I beg to differ.

F*ck Jake Lloyd. Sorry, that's just how I feel. I watched some casting feature that had some hungry little blonde kid that wasn't Jake Lloyd who delivered those lines with sublime melancholy and a dark look in his eye. Lucas stared the real Anakin Skywalker in the face and said "Next!... That was perfect, but I think we'll cast this annoying little sh*t instead to detract from my long winded script and horrible dialogue."

[Fiyero]

On the flip side, I love the nephews in The Wedding Singer "cuckoo's nest! cuckoo's nest!"

"Hey Linda! You a bitch!"

[chrisrenrut]

My nod goes to the young girl that played Kari in Little House on the Prairie. She was so bad that eventually they just gave up on her character. I remember watching as a kid and thinking how bad she was. She immediately came to mind when I saw this thread.

[SuperGabers]

My nod goes to the young girl that played Kari in Little House on the Prairie. She was so bad that eventually they just gave up on her character. I remember watching as a kid and thinking how bad she was. She immediately came to mind when I saw this thread.

LMAO! Wow. That takes me back AND it is so true! How would it be to be that kid and be told, "Uhhh... Yeah. You won't be in next week's episode. You'll be up in bed with the flu. So we won't need you..."

[YOhio]

The 14-yr old girl on Dan in Real Life was almost as bad as Dane Cook. That's bad.