The Good: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Cooper breaks out of his handsome leading man comfort zone to play a cartoon raccoon, opposite Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, in Marvel’s blockbuster hit Guardians of the Galaxy.
Introducing a whole new set of characters from the lesser-known comics, Guardians combines exactly the right amount of action and comedy to make it appeal to an exceptionally wide audience. Add a number one-selling soundtrack and a shirtless Chris Pratt, and you’ve got yourself a pretty fantastic movie.
The Bad: All About Steve (2009)
On paper, a goofy rom-com starring Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock sounds like a sure-fire winner, however not even Queen Sandy B can save All About Steve from being one of the worst films I’ve ever laid eyes on.
The film follows the story of a desperate woman with a terrible white trash haircut (Bullock) who falls in love with a camera-man (Cooper) and stalks him all over the country. It comes across as messy and clumsy and only contains about 2 jokes, both of which could not be perceived as funny by any right-minded human.
I really do hope an agent or two got fired over this film as both Cooper and Bullock were fairly successful at this point, so they have no excuse for sinking this low.
The Ugly: American Hustle (2013)
There are many people in the world who have told me that American Hustle is a fantastic film, an opinion backed up pretty nicely by its 10 Oscar nominations. However, this wasn’t enough to get me past the first half an hour without falling asleep.
Whilst this would make the film ugly enough, the real reason it makes this list is the less-than-pretty controversy surrounding the film about pay inequality for the female stars. It was revealed during the Sony hacking scandal that Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid 2% less than their male co-stars, a fact which tainted the reputation of both the film and the studio.