Throughout her storied career, Emma Stone has starred in a wide variety of movies, from raunchy teen comedies to Oscar-winning dramatic masterpieces. Some of Stone’s movies have been universally praised by critics, like Birdman and The Favourite, while others have been panned as one of the worst, like Marmaduke and Movie 43 – and there are plenty of middling efforts that rank somewhere in between. With challenging roles like a woman in recovery, an aspiring starlet, and a conniving courtier, Stone has earned a cabinet’s worth of awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
In 2017, Stone was included on Stone has starred in all kinds of great movies.
23 Movie 43 (2013)
With a dismal 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Movie 43 was almost universally panned by critics. Movie 43 was conceived as a throwback to classic sketch comedy movies, like The Kentucky Fried Movie and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, but it doesn’t have a single memorable sketch. A star-studded cast – including such A-listers as Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Julianne Moore, Gerard Butler, and, indeed, Stone – is wasted on weak material.
22 Aloha (2015)
After striking the perfect balance of comedy, drama, and romance in his classics Say Anything... and Jerry Maguire, Cameron Crowe failed to recapture that magic in his Hawaii-set dud Aloha. Aloha is much more We Bought a Zoo than Almost Famous. It bombed at the box office (via The Numbers) and received widespread negative reviews criticizing its whitewashed cast — Stone's character, Captain Allison Ng, is supposed to be one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Hawaiian — cultural appropriation, and dull, uninspired script.
21 Marmaduke (2010)
While it wasn’t quite as poorly received as Movie 43, Marmaduke’s 9% Rotten Tomatoes score indicates it didn’t fare much better with critics. The 2010 live-action/animation hybrid is a lifeless adaptation that fails to capture the spirit of Brad Anderson’s iconic comic strip. The animals’ slightly off-kilter CG lip movements – including that of Mazie, the Australian Shepherd that Stone plays – are a continuous distraction.
20 Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009)
On the eve of his brother’s wedding, Matthew McConaughey's Connor "Dutch" Mead is visited by three ghosts representing his history of romantic relationships in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. This premise could’ve been a fun modern rom-com take on A Christmas Carol, but it doesn’t capture any of the depth or humanity that made the Charles Dickens original such a classic. McConaughey settles into his familiar on-screen rom-com persona and Stone can’t save the film with her early role as Allison Vandermeersh, his first girlfriend, who appears as “the Ghost of Girlfriends Past.”
19 Gangster Squad (2013)
Reunited with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer and Stone's frequent collaborator Ryan Gosling, Stone starred as Grace Faraday in the action-packed crime caper Gangster Squad. The movie is a fictionalized retelling of the LAPD’s quest to bring down crime lord Mickey Cohen and his gang in the late 1940s. Unfortunately, in Gangster Squad, stunning period cinematography and powerful performances by such renowned stars as Stone, Gosling, Sean Penn, and Josh Brolin are squandered on an undercooked script.
18 Paper Man (2009)
One of the earliest roles of Stone’s career was a ing turn as high school student Abby in the indie darling Paper Man. Paper Man is a quirky, albeit uneven comedy about a struggling writer bringing back his childhood imaginary friend to reinvigorate his creativity. Critics didn’t take too kindly to Paper Man; it has just 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is far from one of the best Emma Stone movies, but it has a certain offbeat charm.
17 Irrational Man (2015)
Playing bright-eyed academic Jill Pollard, Stone’s second consecutive collaboration with the controversial Woody Allen, Irrational Man, paired her up with Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Abe Lucas, an ennui-suffering philosophy professor looking for purpose. Despite having two world-class actors in the lead roles, Irrational Man failed to garner the critical and commercial success that Allen’s best films have achieved. Irrational Man is an underwhelming mystery comedy lacking the suspense of a mystery and the wit of a comedy.
16 The Rocker (2008)
The Rocker is a fun rock ‘n’ roll comedy that gave Stone one of her earliest roles. The movie is about a drummer who’s kicked out of his band just before they make it big and tries to claw his way back to fame and fortune in his nephew’s garage band. The story is predictable and the most inspired jokes are few and far between, but the cast brings their A-game. Stone makes a great deadpan foil for a hilarious Rainn Wilson as Amelia Stone, the teenage bandmate of his middle-aged has-been rockstar.
15 Magic In The Moonlight (2014)
Stone and Colin Firth give committed lead performances as Sophie Baker and Stanley Crawford in Magic in the Moonlight, but this late-career Allen effort never finds a natural rhythm. Magic in the Moonlight split critical opinion almost 50/50, with a 51% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film offers Allen’s take on the concept of magical realism, but it quickly devolves into a mundane romance. Some reviewers complained that Allen’s script is too aimless to create a successful movie, while others found Stone and Firth’s chemistry to be charming enough to salvage it.
14 Friends With Benefits (2011)
A formulaic rom-com with well-matched leads, Friends with Benefits is a typical case of a movie that does what it says on the tin. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis star as two friends who add casual sex to their relationship and, of course, end up falling in love. It’s predictable and unadventurous, but Friends with Benefits provides the entertainment it promises. Stone has a memorable cameo as Kayla, who bluntly breaks up with Timberlake early in the movie.
