Keeping in mind the fact that this actor first earned fame as a rapper that went by the name Marky Mark, it certainly would have been hard to predict that he would become a huge acting star. Despite that fact, ever since Mark Wahlberg gave his first celebrated performance in the movie The Basketball Diaries, he has remained a highly in-demand actor.

Just because Mark Wahlberg is a huge star, that in no way means that every movie he appeared in was improved in terms of quality due to his involvement. In fact, the opposite is true in certain cases. Still, the man has proven himself to be quite talented in the past and some of his performances deserve a lot of credit. With that in mind, it is time to get to this list of 9 movies Mark Wahlberg ruined and 6 that he saved.

15 Saved: Three Kings

When it comes to getting credit for his work in Three Kings, Mark Wahlberg had a lot of things working against him as behind the scenes drama took up most of the attention paid to the film. On top of that, stealing the spotlight from George Clooney is always bound to be a challenge. However, Wahlberg actually outshines hi co-stars with his work in this film, especially during the intense interrogation scenes.

14 Saved: Patriots Day

Of all the movies on Mark Wahlberg’ filmography, it baffles us that Patriot’s Day received such a small amount of attention. An intense movie that gives the audience a deeper understanding of the Boston Marathon bombing, it was quite spellbinding.

One of the main reasons why that was the case is that Wahlberg believably played a cop in an awful situation and he knew enough to underplay a lot of moments so the story could take center stage.

13 Ruined: Max Payne

Widely considered to be among the worst video game movies of all-time, which is really saying something, Max Payne had a lot of problems including a highly illogical plot. If that weren’t bad enough, in every scene Wahlberg seemed to be disinterested in being a part of this movie despite starring in it and his history of being great in darker movies.

12 Saved: Deepwater Horizon

The second disaster movie to make its way on to this list, Mark Wahlberg proves yet again that he is excellent at playing characters who find themselves in bad situations. Able to stand out even among Deepwater Horizon’s incredible special effects, Wahlberg managed to inspire audiences to believe that he is just the man you want on your side in a catastrophe.

11 Ruined: The Truth About Charlie

A remake of the Audrey Hepburn classic film Charade, The Truth About Charlie proves that some movies shouldn’t be remade. Of course, had they decided to go forward with making this film anyway, it certainly would have been great if Mark Wahlberg had any hope of living up to a role previously played by Cary Grant. Instead, he somehow made this already disappointing film worse by stumbling through his role.

10 Ruined: Broken City

Co-starring with the always impressive actor Russell Crowe in this film, Mark Wahlberg must have thought that he was onto something when he took on his Broken City role. Despite that, the film only has a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Wahlberg is partly responsible for that as he played his character in such an obvious way that everything he did was predictable.

9 Saved: The Other Guys

The only comedy to appear on the positive side of this list, if you ask us The Other Guys deserves to be considered one of the most hilarious films of its generation. Definitely, one of the main reasons why this film works so well, Wahlberg’s chemistry with Will Ferrell was one of the movie’s biggest highlights. On top of that, he played the film’s straight man to perfection in one scene and then was really funny doing something ridiculous in the next.

8 Ruined: Daddy’s Home 2

As a sequel to an already disappointing film, it would have been great if Daddy’s Home 2 managed to elevate the series in any meaningful way. Instead, it actually made things worse and even though Wahlberg has comedic chemistry with his co-star Will Ferrell, both of them failed to make the jokes work.

7 Ruined: Transformers: Age of Extinction

The first of two Transformers movies that Mark Wahlberg has starred in, viewers were supposed to buy his character in this film was both a concerned father and madcap inventor. Unfortunately, Wahlberg failed in both of those regards as he seemed to have no bond with the actor who played his daughter and his character seemed far too simple-minded to be inventive.

6 Saved: The Fighter

Back when The Fighter was released, it was one of only a few times in Mark Wahlberg’s career that there was serious talk of him possibly receiving an Oscars nomination. Sadly, he turned out to be the film’s only lead actors who didn’t get any love from the Academy which is a crying shame since his performance wasn’t showy but he was the heart and soul of the film.

5 Ruined: Rock Star

In a lot of ways, casting Mark Wahlberg as the lead in Rock Star should have been a genius stroke given his past in the music industry. Sadly, Wahlberg spends so much time trying to look cool in this film that he failed to give his character any depth in this often over the top morality play masquerading as a movie.

4 Ruined: Transformers: The Last Knight

Fortunately, it seems like Mark Wahlberg’s time starring in Transformers movies has come to an end as he somehow managed to be worse in this film than he was in the last one. Both melodramatic whenever his daughter gets brought and overly broad during the rest of the film, Wahlberg seemed to have no idea what kind of movie he was starring in with The Last Knight.

3 Saved: Boogie Nights

First off, we want to make it clear that we understand that Boogie Nights is a masterpiece that works on every level so it may seem really strange to think of Mark Wahlberg as saving a near-perfect film. However, when you keep in mind how important it was that the actor who played the film’s lead pulled off both the character’s early naiveté and his later egotism it makes perfect sense.

2 Ruined: Planet of the Apes

Simply put, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes film that Mark Wahlberg starred in was a wildly disappointing film aside from its makeup effects. With Wahlberg acting overly serious while trying and failing to be the toughest guy in the room, he also managed to have no chemistry with both his human and Ape romantic interests in the film.

1 Ruined: The Happening

One of those rare movies that is so bad it is good, a number of people have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of The Happening over the years. However, the film was meant to be taken seriously and Mark Wahlberg was so bad in it that virtually every line he delivers in it is laughable. In fact, it seems likely that his performance will go down as one of the worst of all time given how easily his acting lowlights in the movie come to mind.

Sources: tvovermind.com, reelrundown.com, rottentomatoes.com