The history of Hollywood is full of ups, downs and glorious returns to form after years in the acting wilderness.
But not all attempts to regain the glory of yesteryear go to plan, as demonstrated by these actors who reached for a triumphant comeback and came away empty-handed.
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger
You'd be forgiven for forgetting that Arnie's movie career has been in dire straits for years now. The former governor of California and less-popular-than-Donald-Trump host of The Celebrity Apprentice is still highly visible, but he hasn't had a great movie since the '90s.
That hasn't stopped him from trying to return, from the lukewarm Expendables franchise to the hated Terminator Genisys, and a string of flops like the critically panned 'serious film' Aftermath. It's alright, Arnie, we still love you.
2. Lindsay Lohan
The Parent Trap and Mean Girls established Lohan as the queen of the family-friendly comedy, but her acting career was derailed by a flurry of well-documented personal problems.
2013's The Canyons was intended as her edgy comeback. Directed by Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader, scripted by Bret Easton Ellis and featuring porn actor James Deen. So edgy.
Sadly, neither critics nor audiences were won over, and LiLo is yet to make another feature film.
3. Eddie Murphy
Murphy's attempted comeback was particularly tragic because it very nearly came off. After increasingly unfunny outings like Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and the infamous Adventures of Pluto Nash, he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as R&B singer Jimmy 'Thunder' Early in 2006's Dreamgirls. Unfortunately, his hugely derided Norbit arrived in the midst of voting season, and has been blamed for his failure to take home an Academy Award.
Since then, it's been Shrek voice roles, forgotten movies and a string of Golden Raspberries for the once-beloved comedy actor.
4. Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone is best remembered for being excellent in 1992's Basic Instinct (that scene notwithstanding) and scoring an Oscar nomination for 1995's Casino. But she slowly slipped off the map after that, unless you want to count 2004's Catwoman (which we're sure Stone would rather you didn't).
But then Basic Instinct 2 (or 'Basically, It Stinks, Too', as the Golden Raspberries would have it) managed to drag itself out of development hell in 2006. It should probably have stayed there, with the return of manipulative sociopath Catherine Tramell torn to pieces – though more for the absurd plot than Stone's performance.
5. Mike Myers
The story of failed comebacks is haunted by Golden Raspberries and Shrek voice roles. Just ask Mike Myers. Though there's no doubt that the jolly green giant ogre intermittently puts quite a bit of food on the table, the Wayne's World star's face has all but disappeared from our screens.
The sun had very much set on the once-popular Austin Powers series (although The Cat in the Hat was still waking us up in the middle of the night, shaking with existential terror) when the grossly ill-conceived, Razzie-winning Love Guru was released in 2008.
Accusations of being anti-Hindu were only one of its troubles, although the Hindu American Foundation found it "vulgar, crude... [but not] overtly anti-Hindu or mean-spirited". So that's something, at least.
Myers did at least warrant an odd cameo in Inglourious Basterds as a British general.
6. Cameron Diaz
Oh hai, Shrek voice actor Cameron Diaz!
Diaz was another star of the '90s who struggled to find the same success moving further into the 21st century – almost like Hollywood is sexist and ageist or something.
She settled down into forgettable roms and coms like Bad Teacher and Gambit, but things started to look up in 2013 with Ridley Scott's thriller The Counselor. Starring alongside Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt, this was a sure bet, right?
Alas, it was one of the biggest commercial disappointments of Scott's career.
7. Mel Gibson
To be fair, Gibson's acting career had dwindled all on its own even before his infamous DUI/anti-semitism incident in 2006, although he had been focusing on directing (Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto) with considerable success.
Things fell unsurprisingly silent after that, until the Jodie Foster-directed The Beaver came along, in which Gibson played a man with depression who, per Wikipedia, "develops an alternate personality represented by a beaver hand puppet found in the trash". Critics thought it was okay, but cinemagoers didn't want to know.
(Somewhat controversially, Gibson seems to be inching back into Hollywood's good graces, and was even nominated for the best director Oscar for 2016's Hacksaw Ridge. But the acting roles… not so much).
