When it comes to the world of fame, few things spark as much drama as a scathing review. In fact, there are at least 10 times celebrities have taken the microphone, the Twitter feed, or even a full‑page ad to push back against a critic who dared to be less than glowing. Below we count down the most memorable showdowns, each one a vivid reminder that even the biggest names can’t always swallow a bad headline without a little retaliation.

10 Times Celebrities Take On Critics

10 Justin Bieber vs. Morgan Stewart

Surprise pop‑up gigs are the stuff of fan legend, especially when a megastar like Justin Bieber makes a sudden appearance after a two‑year hiatus. That’s exactly what happened at Coachella 2019, where Bieber slipped onto the stage for an unannounced set that left the crowd buzzing. Yet, as with any high‑profile performance, the spotlight also attracted a chorus of analysts ready to dissect every note and nuance.

It didn’t take long for Nightly Pop host Morgan Stewart to take the mic and accuse Bieber of lip‑syncing his surprise rendition of “Sorry.” Bieber, feeling the sting of the allegation, fired back on Twitter, clarifying that he wasn’t lip‑syncing but was instead singing over a pre‑recorded track—a technique known in the industry as “overtop.” He didn’t hold back, branding Stewart’s comments as the kind of bullying that can drive kids to despair, writing, “It’s people like you that are bullies at school that are making kids suicidal.”

Stewart’s critique didn’t stop at the technical side; she also jabbed at Bieber’s appearance, quipping that his forehead looked as though it had been smoothed with an “Oxy‑pad.” In his defense, Ariana Grande, who shared the stage with Bieber, stepped in to explain that the last‑minute nature of the surprise performance necessitated the use of a backing track, thereby offering a backstage pass to the logistical realities of live pop shows.

9 Cara Delevingne vs. Joe Morgenstern

The 2016 blockbuster Suicide Squad assembled a star‑studded roster—including Margot Robbie, Will Smith, and Cara Delevingne—to bring a rag‑tag band of supervillains to the silver screen. While the movie raked in impressive box‑office numbers, it also attracted a wave of critical disdain, with many reviewers lamenting its tonal inconsistencies and narrative missteps.

Among the most scathing assessments was a review by Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern, who bluntly declared, “In a word, ‘Suicide Squad’ is trash. In two words, it’s ugly trash,” adding that the film represented “an all‑out attack on the whole idea of entertainment.” His verdict left little room for nuance, painting the entire project in a decidedly negative light.

Delevingne, who portrayed the Enchantress June Moone, pushed back against the harsh commentary in a Reuters interview, labeling the critics as “absolutely horrific, they’re really, really horrible.” She suggested that the reviewers’ disdain might stem from a simple lack of appreciation for superhero cinema, implying that personal taste, rather than objective analysis, fueled the negative press.

8 Michael Che vs. Stephen Hyden

In the realm of comedy and late‑night television, it’s not uncommon for creators to defend their colleagues when a reviewer takes a swipe. Such a scenario unfolded when Uproxx writer Stephen Hyden penned a less‑than‑flattering piece about SNL’s Weekend Update co‑anchor Colin Jost. Hyden’s criticism sparked a fiery response from SNL’s own Michael Che, who chose Instagram as his battleground.

Never one to shy away from satire, Che responded with a series of absurd, bestiality‑laden jokes aimed at Hyden. He fabricated mock news stories that suggested the writer was engaging in sexual acts with rescued dogs, a clear attempt to ridicule Hyden through shock humor. The exchange quickly turned into a public spectacle, highlighting the lengths to which comedians might go to protect their peers.

Che’s feud with Hyden wasn’t an isolated incident; he later tangled with podcaster and former Jimmy Kimmel writer Jack Allison, who had derided SNL as “the worst show on TV.” This extended saga underscored how quickly a single critical comment can snowball into a broader, highly visible clash within the entertainment community.

7 Samuel L. Jackson vs. A.O. Scott

When the 2012 Marvel juggernaut The Avengers thundered onto screens worldwide, it also attracted the analytical eye of New York Times critic A.O. Scott. While the film dazzled audiences with its ensemble cast and explosive set pieces, Scott’s review was decidedly lukewarm, especially regarding Samuel L. Jackson’s turn as the stoic spy Nick Fury.

Scott dismissed Jackson’s performance, observing that the actor seemed “more master of ceremonies than mission commander.” Jackson, who had already embodied Fury in Iron Man, took to Twitter to flip the script, urging fans to help the critic find a new line of work. He tweeted, “#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!”—a pointed jab at the reviewer’s perceived inadequacy.

Despite the public scolding, the critique failed to dent Jackson’s continued association with the role. He went on to reprise Fury in over a dozen subsequent Marvel projects, suggesting that the critic’s assessment had little impact on the franchise’s casting decisions or the actor’s standing within the superhero pantheon.

6 James Corden’s Father vs. Mark Kermode

Voice‑over work can be a double‑edged sword, especially when a beloved TV host like James Corden steps behind the microphone for an animated lead. In the 2018 family film Peter Rabbit, Corden’s vocal performance drew the ire of BBC Radio’s Mark Kermode, who labeled the actor’s delivery as “irritating” and argued that Corden’s tone clashed with the character’s personality.

Feeling the personal sting of Kermode’s remarks, Corden’s father, Malcolm, penned a letter to the broadcaster, expressing his dismay at being called “appallingly irritating.” He lamented that such a description was difficult to hear, especially when directed at his son, and urged Kermode to consider how it might feel to have his own children singled out in a similar manner.

Kermode, ever the self‑deprecating critic, responded with humor, noting, “I believe my parents have heard me called much worse things than appallingly irritating.” The exchange highlighted the sometimes‑personal nature of critiques that venture beyond the work itself and into the realm of family pride.

5 Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon vs. Mike Hale

The HBO drama Big Little Lies (2017‑2019) captivated audiences with its darkly comic take on affluent California motherhood, featuring powerhouse performances from Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley. Yet New York Times critic Mike Hale wasn’t entirely sold, penning a review that dismissed the series as a “compendium of clichés about upper‑middle‑class angst.”

Hale’s critique zeroed in on a subplot involving an abusive relationship, drawing an unfavorable comparison to the sensationalist tone of Fifty Shades of Grey. The pointed remarks suggested that the series fell short of the narrative depth expected from such a high‑profile cast.

Both Kidman and Witherspoon addressed the criticism during a Q&A with the Television Critics Association, though they stopped short of naming Hale directly. They expressed the belief that the reviewer hadn’t watched the entire series, with Witherspoon speculating that perhaps only a single episode had been viewed. Kidman urged fans to “please watch the whole show,” emphasizing that a full viewing was essential to grasp the series’ complete arc and thematic nuance.

4 Lizzo vs. Rawiya Kameir

When Pitchfork’s Rawiya Kameir dissected Lizzo’s 2019 album Cuz I Love You, the review was a mixed bag. While praising Lizzo’s undeniable talent and charisma, Kameir noted that several tracks suffered from “overwrought production, awkward turns of phrase, and ham‑handed rapping.” She also questioned the feasibility of Lizzo positioning herself as the modern‑day Aretha Franklin, suggesting she resembled Natasha Bedingfield more than the soul legend.

Lizzo’s reaction was swift and unapologetic. Taking to Twitter, she posted a now‑deleted tweet that read, “PEOPLE WHO ‘REVIEW’ ALBUMS AND DON’T MAKE MUSIC THEMSELVES SHOULD BE UNEMPLOYED.” The blunt response underscored her frustration with critics she felt didn’t fully appreciate her artistic vision.

Despite the backlash surrounding her tweet, the album remained largely well‑received by the public and many reviewers. The controversy sparked a broader conversation about the role of non‑musician journalists in music criticism, with some defending Kameir’s analytical approach while others rallied behind Lizzo’s stance, illustrating the polarized nature of modern music discourse.

3 Rob Schneider vs. Patrick Goldstein

Comedic actor Rob Schneider, known for his work on films like Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo, frequently found himself at odds with reviewers. In 2005, Los Angeles Times critic Patrick Goldstein mocked the sequel Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo, joking that the movie lacked a category for “Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third‑Rate Comic.”

Stung by Goldstein’s sarcasm, Schneider launched a full‑blown counter‑offensive, purchasing full‑page advertisements in both The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety to publicly berate the critic. He also penned an open letter that ridiculed Goldstein’s lack of a Pulitzer, quipping that there was no award for “Third‑Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter.” The exchange highlighted Schneider’s willingness to defend his comedic brand with gusto.

The feud reached a crescendo when legendary critic Roger Ebert entered the fray, siding with Goldstein. Ebert emphasized his Pulitzer credentials and delivered a scathing assessment of the film, concluding with a blunt declaration that the movie “sucks.” This endorsement of Goldstein’s viewpoint added an extra layer of gravitas to the dispute, underscoring how even seasoned critics can influence public perception.

2 Vincent Gallo vs. Roger Ebert

In 2003, Roger Ebert unleashed a scathing review of Vincent Gallo’s experimental road drama The Brown Bunny, branding it the “worst film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.” The harsh verdict ignited a bitter feud that resembled a playground squabble more than a scholarly debate.

Gallo retaliated with a series of sarcastic barbs, claiming he had placed a hex on Ebert’s prostate and colon. Ebert, in turn, quipped that watching his own colonoscopy footage on television was “more entertaining than ‘The Brown Bunny.’” He also noted that while he could lose weight, Gallo would remain forever tied to the infamy of directing the notorious film.

Surprisingly, the conflict eventually yielded a positive outcome. Gallo re‑edited the movie, addressing some of the criticisms, and Ebert later revisited the film with a more favorable review. The turnaround demonstrated that even the most acrimonious critic‑artist clashes can evolve into moments of artistic reassessment.

1 Lana del Rey vs. Anne Powers

When NPR critic Anne Powers offered a nuanced review of Lana del Rey’s 2019 album Norman F****** Rockwell, she highlighted both strengths and perceived shortcomings. Del Rey, taking issue with a particular observation, responded via Twitter, stating, “I don’t even relate to one observation you made about the music. There’s nothing uncooked about me. To write about me is nothing like it is to be with me…”

The singer also pushed back against Powers’ reference to her “bad girl” persona, insisting that she never cultivated a manufactured image and that the label was a mischaracterization of her authentic self.

Del Rey’s measured response contrasted with a more hostile reaction from many of her fans, who launched personal attacks against Powers, criticizing her appearance and calling for the reviewer’s career to be destroyed. Powers later clarified her intent, explaining that her commentary aimed to “evoke the complicated feelings her music prompts while also exploring what, in LDR’s music and in the culture, might have contributed to such feelings.”

They say there’s no accounting for taste, and sometimes the divide between the critic and the common person is quite extensive. There is a kind of elitism associated with any kind of criticism whether it’s for art or food or film. People who make a living criticizing other things are often derided when they have an opinion we disagree with but lauded when they have an opinion that we do agree with. It makes it a curious kind of job overall.

No kind of  criticism is more popular than film criticism. Back in the day there were only a handful of film critics that rose to prominence, people like Siskel and Ebert. In the age of the internet you could spend a week or more looking through every site dedicated to nothing but film criticism. For all of those critics, there is still a big divide between the movies that they love and the movie the rest of us love. Sometimes critics go crazy over a movie that audiences absolutely hate. Based on Rotten Tomato critic scores versus audience scores, there are some significant gaps over there.

10. Spy Kids

Robert Rodriguez is most known for his action films, things like Desperado and Machete. But Rodriguez is also a family man who has several kids and that inspired him to make a movie that they could enjoy as well. In 2001 he started the Spy Kids franchise, which proved to be incredibly popular. The first Spy Kids movie made over $147 million at the box office. Critics were also big fans of the movie, giving it a score on Rotten Tomatoes of 93% overall. That’s remarkably high for any movie, let alone a children’s action movie.

As popular as Spy Kids was, audiences we’re not quite as in love with it as critics have been. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes dropped considerably from that 93%, coming in at a much lower 46%. That’s another 47-point difference between audiences and critics.

9. Ad Astra

In 2019, Brad Pitt starred in the dramatic sci-fi film Ad Astra. It’s possible some audiences felt like they got duped by the movie, expecting maybe more of a sci-fi adventure than what they got. The movie ended up being something of a dramatic exploration of the bond between parent and child. 

While critics were on board with the human drama and the visuals, a lot of audiences didn’t seem to find the same appreciation for any of those aspects. In a nutshell most audiences just found this one boring. Critics gave the movie an 84% overall, compared to the audience score which was only 40%. That’s one of the largest gaps between audiences at critics you’ll find of any movie on the site.

8. It Comes At Night

It Comes at Night was a psychological horror movie that came out in 2017. The movie relied heavily on implied horror rather than any kind of explicit gore for the most part, and the tension was really what carried this film along for many critics. The result was a Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score of 88%. That’s remarkably high for a horror movie, and few others have managed to reach such heights. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t really feel the scares as much as critics did.

The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes for It Comes at Night is only 44%, half of what the critics score ended up being. A lot of the complaints about this movie seemed to be with how it ended, and also how it was advertised. The ad campaign did lead you to believe that there was something with more teeth relating to the ‘it’ part of It Comes at Night. 

7. Hail, Caesar!

You can usually count on the Coen Brothers to deliver a movie that everyone’s going to enjoy. Critics absolutely love their filmography, and in fact they only have two movies that managed to sink to the rotten level in all of the films they’ve directed, which were The Hudsucker Proxy and The Ladykillers. Most of their films score well over 80%. Hail, Caesar! was no different, pulling in a critic score of 85%.

Unfortunately for the Coen brothers and the cast of the movie, audiences weren’t really feeling this one as much as they were on board with past Coen brothers movies like The Big Lebowski. The audience rating for Hail, Caesar! is only 44%. Many of the criticisms lobbed at the movie from audiences directly relate to how the movie kind of feels rushed and disjointed, as though there are a series of unrelated events happening with no consequences related to whatever happened before in the movie.

6. Antz

In the age of Pixar we have come to expect that big-budget animated movies are going to be huge spectacles that include incredible musical numbers, breathtaking artwork, moving voice performances, and a really great story. Animation has really come a long way. That said, sometimes an animated movie comes along that hits the mark with critics a lot more than it does with audiences. Such was the case with the movie Antz back in 1998.

The DreamWorks Studios movie features an all-star voice cast and critics ended up giving it 92% overall. Casual moviegoers were not as enamored with Woody Allen as a talking insect and the average rating for audience scores comes out 40 points lower at 52%.

A lot of audience  criticism related to the fact that they felt the movie was a little too advanced for kids, and not interesting enough to hold the attention of adults. It kind of fell in that gray zone where it was really appealing to no one, especially when compared to the film A Bug’s Life, which came out at the same time and was a clear competitor that appealed to audiences much better with a 73% audience score.

5. Nurse Betty

Not many people remember the 2000 movie Nurse Betty starring Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock, and Morgan Freeman. Despite the impressive cast, it seems to have flown under the radar for a lot of people. That said, critics really did take a shine to the movie giving it a rating of 83% overall. That might make you think it’s worth a watch, but keep in mind that the audience rating for this film is 45%. A 38-point disparity makes this one of the more suspect films on the critic aggregator site.

Nurse Betty actually won at the Cannes film festival for having the best screenplay the year that it came out. The mix of overly dark subject matter with comedy didn’t really strike a chord with audiences the same way it did with critics, and the result is kind of a mishmash of views across the board. 

4. Blockers 

It’s rather surprising that critics were as fond of the movie Blockers as they were. To start with, the movie isn’t technically called Blockers. For the sake of being able to advertise it correctly it was called Blockers but most posters and images also include the silhouette of a chicken in front of the word blockers. You can probably guess what popular term that they were attempting to recreate by using that imagery while keeping the name as inoffensive as possible as a result. 

As a sort of raunchy sex comedy, this isn’t the movie that most people typically think of critics enjoying. Still, it managed to pull in an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This kind of film usually plays much better with audiences than it does with critics, so you think the scores would be reversed. In fact, the audience rating for this movie was only 50%.

Critics seemed to really take a shine to the fact that this movie try to flip the sex comedy tropes on its head and focus more on high school girls rather than high school boys looking to get laid. Unfortunately, it used all the same tropes; it just put them on girls and then focused on the parents. Audiences didn’t really take a liking to the story or the acting particularly. 

3. The Witch

The Witch came out in 2016 and seemed to usher in what has become an era of more critically admired horror movies.  Films like Midsommar, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, and Us have all proven that horror can be intellectual and engaging as well as scary. Critics gave The Witch a 90% rating overall, taking a real liking to this atmospheric period piece that mixes a lot of dread with some very dark imagery.

Not as many audience members were on board with the ideas being presented in The Witch, and the audience score for this movie is only 58%. That’s not terrible, but when you compare it with the overall critic score we’re still looking at a 32-point disparity. Some audience members just found it too boring or too slow to keep their interest. 

2. Sausage Party 

The fact that critics like 2016’s Sausage Party is a bit of a curveball to the very idea of film criticism. This animated movie featured a great comedic voice cast and detailed the lives of sausages, among the other sentient residents of a supermarket, and what they do during their down time. Not a terrible idea for an animated movie by any means, but the fact that it was also a fairly filthy sex comedy was somewhat surprising. Still,  critics were on board with the movie and it’s currently sitting at an impressive 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.

For whatever reason, this movie did not resonate with audiences in nearly the same way. It only managed to pull in a 50% audience rating, which is unusual for a movie featuring the likes of Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen. It seemed to be that the excessive vulgarity turned a lot of audiences off, perhaps because they just weren’t expecting an animated movie to go as far as this one does. 

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars fandom is a very weird place to tread into if you’re not already a part of it. Star Wars fans have been passionate about this film series since the 1970s. Forty years of fandom breeds an intense degree of passion. That passion isn’t always in support of their favorite franchise either.

No film in the entire Star Wars pantheon has been more divisive than Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi from 2017. Critics absolutely loved the movie and it has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the third highest rated Star Wars movie of all-time, just behind A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.

Audiences did not respond with the same love. The audience score for The Last Jedi on Rotten Tomatoes is a paltry 43%. That makes a 47-point divide between how critics responded to the film and what the audience thought.

If you were on the internet at all after The Last Jedi hit theaters, you may have been aware of the absolute hate and vitriol lobbed at this film. Many fans took issue with what they felt was a liberal bias in the movie. In particular, some of the minority actors in the film were actually harassed so badly they ended up leaving social media altogether — in particular, Kelly Marie Tran was picked out and picked on.

The fact that many feel the criticism levied against The Last Jedi by this subset of so-called fans isn’t valid is another matter entirely. Their responses have forever skewed the way the movie is ranked on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the most notably skewed movies when you compare critics versus audience reactions.