I also disagree. Van Damme at least *tries * to bring a little intensity to his acting work (I’m not saying it’s effective…). Seagal just shows up, bloated and mumbling, and walks through his scenes. Plus Van Damme’s physical expoits were actually impressive.
A lot of these lists seem more like “actors who irritate me” lists rather than lists in line with the OP. Seeing names like Tom Cruise (Rain Man, Born on the 4th of July), and Kate Winslet (Sense and Sensibility, Heavenly Creatures, even Finding Neverland) makes me scratch my head. I can see not caring for them (although I like Kate Winslet a lot), but they’re far removed from Pauly Shore territory.
My own list would be anchored by William Fichtner, who is actually a committed and solid performer. He’s almost always cast in likable B movies and big-budget badfests like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. Although he was in* Black Hawk Down*…
Above the Law is a good movie - one of the better karate action flicks around. Under Siege was a good movie. Had Seagal continued to make movies of that quality, he could be a big star. Instead, he turned into a useless buffoon.
I humbly submit Steve Guttenberg. I think it’s a shame; he’s a likeable fellow and doesn’t appear to be a bad actor (Cocoon), but GAH I see his name and hear Police Academy 12: A New Beginning.
Hey let’s not forget the guy we were dscussing a few weeks ago … Burt Reynolds.
Oh yeah, he had some early success but his later movies “Sharky’s Machine”, “Stick”, Stroker Ace", “Malone”, etc all were pretty bad.
As a star, maybe [Evil Dead is a lot of fun, but I won’t pretend it’s a great movie]… in fact, I just looked at his filmography and I don’t know what to say except Ewww. However, Campbell was in the Spider-Man movies and The Hudsucker Proxy. And I liked Bubba Ho-Tep.
This thread seems to me like a listing of actors that the posters don’t like. Very few of the people listed actually come close to guaranteeing a bad movie.
Most of the people listed have made excellent movies. Some may leave you cold (Adam Sandler and Steven Seagal are in that list for me), but I think they are (or in Seagal’s case, were) very good at what they do.
Some make movies that are deliberately cheesy. Bruce Campbell is one of them. I love his stuff.
Kate Hudson is in mostly bad movies, which is too bad, because she has a lot of her mother’s charm. Maybe she’ll get another decent script like “Almost Famous” someday, although I doubt it, since she now seems to be labeled as box office poison.
The only people listed so far that I, personally, think guarantee a crappy movie are Pauly Shore and David Spade.
Oh, and it’s Melanie Griffith, not Melanie Griffin. Not one of my faves, but she can be effective (e.g., “Now and Then”).
I would add The Dream Team to your list of good Chris Lloyd movies. In fact, all the leads were good, Michael Keaton, Peter Boyle, Stephen Furst, and Lorraine Bracco.
Also, let’s not leave off Lloyd’s turn as Commander Kruge in The Search For Spock.
