# "Bad" Actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101 "2009-04-06T03:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/21 "2009-04-06T17:04:44Z")
I definitely have a campy love for Nic Cage and Keanu. Keanu was good in **Scanner Darkly** and Cage was absolutely amazing in **Adaptation** , which is one of my top 10 favorite movies. I think with a good script and good direction those two guys aren’t so bad. But Nic in particular just makes a lot of movies that are horribly written/directed. But that’s fine, he’s got to pay the bills after all. Plus, it gives us things like that amazing **Wicker Man** YouTube mashup and that’s worth it. I also like Jim Carey. He gets a lot of crap for having made some amazingly terrible movies, but he nearly broke my heart in **Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind**. I much prefer him acting seriously to his crazy antics. People hate her after lackluster performances in the new Star Wars flicks, but I do love Natalie Portman. She’s a smart lady and I think a very good actress. Plus, **The Professional**. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/22 "2009-04-06T17:42:35Z")
Sometimes, all it takes to change your opinion of an actor is to see him play a role that’s completely different from what you’ve seen him in before. I disliked Nicolas Cage in most of his quirky, oddball roles… which may be why I was so surprised that he was so good in a mainstream romantic comedy like the cop in “It Could Happen to You.” I HATED Rob Lowe in all the roles where he was supposed to be charming and sexy… which may be why I liked him so much as a creep in “Bad Influence” and “Wayne’s World.” I usually found Richard Gere annoying as a leading man… which may be why I loved him as a supporting villain in “Internal Affairs.” There are quite a few actors I never liked, even came close to hating, who eventually made movies where I found myself thinking, suddenly, “Am I imagining things, or… is he actually GOOD in this role?” I hated Keanu Reeves for a long time, though he was tolerable in dumb “surfer dude” roles. For me, the turning point was a mediocre movie in which he played a Little League coach in the inner city. That was the first time I found him persuasive playing a fairly normal adult male. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/23 "2009-04-06T18:02:57Z")
Nicolas Cage was just gawdawful in _8mm_, which was an otherwise intriguing film. Maybe he was just playing it as a guy with absolutely monotone emotions. Maybe the director stunk, but Joaquin Phoenix was amazing in that film. Maybe it was because he was married to Patricia Arquette at the time, who I would argue make Andie MacDowell look like an Oscar winner (cite: _Beyond Rangoon_ - a promising film which Arquette manages to kill with her awful wooden performance). Regardless, he laid an egg in that movie. He was going for sullen in it, which is one of the two notes he can typically hit. The other is manic. If the performance calls for one of those, and it’s done right, then the film will be okay. I just don’t get much nuance out of most of his performances. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/24 "2009-04-06T18:38:50Z")
Keneau: I disagree with **mbh** — He absolutely CLUNKS in Dangerous Liaisons, a movie I love. And I don’t particularly detest him, he just is horribly miscast in a period movie. I think he’s fine in the Matrix movies, where to be somewhat inscrutible is an asset. Likewise that surfer movie where he was a federal agent. He seemed very right for that part. My nomination for a maligned actor whom I will defend is Kevin Costner. I can see no fault in his role in _Bull Durham_, where a quiet, undemonstrative person was called for. His restraint (which others call limited range) served him well in _Dances With Wolves_, I thought. Here we had a soldier, assigned to a lonely outpost, and who against his will and out of loneliness, made friends with a wolf … and then, the people of the area. He was convincing to me as basically uncommunicative 19th century man, for whom stoicism and restraint were what made a “man.” _Waterworld_, however, I can’t defend. That movie was plain stupid. Though I did enjoy the fins. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/25 "2009-04-06T18:47:04Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > I haven’t seen many of her movies, but she did a good turn as Dr. Molly Clock on Scrubs. She wasn’t dumb there, just ditzy, but she played it well. > > Susan I disagree. She has one expression, wide-eyed. I didn’t find her believable at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/26 "2009-04-06T18:51:54Z")
Per the OP: I think Ben Affleck is a fine actor. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_Tightlips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@Joey\_Tightlips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_Tightlips)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/27 "2009-04-06T19:00:14Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I think Ben Affleck is a fine actor. [Kevin Smith] He was the bomb in Phantoms, yo! [/Kevin Smith] Almost makes me want to rent Phantoms to see if that quote is serious or not. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/28 "2009-04-06T19:00:22Z")
I also have to step up and defend Kevin Costner. I’m not all into movies and all the subtlety of acting…but I have enjoyed the movies I have seen him in. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/29 "2009-04-06T19:14:26Z")
I put this in the bad actor in decent movie thread by mistake. Andrew McCarthy. I was only ever convinced by his character in St Elmos Fire. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/30 "2009-04-06T19:21:11Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Per the OP: > > I think Ben Affleck is a fine actor. I haven’t seen many of his movies, but I liked him quite a bit in _Hollywoodland_. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/31 "2009-04-06T19:21:51Z")
Affleck’s also damn good in “Mallrats.” And no, that’s not a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/32 "2009-04-06T19:29:20Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I have never seen a Keanu Reeves movie I didn’t enjoy. Now, _some_ might argue that this is in spite of Keanu, like _Much Ado About Nothing_ or _Dracula_, but _Matrix_, _Point Break_, _Constantine_, _The Replacements_, _Chain Reaction_, _Speed_, hell, even _Johnny Mnemonic_ - I enjoyed them all. So, even if, as people claim, Keanu is a bad actor, he isn’t bad enough to make me not like a movie. He does the job, and looks likeable and easy on the eyes while doing it. > > In fact, I’d rather watch a movie\* because\* it is a “Keanu” movie rather than, say, an “Anthony Hopkins” movie or “Al Pacino” movie, to name a couple of his co-stars. I cant find the scene on youtube but Keanu’s “pep talk” is to this day one of the most agonizing things I have ever seen. (edit) in Point Break that is ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/33 "2009-04-06T19:37:28Z")
> [@maplekiwi](#): > > I put this in the bad actor in decent movie thread by mistake. Andrew McCarthy. I was only ever convinced by his character in St Elmos Fire. [OT]This is going to date me badly but during the late 80’s and early 90’s whenever I saw Andrew McCarthy in a movie, he would always remind me of dimwitted former VP Dan Quayle.[/OT] ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/34 "2009-04-06T20:23:05Z")
I know there’s a lot of hatred for Tom Cruise due to the Scientology thing, but I’ve enjoyed him in anything I’ve seen him in. I’m not saying he has a huge range but I think he’s extremely appealing. I don’t recall anyone dissing him before he went all pyscho. Same with Mel Gibson. He’s no Ollivier, but he was always enjoyable, IMO. I’ll gladly watch either one of them if they’re ever in a movie I think looks interesting. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/35 "2009-04-06T20:25:18Z")
Tim Allen is rarely mentioned as a good actor and his last few films have been absolute stinkers; “Christmas with the Kranks” and that third Santa Claus movie were just terrible. But I always find Allen himself wholly convincing, no matter how good or bad a script he’s working with. Even acting exclusively in comedies, most of them dumb as hell, there’s always a scene or two in every movie where he absolutely nails a serious or emotional scene. And when it’s time to be funny he’s often hysterical. He’s gone up on screen with some damned fine actors and looks right at home. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/36 "2009-04-06T20:39:32Z")
How can this thread possibly have gotten to 36 posts without a mention of Sofia Coppola? She is to acting what Zyklon B is to Judaism. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/37 "2009-04-06T20:52:04Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > How can this thread possibly have gotten to 36 posts without a mention of Sofia Coppola? > > She is to acting what Zyklon B is to Judaism. Granted, it was 1983, but she’s wasn’t bad as Diane Lane’s bratty little sister in “Rumble Fish.” Yeah, OK, I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/38 "2009-04-06T21:37:31Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > He does amazing work in ADAPTATION, one of my favorite films ever. It’s a difficult and subtle role(s) he plays, and he does a terrific job of it. Of course, he was told by director Spike Jones to ignore his instincts and follow direction exactly. So, not exactly a typical Nic Cage performance. > [@anson2995](#): > > I’ll see anything Marisa Tomei does, but people still insist its a joke that she won an Oscar. Who says that? Her performance in _My Cousin Vinny_ is nothing short of extraordinary. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![The\_Batman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/39 "2009-04-06T22:11:29Z")
I’m going to defend Keanu. I think he was great in Point Break, Speed and Devil’s Advocate. If he stops making moronic sci fi and goes back to playing realistic characters he can turn around his slide towards self parody. And to keep the ball rolling: I hate Steven Seagal. Defend that! ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101/40 "2009-04-06T23:27:25Z")
> [@Tijuana\_Golds](#): > > And to keep the ball rolling: I hate Steven Seagal. Defend that! Steven Seagal might be the thespian equivalent of genocide: indefensible. Although “On Deadly Ground” is plain ol’ crazy. That’s the one where he embraces his faux-eskimo-ness. It’s pretty amazing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-actors/492101.md?page=3)