Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War. He’s a decent actor, and the film is good but come on. I’m supposed to believe Michael J. Fox, with his cute baby face perched atop a 3 foot tall body, is a mean Marine ?
Well, this guy doesn’t exactly look like someone you’d be scared to ask for directions at midnight, either.
Many of the biggest badasses in history don’t look like badasses at all.
Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera was a classic stinker. Shouldn’t he have had to sing at the audition?
Oh, and Meryl Streep was at least a decade, if not two, too old to play the mother in “Mamma Mia.” I could understand a 16-18 year old being too scared to tell her parents that she was pregnant. But a 38 year old? Sorry, but that’s just pathetic.
FYI, some argue that Pierce Brosnan was miscast as one of the potential fathers because he couldn’t sing a lick, but I was okay with non-singers being cast. I always hated IRL high school musicals who cast the leads based solely on who could sing the best. My high school chanteuse looked like a 35-year old plump librarian. They consistently paired her with the best male singer – who happened to be a tall, blonde, flamboyantly gay man. Watching them sing to each other as lovers distracted me to the point where I couldn’t enjoy the song.
I’ve said it before - Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio had zero chemistry in “Titanic” mostly due to the fact that she looked / carried herself like his older aunt. Come to think of it, they weren’t all that much better in “Revolutionary Road” though I adore them both individually.
I’ll second this. I’ve liked Butler in other things. He’s not the worst singer I’ve heard, but he’s nowhere near good enough for the role of The Phantom, the nominal star of the film.
This is the second case I can think of where the film concentrated on the female lead and stinted on the casting of what was supposed to be the lead character, who supplied the film’s title. The other case was the Bo Derek version of Tarzan.
Well Damon was in law school, so he didn’t have to be a college kid. I guess for me if they were young and learning the hard way, they wouldn’t have known Gramma, Knish, Teddy KGB, Petra and the girl that gets her cut at that club. Something about being so young and so skilled and connected rang false for me.
Has there ever been a bigger waste of a cast? Kenneth Brannagh, Kevin Kline, Selma Hayek… and the movie was total shit.
Bu… but it had a giant spider!
You’ve seen Kevin Smith hold forth on this, I assume?
Incidentally, the Tarzan-example was not supposed to be that way. The original story/script began as a deconstruction of the Tarzan story from the perspective of Jane who was to be portrayed as a young feminist/anti-imperialist rebelling against Victorian/Edwardian attitudes. Of course, nearly all that was jettisoned once Bo and John Derek got involved and made one of the worst major motion pictures ever.
Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster in The Rainmaker.
[Nitpick] Salma [/nitpick]. Normally I don’t bother, but I make an exception for future wives.
Sorry, سالمة Hayek.
Edward Norton as Will Grissom in Red Dragon. In the book, I read Grissom as being a more quiet, troubled character. Ed played him as this vibrant, overthetop character. Didn’t fit at all.
Also, Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. I wouldn’t go near his Dr Lecter on a bet, as he played him so obviously as a nutter. I much preferred Brian Cox’s interpretation. Cox would sucker you in close where he could get you rather easily. Hopkins, though, puts up too many warning signs that something is wrong.
Lindsay Crouse in House of Ga…
Oh, sorry, you said “excellent” actors, not “execrable.” My bad.
Care to elaborate?
Hepburn was probably too old, anyway she looked too old (that type of complexion just doesn’t age well) but I think she made it work.
And I thought Lancaster was just about perfect for Starbuck. I think this was originally a play, and if so I haven’t seen or read it, but he did seem to nail both the bombast and the vulnerability.
So do tell, why were they both completely wrong for this movie?
Roddy
Well, since I’ve already posted about OOA today, it’s on my mind. Redford actually did intend to use an English accent, and supposedly did it well, but Pollack nixed the idea for obvious reasons. That Redford doesn’t exactly come off as an English lord is obvious, but he’s made a good living off being the sort of person who can’t be tied down, and that’s what the role calls for.
Anyway, my nominee would be Harvey Keitel in “The Piano.”
Years back, I remember seeing an Academy Awards issue in Newsweek, in which WIll Smith was one of several Oscar nominees being interviewed. He said himself how weird he felt promoting Wild Wild West, doing the talk show circuit to shill for it, when he knew himself the movie wasn’t any good.
I recall he said he felt really strange when he read that ***Wild Wild West ***made 50 million dollars in its opening weekend. All he could think was, “But… it isn’t even GOOD!”
Totally agree with Edward Norton being miscast. He just didn’t have the gravitas, if you will, to play Will Graham (not Grissom – your brain took you there because William Petersen played Graham in Manhunter :)).
And for that matter, Ralph Fiennes as Francis Dolarhyde. Dolarhyde is supposed to be this hugely muscled, immensely powerful dude, and the scene where he disrobes and displays the tattoo of the Great Red Dragon on his rippling back is supposed to make you tremble where you stand.
Ralph Fiennes just did not have the physique to pull this off, and the scene where he displays his tattoo comes off as rather sad and self-delusional. Which I guess is an interesting take on the character, but not true to the book.