# Film Casting That Disappointed You **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488 "2002-06-17T07:21:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/1 "2002-06-17T07:21:46Z")
One film I really anticipated, because the book was so good, was **Shogun** , but I was disappointed as hell when the epic was made with Richard Chamberlaine as Blackthorne. When I read the book I visualized Robert Shaw in the part (although I realize now that Shaw was ill at the time the movie was shot). I could also have imagined Michael Caine or Sean Connery in that role. But who got the idea that Chamberlaine fit the character that James Clavell described so beautifully? The Japanese characters all looked exactly as I expected them to (and no, Sparky, they _don’t_ all look alike to me), especially Toshiro Mifune as Toranaga. But the lead character was a constant disappointment to me. It is as if the producers of Gone With The Wind had actually taken Margaret Mitchell seriously and cast Groucho Marx as Rhett Butler. On second thought, _that_ might have worked. 😃 What casting has diminished your enjoyment of an otherwise perfect movie? ---
**Author:** ![Dieter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dieter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dieter)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/2 "2002-06-17T07:53:46Z")
Pretty much anything with Tom Cruise. I think Interview with the Vampire would have been MUCH better without him. As would have Eyes wide shut and, well, pretty much everything. Except Risky Business. He played that part perfect. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/3 "2002-06-17T07:57:12Z")
I second Tom Cruise and Interview with the Vampire. It was especially embarrassing when Anne Rice recanted her criticism. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/4 "2002-06-17T10:31:51Z")
_Christine_. Pretty much the whole cast, but especially Alexandra Paul. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/5 "2002-06-17T12:06:38Z")
I absolutely despised Drew Barrymore in _Donnie Darko_. But then, I despised her in most things. “You call _this_ clarity?” she screams, pretending to be smart and not pulling it off. Everyone in that movie was wonderful except for her. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/6 "2002-06-17T12:10:45Z")
Patrick Stewart in David Lynch’s **Dune**. He is not Guerney Halleck. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/7 "2002-06-17T12:30:05Z")
Harry Potter in Harry Potter. I imagined him as much more skinny and waiflike. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/8 "2002-06-17T12:31:18Z")
Everybody who’s played **Batman** so far. To be honest, I don’t know who’s be a really good choice. But you need someone who’s _built_ and can impress you as really witty andclever and _driven_. Michael Keaton was the laid-back Batman. ("Yes, I will become a bat! Criminals fear bats! I will be a bat … tomorrow.) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/9 "2002-06-17T14:01:59Z")
I think Point Break would have been much more of a modern classic if **Keanu** hadn’t obliterated the main character. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/10 "2002-06-18T19:13:39Z")
Shaq instead of Avery Brooks in “Steel”. God, he ruined that movie! Arnold Schwarzenegger instead of Patrick Stewart in “Batman & Robin”. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/11 "2002-06-18T19:44:06Z")
Molly Ringwald as Fran and Laura San Giacomo as Nadine in The Stand (Gary Sinise was perfect as Stu Redmond, however). Meg Tilly in Valmont. ---
**Author:** ![lethean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@lethean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lethean)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/12 "2002-06-18T19:49:20Z")
Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Ewan McGregor in **The Beach**. Not a _wretched_ movie, but if it were Ewan up there instead of Mr. Titanic it would have been 10 times better. ---
**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:** [June 18, 2002, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/13 "2002-06-18T20:14:15Z")
Fellow Dopers, the movie this thread was created for is “Bonfire of the Vanities.” I knew it was in trouble when it was announced that Brian De Palma would direct–one of the last people you’d want in charge of a movie version of Wolfe’s social satire. From there it just got worse with the casting nice-average-guy Tom Hanks as the arrogant Yuppie WASP Sherman McCoy and Bruce Willis as the Americanized (formerly British) tabloid reporter. I’d go on but rehashing my gripes about the film only makes me more depressed. ---
**Author:** ![welby1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@welby1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby1)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/14 "2002-06-18T20:30:29Z")
Lucas could have done better with cardboard cut outs and 3 graders voicing over the characters. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/15 "2002-06-18T20:55:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Glory \* > \*\*Molly Ringwald as Fran and Laura San Giacomo as Nadine in The Stand (Gary Sinise was perfect as Stu Redmond, however). Meg Tilly in Valmont. \*\* Even worse was Corin Nemec as Harold Lauder. If only Philip Seymour Hoffman had been around back then!! ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/16 "2002-06-18T21:25:03Z")
I second the Batman complaint. Keaton was way too wimpy as Bruce Wayne and laughable as Batman. Val Kilmer was okay as Batman, but as Bruce Wayne he was too . . . well hell, too Val Kilmer! Clooney was the best of the three, I think, but lacked the dark intensity needed to pull it off. So who WOULD have made a good Batman? I’ve always thought a younger Alec Baldwin could have done it. He was pretty good in “The Shadow” as a dark, tormented vigilante. He looked just like Bruce Wayne, and had that deep, scratchy voice. Would have been cool, I’ll bet. Of course now he’s fat and pasty and starting to look like his 26 doofus brothers, so we can forget that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/17 "2002-06-18T22:53:52Z")
You wanna know who would have made a good Batman? Rutger Hauer. He’s too old to play the part now, but in 1989 he could have done the cold-blooded menacing slightly insane Batman (a la _Blade Runner_) and the somwhat foppishly intellectual Bruce Wayne (a la _The Osterman Weekend_). Just dye his hair jet black and you’re off to the races. As it stands, I’m hoping they’ll call him if they ever make a _Dark Knight_ movie, featuring an older, embittered 60-ish Batman. Now, Sigourney Weaver as Catwoman… yeow! ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/18 "2002-06-18T23:02:30Z")
**Onegin** , 1999, directed by Martha Fiennes. A truly great film, sadly neglected at the box office. The story hinges on Evgeny Onegin eventually being _irresistibly_ attracted to Tatyana Larina - so much so that he is willing to transgress every social, moral and political code to be with her. And who gets the Tayana gig…? _Liv Tyler_. Little Ms. Cross-Eyed herself. Okay, so attractiveness is very much a matter of personal choice, and I’m sure her Dad thinks she’s gorgeous, but c’mon… Pushkin’s great poem/tale calls for irresistible attraction of the kind that could drive a man to rip his own heart out. Liv Tyler??? ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kevin\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevin_H)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/19 "2002-06-18T23:11:36Z")
Ben Affleck in Sum of All Fears… I don’t think he was very believable at all… ---
**Author:** ![Journeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@Journeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Journeyman)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488/20 "2002-06-18T23:14:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > \*\*I think Point Break would have been much more of a modern classic if **Keanu** hadn’t obliterated the main character. \*\* I think a lot of films have been dragged down by his wooden acting. It only worked in The Matrix because he was, for once, supposed to look confused and half-asleep all the time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-casting-that-disappointed-you/114488.md?page=2)