When is he ever believable…hee hee. 
Tobey McGuire in Spider-Man. He wasn’t horrible, mind you; I just don’t think he had the Peter Parker “look” (which, IMHO, is best drawn by either John Romita Jr. or Sr.). Maybe it’s hard to cast faces that look like comic book characters that have personalities to match. We’ve already had the Batman discussion above.
Some anticipatory complaints: Ben Affleck doesn’t look like Matt Murdock (Matt Damon would have been perfect, agh!) and Eric Bana doesn’t look like Bruce Banner. Again, the acting might surprise me otherwise, but I need the right face to go with the personality.
Mrs. Brown. Don’t get me wrong-most of the casting was fantastic, but I was so dismayed at the woman who was cast as Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales. Alix was a famous beauty, with a very exquisite sense of style, and this woman had a pinched face and was rather frumpy looking.
Richard Pryor not being the sheriff in Blazing Saddles. Also: WC Fields not becoming the Wizard of Oz because of money demands.
Whoever played Rogue in X-Men. :smack:
The rest of the movie: spot on. Rogue? crapola
Several points in response to others:
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Ben Affleck as Daredevil is definitely the most cringe-inducing casting since Keaton as Bats. Apparently they offered it to Guy Pearce first – now THAT would have been cool! He could have been completely believable. Alas, he turned it down. Guy, you jerk!
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Replace Cleavon Little on Blazing Saddles??? No way! He was perfect in the role – he had an easygoing, confident manner that only made the rest of the townspeople look even more bigoted and ridiculous. Pryor would have been funny, but might have played him too much like a buffoon.
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I thought Eric Bana DID look like Bruce Banner. Oh well, to each his/her own…
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Anna Paquin played Rogue in X-Men. And yes, she was completely different than her character in the comic, but that was a choice of the filmmakers, not the actress. I think they wanted her to have that Kitty Pryde-sort of relationship with Logan. Of course, I could be defending Paquin just because I find her quite hot.
Funny you should mention it! I had an idea they might improve casting by picking randomly from a mortician’s list of a community killed during the Black Death in a secluded town with no regular service to the outside world. Let’s not discriminate against people who can’t act, have no style, and an IQ in the basement range!
The Harry Potter casting wasn’t brilliant, agreed. Harry was dull, and Ron was close to unbearable. Even Maggie Smith was weak…man! Hermione, Snape and Hagrid, different story.
Dune. The latest version? It’s time for William Hurt to go home. He’s had a hand in ruining so many movies in recent years it’s getting hard to count.
Batman. Keaton? Well, not great. But the guy is talented enough, so you have to wonder where the fault is. Brian Ekers: “Now, Sigourney Weaver as Catwoman… yeow!” <G>
I hated Anna Paquin as Rogue and I hated Halle Berry as Storm. I always thought Iman would have made a good Storm. Hubby says she was too old to play the part, though. I’m not sure who I thought would make a good Rogue. Maybe a young Reba McIntire or someone ‘country’ like her. My casting ideas are probably silly to most comic book fans as I base my X-Men characters on the cartoon that was out in the mid(?)-nineties.
I also hated that Jolie was cast as Lara Croft. When I heard they were going to make a Tomb Raider movie, I thought they’d cast Elizabeth Hurley as Lara. Not that I think she’s a great actress or anything but she’s whom I thought first.
I am reading a book right now that you guys mind find interesting. It is full of near misses and almost weres in casting choices from the Silent Era all the way through the late 80’s. It is called “If the other guy isn’t Jack Nicholson, I’ve got the Part…” by Ron Base.
I second the Arnold vote as Mr. Freeze.
Patrick Stewart, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Sean Connery, Sting, anyone of these would have been good.
Batman I would like to see John Cusack, couldn’t do any worse.
Will Smith in Ali
I never once suspended disbelief, and actually believed he was Ali.
Much Ado About Nothing starring
(a) Kenneth Branagh
(b) Emma Thompson
© Denzel Washington
(d) Keanu Reeves
Which one of these is not like the others? Which one of these does not belong? La la la la la laaaaa la
Keanu is so bad as Don John that the entire movie comes screeching to a dead halt for the brief time he’s on screen.
Samuel L. Jackson in The Red Violin
The movie was epic and ambitious but his key role didn’t work at all. T’was totally not believable.
I was seriously disapointed with Johnny Depp in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. That movie could have been immeasurably better with another actor.
Er, uh disappointed. I know, preview is my friend.
Jim Varney wasn’t really miscast in Disney’s Atlantis, but it scared the hell out of me when I recognized the voice. He’d been dead for quite a while by the time that film came out.
Well, I am a big fan of the Nero Wolfe novels of Rex Stout. They have been made into tv series twice and tv movies once and each time I have said to myself “That’s not Inspector Cramer!” Wolfe may be fine, Archie may be ok, but Inspector Cramer is always wrong. What should he be like? Beats the hell out of me, but I know what he ain’t.
Donald Westlake created a great character, Dortmunder, who is a hard-luck blue collar grunt of the criminal classes, a brilliant planner without an ounce of luck in his entire life story. So far this tough guy has been played by Robert Redford (!), George C. Scott (!), Paul Lemat (?), Christopher Lambert, and Martin Lawrence.
I once had the privilege of asking Westlake who HE thought should play Dortmunder. He suggested Harry Dean Stanton.
Fifteen Iguana
Ian McKellen’s Gandalf was way too nice in my opinion. I always pictured Gandalf as basically kind-hearted on the inside, but very cranky and irascible on the outside. (In fairness the scriptwriters deserve much of the blame).
Heart stops briefly. You weren’t saying that Emma Thompson was miscast??
Keanu performance was more, I thought, what the British call eccentric. Not bad acting, but out of place. Was it because he was performing as if on stage? I’d guess his performance would have come off very effectively from about 40 feet away.
I thought Denzel was acting somewhat this way, too
Actually I had more reservations about Branagh. He seemed to be giving a rendition to children at bedtime. Very broad, with lots of little “tricks” to keep the audience interested. Gets more abrasive with repeated watching.
Traci Cums in Backdoor Vixens VI - The virgin years. I mean come on, like anyone would believe she’s a virgin.
Hal Warren as Michael in Manos: The Hands of Fate. Come on. What were they thinking with this guy? The rest of the cast though, perfection.