Inspired by the current movie “Wanted” - which is bad in the sense of meaningless action, pointless silly plot - though well directed and stylish to be sure. Anyway - James McAvoy was terrific. His acting was incredible. An amazing performance in every way.
Can you all think of other examples - inspired acting in otherwise “bad” (by any definition) movie?
Lost in Space - some great actors and some pretty good actors stuck with a really bad script.
The Oscar for best acting in a bad movie has to go to Steve Buscemi in Con Air. Poor guy actually had to say “I drove through three states wearing her head as a hat.” And he pulled it off! Amazing.
Jeremy Irons was good, and surprisingly sympathetic in the vast and multitudinous well of suck that was Eragon.
“Mr. Saturday Night” was unbearable. It was Billy Crystal’s blatant, pathetic attempt to win an Oscar nomination.
But as awful, as over-the-top as Crystal was, David Paymer almost made the picture worth seeing. He was that touching as Billy’s long-suffering brother.
Billy Crystal didn’t seem to understand that the key to playing a much older man is NOT in the layers of makeup. It’s in the way you carry yourself. Even under 3 inches of latex, Billy Crystal couldn’t carry himself like an old man. David Paymer could and did.
Milla Jovovich was the only one capable of producing authentic emotions in all three Resident Evil movies.
That girl needs to be in a good movie.
I just finished watching Shrek the Third. I have to say, Justin Timberlake stole the scenes he was in with Mike Myers. He gets a bad rap, but Justin’s all right.
Crappy movies with great acting? Any Larry Cohen movie, especially Q.
Peter Lorre in The Invisible Agent. Terrible movie, but Lorre has an awsome final scene.
[spoiler]In and early scene, the German spymaster and the Japanese spymaster (Peter Lorre) are plotting their grand scheme. The German spymaster says “If this plan fails, Hitler will have me shot, and you will have to commit suicide to apologize to your emperor.”
After the plan fails, the German betrays the Japanese, and attempts to frame him for the failure. A 3-way fight breaks out, between Allied spies, German soldiers, and Japanese soldiers.
In the midst of the chaos, the Japanese draws a dagger. He calmly says, “I will make an honorable man of you yet, my friend.” And he stabs the German in the stomach. [/spoiler]
I remember Timecode as a mediocre-at-best movie. But Stellan Skarsgård was very good, especially in an early scene where he’s on the phone in his office with his wife, trying to keep his composure as she tells him she’s leaving him. (He turns out to be an adulterer, and so he kinda deserved it, but at the time I was really heartbroken for him.)
And the Time Machine.
If you could take the five minutes with Jeremy Irons and extend it out to two hours, it would have been a good film.