I just got done watching Apt Pupil. I am a huge Ian McKellan fan. I will pay money to watch him in anything, even including a by-the-numbers Stephen King movie. It wasn’t a BAD movie, and his performance was not unintelligent, but I sat there wondering, “Why is he doing this?” Well, obviously, for the money.
Then I sat there thinking about all the other fine actors who for various reasons got stuck in a movie that made no use of their talents whatsoever. The most egregious example I could think of was Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl. Also, there was Meryl Streep in that F/X extravaganza with Goldie Hawn, Death Becomes Her. You sit there wondering, “Why?”
Steve Buscemi is one of my favorite actors. I’ll watch any of his movies.
Then came along The Wedding Singer and Big Daddy. I saw both of these films and could not understand why Steve took on the roles he played, let alone acted in the movies to begin with.
Sam Neill, who played the husband in The Piano and starred in several hi-brow type films. Then all of a sudden he started turning up in utter crap movies like Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon. No idea why he would do that sort of thing since it’s pretty obvious he’s not a hack who needs to grab the cash before the public tires of him (a la Jim Carrey, who has had amazing staying power, actually).
Quentin Tarantino in From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Actually he sucks at acting, but is a great director and I wondered why he would have done that movie. It wasn’t terrible, but how do you go from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction to a horror flick?
Anthony Hopkins in Mission Impossible 2.
He went “uncredited” for a reason. Either Jim Carey or Woody Allen could have read the same few lines and it would have made no difference to the audience.
I always felt that Cindy Williams – a fine actress in The Conversation (“He’d kill us if he had the chance.”) completely wasted her talent in Laverne and Shirley.
Toward the end of his career, Lawrence Olivier was famed for taking anything and every part coming his way, including in Inchon.
Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights. He was such a flat character in that, when he’s normally dynamic and interesting… never saw Sabrina, but I haven’t heard any good things about that, either…
Samuel L. Jackson in The Phantom Menace. He’s usually a great actor, but that role simply wasn’t for him (I don’t know how many “Use th’ Force, muthahf***er” jokes I’ve heard…)…
And I always felt sorry for anyone who starred in a film with Pauly Shore (I gets them Shore-licks in whenever I can!)
Umm–who DIDN’T regret appearing in Caligula? I doubt Malcolm McDowell or the late John Gielgud point to it with pride on their respective resumes, unless it’s to say “My career actually survived this”
I always thought putting Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was a disaster. Yes, yes, she LOOKED great, but was totally miscast as a bubbleheaded boho groupie. Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part, and she would have been MUCH better.
As you all know, I worship at the Giant Joan Crawford Head, and she was wasted in so many crappy films. She was capable of great work—see her in “Rain,” “Dancing Lady,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Possessed”—and she wound up in . . . I can barely say it . . . “Trog.”
A special award should go to stars who do cameos in bad movies either as a favor to the director or to get a paycheck.
Samuel L. Jackson in Phantom Menace
Walter Matthau in Earthquake
Gene Hackman in Superman
Rod Steiger in practically everything he’s done for the last 20 years.
Dianne Keaton in Father of the Bride (she had one scene where she was given the opportunity to be funny, and she seized it – which just made the rest of the movie look more pitiful)
Nicholas Cage in anything after he won his oscar–has that guy gone on a downslide or what?
The cast for Wings of The Dove–a stellar cast (starring Helena Bonham-Carter) bogged down with a tedious script.
What was that Bette Midler/Nathan Lane/Stockard Channing movie in which Midler is playing Jacqueline Susann? They should have had Stockard Channing playing Jacqueline–she would have been a far better choice.