# Great Movies Marred By One Bad Performance
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [May 7, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360 "2020-05-07T22:21:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/1 "2020-05-07T22:21:14Z")
The idea for this thread came to me at 4am the other morning. The epidemic and distancing meant that I had been home and not working for a few weeks. Ive been waking up around 3ish. Looking for a movie to watch I came across The Rivers Edge on an HBO channel. I had seen it years ago and really liked it. I loved the acting and especially Crispin Glover. Boy, was I wrong. He criminally overacts, his accent is bizarre and his performance doesnt fit in with the ensemble of really brilliant performances. Daniel Roebuck…amazing and scary as hell. Ione Skye sexy and innocent and conflicted. Even Keanu Reeves gives a deep and masterful performance. But Glover is just terrible. I know that this is likely a minority opinion but if you have a chance to watch or re-watch this brilliant film Id like to know what others think about this film. Or any other that fit the thread title.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfTVu66jGes)
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/2 "2020-05-07T22:31:52Z")
A lot of people say that Francis Ford Coppola ruined _The Godfather, Part III_ by casting his daughter Sofia as Michael Corleone’s daughter.
Personally, I think there is a lot more wrong with the film than just her performance, but she gets blamed for it.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/3 "2020-05-07T22:37:30Z")
Any Keanu Reeves scene from the movie “Much Ado About Nothing.” I like Keanu Reeves but he had no business in that movie. Thankfully he only has a few [short scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTuy6pkv4Q) but even so…ouch.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/4 "2020-05-07T22:53:08Z")
Val Kilmer in ‘Double Identity’. Paunchy, jowly, and clearly past his prime.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/5 "2020-05-07T22:56:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Paunchy, jowly, and clearly past his prime.
Sounds like me after eight weeks of lockdown. 😃
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### Author:  [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/6 "2020-05-07T23:29:03Z")
Maybe bad animation counts as a performance, but in one of the best Simpsons episodes ever “Homer Vs The 18th Amendment” the scene where Rex Banner breaks up Moe’s Speakeasy you see a drunk Chief Wiggum dancing on the floor which is hilarious but the floozy he’s dancing with is animated so horrendously it completely takes me out of the episode despite only being a 5 second season. I watch that episode with friends all the time and when that bad animation comes up everyone immediately notices and points it out breaking the humor of the scene.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/7 "2020-05-07T23:36:38Z")
I always loved the musical \*Chicago \*and was excited when it got the big screen treatment. Everyone in it was great except for Richard Gere in the role originated by Jerry Orbach. Wow did he suck! He’s a fine actor in a dramatic role, but he couldn’t pull off a song-and-dance con-man to save his life.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/8 "2020-05-07T23:44:06Z")
Well, not a great movie, but one I like.
**Big Jake**. John Wayne film that has Robert Mitchum’s son, Christopher Mitchum.
Christopher Mitchum makes bad actors look good.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/9 "2020-05-07T23:53:36Z")
Blazing Saddles. Whenever Mel Brooks is on camera his mugging vaudeville schtick stops the story’s momentum cold.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/10 "2020-05-07T23:58:26Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Any Keanu Reeves scene from the movie “Much Ado About Nothing.” I like Keanu Reeves but he had no business in that movie. Thankfully he only has a few [short scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTuy6pkv4Q) but even so…ouch.
The first movie I thought of was also **Much Ado About Nothing,** but I was thinking Michael Keaton as Constable Dogberry rather than Reeves as Don John.
Reeves stunk, but Keaton completely ruined his shot at one of my personal favorite minor comic Billy S characters. And he COULD have been so good.
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### Author:  [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/11 "2020-05-08T00:12:28Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Any Keanu Reeves scene from the movie “Much Ado About Nothing.” I like Keanu Reeves but he had no business in that movie. Thankfully he only has a few [short scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTuy6pkv4Q) but even so…ouch.
I did NOT used to like Keanu Reeves. I saw _Bram Stoker’s Dracula_ in the theater, and his painful attempts at a British accent did not go over well.
His early career is littered with incidents where he basically played the same character he played in _Bill and Ted,_ either cranked up, or muted down (like in _Parenthood_, a movie he did not ruin, but also did not impress me in; he was up in there with way better actors, but had little to do).
Only in recent years has he grown and matured as an actor to the point where I could believe him as John Wick, among other things. But I still wince at his scenes in _Dracula_.
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### Author:  [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/12 "2020-05-08T00:14:06Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Any Keanu Reeves scene from the movie “Much Ado About Nothing.” I like Keanu Reeves but he had no business in that movie. Thankfully he only has a few [short scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTuy6pkv4Q) but even so…ouch.
I love that movie. You’re right, Keanu’s performance is the worst thing about it. Hell, it’s gotta rank among the worst ever. And, I like Keanu.
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### Author:  [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/13 "2020-05-08T00:27:52Z")
[quote=“madsircool, post:1, topic:853360”]
The idea for this thread came to me at 4am the other morning. The epidemic and distancing meant that I had been home and not working for a few weeks. Ive been waking up around 3ish. Looking for a movie to watch I came across The Rivers Edge on an HBO channel. I had seen it years ago and really liked it. I loved the acting and especially Crispin Glover. Boy, was I wrong. He criminally overacts, his accent is bizarre and his performance doesnt fit in with the ensemble of really brilliant performances. Daniel Roebuck…amazing and scary as hell. Ione Skye sexy and innocent and conflicted. Even Keanu Reeves gives a deep and masterful performance. But Glover is just terrible. I know that this is likely a minority opinion but if you have a chance to watch or re-watch this brilliant film Id like to know what others think about this film. Or any other that fit the thread title.
[/QUOTE]
Wow. Thanks for the link. It was fun in a horrible kind of way.
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### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/14 "2020-05-08T00:44:35Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Val Kilmer in ‘Double Identity’. Paunchy, jowly, and clearly past his prime.
That was especially apparent in the beach volleyball scene.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/15 "2020-05-08T00:52:55Z")
Some not-so-great movies marred by one bad performance that come to mind:
_Camille_ (1936)
Robert Taylor (sucks in most of his movies, imo)
_A Royal Scandal_ (1945)
William Eythe and it’s especially conspicuous given the inordinately talented actors around him.
_Bengazi_ (1955)
Richard Carlson and his awful “Scots” accent.
_Confidential Report_, a.k.a. _Mr. Arkadin_ (1955)
Robert Arden. not sure he was ever given another leading role; I sure hope not.
_Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ (1961)
Mickey Rooney, offensively miscast.
_Lilith_ (1964)
Warren Beatty, unemotive in reaction to Jean Seberg’s institutionalized vixen. He is even worse in _Shampoo_ (1975), a superficial performance playing a superficial character; and he is godawful in _Bugsy_ (1991) where he actually tries to act.
_The Greatest_ (1977)
Muhammad Ali
_Salome’s Last Dance_ (1988)
Nikolas Grace (as Oscar the Wilde)
_Hellboy_ (2019)
David Harbour in the title role; why didn’t they just get The Undertaker?
Most films starring Woody Allen (and not retroactively, he has always been irritating as an actor).
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/16 "2020-05-08T01:34:56Z")
Not a movie but a TV miniseries. 1983’s [The Winds of War](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085112/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). It was a sprawling, 12-hour story with a budget of #5 million, starring Robert Mitchum and filled with a cast of veteran character actors and rising newcomers. The pivotal role of Mitchum’s daughter was played by Ali McGraw. She was stunningly bad, with a chirpy demeanor and tone-deaf line readings that seemed to be lifted from a rom-com.
She was replaced in the sequel by miniseries veteran and reformed Bond Girl Jane Seymour, who understood there was a war going on around her character.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/17 "2020-05-08T02:01:38Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#):
>
> I did NOT used to like Keanu Reeves.
>
> \
>
> Only in recent years has he grown and matured as an actor to the point where I could believe him as John Wick, among other things. But I still wince at his scenes in _Dracula_.
Honestly, he is not a very good actor.
But, he found his niche and he is great at those (think “John Wick”). Also, turns out he is just a super nice, stand-up guy as a person in real life. I am hard pressed to think of another actor with a reputation as just a super solid, nice guy to everyone and anyone he meets. There’s gotta be some points for that.
I just pray he never tries to do Shakespeare ever again.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/18 "2020-05-08T02:07:49Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> The first movie I thought of was also **Much Ado About Nothing,** but I was thinking Michael Keaton as Constable Dogberry rather than Reeves as Don John.
>
> Reeves stunk, but Keaton completely ruined his shot at one of my personal favorite minor comic Billy S characters. And he COULD have been so good.
I can see this and I mostly agree but since Don John was a more important character than Keaton’s offensive Dogberry I mostly forgot about Keaton in the movie.
Thankfully neither got a lot of screen time.
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### Author:  [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/19 "2020-05-08T11:55:01Z")
MGM’s 1962 remake of “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Trevor Howard a great Captain Bligh. Richard Harris a great Richard Harris. Technicolor. Ultra Panavision 70. A Bounty replica costing $750,000. On-location shooting in beautiful Tahiti. Respected Director Lewis Milestone. What could go wrong?
Brando.
The memory of Clark Gable was hard to live up to, but Brando’s hammy, foppish performance as Mr. Christian, combined with his off-screen tinkering with the script, his arrogance and utter refusal to take direction, turned what could have been an epic the likes of “Lawrence of Arabia” into a shambles. I don’t know who else could have played that role at the time, but even Jerry Lewis would have been better.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/20 "2020-05-08T12:13:36Z")
Kevin Kline in **A Prairie Home Companion.** I know Guy Noir is supposed to be a little bit over-the-top, but it’s like he’s in a very different movie than everybody else. And this, in a movie featuring Lindsey Lohan in mid breakdown!
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