# 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:** 5
### Author:  [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/81 "2020-05-20T12:19:52Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> 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.
I never saw her as the problem. I don’t know how people expected an upper class 20ish young person to act/behave, because in my experiences, she nailed it.
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### Author:  [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/82 "2020-05-21T10:05:01Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#):
>
> Matthew Broderick in pretty much everything after Ferris Bueler. The man couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag, and absolutely ruined … well, OK, there were other bad decisions, but he certainly didn’t improve The Producers.
> …
I thought Broderick was pretty good in _Election_, and decent in _Biloxi Blues_. But you make a good point - he’s been a weak spot in a lot of movies (e.g., _Glory_, _Ladyhawke_).
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/83 "2020-05-21T12:22:17Z")
Not a great movie, but I was watching “Vampire’s Kiss” the other night, and Nicholas Cage’s acting reminded me of madsircool’s description of Crispin Glover’s bad performance, and especially weird accent, in “River’s Edge”.
I had never seen “Vampire’s Kiss”, but I had heard it was the movie in which Nick Cage began his transformation from Promising Young Actor into Scenery-Chewing Maniac. And hoo boy, does he ever go off the rails in this movie. He plays an 80’s style yuppie, and he adopts this accent that I think is meant to be some sort of high class “American posh” showing that he comes from money. But it’s just a weird, high-pitched lispy voice and is very distracting.
Then, when he is “kissed” by the vampire and starts to transform (or does he? Won’t spoil too much) it is off to the races to crazy over-the-top acting land. I mean, if you like a good Crazy Cage performance and haven’t seen this movie yet, highly recommended. I think I found it on Amazon Prime.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/84 "2020-05-21T12:56:48Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> Not a great movie, but I was watching “Vampire’s Kiss” the other night, and Nicholas Cage’s acting reminded me of madsircool’s description of Crispin Glover’s bad performance, and especially weird accent, in “River’s Edge”.
>
> I had never seen “Vampire’s Kiss”, but I had heard it was the movie in which Nick Cage began his transformation from Promising Young Actor into Scenery-Chewing Maniac. And hoo boy, does he ever go off the rails in this movie. He plays an 80’s style yuppie, and he adopts this accent that I think is meant to be some sort of high class “American posh” showing that he comes from money. But it’s just a weird, high-pitched lispy voice and is very distracting.
>
> Then, when he is “kissed” by the vampire and starts to transform (or does he? Won’t spoil too much) it is off to the races to crazy over-the-top acting land. I mean, if you like a good Crazy Cage performance and haven’t seen this movie yet, highly recommended. I think I found it on Amazon Prime.
I couldnt agree more. Cage also ruined the remake of The Wicker Man. How he keeps getting jobs is beyond me.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/85 "2020-05-21T13:53:42Z")
> [@madsircool](#):
>
> I couldnt agree more. Cage also ruined the remake of The Wicker Man. How he keeps getting jobs is beyond me.
Have not seen the Wicker Man remake but I’ve heard so much about Cage’s legendarily over-the-top nutso performance in it that I really want to. I see online that the DVD is available to rent for free at our local library but of course that’s shut down for the foreseeable future ☹
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/86 "2020-05-21T19:53:52Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#):
>
> I thought Broderick was pretty good in _Election_, and decent in _Biloxi Blues_. But you make a good point - he’s been a weak spot in a lot of movies (e.g., _Glory_, _Ladyhawke_).
I liked him in both.
> **[Glory (1989 film) | Critical response](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)#Critical_response)**
>
> On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Bolstered by exceptional cinematography, powerful storytelling, and an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington, Glory remains one of the finest Civil War movies ever made."
> Film critic Vincent Canby's review in The New York Times stated, "\[Broderick\] gives his most mature and controlled performance to date ... \[Washington is\] an actor clearly o...
_Film critic Vincent Canby’s review in The New York Times stated, "[Broderick] gives his most mature and controlled performance to date._
However:
_Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was not impressed at all with the overall acting, calling Broderick “catastrophically miscast as Shaw”._
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/87 "2020-05-21T22:54:54Z")
Jason Priestley in **Tombstone** was cringeworthy. All the more so because his character was completely unnecessary.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/88 "2020-05-22T03:57:36Z")
Are we allowing tv shows? Because Timothy Olyphant totally ruined the last half of the last season of “Deadwood.” His “open eyes wide without blinking, and stare off at absolutely nothing” way of expressing anger was so bad that he actually did a worse job than Anna Gunn, and that’s saying something.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/89 "2020-05-22T15:33:12Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> 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.
Funnily enough I popped in to mention Reeves, this time for _The Devil’s Advocate_ which I found a deeply clever and well-acted film except for Reeve’s stilted performance. But for that, it would be an absolute classic - Pacino’s devil in particular is intensely compelling.
That said, I too have heard the stories of what he’s like IRL so I feel bad ragging on someone who is apparently extremely nice to everyone and self-effacing. Plus I loved him in _Point Break_.
> [@Loach](#):
>
> I thought she was the worst thing in the Ghostbusters remake. Wacky for no reason and not grounded in reality at all.
Whereas I though McKinnon was by far the best thing in that film and most in spirit [sic] of the thing. In contrast Wiig and McCarthy were quite muted and dull (and Jones was fine but not remarkable). And I don’t think “grounded in reality” was what any of the _Ghostbusters_ films were going for.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/90 "2020-05-22T15:54:32Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> Costner was perfectly cast in The Big Chill.
I overlooked this post before. I just noticed it and literally LOL’ed.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/91 "2020-05-22T20:01:26Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Keanu Reeves has an expressive face. He would have been good in the silent movie era. But whenever he opens his mouth, the southern California beach bum voice comes out.
> Raymond Massey is a good actor. He made a valiant attempt to play the villain in _Arsenic and Old Lace_.
> But the part was written for Boris Karloff.
> Massey does not look enough like Karloff to make the “you look like Boris Karloff” jokes funny.
> Massey is not famous enough to make a “you look like Raymond Massey” joke funny.
I was really disappointed that they didn’t make him up to look like Herman Munster. The Whole point of the joke was that Einstein was drunk when he did the plastic surgery.
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### Author:  [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/92 "2020-05-22T22:05:26Z")
Andie MacDowell is the giant sequoia of this category.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2020, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/93 "2020-05-23T00:07:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> _Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was not impressed at all with the overall acting [in Glory], calling Broderick “catastrophically miscast as Shaw”._
Ah say, son, you are IN the PRESENCE of a DEE-rect descendent of Colonel. Robert. SHAW.
And I can guar-an-TEE on a stack of Union Scrip that our deeeear departed colonel was indeed an A-DULT, and did NOT look like a pre-pubescent Abe Froman look-alike.
That will be all.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/94 "2020-05-23T07:44:58Z")
This probably isn’t one that a lot of people will agree with, but Tom Hardy in the Dark Knight Rises. We just watched it again last night and still love it, but Bane’s friendly old man voice makes it sound he’s about to offer you some Werther’s Originals. And he over-enunciated everything - here is a SENTENCE with a NOUN and a VERB!
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/95 "2020-05-23T09:16:54Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#):
>
> This probably isn’t one that a lot of people will agree with, but Tom Hardy in the Dark Knight Rises. We just watched it again last night and still love it, but Bane’s friendly old man voice makes it sound he’s about to offer you some Werther’s Originals. And he over-enunciated everything - here is a SENTENCE with a NOUN and a VERB!
I don’t think much of Tom Hardy as an actor, anyway, but that accent and voice totally sucked me out of the movie (which I thought, with Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard on-screen, would have been impossible)
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2020, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/96 "2020-05-23T10:31:55Z")
> [@Superdude](#):
>
> I don’t think much of Tom Hardy as an actor, anyway, but that accent and voice totally sucked me out of the movie (which I thought, with Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard on-screen, would have been impossible)
I liked Marillon Cotillard. Hathaway didn’t work - far too fragile looking, and it felt like she was reading lines rather than acting.
TBF, even though I like Christian Bale as an actor, he’s much, much better at the dark parts of the characters he plays than as a person anyone could fall in love with, so when part of the role of characters like Catwoman and Talia al Ghul is to be attracted to him and possibly a bit in love with him, he doesn’t give them a lot to work with.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/97 "2020-05-23T13:02:23Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> I was really disappointed that they didn’t make him up to look like Herman Munster. The Whole point of the joke was that Einstein was drunk when he did the plastic surgery.
Not possible. Universal held trademark on the Karloff monster’s image and didn’t allow other studios to use it (before you ask, they produced _The Munsters_. \* Arsenic\* was a Warner Bros film.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/98 "2020-05-24T01:11:08Z")
> [@Asuka](#):
>
> 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.
That isn’t just some floozy! That’s Princess Kashmir!
Anyway – Hugh Marlowe (as Lloyd Richards, the playwright) really stank up _All About Eve_.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/99 "2020-05-24T03:10:35Z")
> [@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.
> [@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.
> [@Tinker\_Grey](#):
>
> 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.
I love this movie too, but the problem with it is that all the classically-trained British actors sound like they’re talking in the most marvelous way, and all the American actors sound like they’re quoting Shakespeare. Even Denzel speaks as though he’s imagining that’s how you read at the Globe.
Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Brian Blessed, Richard Briers…all amazing.
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/100 "2020-05-25T16:21:59Z")
**A Bridge Too Far** - Gene Hackman embarrasses everyone on set with his version of English in a native Polish speakers accent. The man has 20 lines in the entire film, everyone of them delivered in a different accent.
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