# Great Movies Marred By One Bad Performance **URL:** \ **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:** 7
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/121 "2020-06-08T08:11:31Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Just watched “Signs” again last night and whoever the actor was who played the Army recruiter - hoo boy - what the hell was he going for with that performance? He thought he was in a David Lynch movie. (FTR, I didn’t have a problem with his performance. I did have some problems with the movie but they had more to do with direction.) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/122 "2020-06-08T10:48:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It’s the reverse of why Broderick was badly miscast as Leo Bloom in the remake of “The Producers”. He came across as a lovable rogue instead of a painfully introverted guy seduced by the opportunity to take part in a big-time scam. > > Of course, most of the actors in that remake detracted from the movie, with the possible exception of Uma Thurman. Saw the musical on stage as well as the filmed version, and the problem wasn’t just Broderick. The issue is more that while Max Bialystock is a “type” - a type that Zero Mostel typified but which Nathan Lane and the guy I saw onstage (Fred somebody) played well - Leo Bloom was specifically Gene Wilder. As such, no one will ever play the role as well. And I thought Ferrell was fine for how the role was written. It was never going to be anything other than mugging and scenery-chewing no matter who did it. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/123 "2020-07-17T13:06:08Z")
In The Untouchables, Kevin Costner’s performance comes across to me as wooden, almost like he’s at a table read. When the supporting cast is the likes of Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Robert DeNiro it stands out even more… but even in a vaccuum it seems a miss to me. Probably a credit to Brian DePalma if the “one bad performance” is the main star and the film still works. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/124 "2020-07-17T16:32:25Z")
I’m sorry, I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I can’t watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because that piece of shit song by Burt Bacharach “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” stinks up the whole production. Even if I skip that part I can feel it out there sucking the life out of it. I know it got an Academy Award for Best Music, it’s unbearable. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/125 "2020-07-17T16:34:30Z")
I really like that song and the way they incorporated it into the film and the chemistry between Newman and Ross was charming imo. But there is no right nor wrong in art. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/126 "2020-07-17T17:00:01Z")
Kate McKinnon in anything. She’s passable as a clown on SNL but she can’t act at all. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/127 "2020-07-17T17:30:06Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Gawd yes, Uma was fantastic! You should have seen the stage version. [Cady Huffman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cady_Huffman) was PHENOMINAL! Uma in the movie version was a disappointment for me! Cady had a body much more designed for Max yelling “Flaunt it, Baby! Flaunt it!”, and when she belted it out, SHE BELTED! She won a Tony for that role, but the producers wanted a “name” for the movie. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Nathan Lane was good- but no Zero Mostel. (Nathan is **FABU** in City of Angels). I love Broderick - but not here. Will Ferrell was horrible. In the original, Zero Mostel played Max as this world-weary guy. You could see how fate had crapped all over him. Nathan Lane played the part with far too much energy. Yes, Will Ferrell was horrible, but at least Brad Oscar (Franz in the Broadway production) had a role (incredibly minor) in the movie. He lost the Tony to Gary Beach (Roger DeBris in both movie and Broadway). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/128 "2020-07-17T17:32:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > And I thought Ferrell was fine for how the role was written. It was never going to be anything other than mugging and scenery-chewing no matter who did it. Didn’t have to be. See Kenneth Mars in that role in the 67 original. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/129 "2020-07-17T23:26:33Z")
I really should have enjoyed _A Fish Called Wanda_, but Kevin K. ruined the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/130 "2020-07-17T23:50:58Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Quintin Tarantino as Jimmy in \*Pulp Fiction \*. Quentin. I’ve never really understood the criticism; he’s perfectly fine as a “confused and still kind of sleepy guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/131 "2020-07-18T01:04:13Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I really should have enjoyed _A Fish Called Wanda_ , but Kevin K. ruined the whole thing. Wow, he is the standout and breakout performance of the movie. He won the Oscar for it. He’s amazing in it. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/132 "2020-07-18T02:32:19Z")
I agree about Kline in AFCW, however he tried that over the top shtick in Sophies Choice and it ruined the film for me. He was so obnoxious that he ruined the sad and reflective mood of the film imo. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/133 "2020-07-18T02:58:18Z")
Christopher’s older brother, James Mitchum, was in another John Wayne file, “In Harm’s Way”. Just absolutely terrible. Is there such a thing as an ‘anti-actor’? If so, he’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/134 "2020-07-20T08:41:56Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Didn’t have to be. See Kenneth Mars in that role in the 67 original. Kenneth Mars was pretty OTT as it was, but the role in the musical was even more exaggerated. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/135 "2020-07-25T19:16:41Z")
“A Countess from Hong Kong” Marlon Brando’s character should have been played madcap - like Tony Curtis in “Some Like it Hot”. We should have seen a character frantically falling to pieces as his world crumbles around him, which would have played beautifully against Sophia Loren’s character. Instead we get a detached, “stiff upper lip” portrayal. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/136 "2020-07-25T20:00:10Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Interesting-- that was Crispin Glover’s debut, wasn’t it? Probably the first thing I saw him in and I remember thinking he did a great job with that role at the time. Now I do want to watch that movie again. Yes, and I don’t agree with **madsircool** at all about Crispin Glover’s performance in _River’s Edge_. Crispin’s character is on the other end of the spectrum from the other characters’ apathetic reactions to the world around them. Crispin’s character sees an opportunity to make an exciting game out of saving the killer from the police. He’s toked up on speed, and lost in a fantasy world of anti-hero movies. He gets more and more frustrated when no one, not even the killer wants to play along with him. I think he gave an antic performance that truly set off the aimlessness of all the wasted lives portrayed in the film. If he would’ve been more restrained, he only would’ve faded into the background with everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/137 "2020-07-25T20:04:35Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > In The Untouchables, Kevin Costner’s performance comes across to me as wooden, almost like he’s at a table read. I sort of agree, but then, I see the woodeness of Costner’s performance as sort of an homage to Robert Stack’s stone faced performance in the original TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/138 "2020-07-25T21:35:31Z")
Michael Madsen in _Sin City_. He’s awful. Just awful. I-can’t-believe-they-paid-him-for-this-performance awful. He brings the entire film to a screeching halt, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/139 "2020-07-29T00:09:23Z")
I’ve never seen Leo be anything other than Leo (bar Gilbert Grape) and I like Diaz generally but in this film she was meant to be what - 16?? De Caprio and Diaz casting killed the film for me. MiM ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360/140 "2020-07-29T12:53:04Z")
In an alternate universe, someone else was cast in the Elliott Ness role and there’s a discussion on the Outernet saying “Can you believe it was almost Kevin Costner in that part? I can’t picture it.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-marred-by-one-bad-performance/853360.md?page=8)