# most incredibly worthless, annoying character in an otherwise decent movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961 "2009-04-04T11:23:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/101 "2009-04-07T03:05:48Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I would pay $10 extra for a DVD version of _House of Games_ which left every scene with Lindsay Crouse in it on the cutting room floor. This is a great call. She RUINED this great con artist primer. I can’t believe the other cast members didn’t smother her. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/102 "2009-04-07T03:43:38Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > **Argent Towers** And then, after Molly cleans her up a bit and she starts to seem almost human, she reveals that she didn’t have to be there at all that day. She just had nothing else to do! Gah again! The boredom in the initial scenes is palpable, and she’s so worthless that this is entertainment for her?! > > But it’s mostly the dandruff that turns me against her. I really think that when Molly cleaned her up…she looked like a man ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/103 "2009-04-08T12:46:52Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Characters, not actors. That’s why I said Cage. He plays the same character in every movie, if he’s actually playing a character and not just being himself. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/104 "2009-04-08T14:51:23Z")
I have trouble understanding what Janet Leigh’s role is in the original Manchurian Candidate. Her character is hard to comprehend. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/105 "2009-04-08T15:39:06Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > I have trouble understanding what Janet Leigh’s role is in the original Manchurian Candidate. Her character is hard to comprehend. It’s been a while, but IIRC, her role is that she inadvertently cracks Shaw’s conditioning, at least enough that guilt over her death leads him to kill his mother and stepfather instead of the presidential candidate he was to assassinate ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/106 "2009-04-08T15:40:52Z")
Newt in Aliens. It’s just like what was said before about kids being in horror movies to just scream and that’s what she’s there for. I guess you could say that there’s the whole surogate daughter development between her and Ripley, but is that really neccesery? Could Ripley have gone against the queen to save a marine or something? Despite all that, Newt’s not _that_ bad. It could have been a lot worse. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/107 "2009-04-08T15:50:29Z")
Totally disagree with Newt. Everything builds towards a final interspecies maternal clash, and Newt helps bring us there. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/108 "2009-04-08T16:05:55Z")
The Wayans brother in Dungeons and Dragons…oh wait…you meant movies that _ **didn’t** _ suck ass. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/109 "2009-04-08T16:15:09Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Totally disagree with Newt. Everything builds towards a final interspecies maternal clash, and Newt helps bring us there. Also, she has that great line: “Mostly they come at night…Mostly” ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/110 "2009-04-08T16:37:21Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > It’s been a while, but IIRC, her role is that she inadvertently cracks Shaw’s conditioning, at least enough that guilt over her death leads him to kill his mother and stepfather instead of the presidential candidate he was to assassinate That’s not Janet Leigh. Janet Leigh played Frank Sinatra’s sort-of-girlfriend he meets on the train, Eugenie Rose Chaney. You’re talking about the role played by Leslie Parrish, Jocelyn Jordan. ---
**Author:** ![Clivas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clivas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clivas)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/111 "2009-04-08T17:12:05Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Apparently the original ending had her ending up with Duckie, but the test audiences didn’t like it. They wanted her with Blaine. Always bugged me, too. Which is why he made Some Kind of Wonderful apparently. A much better movie in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/112 "2009-04-08T17:35:33Z")
Ian Malcolm’s daughter in _Jurassic Park 2_. Malcolm was a much more interesting character when his family connections were offscreen, and the kid was just annoying on general principles (whee! let’s do gymnastics on the conveniently located uneven-bar-like beams and kick a velociraptor in the teeth!) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/113 "2009-04-08T19:38:34Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > Ian Malcolm’s daughter in _Jurassic Park 2_. Malcolm was a much more interesting character when his family connections were offscreen, and the kid was just annoying on general principles (whee! let’s do gymnastics on the conveniently located uneven-bar-like beams and kick a velociraptor in the teeth!) Roger Ebert cited “Somebody’s Law” which states that, when a gymnast is in a movie, sooner or later, she will find a bar. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/114 "2009-04-08T20:37:12Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Clint Eastwood put Sondra Locke in several movies. It was his girlfriend at the time . . . It? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961/115 "2009-04-08T21:57:58Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Also, she has that great line: “Mostly they come at night…Mostly” I wonder if there are two alternate takes for that line. I remember the ellipsis there, too, but the last time I saw it it was more like “They mostly come at night mostly.” Which makes it ten times more awesome, even though even with the ellipsis it still wasn’t such an “obvious” line, although with the wrong actress or direction it could have been delivered in a really cheesy manner. Just if there wasn’t a big pause, a comma at the most, between the words, it’s a casual re-emphasis of the type a child would do rather than a mugging deliberately movie-quote-style line. ETA: because ironically without the ellipsis the emphasis is not on how great the line is but on the “mostly” part, which what makes it so awesome. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-incredibly-worthless-annoying-character-in-an-otherwise-decent-movie/491961.md?page=5)