Milton from Office Space.
Well, the entire segment on Tatooine is horrible without Jar Jar. From the badly directed Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman, to the pathetic pod race, to the entire revelation that Anakin had no Father, to the description of midichlorians, the whole thing is just terrible there.
Not to mention the useless underwater escape sequence, which was a waste of time without Jar Jar.
The original screenplay was better by far than the film, which is very bad with or without Jar Jar.
Nicholas Cage, in pretty much any movie he’s made.
Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
“That’s my stapler.”
Cameron Diaz puts a knife near the heart of The Gangs of New York every time she’s on screen. It was never going to be one of Scorsese’s best films anyway (not that this is stern criticism of the man who made Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence) but whenever Diaz is in focus her wretched attempt at an Irish brouge and what passes for dramatic acting brings the film to a halt.
Rebecca Pidgeon always threatens to bring any film to a halt, even (or perhaps especially) those directed by her husband. She was passable in Heist, but she almost sank The Spanish Prisoner and State and Main, where she is totally unbelievable as a love interest. Pretty girl, seems intelligent, but someone needs to tell Mamet that she just can’t act, and he especially shouldn’t put her in a room with Gene Hackman, Sam Rockwell, Delroy Lindo, and Danny DeVito; while they can all carry the film around her, it just makes her look weak.
Cage was quite good in Adaptation, and plays a fair drunk. Other than that…yeah. Not sure why he has such a rep as a box office draw, really.
Stranger
Mamet clearly has a blind spot where his actress wives are concerned.
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.
Maggie in Caddyshack. The fun just stops cold while she’s onscreen.
Milton was awesome (and Office Space was based on a SNL cartoon that Mike Judge made ABOUT Milton). And need I remind you that it was Milton burning down the office which caused the other characters to finally break free of that job? However, Jennifer Aniston’s character serves NO PURPOSE in that movie, and every minute with her is a minute wasted. Of course, I could say that about every role that she’s in.
Give me a break. Phantom Menace was not a crappy movie. It wasn’t great, and certainly wasn’t as good as the original trilogy, but it was entertaining.
Then what does it say that it was co-written by a husband and wife team, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz?
So, basically Joe Mantegna sitting around a table with a bunch of guys talking about the gaffle they just pulled. Heck, I can do that for you in ten minutes. Any yeah, she’s flatter than a cartoon drawing. Pity, because the movie otherwise has a lot of promise.
The entire movie was just a setup for the following movie, which itself was just setup for the next film, which ended up just being filler for the backstory of the original trilogy. It might not be awful in and of itself, but its utter lack of necessity, combined with painfully banal dialogue and inconsistent and obtuse plotting made it painful to watch. A few good scenes spotted here and there do not a decent movie make.
Stranger
:eek:
Oh.
Whats-her-face in Groundhog Day. I always suspect Bill Murray’s character murdered her at least once.
What about movies in which a character being incredibly worthless and annoying plays a pivitol role? For example, Uncle Billy in It’s A Wonderful Life: a moronic tub of lard whose incompetentcy nearly destroys Bailey Building and Loan?
What was different about the original screenplay?
I came into this thread to make this nomination. I still remember watching that movie in the theater, particularly the moment when I realized that Chris Tucker WAS GOING TO BE IN THE REST OF THE MOVIE! :smack: He wasn’t going away! Oh, how I wanted him to die. There were so many bullets flying and explosions going off, it would have been so easy.
Funny thing is, I’ve grown accustomed to him being in the movie now, and when I rewatch it, I just enjoy everyone’s reaction to him.
My favorite bit in that movie is the junkie at Bruce Willis’ door. Well, my favorite bit that isn’t a nearly-naked Milla_Jovovich. 
Vince Vaughn in anything he’s ever done.
Yeah, I’d go for that.
“I’m from the United States of kiss my ass!”
Actually, I could watch the Alec Baldwin monologue in Glengarry Glen Ross (specially written by Mamet for the film) by itself over and over. “Fuck you. That’s my name. You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. That’s my name.”
Stranger
Characters, not actors.
For me, it would be almost any child character in a disaster movie. They only exist to whine, scream, and put themselves and others in jeopardy for no reason.