# Movies utterly destroyed by bad casting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421 "2008-04-22T17:40:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 22, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/21 "2008-04-22T20:52:40Z")
To get back to Brandon Routh’s miscasting as Superman, there’s always trouble with superhero movies that attempt to cast the superhero. The superhero is just someone in a suit. You need to cast the alter ego. That’s what made Chris Reeves so good as Superman, because you could believe he was Clark Kent. That’s why Tobey Maguire is a good Spiderman, and George Clooney such a crappy Batman. George is just too affable to pass as a character as conflicted and dark as Bruce Wayne. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/22 "2008-04-22T20:53:13Z")
Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds. That was a Michael Rapaport character if there ever was one. (I’m guessing I’m alone on this one.) ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/23 "2008-04-22T20:55:26Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] To get back to Brandon Routh’s miscasting as Superman, there’s always trouble with superhero movies that attempt to cast the superhero. The superhero is just someone in a suit. You need to cast the alter ego. That’s what made Chris Reeves so good as Superman, because you could believe he was Clark Kent. That’s why Tobey Maguire is a good Spiderman, and George Clooney such a crappy Batman. George is just too affable to pass as a character as conflicted and dark as Bruce Wayne. [/QUOTE] That’s part of it. But I think his physical type was way off. I think the Man of Steel needs to be a big, imposing guy. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/24 "2008-04-22T20:58:45Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] The reason I didn’t want PP as LL was that I like her as Kitty, though she was wearing too many clothes. [/QUOTE] That might be said of any role where she is wearing clothes. ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/25 "2008-04-22T21:50:15Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] The Star Wars prequels had outstanding casting, except for the lead of **Hayden Christensen** , who managed to cumulatively out-suck all of the collective goodness that the other actors were bringing. [/QUOTE] Gotta disagree; Natalie Portman sucked BIG as the incredibly wooden Senator. A wooden post has more range… ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/26 "2008-04-22T21:56:32Z")
_Tom Cruise_ in **The Last Samurai**. Tom Cruise as an experienced Civil War veteran? Gimme a break. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/27 "2008-04-22T22:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=PharmBoy] Gotta disagree; Natalie Portman sucked BIG as the incredibly wooden Senator. A wooden post has more range… [/QUOTE] Agreed. It’s amazing how Fisher, Ford, and Hammil brought such emotion, personality and excitement into their roles in the Lucas universe. And then how Portman and Christensen just sucked the life out of theirs. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/28 "2008-04-22T22:04:46Z")
[QUOTE=PharmBoy] Gotta disagree; Natalie Portman sucked BIG as the incredibly wooden Senator. A wooden post has more range… [/QUOTE] I think that was a case of her being overwhelmed by the script and director. I don’t like the SW prequels, but I don’t blame the acting. I think the dialogue is so insipid and the direction so poor that the young leads simply could not compensate. Ewan McGregor, with a bit more experience under belt, and Christopher Lee, with ENORMOUSLY more experience under his, was able to compensate for the deficiencies of the dialogue and Lucas’ crack-addicted directorial style. Portman and Christensen could not. In the version of the prequels showing in Heaven, Lucas wrote the story outline and handled the special effects; J. Michael Straczynski and Joss Whedon collaborated on the screenplay; and Jaws-era Spielberg directed it. Also, Portman was naked during long stretches. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/29 "2008-04-22T22:46:32Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Also, Portman was naked during long stretches. [/QUOTE] Of course. Everyone knows the Naboo don’t wear clothing! ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/30 "2008-04-22T22:54:58Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] The Shining. Jack Nicholson can’t play sane. Right from the start, it’s obvious he’s one stubbed toe away from a killing spree, and it’s not the booze, or the hotel, or anything like that, he’s just in-frikkin-sane. [/QUOTE] YES. Even at the start, when he’s being interviewed, he DRIPS CRAZY on the floor. And when he gives that whole “see honey? He saw it on the Tv” talk in the car on the way to the Overlook… I mean, jack go crazy? He didnt have to go far, I say. Robert Redford in this part, now THERE would have been good casting. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/31 "2008-04-22T22:58:33Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Of course. Everyone knows the Naboo don’t wear clothing! [/QUOTE] However, underage Nabooans (Portman was only 14 during Episode I) do wear clothing, right? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/32 "2008-04-22T23:02:07Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] However, underage Nabooans (Portman was only 14 during Episode I) do wear clothing, right? [/QUOTE] Wikipedia says she was born in '81, and the movie was released in '99, so I take it it was likely filmed in '98. That’d make her 17, which is still below my minimum leering age, damn it. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/33 "2008-04-22T23:13:12Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] The Star Wars prequels had outstanding casting, except for the lead of **Hayden Christensen** , who managed to cumulatively out-suck all of the collective goodness that the other actors were bringing. [/QUOTE] The films had a great _cast_, but good _casting_ means putting the right actor in the right role, and with such an impressive cast, the casting in these films was atrocious. If you were to argue that Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Terence Stamp, Pernilla August, and Jack Thompson were good actors, but the only evidence you could submit were the Star Wars films, people would think you were nuts. (I omit Liam Neeson & Christopher Lee because they are actually good in the films, and I omit Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen because the jury’s out on whether they’re reliably good or just lucky in being periodically well-cast) ---
**Author:** ![Soapbox\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Soapbox\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soapbox_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/34 "2008-04-22T23:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] I got no dog in the Hayden Christiansen fight, but he was good in [_Shattered Glass_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0323944/). [/QUOTE] Ya know…I wanted to think that, I really did, but the more I watch it (it’s on one of the Encore stations on occasion and I enjoy the movie as a whole) the more I realize that it’s just a role where his whiney bitchiness _works_ instead of damageing the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/35 "2008-04-22T23:16:04Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] Parker Posey would have been a perfect Lois Lane, but instead she was wasted as Luthor’s floozy sidekick. Posey can be sexy, tough, and intellectual all at once, and could have channeled the Rosalind Russell/Katherine Hepburn-style 1940s “newshound” dame: a strong, smart female to counterbalance a more soul-searching Superman. [/QUOTE] Similarly, Gwyneth Paltrow utterly failed at the Spunky Girl Reporter role in _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_. As I’ve said before, Blythe Danner in her prime could have nailed it. > [@Bill Door](#): > > To get back to Brandon Routh’s miscasting as Superman, there’s always trouble with superhero movies that attempt to cast the superhero. The superhero is just someone in a suit. You need to cast the alter ego. That’s what made Chris Reeves so good as Superman, because you could believe he was Clark Kent. That’s why Tobey Maguire is a good Spiderman, and George Clooney such a crappy Batman. George is just too affable to pass as a character as conflicted and dark as Bruce Wayne. If you’re going to cite **Robot Arm’s First Law of Superhero Movie Casting** , you should attribute it. On the how-not-to-do-it side, there is Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movies. Somewhere in Hollywood there must be an actress who looks good in blue, skin-tight spandex, _and_ is believable as an astronaut; but it’s not Jessica Alba. ---
**Author:** ![Pollux\_Oil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/858c86/32.png) [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/36 "2008-04-22T23:51:31Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] If you’re going to cite **Robot Arm’s First Law of Superhero Movie Casting** , you should attribute it. On the how-not-to-do-it side, there is Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movies. Somewhere in Hollywood there must be an actress who looks good in blue, skin-tight spandex, _and_ is believable as an astronaut; but it’s not Jessica Alba. [/QUOTE] This actually jogged my memory on another horrible miscasting: Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in _The World is Not Enough_. Yes, I enjoyed seeing Ms. Richards as a Bond girl. No, she is not believable in that movie as a person who is smart enough to handle nuclear material. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/37 "2008-04-23T00:04:37Z")
Not really relevant, but can you imagine what a disaster “THE GODFATHER” would have been if Danny Kaye had been cast as the Godfather?? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/38 "2008-04-23T00:09:10Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Not really relevant, but can you imagine what a disaster “THE GODFATHER” would have been if Danny Kaye had been cast as the Godfather?? [/QUOTE] This can’t be serious! I did hear that Danny _Thomas_ was considered, but _ **Kaye** _? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/39 "2008-04-23T00:25:41Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Not really relevant, but can you imagine what a disaster “THE GODFATHER” would have been if Danny Kaye had been cast as the Godfather?? [/QUOTE] Surfing past a random 40’s Gangster movie on TV today, I was reminded that _Robin Hood_ was originally to star that quintissential movie gangster, Edward G. Robinson, as Robin Hood until the movie was recast and rewritten for Errol Flynn. Now imagine how the EGR version would have worked, or not worked. _Now see here Sheriff. Hand over the loot. Yeah. And don’t try no funny stuff._ Oh crap. I just looked at his IMDB page and see that he was originally supposed to play Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes too. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421/40 "2008-04-23T00:30:05Z")
[QUOTE=Brad Serum] I think the Man of Steel needs to be a big, imposing guy. [/QUOTE] No. No. OH GOD, NO! The best thing about all the live action Superman actors - from Reeves to Routh, in any case…I don’t think I’ve ever seen Colyer - is that none of them have been ‘big, imposing guy(s)’…Reeves was the biggest, but even he was merely solid. Big problems with the idea of Superman as a ‘big, imposing guy’: It doesn’t make sense for someone with Super Strength. He can juggle planets, yet he usually settles for juggling Luthor. How is he going to build that muscle mass? It _really_ doesn’t make sense with his secret identity. He’s got to be able to pull off the identity of mild mannered, non-athletic Clark Kent. Clark should be fit - even solid - as befits a farmboy, but that’s as far as it should go. He shouldn’t be built like a linebacker or body builder, because the closest he gets to athletics is going to a Monarchs game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-utterly-destroyed-by-bad-casting/446421.md?page=3)