# Otherwise good/great movies stolen by a terrible performance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498 "2012-05-01T12:28:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/1 "2012-05-01T12:28:38Z")
We’ve done the thread a million times where we all post about a good or great (or even mediocre) movie completely stolen by a supporting actor. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone usually wins that thread. What about the other way around? An otherwise good or great movie completely stolen (e.g. ruined, or made significantly more difficult to enjoy) by a terrible performance by a secondary or supporting actor? We can start with some obvious ones: The Godfather III and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Others? EDIT: And don’t even start in with the Star Wars prequels. The don’t count because they were shitty all around. Movies that only had one bad performance and were otherwise good movies please. ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/2 "2012-05-01T12:47:58Z")
Keanu Reeves did this for me in the otherwise good [Much Ado About Nothing (1993)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107616/). ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/3 "2012-05-01T12:54:09Z")
I’m no diehard Harry Potter fan, but I did read all the books, and enjoyed them quite a lot. And I wouldn’t consider the movies to be classics of cinema, but again, I saw them all and enjoyed them too. All that said, I thought Michael Gambon’s performance of Dumbledore was so completely clueless that it took me right out of the film for every scene he was in. I mean it wasn’t just a bad performance compared to Richard Harris’ (which it was), and it wasn’t just a bad performance as an adaption of the literary Dumbledore (which it was), it was a just-plain-all-around bad performance. Every time he appeared onscreen I stopped thinking “Wow, I wonder what mysterious magical happening will happen next?!” and instead thought to myself “Wow, I’m in a darkened room with 200 other people watching a badly miscast Michael Gambon screw up a multimillion-dollar adaptation of the hugely-successful Harry Potter series”. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/4 "2012-05-01T13:02:50Z")
The more I watch it, the more I realize just how bad Dorothy Comingore is in **Citizen Kane**. Luckily, her bad acting is perfect for the character so it’s hard to notice and doesn’t ruin the film. It was her only major role (though her career was cut short by the Blacklist). Truman Capote is notoriously terrible in **Murder by Death**. Luckily, he’s killed off pretty soon. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/5 "2012-05-01T13:07:47Z")
If it weren’t for Brandon De Wilde, I would own _Shane_ and watch it semi-regularly. And while it does not affect my interest in owning _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_, it’s worth mentioning Mickey Rooney’s offensive turn there. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/6 "2012-05-01T13:47:27Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > And while it does not affect my interest in owning _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_, it’s worth mentioning Mickey Rooney’s offensive turn there. But is that Rooney’s fault? I’d lay the blame more on the writer or director. Jason Robards reeks in Charlton Heston’s 1970 version of _Julius Caesar_. The rest of the cast is outstanding. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/7 "2012-05-01T13:50:09Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > We can start with some obvious ones: The Godfather III and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I read this and couldn’t believe you could possibly find fault with Jack Nicholson’s performance. But who else could it have been? The kid? The mystical old black dude who was barely on screen? Then I checked IMDB. Oh yeah. Shelley Duvall. I somehow managed to completely block out her participation in this movie. :smack: (Frankly I think I preferred it that way.) ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/8 "2012-05-01T15:07:04Z")
“Game over, man! Game over!” Paxton just takes me right out of the otherwise excellent **Aliens**. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/9 "2012-05-01T15:23:20Z")
Have to disagree with Paxton. For me it was Four Weddings and a Funeral. Excellent movie with Andie MacDowell horribly miscast. It’s like she read the script and thought to herself, “now how could I possibly say this the worst way?” And totally agree on Duvall. She bitches that he yelled at her most of the time to “get that performance” - hell it was like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. Why they didn’t just fire her I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/10 "2012-05-01T15:35:10Z")
Orlando Bloom’s portrayal of Paris basically soured me on Troy, which I otherwise enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/11 "2012-05-01T15:39:11Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > Every time he appeared onscreen I stopped thinking “Wow, I wonder what mysterious magical happening will happen next?!” and instead thought to myself “Wow, I’m in a darkened room with 200 other people watching a badly miscast Michael Gambon screw up a multimillion-dollar adaptation of the hugely-successful Harry Potter series”. I thought I was the only one thinking that! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/12 "2012-05-01T15:51:13Z")
**Peggy Sue Got Married** was a nostalgia picture that the writers tried to keep from becoming a typical 80’s teen tits & zits comedy. Nicholas Cage behaved like a cartoon character to drag it back to that level. When Otto Preminger produced George Bernard Shaw’s **Saint Joan** , he wanted Audrey Hepburn, as anyone would. But she insisted on including Mel Frerer as the dauphin, in the traditon of “cast my spouse/save my marriage” (worth its own thread). So the part went to Jean Seaberg, the prettiest and smartest girl ever to come from Marshalltown, Iowa by golly. Andie McDowell mentioned above is an example of “We need an American star to make it bankable across the pond” British casting that also might merit its own thread. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/13 "2012-05-01T16:54:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > But is that Rooney’s fault? I’d lay the blame more on the writer or director. Yeah, Rooney did a bang-up job of what was basically a comic relief cartoon character. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/14 "2012-05-01T16:58:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The more I watch it, the more I realize just how bad Dorothy Comingore is in **Citizen Kane**. Luckily, her bad acting is perfect for the character so it’s hard to notice and doesn’t ruin the film. It was her only major role (though her career was cut short by the Blacklist). And Orson himself ruined \*Lady from Shanghai \*with his “they’re always after me Lucky Charms!” Irishman. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/15 "2012-05-01T17:04:58Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Orlando Bloom’s portrayal of Paris basically soured me on Troy, which I otherwise enjoyed. Now, I actually thought that was perfect casting- Paris is supposed to be a pretty boy and a wimp, and Bloom was very convincing as both. His one-sided “battle” with Menelaus is just what I’d pictured when I first read _ **The Iliad** _. The only thing I hated was that the movie had Paris (rather than Aeneas) leading the Trojans to safety at the end. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/16 "2012-05-01T17:08:08Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > **Peggy Sue Got Married** was a nostalgia picture that the writers tried to keep from becoming a typical 80’s teen tits & zits comedy. Nicholas Cage behaved like a cartoon character to drag it back to that level. EXCELLENT choice. I remember thinking at the time that Nicolas Cage had NO talent as an actor. But when I saw him giving good performances in subsequent movies, I had to reconsider. I also had to wonder… Look, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola has made so many utter stinkers over the past 30 years. Is it possible that, terrible as Cage’s performance in \*\*\*Peggy Sue \*\*\*was, Cage was just doing what his director TOLD him to do? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/17 "2012-05-01T17:09:37Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > All that said, I thought Michael Gambon’s performance of Dumbledore was so completely clueless that it took me right out of the film for every scene he was in. I mean it wasn’t just a bad performance compared to Richard Harris’ (which it was), and it wasn’t just a bad performance as an adaption of the literary Dumbledore (which it was), it was a just-plain-all-around bad performance. I hear that a lot and I don’t see it at all. Harris’ Dumbledore seemed like a well-meaning, wise but somewhat befuddled old man. A kind of typical grandfather type. I think that worked in the early books/movies. Gambon’s Dumbledore had a touch or sharp whimsy along with the charm. He could smile and wink at you, but then turn around and cut you down to pieces. He fit more what we learn about Dumbledore the person beyond just being Headmaster. St. Elmos Fire is a decent movie with good performances by the main cast… except for Andie MacDowell… she is awful. In fact I think the only good performance she’s ever given has been in “Groundhog’s Day”.. everything else she appears in she is the worst part of it. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/18 "2012-05-01T17:52:28Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Look, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola has made so many utter stinkers over the past 30 years. Is it possible that, terrible as Cage’s performance in \*\*\*Peggy Sue \*\*\*was, Cage was just doing what his director TOLD him to do? I read somewhere that Cage used the character Pokey from _Gumby_ as his inspiration for Charlie’s voice. But Coppola did not tell him to do that - in fact, Coppola didn’t like it and almost had his nephew replaced. I still root for Peggy Sue to run off with Michael Fitzsimmons instead. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/19 "2012-05-01T18:02:37Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > “Game over, man! Game over!” > > Paxton just takes me right out of the otherwise excellent **Aliens**. Couldn’t disagree more. I love him in that. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/20 "2012-05-01T18:05:00Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > I read somewhere that Cage used the character Pokey from _Gumby_ as his inspiration for Charlie’s voice. But Coppola did not tell him to do that - in fact, Coppola didn’t like it and almost had his nephew replaced. > > I still root for Peggy Sue to run off with Michael Fitzsimmons instead. If you saw what he looks like now you’d perhaps reconsider. He still acts in supporting roles. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498.md?page=2)