# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/121 "2012-05-09T14:17:10Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Oh I know I’m going against the grain here, but Keanu’s acting never bothered me. Course I never watched him in the Shakespeare… Oh, [Keanu was just fine in _Much Ado About Nothing_](http://youtu.be/W7eOwKN3Goo). See? Not a single “Whoa!” He really _was_ bad in Dracula, though. But then, so was everybody. Hell, Anthony Hopkins was bad in Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/122 "2012-05-10T13:35:30Z")
For me Nicole Kidman has put out a few stinkers; who’d honestly take her seriously when discussing a _brain injury_ in Days of Thunder, whilst in Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut both her and Cruise were terribly miscast and couldn’t act well enough to support what were potentially very good movies. She also annoyed me in The Peacemaker (as _Dr. Kelly_:rolleyes:, haha), although I liked her in The Interpreter so I don’t think this is an anti-Kidman thing. ---
**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 10, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/123 "2012-05-10T17:01:23Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I agree. I’m a terrible judge of Keanu Reeves’ acting, though - he gets 3 and a half stars out of five for me just for being his gorgeous self. > > That said, I do think he is unfairly lambasted for being terribly wooden. He has made a serious career as an A-list actor - you don’t do that sustainably for 23 years just by being pretty. > > I think she sucks the fun out of every scene she’s ever been in. > > Sorry, Jamie Lee Curtis starred in “Halloween” two years before Shelley starred in “The Shining.” 🙂 Actually her mother was the original scream queen in Psycho. Or you could go back as far as Fay Wray in King Kong. And as for Duvall, in all the “normal” scenes, she’s as bad as Andie MacDowell (BTW was that a whoosh MsWhatsit? - oh I see it was, but hey I said her first!). It’s like she just read the script 2 minutes before filming and is just saying lines. The scenes where she is almost good are the ones where Kubrick is literally screaming at her from behind the camera to get some sort of realistic reaction (she’s spoken of this, though not exactly in those terms). They did about a million takes of that staircase scene alone. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/124 "2012-05-10T17:09:20Z")
This may be unfair, but: SUPERMAN II largely gets away with filming all-American scenes in the UK – except for the little kids who inexplicably have striking British accents. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/125 "2012-05-10T20:03:36Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > [Just](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14603498&postcount=9) [look](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=636219&highlight=andie+macdowell+weddings) [at](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14605476&postcount=16) [all](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11978239&postcount=165) [the](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10732694&postcount=59) [individual](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10203310&postcount=1) [instances](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10203358&postcount=2) [of](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10205589&postcount=24) [SDMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10207710&postcount=27) [posters](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9692933&postcount=36) [bashing](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9693313&postcount=38) [Andie](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8219074&postcount=12) [MacDowell](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6290096&postcount=1) [in](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6290242&postcount=8) _[Four](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6186922&postcount=11) [Weddings](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6190402&postcount=57) [and](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5343280&postcount=11) [a](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5033079&postcount=1) [Funeral](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5042744&postcount=97)_. ([Bonus](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3531014&postcount=98) [tracks](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2197657&postcount=9)!) Dear God yes, this echo chamber of hatred is tiresome. For pity’s sake, the movie is nearly two decades old! Can’t we at least find something new to collectively bash for the sake of group identification? > > (By the way, kudos to **GuanoLad** for [taking note of this weird internet grouphate of Andie MacDowell](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10205327&postcount=22) long before I ever mentioned it.) Or maybe she was just horrible? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/126 "2012-05-10T20:16:09Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Or maybe she was just horrible? No. There is no such thing as a performance that is universally considered to be bad. In all such cases, it’s just Internet groupthink at work. Dick Van Dyke’s English accent in _Mary Poppins_, for example, was actually quite good. It’s just Internet groupthink making everyone in the entire UK think that it sounds hilariously shitty. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/127 "2012-05-10T20:34:56Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > No. There is no such thing as a performance that is universally considered to be bad. In all such cases, it’s just Internet groupthink at work. Dick Van Dyke’s English accent in _Mary Poppins_, for example, was actually quite good. It’s just Internet groupthink making everyone in the entire UK think that it sounds hilariously shitty. Dick Van Dyke’s accent was good, but not authentic. If it had been authentic a sizeable fraction of the audience would have spent the whole movie going “What’d he say?”. I think he got what the director wanted. ---
**Author:** ![what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a5b964/32.png) [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/what_do_I_type_here)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/128 "2012-05-10T21:48:08Z")
> [@iamnotbatman](#): > > Keanu Reeves did this for me in the otherwise good [Much Ado About Nothing (1993)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107616/). He was great in **The Merchant of Venice Beach** "Hath not a dude eyes? If you prick us, do we not get bummed? If we eat bad guacamole, do we not blow chunks? " ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/129 "2012-05-10T22:13:16Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Or maybe she was just horrible? You know what, maybe she was. But don’t you think it’s pathetically trite at this point to harp on it? Hey, but don’t mind me. Give that dead horse one more boot to the ribs! ---
**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 10, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/130 "2012-05-10T22:26:48Z")
You could lead by example and not have posted anything too you know **Spoke** : :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/131 "2012-05-11T01:33:41Z")
I honestly did come in here to mention Andie McDowell in Four Weddings. ☹ It’s one of my favourite romcoms but I always have to add ‘apart from Andie McDowell’ because otherwise people chime in and criticise her. She’s beautiful, and she was fine in Green Card, but in Four Weddings everyone else seems to be their character and she is very obviously acting. She’s bearable though, for me, at least. The same is true with Keanu Reeves in MAAN. He genuinely was extraordinarily bad. He was brilliant in Bill and Ted, well cast for the Matrix and I haven’t even seen My Own Private Idaho, so it’s not like I hate the bloke; I love Shakespeare’s plays, watch pretty much every adaptation of them and again I have to recommend MAAN as a great Shakespeare film to watch, except for Keanu. Don John is dark, cynical and witty. For an actor like Keanu Reeves, that’s never going to work. Apparently he loves Shakespeare and loves acting as a profession and that’s at least partly why he was cast, not just to have a Hollywood idol in the cast. However, in the same film he’d have made an excellent or at least decent Claudio - especially if they didn’t bother with the unnecessary English accent - and the actor who played Claudio could probably have been an excellent Don John. But no! I haven’t actually thought about these things! I’m just being a h8tr! > [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Dick Van Dyke’s accent was good, but not authentic. If it had been authentic a sizeable fraction of the audience would have spent the whole movie going “What’d he say?”. I think he got what the director wanted. How was it good? It was only when I was past childhood and heard people say he had a terrible Cockney accent that I even realised he was trying for one. He sounded exactly the same as he did in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was a Disney movie with chimney sweeps acting as if their jobs were the best in the world - him being American was no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/132 "2012-05-11T01:55:39Z")
> [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](#): > > He was great in **The Merchant of Venice Beach** > > "Hath not a dude eyes? If you prick us, do we not get bummed? If we eat bad guacamole, do we not blow chunks? " Is that from _The Critic_? Now, the movie wasn’t great or even good but Mick Jagger was terrible in _Freejack_. Epic terrible. So terrible your risk for cancer goes up. You could actually see his eyes following the cue-cards. ---
**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 11, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/133 "2012-05-11T03:26:07Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Or maybe she was just horrible? Yeah exactly. If someone is horrible enough to get posts from people 20 years later, it’s pretty memorable as horrible. And notice how she hasn’t done anything since then except Groundhog Day, in which she was barely passable. Why all the love for Andie MacDowell? Malcom McDowell did better in a 30 minute show as a vampire. ---
**Author:** ![phxjcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phxjcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxjcc)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/134 "2012-05-11T17:49:26Z")
The worst, as in _ **WORST EVER** _ ? Glen Ford, Pocketful of Miracles He also produced and would not let Capra _really_ direct. More modern… Mrs. [Kate Capshaw] Spielberg in I J Temple of Doom All she does is wail, constantly. Unwatchable, for me at least. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/135 "2012-05-12T01:59:07Z")
> [@phxjcc](#): > > Mrs. [Kate Capshaw] Spielberg in I J Temple of Doom > All she does is wail, constantly. > Unwatchable, for me at least. But that’s not a bad performance, that’s just an unlikeable character. It can be hard to tell the difference, but as has been said before, she was playing the character as written. ---
**Author:** ![Greekfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@Greekfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greekfreak)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/136 "2012-10-01T18:14:00Z")
I can’t believe nobody nominated Tom Cruise for “Far And Away”. He could never do accents; Ritchie Cunningham goofed on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/137 "2012-10-01T18:22:50Z")
The accent was lousy, but other than that it was a pretty good performance. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/138 "2012-10-02T13:21:41Z")
Joey Lauren Adams ruined _Chasing Amy_, IMO. Ugh…that horrid voice. Ben Affleck does okay in roles where his character is a douchebag such as Holden in _Chasing Amy_. Oh man, I was beaten to the punch on Andie MacDowell by a dozen posts. I was going to mention _Sex, Lies, and Videotape_, though. And _Groundhog Day_ is barely tolerable to watch during scenes where she’s present. I’ve never seen _Four Weddings and a Funeral_. I won’t be going out of my way to watch that one knowing that she’s in it. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/139 "2012-10-02T14:02:07Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > No. There is no such thing as a performance that is universally considered to be bad. In all such cases, it’s just Internet groupthink at work. Dick Van Dyke’s English accent in _Mary Poppins_, for example, was actually quite good. It’s just Internet groupthink making everyone in the entire UK think that it sounds hilariously shitty. His accent was excellent…oh you mean his cockney accent. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498/140 "2012-10-02T14:06:11Z")
My favorite actress but Natalie Portman has done this twice. **V for Vendetta** **Thor** This was a movie with some first rate performances. Hers…not so much. OTH in **Closer** andb **Garden State** she was the best thing about the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otherwise-good-great-movies-stolen-by-a-terrible-performance/620498.md?page=8)