Worst delivery of a line in a movie?

Cafe Society
1

I just watched Four Weddings and a Funeral for the first time. I enjoyed most of the movie, but Andie MacDowell was (IMHO, of course) excruciating. I realize she came onto the set something like two weeks before shooting began but… damn.

But the clincher was the final scene, where she says “Is it raining? I hadn’t noticed.” That has to be the worst delivery I’ve ever seen. It honestly pulled me right out of the movie and made me say… What the hell was that? She said it with the enthusiasm of a toothbrush.

I’m sure there are plenty of worse examples, as my movie viewing is actually pretty woeful (but I’m fixing that!)

So what other examples of really horrid deliveries (especially in an otherwise decent movie) are there?

2

Storm’s line from X-Men. You should know it by now.

There was a line from Waterworld (which I refuse to see) that was parodied by Mike Nelson on MST3K. Mike was trying to take “non acting” lessons and used that scene where Costner’s boat sank. He apparently shows zero emotion as he says, “My boat.”

3

What does happen a toad that gets struck by lightning? Good example.

4

Supposedly the response was to be, “it croaks”. How it got screwed up, I don’t know.

5

Vin Diesel’s line in Pitch Black: “Not for me! Not… for… me.” In his defense, I don’t know how he should have delivered it.

6

Everyone say it with me:

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”

Of course, I don’t think that line can be delivered without sounding like an utter idiot.

7

Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men"
After Jack Nicholson delivers his powerful “You can’t handle the truth speech” and admits to ordering the “Code Red” he says:
“All you did was weaken a country today. That’s all you did. You put people’s lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son.”
In an anemic response Tom Cruise says:
“Don’t call me son. I’m a lawyer and an officer in the United States Navy. And you’re under arrest, you son of a bitch”.
Cruise’s line really falls flat.

Too bad about Halle Berry’s line getting screwed up in “X-Men”. “It croaks” would have been great !!

8

Dad?

9

Isn’t Tony Curtis’s “Yondah lies da castle of my foddah?” the classic example?

10

In Reservoir Dogs, in the opening coffee scene, Mr. Brown’s train of thought is interrupted, and he says, “What the fuck was I talking about?”

Unfortunately, Tarantino’s delivery is so stinky-poo that he truly lived up to the character’s too-close-to name.

11

“I am an F.B.I…agent!” - Johnny Utah

12

From Working Girl: “I am not a steak. You cannot order me.” Granted, that’s a horrible, horrible line, but I think a better actress than Melanie Griffith might’ve been able to deliver it without making me go into a seizure.

13

OK I can hear this line, but… I cannot for the life of me remember what movie it’s from.

14

Do you like our owl? Sean Young, Blade Runner.

15

Again, it’s a terrible line to begin with, but I nominate Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens in La Bamba:

“My dreams are pure rock and roll!”

16

I always hated the way Jennifer Aniston says “How DARE you judge me?” in Office Space.

17

From what I recall, that line and one other were the only lines of dialogue left in the movie from Joss Whedon’s version of the script. That’s the main reason why it’s so completely awkward and wrong. Why they didn’t just rewrite that dialogue to match everything else, I don’t know. Even something completely improvised would probably have been better.

18

At least they kept Wolverine’s, “You’re a dick” in response to being questioned by Cyclops. That just about makes up for the crappy line.

19

–John Wayne as Gengis Khan, in The Conqueror

20

I might agree … if there wasn’t a very good reason for Rachel speaking the way she does.

No argument whatsoever with Halle Berry or Vin Diesel. I would have named and shamed them if I hadn’t been beaten to it.