[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Macaulay Culkin was pretty awful in Home Alone and Dakota Fanning creeps me out in just about everything, but yeah, it’s pretty hard to get worse than Jake Lloyd.
[/QUOTE]
I can’t agree about Culkin, I rather liked his performance and I think he’s talented, but Laws yes, Dakota Fanning rides my last nerve. M-O-O-N, that spells shut the fuck up, Miss Dakota.
And y’all have missed the most egregious piece of casting in TVdom: Jeremy Gelbwalks in the first season of The Partridge Family. Luckily, he was recast.
Just about every kid in any sitcom, including the runt in Two and a Half Men. He looks like he’s half asleep. Maybe it’s the bad writing, maybe it’s his crappy one-dimensional delivery that annoys me, but I have trouble enjoying that show whenever the kid is in the scene.
[QUOTE=Nurobath]
I knew this would be the first response when I read the OP. I have to say that I don’t really think it’s a fair choice. He was pretty bad yes (although I thought Hayden Christensen was pretty horrible in the other two), but he was also directed by the worst director of humans in the business. Generally a child actor is going to need a bit more direction than an older actor and Lucas can’t even handle the adults. He may actually be a bad actor (I haven’t seen his other work so I don’t know) but I think the blame for that one goes on Lucas.
[/QUOTE]
Yea, I don’t really think he did that bad a job in SW:PM. The problem is that he was playing a kid in what was basically a made-for-children fantasy, he’s essentially a non-CGI version of “Jimmy Neutron”, while the audience that went to see the film were looking for, well, for a Star Wars movie. It’s not really his fault that Lucas decided to make the movie the way he did.
I’ve somehow managed to miss every Dakota Fanning film, but seeing her listed along with Haley Joel Osment and Brandon de Wilde makes me think she may be a great young actress who’s worth seeing. This thread is meant as one big whoosh, right?
It really does seem to break down by age, with Ewan McGregor being the dividing line.
[QUOTE=Sir Prize]
Agree about Jake Lloyd in Star Wars but I saw him in another picture about boating. He did a good job. Lucas is just a poor director.
[/QUOTE]
Haven’t any of the people who say this seen American Graffiti? Lucas got a very moving performance out of non-actor Wolfman Jack, and excellent work by everyone in the young cast. The movie was nominated for five freaking Oscars, including Best film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director! Lucas is a talented director who made a low-budget homage to the serials of his youth, and he included the stilted acting of the serials. It was a surprising success and he got caught up in making a bunch more. Now that the whole Star Wars thing is over, and the 4th Indiana Jones film is finished, I expect to see Lucas start directing small, personal films again.
[QUOTE=Eric Halfabee]
Jake Lloyd in Star Wars Ep I was one of the worst child performances of all time.
[/QUOTE]
Later I saw him in Last Action Hero
Obviously the casting director for SW1 never saw Jake Lloyd in that otherwise the kid would have never acted again.
Grace Johnston playing Victoria in Beaches. The scene where her mother collapses has always made me cringe. However, I see she’s still acting (or acting again), so perhaps she was better than I thought, or she’s improved since.
[QUOTE=Saint Cad]
Later I saw him in Last Action Hero
Obviously the casting director for SW1 never saw Jake Lloyd in that otherwise the kid would have never acted again.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=gaffa]
Haven’t any of the people who say this seen American Graffiti? Lucas got a very moving performance out of non-actor Wolfman Jack, and excellent work by everyone in the young cast. The movie was nominated for five freaking Oscars, including Best film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director! Lucas is a talented director who made a low-budget homage to the serials of his youth, and he included the stilted acting of the serials. It was a surprising success and he got caught up in making a bunch more. Now that the whole Star Wars thing is over, and the 4th Indiana Jones film is finished, I expect to see Lucas start directing small, personal films again.
[/QUOTE]
Lucas may have been fine 30 years ago. But now, he’s so brainwashed by yes men toadies and his own hype that he doesn’t know top from bottom. (IMHO)
Eps 1-3 were horribly written and directed and elements of the plot are downright stuipid. Who exactly should be blamed for that?
I know I’m going against the consensus here, but I thought that Jake Lloyd’s performance in The Phantom Menace was good - I thought it was one of the few things in that movie that worked.
[QUOTE=Lobohan]
Lucas may have been fine 30 years ago. But now, he’s so brainwashed by yes men toadies and his own hype that he doesn’t know top from bottom. (IMHO)
[/quote]
Name one.
Seriously. Lucas is the world’s most powerful independent film-maker. With Lucasfilm and ILM he accomplished something that no filmmaker I can think of other than Robert Rodriguez has accomplished - complete independence. It can be argued that he’s had more positive impact on film than any living person. His experiments “Sound Droid” and “Edit Droid” became Pro Tools and Avid respectively. Pixar was a spin-off of the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics department, THX set new standards for theatrical presentation. and ILM sets the standard for computer graphics.
Lucasfilm and ILM do what George Lucas wants.
[QUOTE=Lobohan]
Eps 1-3 were horribly written and directed and elements of the plot are downright stuipid. Who exactly should be blamed for that?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, they were. They were intended to be so. They were Saturday morning serials with a huge budget. He got what he intended. But if you haven’t seen American Grafitti or THX-1138 you have no idea what he is capable of producing when he’s not creating a huge budget popcorn movie. IMDB doesn’t list any of them yet, but Lucas plans to make arty films next:
[QUOTE=George Lucas] I’ve worked hard enough and earned enough to fail for the rest of my life. And I’m gonna do it!! - About making art films that he admits no one will want to see.
[/QUOTE]
Assuming he doesn’t get his by a bus, American Grafitti and these later films will be the ones that will define his legacy - as well as the technological changes to film-making he pioneered.
We’re wandering off topic here, but I have to feel that George Lucas reached the point of independence decades ago. He’s making the movies he wants to make the way he wants to make them. If he wanted to make small personal films he could have done it anytime in the last twenty years. He decided instead to ride on the legacy of his early work and make movies where special effects are given more importance than story or character.