Good actors, bad choices.
Sometimes even a great actor can’t rise above the material. So I thought I’d take a shot at great actors who have taken lame parts. Here are my Top Five.
Jodi Foster. Nell. One unwatchable performance almost erased everything she had done before. (And she’s a two-time Oscar winner.) She was also rotten as the prostitute in Woody Allen’s Shadow and Fog.
Robert DeNiro. Officer Trey Sellers in Showtime. This was so bad it was actually nominated for a Razzie award (worst actor).
Hilary Swank. Madeline Linscott in the Black Dahila. Swank is a lot of things. But sexy she’s not. And of course, what a risk to put herself in DePalma’s hands at this point in his career.
Jack Nicholson. Edward Cole in The Bucket List. It’s sad to see an actor of Nicholson’s stature winding down his career with a role that’s been done many times before.
Meryl Streep. Gail Hartman in The River Wild. Streep is so good I can buy her in almost anything – except white-water rafting with David Strathairn.
Oh come on... Showtime was a better choice for De Niro than The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
ReplyDeleteMeryl Streep in Before And After. That movie was dreadful.
ReplyDeleteStreep in "She Devil" with Roseanne Barr - yikes!
ReplyDeleteNicholson in "Anger Management" was slumming, too.
mc - Let's just say they both suck.
ReplyDeleteNicholson knows how to collect a check.
DeNiro in Analyze This and That... absolutely horrific.
ReplyDeleteUm ... um ... um ...
ReplyDeleteI personally loved Meryl Streep in RIVER WILD. I realize it's not her best performance/role, but the film was adventurous, and I thought Streep added quite a bit of desperation, angst, and strength to the role.
OK Ray, let's both go with Streep in "She-Devil"
ReplyDeleteI went from memory and fortunatetly had wiped "She-Devil" out of my mind.
Every single cast member of Peter's Friends: Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, Emma Thompson, Phyllida Law, Stephen Fry.
ReplyDeleteThis film gets my vote for the worst movie in history.
Marilyn,
ReplyDeleteGood call. I wanted so much to love that movie and tried very hard, but it was a mess.
Two for one.
ReplyDeleteKevin Spacey- Pay it forward and K-Pax.
I dont think the acting was bad, but just "bad idea jeans" on his part.
BTW I love any chance I can to bring up K-pax. Always a big hit.
Good call on Pay It Forward. I remember seeing that ABC Sunday night Movie Of The Week drivel and thinking this is the same guy who was in LA Confidential and American Beauty.
ReplyDelete@ Brian - I agree that SHE-DEVIL is much, much worse, but in my mind, it's not due to Meryl; the film is just not well written. Actually, Meryl has some great moments in it.
ReplyDeleteDo I sound like a Meryl booster??? What can I say? I find her fascinating onscreen. She is a woman who can handle multi-layered dramas like CRY IN THE DARK, and still craft laser-perfect comedic performances like DEATH BECOMES HER or this. It just sucks that some of these movies are terrible all around her.
I've always thought that Meryl Streep took She Devil just for the seeming fun of it, and to perhaps prove to people that she could play low brow comedy too.
ReplyDeleteI've got to agree here. Just watched The River Wild recently On Demand, and Streep was awwwwful. A qualified choice, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteMeryl Streep AND Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County. What were they thinking????
ReplyDeleteP.S.
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ReplyDelete