Worst Performances By Good Actors

[That-Guy]

Ever watch a movie that made you lose respect for one of your favorite actors? Sometimes it's the script, sometimes it's just a bad decision on the actor's part but whatever the reason, nobody, no matter how talented, is infallible. Except maybe Daniel Day Lewis, hence the reason he only makes one movie every four years or so, lol.


Here we go -


Richard Dreyfuss as the most stereotypical gay character ever written in POSEIDON. The movie was absolutely f**king horrible from start to finish with bad performances across the board (Kurt Russell giving "action hero" lessons to Josh Lucas, Fergie showing up, etc.) but somehow Dreyfuss, one of the greatest actors of his generation, manages to take the crap cake. His performance is so pathetic that I still have trouble watching him in anything else.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Oh i like this thread.

Robert De Niro. Seriously how do you go from Godfather , Raging Bull to
*ahem*

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle , Showtime , the analyze this/that movies , Meet The Parents /Meet The Fockers & Righteous Kill
and to a lesser extent even Stardust.

The only "recent"movie where he acted good was The Good Sheperd.

Also Ben Kingsley. From Gandhi , Sexy Beast and House of Sand & Fog to
A Sound Of Thunder , The Love Guru , Bloodrayne

 

[StrainedEyes]

Deniro wasn't bad in Analyze This or Meet the Parents.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Matt Damon in Stuck On You. He's does that over-the-top loner stuff the whole movie.

 

[Drizzle]

Nicolas Cage in everything he's ever done except for "Leaving Las Vegas", "Moonstruck", "Raising Arizona" and "National Treasure".

 

[terry78]

Hey, I liked Rocky and Bullwinkle. DeNiro ****ing produced the thing because he was a massive fan of the series, and played Fearless Leader how he wanted, so technically in his eyes it wasn't a chore, but the character just comes off like that.

 

[That-Guy]

Oh i like this thread.

Robert De Niro. Seriously how do you go from Godfather , Raging Bull to
*ahem*

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle , Showtime , the analyze this/that movies , Meet The Parents /Meet The Fockers & Righteous Kill
and to a lesser extent even Stardust.

The only "recent"movie where he acted good was The Good Sheperd.

Also Ben Kingsley. From Gandhi , Sexy Beast and House of Sand & Fog to
A Sound Of Thunder , The Love Guru , Bloodrayne

Good call on these two. Great actors, but my God, have they made some bad choices in their old age. Same with Pacino, who seems to be content these days just playing exaggerated versions of his onscreen persona.

 

[That-Guy]

Matthew McCounaughey - any romantic comedy he's in. It's impossible to single one out since he plays the same exact character in everyone.

Christian Bale - Walter Wade in Shaft (though this had more to do with that awful script than anything else). When Bale, Jeffrey Wright and Sam Jackson thoroughly SUCK in a movie, you know that the director (John "I just show up for work" Singleton) and the screenwriter has a lot to do with it.

Daniel Craig - Asriel in The Golden Compass (again, probably the script more than anything else)

Adrien Brody - Driscoll in King Kong. In an attempt to make Jack Driscoll a more engaging character, they changed him from being the ship's first mate to a playwright and cast an oscar winning actor... and somehow he came out even more dull and uninteresting.

Martin Sheen - Jason Wynn in Spawn. He was so over-the-top ridiculous I have a hard time believing that this guy was in Apocolypse Now.

 

[Max J Power]

Liam Neeson in the Star Wars prequels
Ewan McGregor in the Star Wars prequels
Natalie Portman in the Star Wars prequels

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Klaus Kinski in Cobra Verde. Apart from the fact that he was BADLY miscast (A 61 year old German as a dashing young Brazilian bandit? Seriously?) Herzog also could not control Kinski anymore.

 

[That-Guy]

Liam Neeson in the Star Wars prequels
Ewan McGregor in the Star Wars prequels
Natalie Portman in the Star Wars prequels

LOL, I notice you didn't add Hayden Christiansen... probably because he sucks in everything? t:

 

[Bobber]

Nicolas Cage in everything he's ever done except for "Leaving Las Vegas", "Moonstruck", "Raising Arizona" and "National Treasure".

Wouldn't that make him a bad actor who's handed in a few good performances?

 

[Sawyer]

LOL, I notice you didn't add Hayden Christiansen... probably because he sucks in everything? t:

He does, but his SW work makes his other work look like he's Marlon ****in' Brando.

 

[That-Guy]

Sean Connery in The League of Extraordinary Genitalia

Ethan Hawke in Hamlet

Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies

Raul Julia as Bison in Street Fighter

Neil McDonough as Bison in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li

Billy Crudup as Generic IMF Guy #1 in Mission: Impossible 3

Nick Stahl and Claire Danes in Terminator 3

All three villains in Spider-Man 3 (a lot of '"Part 3" films on this list... coincidence?)

Ewan McGregor in Deception (I think he was even worse here than he was as Obi-Wan)

Gerard Butler in P.S., I Love You

Hilary Swank in Insomnia

Pierce Brosnan in Taffin

 

[EdRyder]

^ Dude , I think whether or not Gerard Butler ever was or will be a good actor is debatable.

 

[xwolverine2]

uma thurman... poison ivy

 

[That-Guy]

^ Dude , I think whether or not Gerard Butler ever was or will be a good actor is debatable.

Haha, you may be right about that. But I have liked him in a few films like RockNRolla and 300.

A few more...

Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsdale in Van Helsing. God, did that movie suck.


Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in CATCF

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (not so much bad as just severely disappointing)

Christina Ricci in Pecker

 

[Sawyer]

Haha, you may be right about that. But I have liked him in a few films like RockNRolla and 300.

A few more...

Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsdale in Van Helsing. God, did that movie suck.


Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in CATCF

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (not so much bad as just severely disappointing)

Christina Ricci in Pecker

 

[dark_b]

wouldnt it make sense to name movies where the script is good and a good actor is acting bad?

why would i now name actors that were in bad movies with a bad script and a bad director?
direction,story and editing is bigger then the actor. a good actor can give a good performane. but if the director and editor dont know what they are doing that the movie and also acting will suck.
IMO of course.

 

[Drizzle]

Matthew McCounaughey - any romantic comedy he's in. It's impossible to single one out since he plays the same exact character in everyone.

Since when was McConaughey a good actor?

Wouldn't that make him a bad actor who's handed in a few good performances?

No, he's a good actor who's made some pretty bad decisions and got really lazy in his work.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Winona Ryder in Alien Ressurection.

 

[Octoberist]

Johnny Depp did an interesting performance in the wrong movie.

 

[Sentinel X]

Oh i like this thread.

Robert De Niro. Seriously how do you go from Godfather , Raging Bull to
*ahem*

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle , Showtime , the analyze this/that movies , Meet The Parents /Meet The Fockers & Righteous Kill
and to a lesser extent even Stardust.

The only "recent"movie where he acted good was The Good Sheperd.

Also Ben Kingsley. From Gandhi , Sexy Beast and House of Sand & Fog to
A Sound Of Thunder , The Love Guru , Bloodrayne

...whats wrong with Meet the Parents? That was a good comedy.

 

[That-Guy]

Since when was McConaughey a good actor?

I liked him in Frailty, U-571, Tropic Thunder and even Reign of Fire.

 

[thejon93]

Tom Hanks in 'The Ladykillers'
John Travolta in 'Broken Arrow'
Jim Carrey in 'The Number 23'