Post by tmc1982 on Dec 26, 2008 2:14:28 GMT -5
www.spike.com/blog/top-7-miscast-movie/71753?spike=6504
I guess the author didn't hear about the idea of having John Wayne portray Genghis Kahn in the movie "The Conqueror".
Also, you can't really judge the theory that Halle Berry as Catwoman was a case of miscasting because she was portraying a "Catwoman in Name Only" (i.e. not Selina Kyle).
And if anything, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson was a bigger case of questionable casting concerning the Spider-Man movies than James Franco.
7. Sofia Coppola in The Godfather Part III
No, she didn’t have the lead role, and no, she clearly didn’t pursue an acting career after her cringe-worthy performance in this film. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t tarnish every single scene she was in in Godfather III. She is so god-awful that (spoiler coming up!) by the time she finally gets shot at the end, you’re cheering for the assassin. Not only that, you’re actually wishing the assassin could have gotten his s**t together about sixty minutes earlier.
It really destroys the tragedy of the film when what Michael (Al Pacino) loves most happens to be the most obnoxious little twerp on the face of the earth, so that when she is taken from him our sadness is defused like a bomb.
Stiff line deliveries, total absence of a believable character, and the knowledge that the awful turd who ruined what could’ve been a triumphant end to an incredible trilogy is the director’s daughter all combine to focus our wrath on Sofia Coppola whenever the Godfather movies are invoked. Thanks for being a stain on the satin sheets of awesomeness that were Godfather I and II, Sofia.
6. Halle Berry in Catwoman
This casting was ill-advised on so many different levels. Beyond the most obvious knock against Berry in this role, the woman simply cannot act. The “character” she created for this role is so paper-thin you can see right through it: Catwoman’s character traits consist of talking in her best phone-sex voice and walking like a stripper. Would this movie have been horrible even if they hadn’t cast Halle Berry? Probably. Is it that much worse because she’s in it? Definitely.
5. Mark Wahlberg in The Happening, We Own the Night, Shooter, Planet of the Apes, etc.
So at this point I think it’s obvious Mark Wahlberg isn’t about to win any lifetime achievement awards in acting. He publicly bemoaned getting miscast in Planet of the Apes (agreed, he should’ve been one of the head monkeys) as if that were the reason for his complete and total suckiness in that film.
After his horrible performance in The Happening (his stilted line readings and cartoonish facial expressions make me suspect he’d do better as a male model…oh, wait…) I suspect we’ll be hearing more of the same. The fact of the matter is that Mark Wahlberg gets “miscast” in every movie where he isn’t running, punching, shooting and fighting bad guys in one form or another – with the exception of a few films, such as I Heart Huckabees and Boogie Nights (in which he plays an empty-headed naïf, but he plays it well).
The thing is, Wahlberg figured out a long time ago that he delivers his lines best when he’s out of breath and/or in the midst of extreme physical exertion. It’s his “trick”, if you like. And I gotta say, I don’t like. Not one little bit.
www.spike.com/blog/top-7-miscast-movie/71753?page=2&numPerPage=1
4. James Franco in all three Spider-man movies
I hate to hate on Franco after his admirable performance in Pineapple Express, but hate I must. I feel like no one’s said it but everyone’s thought it, so now I’m going to blog it. James Franco was abominably bad in all three Spiderman movies; the only one he might possibly be granted a reprieve from is the third, simply because it was such a terrible movie.
The fact of the matter is that Franco was a terrible choice for Harry Osborn and never managed to make the part believable or even interesting. He gave what would be a very solid performance in a high school play. For a trilogy of movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars it seems like we could’ve gotten a bigger bang for our buck. Seems like we could’ve cast someone with better acting chops like, say…Heath Ledger.
3. Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
Yes, it's true, Cameron Diaz was not the only one to stink up the screen in Gangs of New York. She had good company in Leonardo DiCaprio. It became a battle between the two of them to see who would do worse.
But Diaz won, hands down. She clearly should never be cast in period pieces and, to the best of my knowledge, after Gangs she hasn't been since. Alternately pretty and ugly, she goes from blonde bombshell to worn-in baseball mit from scene to scene. She needs to decide whether she's going to be hot or not and stick with it.
In the end the only good thing about Gangs was Daniel Day Lewis, and he was incredible. But somehow all we remember about the movie is how god-awful Diaz was, and waking flashbacks of her menacing grimace haunt us till we cast our thoughts elsewhere. Hopefully Scorsese will from here on out cast his female leads elsewhere, too.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator
DiCaprio looks like a kid playing an adult in this movie, and though he gives it his best college try you never shake the feeling that Scorsese should have simply cast someone who looked like a grown up. Instead we get DiCaprio, who looked like he was all of 23, flailing and screaming through the whole movie like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
It didn’t help that Cate Blanchett was also horribly miscast as Katharine Hepburn in this movie – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who looks less like Hepburn than Blanchett, and her caricatured east coast accent and cropped hair didn’t help matters.
But I digress. DiCaprio’s miscasting upstaged all others in this film, and Scorsese had no excuses after the disastrous performance Leo gave him in Gangs of New York.
1. Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder really take the cake for the most atrociously miscast actors (perhaps in general) in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. The only feather in Reeves’ and Ryder’s caps is the fact that they managed to be so bad they’re good. And by good I mean laughably bad. I mean so horrible they’re hysterical.
Winona can’t seem to wrap her mouth around her lines (or accent), and Keanu is so ham-handed he gives the impression someone told him he was going to star in a surfing comedy, only to get duped into playing a part from a book he’s never heard of, much less read. His performance took bad acting to new levels that will always be a part of his legacy.
But we are, in a sense, indebted to both Reeves and Ryder for setting the standard for miscast actors: they took the bar and pulled it down a few notches. For my part, I will never forget Keanu’s girlie scream when he sees the female vampires feasting on a baby. Before he comically flops out of the shot, he wails with all the agony of an actor who has suffered the great injustice of being cast in a role he has no ability to perform. We feel your pain, Keanu, as it provides us much mirth.
No, she didn’t have the lead role, and no, she clearly didn’t pursue an acting career after her cringe-worthy performance in this film. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t tarnish every single scene she was in in Godfather III. She is so god-awful that (spoiler coming up!) by the time she finally gets shot at the end, you’re cheering for the assassin. Not only that, you’re actually wishing the assassin could have gotten his s**t together about sixty minutes earlier.
It really destroys the tragedy of the film when what Michael (Al Pacino) loves most happens to be the most obnoxious little twerp on the face of the earth, so that when she is taken from him our sadness is defused like a bomb.
Stiff line deliveries, total absence of a believable character, and the knowledge that the awful turd who ruined what could’ve been a triumphant end to an incredible trilogy is the director’s daughter all combine to focus our wrath on Sofia Coppola whenever the Godfather movies are invoked. Thanks for being a stain on the satin sheets of awesomeness that were Godfather I and II, Sofia.
6. Halle Berry in Catwoman
This casting was ill-advised on so many different levels. Beyond the most obvious knock against Berry in this role, the woman simply cannot act. The “character” she created for this role is so paper-thin you can see right through it: Catwoman’s character traits consist of talking in her best phone-sex voice and walking like a stripper. Would this movie have been horrible even if they hadn’t cast Halle Berry? Probably. Is it that much worse because she’s in it? Definitely.
5. Mark Wahlberg in The Happening, We Own the Night, Shooter, Planet of the Apes, etc.
So at this point I think it’s obvious Mark Wahlberg isn’t about to win any lifetime achievement awards in acting. He publicly bemoaned getting miscast in Planet of the Apes (agreed, he should’ve been one of the head monkeys) as if that were the reason for his complete and total suckiness in that film.
After his horrible performance in The Happening (his stilted line readings and cartoonish facial expressions make me suspect he’d do better as a male model…oh, wait…) I suspect we’ll be hearing more of the same. The fact of the matter is that Mark Wahlberg gets “miscast” in every movie where he isn’t running, punching, shooting and fighting bad guys in one form or another – with the exception of a few films, such as I Heart Huckabees and Boogie Nights (in which he plays an empty-headed naïf, but he plays it well).
The thing is, Wahlberg figured out a long time ago that he delivers his lines best when he’s out of breath and/or in the midst of extreme physical exertion. It’s his “trick”, if you like. And I gotta say, I don’t like. Not one little bit.
www.spike.com/blog/top-7-miscast-movie/71753?page=2&numPerPage=1
4. James Franco in all three Spider-man movies
I hate to hate on Franco after his admirable performance in Pineapple Express, but hate I must. I feel like no one’s said it but everyone’s thought it, so now I’m going to blog it. James Franco was abominably bad in all three Spiderman movies; the only one he might possibly be granted a reprieve from is the third, simply because it was such a terrible movie.
The fact of the matter is that Franco was a terrible choice for Harry Osborn and never managed to make the part believable or even interesting. He gave what would be a very solid performance in a high school play. For a trilogy of movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars it seems like we could’ve gotten a bigger bang for our buck. Seems like we could’ve cast someone with better acting chops like, say…Heath Ledger.
3. Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
Yes, it's true, Cameron Diaz was not the only one to stink up the screen in Gangs of New York. She had good company in Leonardo DiCaprio. It became a battle between the two of them to see who would do worse.
But Diaz won, hands down. She clearly should never be cast in period pieces and, to the best of my knowledge, after Gangs she hasn't been since. Alternately pretty and ugly, she goes from blonde bombshell to worn-in baseball mit from scene to scene. She needs to decide whether she's going to be hot or not and stick with it.
In the end the only good thing about Gangs was Daniel Day Lewis, and he was incredible. But somehow all we remember about the movie is how god-awful Diaz was, and waking flashbacks of her menacing grimace haunt us till we cast our thoughts elsewhere. Hopefully Scorsese will from here on out cast his female leads elsewhere, too.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator
DiCaprio looks like a kid playing an adult in this movie, and though he gives it his best college try you never shake the feeling that Scorsese should have simply cast someone who looked like a grown up. Instead we get DiCaprio, who looked like he was all of 23, flailing and screaming through the whole movie like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
It didn’t help that Cate Blanchett was also horribly miscast as Katharine Hepburn in this movie – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who looks less like Hepburn than Blanchett, and her caricatured east coast accent and cropped hair didn’t help matters.
But I digress. DiCaprio’s miscasting upstaged all others in this film, and Scorsese had no excuses after the disastrous performance Leo gave him in Gangs of New York.
1. Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder really take the cake for the most atrociously miscast actors (perhaps in general) in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. The only feather in Reeves’ and Ryder’s caps is the fact that they managed to be so bad they’re good. And by good I mean laughably bad. I mean so horrible they’re hysterical.
Winona can’t seem to wrap her mouth around her lines (or accent), and Keanu is so ham-handed he gives the impression someone told him he was going to star in a surfing comedy, only to get duped into playing a part from a book he’s never heard of, much less read. His performance took bad acting to new levels that will always be a part of his legacy.
But we are, in a sense, indebted to both Reeves and Ryder for setting the standard for miscast actors: they took the bar and pulled it down a few notches. For my part, I will never forget Keanu’s girlie scream when he sees the female vampires feasting on a baby. Before he comically flops out of the shot, he wails with all the agony of an actor who has suffered the great injustice of being cast in a role he has no ability to perform. We feel your pain, Keanu, as it provides us much mirth.
I guess the author didn't hear about the idea of having John Wayne portray Genghis Kahn in the movie "The Conqueror".
Also, you can't really judge the theory that Halle Berry as Catwoman was a case of miscasting because she was portraying a "Catwoman in Name Only" (i.e. not Selina Kyle).
And if anything, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson was a bigger case of questionable casting concerning the Spider-Man movies than James Franco.
