What do you view as the worst performance by an actor whose work you normally admire?

Jodi Foster – Flight Plan – did she even read the script before she signed on to be the drumstick in this nonsensical turkey?

Julia Roberts as Tinker Belle in that Peter Pan movie called Hook was pretty bad. Otherwise, I really enjoy her roles.

Then my poor dear Alan Rickman was forced (for whatever reason) to adopt a terrible (New York-esque) accent for the movie Dark Harbor. It was ghastly, but luckily after the first few scenes, he reverted back to his English accent and it was so much nicer. It was a pretty good, suspenseful movie, but that accent at the beginning threw me for a loop. And there was no particular reason why he needed to be “an American” for this movie, being an Englishman was fine.

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was just bad all around. Bad acting, no British accent what so-ever and just bad delivery of lines and appearing to be a modern American rather than an historical Brit. But what made Kevin Costner appear even worse was the fact that Alan Rickman gave one of the most marvelous performances ever as the Sheriff of Nottingham, AR stole that whole movie. Now that Kevin Costner is a little bit older and a little bit pudgier, he’s really come into his own as an actor. The Upside of Anger is a good example of KC’s acting ability, great movie.

And maybe it’s just me, but I almost walked out on Sexy Beast with Ben Kingsley. Bad movie, bad almost un-intelligible dialogue, and a kind of ridiculous, over the top performance that was not believable. Ben Kingsley is one of the most talented actors of all time, but he should have passed on this one. It was a stinker.

Meryl Streep as the voice of Mrs. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox. MS is known for her fabulous voice and accents and nuances of character. I had no idea that she had done the voice over for the mother fox until I saw it in the end credits. Her voice was so flat and boring and dull that I was shocked to find out that it was her. That movie disturbed me with almost all of the voice overs. I thought they should have used British actors (known or un-known). Otherwise, it was a very interesting (amazing animation and musical choices) movie, but the voices all sounded off and wrong to me.

I thought Kathy Bates didn’t do enough with the role of Molly Brown in Titanic. I think she could have been more crass and obnoxious, which is what the real Molly Brown was known for. Johnny Depp in Willy Wonka was the hands-down, worst bit of acting I have ever seen. Ugh! But then I guess that is what the director wanted (in both cases) or the director would have changed it.

Al Pacino in Godfather 3. Talk about phoning it in.
Marlon Brando – Island of Dr Moreau
Michael Caine – Miss Congeniality

I liked almost every Michael J. Fox movie, including Teen Wolf (Pause for you all to laugh) but Mats Attack just stank it up. I always wished that he ended up with that role by someone sneaking in a contract. You know, like you seen Radar do to Col. Blake so many times on M*A*S*H, where he has Blake sign a pile of contracts without reading onem caiming that they were just standard forms.

Liam Neeson in Star Wars episode one. Not his fault, but ugh…

…and Qui-Gon was still the best part in the movie.

Not that I’m a huge Morgan Freeman fan, but I just can’t look at him the same after his role in Dreamcatcher. What an atrocious movie! And Freeman’s character literally spoke in cliches, as if the entire script had been pulled from a hat containing trite cliches. Ugh.

@syz I adore Morgan Freeman. I have not seen Dreamcatcher. I may have to check out a scene or 2 on Youtube to see how awful it was.

I love your line, “pulled from a hat containing trite cliches.”

@Kardamom Yes, what’s not to love about a movie that features (literally) shitting an alien? Damn Stephen King. (Drat, YouTube pulled the clip of the toilet scene.) It may be the only movie I ever walked out of the theater on.

@syz My goodness, that does sound awful.

If that is the only movie you’ve ever walked out on, then you have not yet seen Sexy Beast. LOL.

Charlize Theron in Sweet November.

@12Oaks Do you mean Mars Attacks?

@ladymia69 What? You never saw when he played a gymnast competing for Switzerland in the 1972 Summer Games?

Yeah, Mars Attacks. Thanks for the correction. Gonna call the eye doctor now and get these bifocals updated.

adam sandler in 50 first dates

Make that Sandler in everything after Billy Madison.

Personally, I liked Mars Attacks and Sexy Beast

My vote would go for Sharon Stone in Diabolique. After the film bombed, she claimed that she thought they were making a comedy, and that’s why she played it so over the top. Horseshit.

I don’t care for a lot of Tom Hanks films, despite the history there, but I still don’t understand how he got involved in The LadyKillers

Tim Roth is usually very dependable, but he stunk up Four Rooms.

@filmfann How do you find out about these movies? You just named three I never heard of. Of course, I never heard about Monsters Ball until that actress, whom I never heard of until then, won that Oscar for that movie. Then there’s The King’s Speech, andother I never heard of until it was up for that award. I also have no idea who Tim Roth is. Wait, Sexy Beast? That’s four I never heard of. Maybe it’s because I don’t go to the movie house as often as I once had. Still, that’s no excuse…..

Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Not really his fault though, i think they just wrote the character horrible for this movie. I think he could have actually been a good Zaphod if they stuck to the books and such but this is just painful for me :P

Mars attacks is awesome. Just watched it for the millionth time last night :P

@12Oaks Are you young? Or have you been living under a rock?

@Kardamom I’m 42, so, well, middle aged. So I suppose a room for two under the rock is in order. Actually, I just don’t see a lot of movies at the movie house. I think the last one was The Big Lebowski, but not 100% sure.

I saw Joe Dirt on TV yesterday—FUNNY AS HELL!!!! Loved it!!!

@12Oaks Most of the movies that @filmfann were talking about were advertised on TV commercials. Tim Roth has been huge for 30 years, especially because of his role in Shawshank Redemption and because he was romantically involved with Susan Sarandon for a long time. Even water cooler gossip would get you these bits of info. Do you have Netflix? If so, if you click on a particular movie, they will give you other suggestions for similar movies or movies with the same actors. That’s how I find out about all sorts of movies that I would have never known about. So come on out from under that rock. : )

@12Oaks Tim Roth was Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs. I assume you have seen that.
Diabolique was a remake of a french classic, that is a million times better (I suddenly hear my fathers voice saying “If I told you once, I told you a million times! Don’t Exaggerate!”)

@filmfann Are you kidding? You thought Tim Roth sucked in Four Rooms? What the hell did you think sucked about it? He was hilariously insane in that movie!

@filmfann Reservoir Dogs? Nope, never seen that.

@Kardamom I thought that was Tim Robbins. And I never saw Shawshank Redemption, can’t tell you what that or Reservoir Dogs is about. Also, nope, don’t have Netflix. You know, it was just the other day I bought a flat screen TV (my old one took a dump) with a CD player in it after going about 2 years without any DVD or VCR or the like. I do know about imbd.com and look at that all the time. That’s how I knew that was Kid Rock in Joe Dirt.

Tim R obbins was in shawshank.

@12Oaks I think most people (at least in this thread) would agree that Shawshank Redemption is one of the best movies off all time. Tim Robbins is great, but Morgan Freeman is even better and the dude who plays the prison warden (help me with this@filmfann) is phenomenal.

@uberbatman You are SO right. I was getting the name of a favorite author mixed up with a favorite actor. My bad. Tim Robbins is in Shawshank Redemption.

@Kardamom Is that a book? I like to read. One of my favorite recent books is being made into a movie, according to imdb.com, anyway.

Dreamcatcher is a horrible movie. It’s also a fabulous book. I’ve never seen a worse adaptation (that I can think of right now).

I also have to agree that Zaphod in the HHG2G movie was terrible. They could’ve done so much better.

As for actually answering the question, I’ll have to think about it for a while.

@12Oaks – The movie is based on Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, which is in the collection Different Seasons (which also includes the stories on which Stand by Me and Apt Pupil were based).

Ok, I’m going to try this again. Tim (with an i) Robbins is an excellent actor in the excellent movie Shawshank Redemption.

I was getting his name mixed up with 2 authors Tom (with an o) Robbins who wrote “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “Still Life With Woodpecker” and “Skinny Legs and All” which are really interesting books with strange humor and unusual imagery.

The other author (that many people like, but I have mixed feelings about) is Phillip Roth, who wrote “Portnoy’s Complaint” amongst others.

Next time, I should pay more attention to what I am writing. But all three of these fellows are worth looking into.

Halle Berry in Catwoman, horrid.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir i pretend that movie was never made :P

@Kardamom Bob Gunton Good thing I looked it up. I thought at first it was David Straithairn

@uberbatman Oh, me too. It hurt so badly.

Sean Connery in Highlander 2. Just about the worst sequel ever made.

Robin Williams in 1 Hour Photo. What a dog of a movie!!!!!!!!

Sean Connery in Zardoz.

I love Dana Carvey and think he’s hilarious, but that turtle club movie looked so terrible that I couldn’t bring myself to watch it.

Mike Myers in The Love Guru.

@erichw1504 – I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch that one, either, even though there’s hockey in it!

@Seelix Don’t bother. Trust me.

I’m not a huge Chris Rock fan, but I’ve liked some of his work. I only mention this one because he was a triple threat to make a horrible movie as producer, writer and star:
Head of State

Apparently, the theory goes, if you can’t think of anything funny to say, punch someone in the face. And I wish it were only metaphorically so.

Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn in “We’re No Angels.”

Hoffman and Beatty in “Ishtar.”

Samuel Jackson: Lakeview Terrace
Martin Lawrence, College Road Trip
Leonardo Dicaprio, Titanic