What character/actor tarnished an otherwise good movie?

[DerekG]

I'm going with Kim Basinger in Tim Burton's BATMAN. It's unforgivable to place such a vanilla actress--and shallow character--at the center of a battle between a dark angel and the personification of madness. Just try to imagine Hannibal Lecter taking a fancy to Melanie Griffith. No bloody way.

[Tallison]

1. Harvey Keitel in Last Temptation of Christ

:wtf:

[Fenris]

2. I hear thee.

[DerekG]

4. The modern accents were encouraged

Scorsese's intention was to invite the viewer into a conversation, which could not happen with the "thee's" and "thou's" found in those corny 50's biblical epics.

I dig Keitel's Judas.

[Tallison]

6. Modern is one thing, Brooklyn is another

Willem Defoe pulled it off well, maybe because he didn't have to cope with Judas' unfortunate red 'do. I know each time I saw him I couldn't help but think, "AND PRESENTING HARVEY KEITEL AS JUDAS!!! It was distracting.

[bliss_eternal]

3. Julia Roberts almost destroyed Steel Magnolias for me...

I just don't think she is much of an actress. I still can't believe she was nominated for an Oscar for that.

:eyes:

[smirkymonkey]

9. She also completely destroyed "Michael Collins" which was otherwise a fine

film. Actually, she's really not very good in anything.

[bliss_eternal]

19. I agree--she's not very good in anything.

I found her push up bras, bad hair and make-up in Erin Brokovich so distracting. I get that was the way Erin dresses, but Erin has the body (and looks) to carry such outfits off.

I thought that, and many of her other performances, was quite overrated.

[LeftyMom]

17. Is that the one where she does that awful southern accent?

She does the worst accents in the universe anyhow but she's from Georgia and she can't even sound convincingly southern. :wtf:

[bliss_eternal]

18. YES! Wasn't that the worst?

She didn't put forth much effort for faking one in 'Something to Talk About' thankfully.

I just felt she was so obviously unmatched in her scenes with Sally Field in Steel Magnolias. Sally brought so much to their shared moments, and Julia--well she was just there.

:eyes:

[NewJeffCT]

5. George Hamilton in Godfather 3

in place of Robert Duvall. A great actor replaced by a great tan.

on edit - it was not a great movie, but who knows how much better it could have been with Duvall and his gravitas?

[DerekG]

7. G3 wasn't great, but I think it qualifies as "reasonably good"

I often compare "The Godfather Part III" to the first two Star Wars prequels: thematically intriguing, host to multi-faceted characters, yet tragically unfulfilling.

Still, these failures were noble ones.

[bettyellen]

8. cameron diaz and leo di caprio in gangs of new york....

the two of them can't fake being NYers....in period costume no less.

[smirkymonkey]

10. Agreed - A California Valley Girl and a Pampered Pretty Boy had absolutely

no business being in that movie.

[asthmaticeog]

11. The all time classic - Sofia Coppola in "Godfather III."

PAINFULLY bad - though even without her making the every scene she was in totally laughable III still wouldn't have been nearly as good as I or II, it would have at least been passable.

[jpgray]

12. I didn't like Lost in Translation either

Just thought I'd say that. Too many people I know love and respect this movie... it makes me feel so alone. :cry: Ghost World all over again.

[asthmaticeog]

13. If it helps you any, I didn't like it either.

To her credit, she hired a fine cinematographer and a great male lead, but it was still a dull Jarmusch ripoff wrapped in a dull Wong Kar Wai ripoff.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. I'll admit, I've owned GF trilogy on DVD for a while now, but I still

can't bring myself to watch III. Can't bear to be disappointed in one of my favorite movie series ever.

If I could have gone back in time and watched no Star Wars movie aside from the original and Empire Strikes Back, I'd be perfectly happy.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. Mine: 'Quiz Show', the guy from 'Northern Exposure' with the excruciating

fake Boston accent. Very grating. Movie was fine except for that. Sad thing is, it was totally unnecessary to the story for the lawyer to be from Boston. He could have been a Jewish New York lawyer or whatever and it would've been fine.

[AussieDave]

16. Richard Gere in "Chicago"

totally miscast - he's just not a light-comedy actor.