Jim Carrey has never been good in anything, except for Eternal Sunshine (and it's a small miracle he's as good as he is in that)
― in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 20:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Faye Dunaway - Mommie Dearest
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:38 (thirteen years ago) link
wow -- most of these ARE biopics
we have diff definitions of great performances AND terrible movies
(Had dinner w/ a H'wood friend last night who said that last one ruined Dunaway's career)xp
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I've read it too and, judging by her decisions post-MD, it sounds possible.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Julie and Julia isn't a terrible movie -- certainly the only Ephron movie I'd watch again.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Frances was the first one I thought of.
really if the LEAD performance is great, it's very hard for a film to be terrible.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:42 (thirteen years ago) link
thought that was common knowledge re: Faye Dunaway...?
she was great in Barfly tho
― in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Orson Welles in Transformers (1986)Scarlett Johansson's ass in Iron Man 2
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't see why anyone would give a shit about defaming Joan Crawford in 1981, though.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Mommie Dearest is the opposite of terrible.
― rim this, fuck that (Eric H.), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:53 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm going to see Greenberg tonight--I hope Jordan S. is half-right, half-wrong...I'm having a hard time coming up with something. A great lead performance probably automatically elevates an otherwise terrible film to worth-seeing for me--i.e., it's no longer terrible by definition. But maybe I'm overlooking something.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
dunno if it was a *great* performance but I thought that joseph gordon-levitt kinda rose above the pretty fucking awful 500 Days of Summer.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:04 (thirteen years ago) link
although i answered the thread q. i broadly agree with this. Great acting can rescue just about any film.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:06 (thirteen years ago) link
the big red dragon pterodactyl thing in AvatarDustin Hoffman in SphereSamuel L Jackson in Deep Blue SeaNic Cage in The Wicker Man
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, I don't agree with that. My example stands: I think Jim Carrey was really strong in Man On The Moon and really disappeared into the role, but the movie was little more than an unnecessary series of Kaufman performances which everyone had already seen (including, sorry to stray off-topic, the still-baffling decision to recreate scenes from Taxi utilizing the actual, aged cast of Taxi 20 years after the fact), and it was abysmal as a movie.
― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Danny DeVito as Mini-Me in Austin Powers 3
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Ben Affleck in Armeggedon
(the prequel to Armageddon)(the sequel to Megiddo [the sequel to Omega Code)
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't agree with it either. Frances is a compendium of baffling, poorly edited scenes, and Lange's work isn't quite enough to render it aesthetically pleasing.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Capr van Dien in Shark Attack
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:11 (thirteen years ago) link
this old pissed-off guy from shark attack 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfSg85fbJko
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:15 (thirteen years ago) link
And of course, Brando in Island of Dr. Moreau
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
this is the REAL canon
I'm going to see Greenberg tonight--I hope Jordan S. is half-right, half-wrong...
i really liked greenberg, but i like a lot of things people hate.
― aix-en-pains (get bent), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:31 (thirteen years ago) link
me too :-/
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:36 (thirteen years ago) link
you guys are kind of stretching the definition of "lead performance" imo. The list of great cameos/ bit performances in terrible movies is much longer.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Robert Downey Jr. - Two girls and a guy
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 22:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Robert Downey Jr. in...just about everything
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Two Girls and a Guy is a good movie, maybe one of RDJ's two or three best.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Robert Mitchum was the King of this sort of thing back in the day. and before his comeback in The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke had more than a few great performances in shitty films.
― No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Eisbaer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link
nic cage in bad lieutenant
― cozen, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 1, 2010 11:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark
I watched it again the other day, and found the other two performances to be pretty awful, especially Heather Graham. There isn't exactly a lot of great filmmaking either.
RDJ carries the movie.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
― cozen, Tuesday, June 1, 2010 11:05 PM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark
Nah this movie is pretty much awesome throughout. I mean come on, what about the "ohhh yeah" guy?
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link
nic cage IS that movie
― LINGO FROM THE BURGER KING KIDS CLUB (latebloomer), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:26 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, that's fair
― cozen, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 23:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Dennis (RIP) Hopper in "Blue Velvet". THAT'S RIGHT I WENT THERE
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 23:40 (thirteen years ago) link
actually, that would have been my first post on the thread.
jim carrey in truman show would be second
― ampersand (remy bean), Thursday, 3 June 2010 00:08 (thirteen years ago) link
It said great LEAD performances in terrible movies, and Hopper wasn't the lead (x-post). Kyle Maclachlan was.
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 3 June 2010 01:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Agree that Hopper wasn't the lead, but I thought he'd gotten top billing for himself nonetheless.
― more barn (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 18 February 2011 08:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Huppert in The Piano Teacher
― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 18 February 2011 08:19 (thirteen years ago) link
Colin Farrell in Cassandra's Dream, or at least it was one of the biggest gulfs I've seen between quality of performance and movie (I guess him and Euan McGregor are joint leads)
This isn't really the same thing, but sometimes I feel like I only really appreciate how charismatic certain actors are when I see them in a crappy movie they make watchable/that would be unbearable with most other actors - I thought this while watching Tom Hanks in Turner & Hooch. I thought Baby Driver was terrible, but Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx are so charismatic that it almost seems like a good film while they're on screen. John Hamm is good in it as well, but not so good that he makes you forget you're watching a terrible film, that's why I would put him in a different category to Spacey and Foxx
― soref, Saturday, 26 November 2022 20:06 (one year ago) link
harvey keitel in city of industry comes to mind, he was thoroughly terrific as a vengeful crook hunting down stephen dorff. the movie is pretty generic at best, but keitel gives it his all like it’s tarantino-level.
― omar little, Saturday, 26 November 2022 20:20 (one year ago) link