Great Acting in a Bad Movie?

I can't think of any. I wonder if it's possible. I figure even Marlon Brando can't act his way out of a bad script, or a bad movie in general (for me, bad script = bad movie)..



I also wonder if a bad movie gives you a bad taste in your head/heart so you can't like anything, including your favorite actor.


Maybe you can think of some? Please list..

The Doors is a pretty bad movie, but Val Kilmer is about as perfect a Jim Morrison as film is ever going to get. Even if I generally hate Val Kilmer.

Same goes for Tombstone, which I probably wouldn't dare go so far as to call a bad movie, but I don't like it at all. Except for Kilmer.

Maybe he needs to sign up for more lame movies.

And Brando's performance is just about the only interesting thing about his Moreau.

Kilmer didn't pull through in this one though.

mulan the newest one

I know this is the typical response, but I disagree 100%... I highly recommend people listening to all his interviews. Have you? There's less than five audio ones (I recommend Tony Thomas), a good full interview with Jerry Hopkins (Rolling Stone), and one or two group interviews that are short and silly. I also have a ton of bootleg audio and Jim is one of the funniest people I've ever heard (and despite being a stand-up junkie, I can't think of more than ten I like altogether.. I think Lennon is funny, too). John Cassavetes, too.

A handful of recent biopics would quality for me (Hidden Figures and Darkest Hour, for instance). I tend to dislike these kinds of films (I'm mainly referring to the biopics which pop up around awards season, by the way), but a common thing I notice with them is that the lead performance in them is really good, even though this often ends up being one of the only things I like about them.

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Toni Collette's performance is the only reason to watch 2018's Hereditary



Jacki Weaver's performance is the only reason to watch 2020's Stage Mother



Samuel L Jackson's performance is the only reason to watch 2008's Lakeview Terrace



Al Pacino's performance is the only reason to watch 2014's Manglehorn



Gene Kelly's performance is the only reason to watch 1973's Forty Carats



Angela Bassett's performance is the only reason to watch 1998's How Stella Got her Groove Back

Definitely. Biopics generally coast on one or two actors and virtually nothing else narratively or cinematically of much worth.

Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line is good example of this. Otherwise it is a ****bag movie.

I'm sure there are also tonnes of lousy movies that have great performances by the villain. Mind is drawing a blank at the moment.

I have probably watched all sorts of Jim Morrison interviews and other such stuff over the years. He could be both superficially majestic and an insufferable clown. This is Val Kilmers calling.

Personally, I thought Reese Witherspoon was the weakest element of Walk the Line and there's no way she deserved an Oscar for that performance.

Raul Julia is legitimately wonderful as M. Bison in Street Fighter.

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How am I supposed to find someone willing to go into that musty old claptrap?

I don't think one way or the other about her getting an Oscar. She mostly just brought some personality to a movie that had none.

It was strange. I felt she and Phoenix were fine in it, but I felt absolutely zero chemistry between them.

I won't say great acting but something three billboards bla bla bla comes into my mind.

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bla bla bla was definitely a bad movie..

I'm not sure if it was Michael Keaton, but whoever played Birdman was really good

Yes, that’s him. That’s the insider joke of the film.

Andy Garcia in The Godfather Part III

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Every Day wasn't necessarily a bad movie, though it was largely dismissed as a teen chick flick. I enjoyed it, but more importantly I believe that every teen actor that featured in it will go on to have a good career. I couldn't fault a single one of them. All of them were likeable and believable.


As a massive fan of Sherilyn Fenn I have had the misfortune of watching quite a few of her crappy movies from the eighties. And maybe I am biased but in some of those atrociously bad movies like Crime Zone and True Blood she stood out.


Crash has a few decent performances, despite being a movie full of clichés.

Ryan Dunn in Living Will
Margot Robbie in Birds Of Prey
Kate Beckinsale in Click

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