Actors who were seriously mis-cast as villians. Who get's your vote? (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

This occured to me tonight, I was watching Robocop 3 because I just picked up the trilogy set over the weekend. Anyway, it struck me in a really funny way, that the villian (forget his charactors name, he's the silver haired guy in charge of the swat team) looks remarkably like Steve Martin!

How could the makers of this film expect us to be afraid of someone who looks like Steve Martin!? I half expected him to look at Robocop and yell "He's one WILD and CRAZY guy!" or "I can take anything, your messin with the wrong guy!"

I couldn't get past it, and the film suffered for it, but in a very comical way.

Are there any actor(s) you guy's and gal's feel were mis-cast in a villian role that was either distracting in a negative way, or in my case, a funny way? This should be fun.

 

[AlexCremers]

That's a difficult question. I usually forget about them really quick. I can give you some memorable though!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Eric Bogosian in Under Siege 2. He tried, he really did. He ranted, he raved, he practically foamed at the mouth. He shot his own underlings. And yet, he just wasn't threatening.

 

[Colton]

Don't hate me, but Alan Cumming playing any villian just doesn't work for me. Sorry.

- Colton

 

[Chucky P]

I guess I'll be the one that will bring up Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I'd say Arnold in Batman & Robin. Entertaining and funny, but not really menacing.

 

[Kevin M]

F. Murray Abraham in Star Trek: Insurrection, it's not like the man can't pull it off, just look at Amadeus or The Name Of The Rose, but in this he just fell flat as a pancake "just phoning it in boss, just phoning it in!".

Not the best example I guess as he wasn't really "miscast" as much as he was simply "not there".

 

[TheLongshot]

Actually, I think he works, in a bizzare way, in the first Spy Kids film.

A guy who I think has been pretty awful as a villian is Richard Roxburgh. I don't know if "miscast" is the right word, but at least in Moulin Rouge and Van Helsing, I thought he was just awful.

Jason

 

[Michael Reuben]

I don't know about a look-a-like, but Steve Martin himself can be quite menacing. It just takes the right director to recognize the potential, as Mamet did in The Spanish Prisoner.

M.

 

[JonZ]

Al Pacino in Devils Advocate.Worst Satan Ive ever seen. A stupid movie made even worse by his overacting.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Fully agreed. What a great film. Need to pick that one up.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Stephen Dorff and his gang in the first Blade movie. I just look at them and think they're a bunch of snot-nosed kids from the suburbs and I can never figure out why it takes Snipes so long to tear them apart.

 

[Joe D]

Whoever they cast as Dracula in Van Helsing. The movie was terrible, but how hard is it to get a good Dracula? The guy that played the not so funny sidekick (also in Lord of the Rings as Farimir) could have made a much better Dracula.

 

[PeterTHX]

Tom Hanks in "Ladykillers"

For the record I liked Bogosian in "Under Siege 2". He was a techno terrorist, you want menace that was what the hired muscle was for. You knew Segal could kick his ass from here to tomorrow. At the same time you knew (realistically) that Bogosian could outTHINK Segal in a heartbeat.

 

[TheLongshot]

You must have missed my post above.

Jason

 

[Michael Reuben]

Exactly. Bogosian's character wasn't supposed to be menacing so much as detached and self-absorbed. When he's offered a bonus fee to kill somebody's wife by targeting her airline flight, he's intrigued by the technical challenge and indifferent to the consequences. He wasn't a menacing villain, just a dangerous one. (And BTW, I don't recall him shooting his underlings, but it's been a while since I saw the film.)

M.

 

[Ruz-El]

Michael Cain in "On Deadly Ground"

Absolutly hillarious, he comes off more of a prick than a villian. Then again, the whole movie was retarded, so maybe it was the script.

 

[Joey Skinner]

How about Robert Patrick as the T-1000 in Terminator 2? A Terminator should look more menacing.

 

[Kevin M]

Sorry Joey, but I can't agree with you there. Robert Patrick had a fantastic creepy menacing quality that made the character, IMO.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Considering the script he had to work with, I'm not sure what he could have done. You can't make bricks without straw, and an actor can't create a believable villain when the writers have neglected to provide anything that resembles one (and the director hasn't done anything to help.) Insurrection sucked so thoroughly and on so many levels I really can't see singling out poor F. Murray for special criticism.

Regards,

Joe

P.S.

I liked both Robert Patrick and Bogosian in the films mentioned above.