"Yeah right!"...thrread

Steven Seagal may be fat, but he can still kick ass.

I will get flame for this but let me say that I'm a big fan of Miranda Otto and Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie of all time.....

Still, I thought Miranda Otto as Eowyn just didn't come of as someone capable of even holding a sword. She seems so weak and fragile.

That being said, I'm glad she was casted because otherwise I wouldn't have known her.

Actually, a lot of actresses being casted as someone that can kick ass got me the "yeah right." Any of the new Charlie Angels girls will do.

I actually think Michael Keaton was fine. I think of his ability as more psychotic kind of deal. Freakist strength from a disturbed man .

This, of course, is highly debatable in light of the extensive use of stunt doubles in his nearly all of his last six or seven pictures, including EXIT WOUNDS, where he's doubled in one scene by what appears to be a small Asian man. Most of the movies between that and the recent BELLY OF THE BEAST rely far more on that up-close slappy-slappy stuff some fans still mistake for martial arts because it's so blurry and fast.

That said, he belongs on a list like this if for no other reason than his performance as a virologist (or was he an immunologist?) in THE PATRIOT (1998).

He's still got that menacing face, no denying, but I've come to realize that's just the nerve-deadened shape of his face more than any innate ability to channel menace.

Still, his straight-to-video flicks are worth a chuckle.

Angelina Jolie - an FBI Profiler in "Taking Lives", she's just too 'purdy' to be anything but a model or actress.

Hayden Christensen - Darth Vader...uh, see above.

Nicole Kidman - a janitor in "The Human Stain".

Kate Beckinsdale - A 'death dealer' or some nonsense in "Underwear"...I mean "Underworld".

John Wayne - As "Ghengis Khan".

Kevin Costner - As a corn fed Robin Hood.

And some that DID work:

Sean Connery - as Russian Submarine Capt. Ramius in "The Hunt for Red October".

Arnold - as the Terminator (a robot programmed with a thick Austrian accent!).

John Travolta - in "Pulp Fiction", who knew?

Charlize Theron - as a homely serial killer in "Monster".

I'm sure I'll think of more.

Keaton was the best Batman of the lot.

One of my favorites was Bruce Willis in Fifth Element... I kept wondering, "did anyone tell this man that the film was a comedy?" Whatever, his bewildered straight bumbling was perfect for the film.

Leo Kerr

It seemed like an odd choice at first, but he turned out very good.

Winona Ryder in "Alien Resurrection" Never seemed like she would fit in an Alien film.

Which isn't saying much.

This was addressed in The Bone Collector, where she indicated she was model before she decided to become a cop.

Personally, first thing that came to mind was Ben Affleck in Action Movies.

I don't have any anti-Affleck thing (he's in too many Kevin Smith movies for me to hate). But I don't buy him as an action star.

My favorite from the past four years -
Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist/weapons expert, in The World Is Not Enough....(I prefer to do it as Dr. Evil) .........Riiiiiiight.

Kate Beckinsale's accent in Van Helsing.

...hell, ALL of Van Helsing.

Jennifer Connely as a scientist in the Hulk. "They're absorbing the ambient energy."

Han Solo as a professor of archaeology.

Kevin Costner trying to play tough guy.

Jack Black in the Green Lantern?

He did a pretty good job in "A Perfect World", maybe the fact that he was directed by Eastwood rubbed off on him.

Surprised no one's mentioned one of the worst casting decisions in film history - a very young, gangly and awkward Sofia Coppola in "The Godfather Part III", playing a sort of femme fatale that everyone is supposed to be madly in love with.

The part was supposed to go to Winona Ryder. But on the other hand, I don't think the character was supposed to be a femme fatale as much as a young girl whose innocence and devotion contrast her newfound sexuality, typified in her seduction of her cousin, the Andy Garcia character. But that's another debate....

How about dearly departed Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls....

or Keira Knightly and Parminder Nagra in Bend it Like Beckham(some of the worst soccer scenes EVER)....

Tom Hanks as a contract killer in Road to Perdition

Heather Grahan as a space scientist and Matt Leblanc as a badass pilot in Lost In Space (actually, that whole movie was pretty much bullwash)

Ralph Fiennes as the incredibly strong and crazy Tooth Fairy/Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon (he looked flabbier than Phillip Seymour Hoffman)

Melanie Griffith as a rough and tumble bounty hunter/tracker/whatever in Cherry 2000 (a forgotton MST3K worth flick)

Cindy Crawford as a lawyer in Fair Game

Robert Redford as the Natural (Wilford Brimley would have been just as convincing)

Timothy Dalton as James Bond (if James Bond suddenly turned into a sadistic, belligerant, confused, and frustrated versin of himself, who seemed to scare women away)

Brendan Fraser as Steve Nebraska in The Rookie (his delivery was worst than Freddie Prinze, Jr and Tim Robbins combined)

Gina Gershon in Palmetto (just doesn't seem like the devoted/unsuspecting-girlfriend type)

Russel Crowe in Mystery, Alaska (one of the few movies whose title explains the gyst of the movie)

Al Pacino as a football coach in Any Given Sunday (unless you think of a football coach acting like Al Pacino)

Peter Macnicol as a dragon slayer in DragonSlayer (although he was note-perfect in Ghostbusters II)

And any time that Gary Oldman plays someone who isn't seriously deranged

I know I'm missing a bunch, will probably add some on later

Adam Sandler in any role that requires walking and talking at the same time.

Timothy Dalton as an intelligent, cultured, highly proficent, Government assasain?
what were they thinking?!

You must have seen a different movie than I did. I thought he was perfect in that movie.
Wasn't that pretty much the whole point? Closer to the Ian Fleming Bond than anyone else though, especially Roger Moore.

Correct. Fleming's Bond was not a handsome man, was quite cruel and was riddled with flaws. I loved Connery in the role, but the only thing he has in common with Fleming's Bond is both are Scots. Read "The Spy Who Loved Me" for a taste of the real Bond. It is Fleming's only Bond book told in the first person and is so personal that Fleming would not allow any plot points of the book used in a movie (save the name).

Indeed, I'll defend that one too as the whole point of his character was that he was trying to sell himself as a Dragonslayer to everyone but was obviously not.

Sounds more like a director's problem rather than the actors' problem, if you are critisizing solely on the quality of the soccer scenes. Both were well cast for the roles they played.



As someone else said, only someone who hadn't read Ian Fleming's books would say that. He probably nailed the role better than anyone else.

Jason

That's something I've never heard. Since Fleming died, what... in '63 thereabouts, he made this statement assuming at some point The Spy Who Loved Me would be made into a film? The story was good but I don't see how a movie would be made had they followed the book closely.

I agree with Dalton, far closer to the book than the others. However, as I recall, in the book he was a handsome man with a comma of hair across his forehead and a small scar on the left cheek.