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Old 01-16-2011, 07:42 PM
 
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those rare movies where those actors arent too terrible, or where at least the movie is still good in spite of them. bad directors too. something good from a bad director is probably a lot more rare than something paletable from a bad actor.

okay. i'll start.

Nick Cage - Lord of War

Cage isnt great in this, of course, but he isnt too terrible either. either way, the movie as a whole is entertaining (maybe even thought provoking) enough to compensate for Cage's numb to the world delivery.

Kevin Costner - Open Range

Costner, i've always felt, isnt as bad as everybody says. Open Range is an all-around great movie and i have nothing negative to say about it - other than Annette Benning's neck is made out of leather. the key to Costner's greatness in this film is the fact that he suffered from larengitis throughout filming. therefore, an actual character was forged without that customary Costner delivery. this is the ONE AND ONLY western that isnt lying when the cover reads "Best Western Since Unforgiven."

Keaneu Reeves - The Matrix

probably a pretty obvious pick, but Reeves' dopey character "works" in this movie. also, see Lord of War, above.

Jean Claude Van Damme - In Hell

this is a total B-movie. most people have never heard of it. it's a prison movie, but not like Death Warrant (i think that's the one that everyone knows, where he went to prison as an undercover cop). but in this one he actually goes to a Russian prison for a life sentence. this movie has several flashes of the bad movie making that we've come to expect from the karate kicking Frenchman, but it also has enough flashes of actual good movie making to make it my favorite Van Damme movie. oh, and the fight scenes are really good. very realistic. none of the spinning roundhouse kicks you'd expect. very R rated.

Last edited by Linson; 01-16-2011 at 07:50 PM..
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Old 01-16-2011, 08:09 PM
 
Location: Maine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Linson View Post
Kevin Costner - Open Range

Costner, i've always felt, isnt as bad as everybody says. Open Range is an all-around great movie and i have nothing negative to say about it - other than Annette Benning's neck is made out of leather. the key to Costner's greatness in this film is the fact that he suffered from larengitis throughout filming. therefore, an actual character was forged without that customary Costner delivery. this is the ONE AND ONLY western that isnt lying when the cover reads "Best Western Since Unforgiven."
Open Range is a great movie. Costner is great in the right role. His best movie is one of his first, which few people have seen: Fandango. And he's great in it.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Linson View Post
Keaneu Reeves - The Matrix

probably a pretty obvious pick, but Reeves' dopey character "works" in this movie. also, see Lord of War, above.
I hated the Matrix. And not just because of Keanu. Bad writing. Bad concept. And special effects tricks that I'd seen done with more creativity in cell phone commercials. Ick.

Keanu Reeves is great in a Lawrence Kasdan flick, I Love You To Death, in which he plays a stoned-out-of-his-mind loser. He's great in it. The vacant expression really fits for once.

Another one of my personal favorites: Billy Jack. Horrible acting. The writing could have won an award for Cheesey Earnestness of the Year. But I can't help but love the dumb movie.

Flash Gordon. So unbelievably awful that it transcends its own awfulness to achieve greatness.

Hawk the Slayer. Another movie so bad that it's good.

Beastmaster. I'm sensing a theme here....
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Old 01-16-2011, 09:00 PM
 
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Jason Stathom - Snatch

this is the only movie with Stathom in it, that i can think of, that isnt some cringe-inducing Transporter-type movie.
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Old 01-16-2011, 09:13 PM
 
Location: Maine
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Originally Posted by Linson View Post
Jason Stathom - Snatch

this is the only movie with Stathom in it, that i can think of, that isnt some cringe-inducing Transporter-type movie.
Check out Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Stratham is in it, and it's way better than Snatch.
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Old 01-16-2011, 10:00 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Mark S. View Post
Check out Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Stratham is in it, and it's way better than Snatch.
i've seen it. and it's NOT better than Snatch.
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Old 01-16-2011, 10:36 PM
 
Location: Carrboro and Concord, NC
963 posts, read 2,398,796 times
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St. Elmo's Fire

Where to begin with this one? Joel Schumaker is the director everyone loves to hate, and this is a case study in why: phenomenally irrational, illogical behavior at absolutely every moment, from every single character. Those clowns were in a fraternity?

Rob Lowe gets to ‘jam’ in some jazz-metal group that sounds like Quarterflash (google them, so you too can know how wretched they were). Mare Winningham plays a real doormat’s doormat, in a triumph of ‘what if feminism was never invented.’ Demi Moore’s character mostly talks on the phone about expensive French wine, and discreetly snorts blow, while she's in her office, theoretically doing some sort of work – she ends up spookily forecasting our current economic … malaise.

Judd Nelson actually pulls off the one halfway decent role here, in spite of being saddled with Ally Sheedy as a girlfriend – and throughout, Ally looks like she’d saw off a limb to get out of this role without losing the last decent paycheck she ever got in the process. They have a very heated argument over a Billy Joel album.

Andie McDowell is a nursing student, just zonked-out enough to perhaps scare even the most hard-living souls into a renewed lifetime of compulsively healthy living. Emilio Estevez smiles a lot, and cheerfully stalks Andie, in a happy-go-lucky kind of stalking: "I'm a very serious loser, and I'm in love with you, and I know you're marrying a rich doctor, but can I watch the two of you get it on? Pleeeeeeeeease?!?!?".

Andrew McCarthy gets to be the sad sack – a post-grad yuppie Bogart wannabe, who chain smokes Camels and eventually gets to nail the best friend’s girl. He cops a ‘tude about this (the best friend's girl business), and is then stupid enough (or infantile enough) to be shocked that other people are … somewhat annoyed by this behavior. Rob Lowe, meanwhile, gets drunk, winds up working in a gas station, and screams at his wife (Where’d she come from?), after hocking a sax to pay a phone bill – the pawn shops in Georgetown are apparently very understanding and generous in dealing with their clients. Mare voluteers at a soup kitchen, and her dad (the bushy eyebrows guy from MST2K's Mitchell) attempts to bribe her into marrying an extremely unattractive business student by giving her a tanky white Chrysler. It snows a little. Demi’s place gets reposessed, apparently the coke has all been snorted up as well; the lights are on, but the heat is off. Eventually, tenderness, and the common bonds of crisis bring these Washington up-and-comers to some sort of wisdom.

This was supposed to be a Big Chill (yuck) for recent college graduates, as though that sort of thing would ever be a good idea. It isn't, for a multitude of reasons.
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Old 01-17-2011, 01:54 AM
 
1,949 posts, read 5,246,357 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davidals View Post
St. Elmo's Fire

Where to begin with this one? Joel Schumaker is the director everyone loves to hate, and this is a case study in why: phenomenally irrational, illogical behavior at absolutely every moment, from every single character. Those clowns were in a fraternity?

Rob Lowe gets to ‘jam’ in some jazz-metal group that sounds like Quarterflash (google them, so you too can know how wretched they were). Mare Winningham plays a real doormat’s doormat, in a triumph of ‘what if feminism was never invented.’ Demi Moore’s character mostly talks on the phone about expensive French wine, and discreetly snorts blow, while she's in her office, theoretically doing some sort of work – she ends up spookily forecasting our current economic … malaise.

Judd Nelson actually pulls off the one halfway decent role here, in spite of being saddled with Ally Sheedy as a girlfriend – and throughout, Ally looks like she’d saw off a limb to get out of this role without losing the last decent paycheck she ever got in the process. They have a very heated argument over a Billy Joel album.

Andie McDowell is a nursing student, just zonked-out enough to perhaps scare even the most hard-living souls into a renewed lifetime of compulsively healthy living. Emilio Estevez smiles a lot, and cheerfully stalks Andie, in a happy-go-lucky kind of stalking: "I'm a very serious loser, and I'm in love with you, and I know you're marrying a rich doctor, but can I watch the two of you get it on? Pleeeeeeeeease?!?!?".

Andrew McCarthy gets to be the sad sack – a post-grad yuppie Bogart wannabe, who chain smokes Camels and eventually gets to nail the best friend’s girl. He cops a ‘tude about this (the best friend's girl business), and is then stupid enough (or infantile enough) to be shocked that other people are … somewhat annoyed by this behavior. Rob Lowe, meanwhile, gets drunk, winds up working in a gas station, and screams at his wife (Where’d she come from?), after hocking a sax to pay a phone bill – the pawn shops in Georgetown are apparently very understanding and generous in dealing with their clients. Mare voluteers at a soup kitchen, and her dad (the bushy eyebrows guy from MST2K's Mitchell) attempts to bribe her into marrying an extremely unattractive business student by giving her a tanky white Chrysler. It snows a little. Demi’s place gets reposessed, apparently the coke has all been snorted up as well; the lights are on, but the heat is off. Eventually, tenderness, and the common bonds of crisis bring these Washington up-and-comers to some sort of wisdom.

This was supposed to be a Big Chill (yuck) for recent college graduates, as though that sort of thing would ever be a good idea. It isn't, for a multitude of reasons.
i like this post. i really do. but i dont see how it pertains to the title or the perameters given. very amusing though, so i'm going to accept it.
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Old 01-17-2011, 09:47 AM
 
Location: Maine
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Originally Posted by Linson View Post
i've seen it. and it's NOT better than Snatch.
Maybe I need to re-watch Snatch. I remember liking it but not loving it. It seemed more style over substance to me.
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Old 01-17-2011, 01:04 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Mark S. View Post
Maybe I need to re-watch Snatch. I remember liking it but not loving it. It seemed more style over substance to me.
it is. but Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells are basically the same movie. Guy Richie just did it better the second time.
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Old 01-17-2011, 06:53 PM
 
Location: Maine
22,831 posts, read 28,052,786 times
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Originally Posted by Linson View Post
it is. but Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells are basically the same movie. Guy Richie just did it better the second time.
I've only seen Snatch once, and that what years ago. But I just didn't think the characters were nearly as much fun. It's not a bad movie by any means, but I thought LSaTSB was a great movie.
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