Good Performances in Subpar films
All the President’s Men … Do the Right Thing … Unforgiven … Michael Clayton … are all “SubPar” films?
Danny, Danny … ( tsk … tsk … tsk …)
Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice
Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York
Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading
To bring up Blatty once more, I have to say that I always felt drawn to Stacy Keach’s earnest, monastic performance in that bizarre misfire, The Ninth Configuration. That was a very hard performance to pull off effectively, and it’s very easy to imagine another actor being deficient. 
(only halfway decent pic I could find)
The villains from the first two Spiderman films. Really bad movies, but Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina were very good I thought.
Molina has the worst “Noooooooooo” this side of Darth Vader.
Kirsten Dunst in “All Good Things”, Zoe Saldana in “Burning Palms” :D
One that instantly comes to mind is Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady.” That and Kimberly Elise in “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”
And I agree with Christopher, how the hell is “Do the Right Thing” “subpar?”
Marion Cotillard in PUBLIC ENEMIES, NINE and INCEPTION.
Heath Ledger in THE DARK KNIGHT.
Ralph Richardson in ANNA KARENINA.
Keith David in – “shudders” – the Disney film The Princess and the Frog.
I didn’t get Do the Right Thing. That’s a whole new forum right there.
@ ROCK AND BULL
Willem Dafoe in even the worst film makes it a much more tolerable experience for me. I remember when he was talking with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone about not rejecting his experience on Body of Evidence with Madonna on the basis that every film is something different for everyone, not wanting to spoil it for anybody who did like it, which is also why he didn’t want to pick a favorite role either.
Both of them. Mediocre film though.
1. Bruce Willis in “The Sixth Sense”
2. Morgan Freeman in “Along Came a Spider”.
3. Annie Girardot in “The Piano Teacher”.
4. Johnny Depp in “Secret Window”
5. Robbie Coltrane in “The World Is Not Enough”.
6. Meryl Streep in “Prime” and “The Iron Lady”.
7. Pyotr Mamonov in “Tsar”.
8. Michelle Meadows in “Darling”.
9. Robert Duvall in “Falling Down”.
Piscesrising
What film is that from?
@Jonas Silgalis
I thought Toni Collette was great in “The Sixth Sense”. She was convincing as the very timid scared mother. Even Oscar Worthy to some extent.
Jane Fonda in The Morning After.
Danny:
It’s from Truffaut’s The Woman Next Door.
@Piscesrising
I never heard of a bad Truffault film.
YIKES!
Tough crowd if we’re considering DO THE RIGHT THING, ALL THE PRES. MEN, and INCEPTION subpar.
Kurt nails one with Jane Fonda in THE MORNING AFTER…her work there was stupendous while the film was really muddled and had a very pedestrian ending…certainly one of Lumet’s subpar films…
I would include the following:
Robert Downey Jr. in CHAPLIN
Farrah Fawcett in DR. T & THE WOMEN
Alan Arkin in RAFFERTY & THE GOLDDUST TWINS
Vivian Leigh in THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE
Audrey Hepburn in WAIT UNTIL DARK
Faye Dunaway in THE CHAMBER
Julian Beck in POLTERGEIST II
@Jaspar
Audrey Hepburn in WAIT UNTIL DARK
You didn’t like the film? It’s a good thriller. Alan Arkin is also good in that.
@Danny
Just so you don’t feel alone, I never thought highly of Do the Right Thing or Inception. (You’re on your own with All the President’s Men, though. :)
@Jazzhola
Agreed Alan Arkin was scary through and through.
@Jaspar Lamar Crabb
You didn’t like Kevin Kline in Chaplin? I though he fitted like a glove in his portrayal of Douglas Fairbanks. Plus I thought the film was great.
@Danny Bailey
I never heard of a bad Truffault film.
Well, Moonrise Kingdom is a bad Truffaut film…
@Miasma
Bad in the sense that it tries so hard to be like Truffault?
Agreed Alan Arkin was scary through and through.
And the effect is even more startling and impressive if you only know Arkin via his comedies like I did.
@Danny
It may have something to do with the medium Anderson employs and keeps onset at all times to channel the spirit of Truffaut.
1966 – Alan Arkin – The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming – farce, playing one of the centerpeice comic characters (Oscar nom.‘d – Best Actor)
1967- Alan Arkin – Wait Until Dark – thriller, cooly playing one of the darkest villains ever (not Oscar nom.’d)
1968- Alan Arkin – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -drama, playing a deaf mute (Oscar nom.’d – best Actor)
That’s an entire career condensed into three films in three years. It only took the Academy until 2006 to finally throw him a statue he so deservedly earned.
And, please, let’s also not forget The In-Laws, Papi, and Hearts of the West, among others, in-between.
Danny…you thought CHAPLIN was great, but DO THE RIGHT THING was subpar? PLEASE watch DO THE RIGHT THING again.
I thought most of the cast was fine in CHAPLIN…in fact GERALDINE Chaplin gave a really great performance as did Downey Jr., but as a film…it was far too over-populated for a movie that was only 143 minutes long…Chaplin deserves an EPIC to capture all that he went through, achieved (good and bad), and to fully flesh out all the people that came in & out of his life.
I think all the acting in WAIT UNTIL DARK was great…but I don’t think anyone could argue that it was even remotely cinematic…or fankly even a very good play…Terrence Young was, let’s face it, not a particularly inventive director (save for his Bond films)…he just could not seem to infuse any of his non-Bond films with anything approaching excitement. In that sense he was ideal to capture a PLAY on film (if that was the intention). Also, if you put WAIT UNTIL DARK in perspective as it relates to a number of other Audrey Hepburn films, you’ll have to agree that it is indeed subpar…in fact, TWO FOR THE ROAD was the far better of her two films released in 1967. There is ROMAN HOLIDAY, TWO FOR THE ROAD, SABRINA, A NUNS STORY, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS, FUNNY FACE, WAR & PEACE, CHARADE, ROBIN & MARIAN…then there is WAIT UNTIL DARK, THEY ALL LAUGHED, MY FAIR LADY, THE CHILDREN’S HOUR…fine but certainly not of the same quality as her finest…nor are they as bad as BLOODLINE, GREEN MANSIONS, or THE UNFORGIVEN (showing zero chemistry with Burt Lancaster), PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (a very low-water mark in the great W Wyler’s filmography)
THIS IS, OF COURSE, ONLY MY OPINION!!!
Sharon Stone (Basic I.) /thread.
Danny Bailey
Here’s my list.
http://mubi.com/lists/good-performances-in-subpar-films
What are yours?