Kermode Uncut: Great Performance, Shame About The Film

[MidnightsHeaven]

Shannon Beer as Young Cathy in Andrea Arnold's 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The film was a horrible convoluted repetitive mess! But Shannon Beer's performance was just so believable and heartwarming that she was the only character I cared for and the only actor who could actually act in that film. I hope to see her star in another film soon, she's truly one of the best child actors i've seen in a long time.

[ec123456789able]

Rhys Ifans in 'Kevin and Perry go large'.

Pretty crude film, but his character was a brilliant parody of Liam Gallagher, and hilarious.

[MrKermodian]

chloe moretz in let the right one in

[TheDensley7]

@MrKermodian Let Me In.

[attenbergdvd]

Charlize Theron in Monster

Sean Penn in Milk

Halle Berry in Monsters Ball

They all won an oscar for a great performance in a woeful film

[w111090]

John Cleese in the Out of Towners remake. The only funny thing in the film. Same goes for Michael Caine in Miss Congeniality.

[MrWhateley]

Brian Cox in Troy. Its average at best, but Brain Cox as the menacing Agamemnon makes this film escape the category of bad. You believe his greed and his lust for power. One of the most underrated actors there are!

[SirLesterMarwood]

In 'Sucker Punch' it was evident that no member of the cast could speak English and were speaking their lines phonetically, so Oscar Isaac must deserve an award for the competence of his performance making watching it a slightly less boring unpleasant experience.  The poor guy's in 'W.E' as well, luckily for him his next role is with the Coen brothers.

[MrTARDISreviews]

Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

Billy Burke as Charlie Swan in the 'Twilight Saga' (the only one who KNOWS he is in horrible movies)

R.Lee Ermey as Sheriff Winston Hoyt in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' 2003 remake.

Those are just three mainstream examples off the top of my head.

[Foigis]

Eh.. Does the majority of Jackie Chans career count? A lot of questionable films with ridiculously good physical performances

[englishredcoat]

Alan Rickman - Love Actually

Micky Rouke - The Expendables

Jimmy Nail - Evita (only joking)

[josefgiven]

@englishredcoat damn, I was going to mention Mickey Rourke in the Expendables! It was great glancing at Stallone and trying to work out if he even realised he was being out-acted by a country mile

[Darthpenguino]

David Hyde-Pierce in Hellboy 2.

[CraigSips]

JCVD... a crappy film but for five minuites in the middle we are torn out of the experience and confronted by a man bearing his soul... not sure if he was acting though.

[oneworldfamily]

Pete Postlethwaite in Clash of the Titans (the...titans...will...clash)

[ehansen3]

Micheal Shannon in Revolutionary Road

[algildea]

Stanley Tucci as the killer in The Lovely Bones

[reptongeek]

Leighton Meester in The Roommate

Although I do actually like it

[HeadPie75]

Most Christopher Walken cameos!

[louis07956]

Emma Thompson in Love Actually

[liambr101]

Jim Carrey in Man On The Moon

Carrey hit the nail on the head with his performance as Kaufman. He perfectly captured the flawed wit and charm of Kaufman, managing to drag the carcass of a screenplay along the way. Behind the camera nobody had any clue what Kaufman was like, and no idea how to tell his story without resorting to cheap cameos and gimmicks.

Carrey's performance was the Hollywood actor's equivalent of the Jumbo Jet pulling contest on World's Strongest Man. No mean feat.

[villainandfox]

Daniel Day Lewis as 'The Butcher' in Gangs of New York

Not a recent film, nor the worst, but a truly dynamic, fearsome performance for such a mediocre film.

[woofalot13]

@villainandfox thats a good 'n .

[Needham90]

@villainandfox WHHHAAAAAATTT???!!!

[wasteyelo1]

Eric Roberts in Best of the Best? Maybe not. How about the black guy dancing vigorously in the Woodstock Documentary. I'm serious.

[fandingo]

Emma Thompson in I Am Legend

[MrSyrett]

Mario Van Peebles in Jaws The Revenge.................Only Joking, I meant Michael Caine

[ilsonowl]

Pete Postlethwaite in Killing Bono ... everyone else is godawful as is the film ...

[frogtastic1000]

jason issacs in mark kermode: my life, my philosophy and my films

[Vindog76]

Basil Wallace (Marked for Death)

[farshnuke]

Marc Warren in Doctor Who Love and Monsters. Genuinely the worst, most grotesque and disgusting Doctor Who tv stories but his performance is so well played you almost forget how horrible it is until the episode ends.

[filmmichael]

2:32 Three buses go past at the same time.. pft, typical!

[sadako24]

Camille Keaton in the original I Spit on your Grave

[AHALambda101]

john travolta in battlefield earth

[WhoElseButRada]

Eugene Levy in any film you care to choose.

[owdl114]

Robert Stack in 1941

[RAIDERS58th]

@owdl114 HEY! I liked 1941! However, you're right about Robert Stack's performance. But, seriously; I think "dinolast" has hit the nail on the head with Tim Roth's performance in Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES catastrophe. 

[captainlepton]

Peter O'Toole in Supergirl. Squirt?

[RAIDERS58th]

The English actress who said "many Bothans died to provide us with this information" in RETURN OF THE JEDI. A slightly jarring and out of context scene in an otherwise lightweight, cuddly-wuddly and not very good movie. Empire was the best of the 3.

[RoathRipper]

Debbie in 'Debbie Does Dallas'

[LucasW180]

Gary Oldman in Hannibal. then again, he makes any villain work

[TheNoodle97]

nic cage in the wicker man..... he deserved an oscar ;)

[Filmzie]

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones or Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules

[Doricdom108]

Everyone in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[ChiefRepublic]

@Doricdom108 Amen.

[gyedc]

@Doricdom108 spot on!

[informalmrtom]

Christian Slater in He Was A Quiet Man

[lordtufty]

Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist

[HotDogMarchant]

Kim Kardashian in Disaster Movie. A beautiful performance in an otherwise flawed film.

[j3parrots]

David Thewlis in Dragonheart, most british villians in bad american movies

[davidian84]

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs Of New York

[GCmediacourse]

Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart

[VonBlade]

Gary Oldman in Sid and Nancy

[reliablestuff]

Mick Jagger in Freejack. Award worthy

[paranoidandroid223]

Tommy Wiseau in The Room.

[LucasW180]

@paranoidandroid223 brilliant :L

[wilson2012er]

Frank Langella as Skelator in Masters of the Universe.

[richardcadbury]

Nicolas Cage in any film.

[woofalot13]

@richardcadbury thats not because of nick cages acting its because he's been in so many stinkers .

[Needham90]

@richardcadbury That's not fair! Raising Arizona was awesome, as was The Wicker Man... oh wait... The Wicker Man was hilarious!

[GardenGnome118118]

Arnold S in Batman and Robin

[LondonIrishRover]

Kennith Brannah in The Wild Wild West. What a terrible film that was.

[arieger82]

Bruce Campbell in Spiderman 3

[jfwillans]

Paul Bettany in A Knight's Tale, just because its Paul Bettany

[whoisthatgothguy]

whilst I love it, Malcolm McDowell in Caligula. Some of the messiest editing I have ever seen in a film, but without a doubt one of the most entertaining, not to mention the brilliant one liners.

[ScottIJL]

Hugo Weaving in The Matrix Revolutions

[Halobitt]

Michael Cain in Jaws 4?

Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation?

[theaaroncarruthers]

Kelsey grammer in xmen the last stand he was a great choice as the beast the film let him down

[woofalot13]

@theaaroncarruthers yup that film let us all down .

[henrygale77]

Sam Riley in Brighton Rock, rubbish film but great performance by him (and as mark pointed out, Andrea Riseborough)

[Jacquesvoller]

What about Alan Tudyk in Transformers 3. I hated the film, but loved his performance

[moist22]

Mark Strong as Sinestro in Green Lantern. He pulled off both the attitude and look of the character but everything else was just so terrible. I felt sorry for him as Green Lantern is one of the very few films I vehemently hate. But yeah fantastic performance.

[Kevmiester]

Liev Schreiber in X:Men: Wolverine. Poor film, and even though the character doesn't make a great deal of sense in the end, Schrieber is a very tense presence throughout as his brother Saber-tooth, his scene with Dominic Monaghan is deliciously evil. "I'm not afraid to die", "How do you know? You've never tried it before".

[spugesdu]

Chris Evans in 'What's My Number', where he plays the whole film sarcastically.

[AAS0009]

Paul Blair in outpost, pretty lousy movie but out of the really good supporting cast, he certainly made the rest of the movie watchable

[pacmansays]

Raul Julia in Street Fighter

[greenpenguino]

I'd have to say pretty much every actor in 'Caligula'. The movie is pretty terrible and very obviously 'Gore-Porn', but everyone in it takes themselves very seriously.

[ERolandTJ]

Mark Strong in Revolver, heroically likeable and eventually emotionally vulnerable, but exquisitely efficient, ruthless and pre-emptive as an assassin. His understated clothes and wispy comb-over suggest he pragmatically does his job without embellishments. This is nicely reinforced by pitting him against garishly dressed gangsters. He is my favourite on-screen assassin, I couldn't care less about the film otherwise

[woofalot13]

Jude law was pretty good in A.I. and the film was a car crash .

[woofalot13]

Seems Madge is back on top form how much money has been wasted on her flop of a movie career she could buy a hole village of african babies .

[ChildOfTheWilderness]

I would say Ian McDiarmid & Christopher Lee in the Star Wars prequels, but that implies they are really bad which they are not. They just aren't as good as the original movies, but as movies in their own right they are OK.

Tony Curran & Derek Jacobi in Underworld Evolution, talent wasted in a pointless and very flawed movie

[frogtastic1000]

so madonna couldn't direct traffic on a public holiday....what a surprise lol

[ehmazin]

Orlando Bloom in Troy, because looking like a twat doesnt come easy for that lad

[GCmediacourse]

Bella's dad in the twilight films

[algildea]

@GCmediacourse good call!

[woofalot13]

Gary Oldman in bram stokers Dracula .a film ruined by Keanu and Winona Keanu especially what a plank .

[taffwob]

The green screen in anything George Lucas unleashes.

[ChildOfTheWilderness]

Geoffrey Rush in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Such a fine actor literally having to hold up that bloated mass was sad to see, although he does seem to like the role.

[woofalot13]

@ChildOfTheWilderness yup what a kak film that was .

[aceofspies2006]

Stanley Tucci in Burlesque. The only film that aspired to be as 'good' as Showgirls and failed.

[ehmazin]

Spacey in usual suspects, just because that film is FUCKING TERRIBLE and hes half decent

[woofalot13]

@ehmazin Glad you said that i have always thought that film was over rated and have taken a lot of stick for it .

[ste6789]

Scott Ryan in 'The Magician', not a great film but a fantastic performance!

[GreetingEarthlings]

The krill in Happy Feet 2

[dinolast]

Tim Roth in the Planet of the Apes remake

[wilson2012er]

@dinolast Good call!

[6000mphx]

Raul Julia in Street Fighter. At least he was having fun.

[ADBREAKTV]

I personally didn't like rise of the planet of the apes, but Andy Serkis' motion captured performance stood out, if only because it seemed he had the only character who wasn't under written.

[imaedacomment]

Ewan McGregor in The Island. Just ignore everything else.... For your sake. Michael Bay has this way of making you waste your time, over and over again. But an interesting and solid performance from the Scotsman.

[rotterization]

the animals in Babe 2

[Kickboxer848]

Kevin Spacey In American Beauty

[zachthezombie]

Michael Gough gave a oscar worthy performance as Alfred pennyworth in the almost irredeemable batman and robin

goughs performance in the scenes when he is on his death bed are way to good for that piece of crap movie

[lafairweath3]

johnny deep in most recent tim burton films

[owdl114]

Mark Strong in Revolver/RocknRolla

[rvdkennedy]

Bruce Campbell's portrayal of Elvis Presley was "A Grade" stuff in an otherwise average B movie, Bubba Ho-Tep.

[lucklessluke]

Brad Pitt Tree of Life

[Needham90]

Gary Oldman in 'Bosque de Sombras' or 'The Backwoods'. The film has no consistency and makes absolutely no sense but Oldman puts on a great performance alongside Paddy Considine.

[frogtastic1000]

brando was awesome in apocaplyse now but the rest of the film is pretty average tbh

[SethHesio]

Steve Martin in All of me. Interesting concept but poorly executed and a BAD film... but he's great in it.

[DrunkOnAbsinthe]

It was ironic that Madonna's "performance" in Dick Tracey was not the poorest in comparison to Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty. Had I not seen it, I would have had to dream it to believe it.

[keflar5]

@DrunkOnAbsinthe Now I think about it you are right, the guys in that film sucked

[andy94lincs]

Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Everyone knows that without Johnny Depp the Pirates franchise would never have happened. And let’s be honest Pirates of the Caribbean is just the Johnny Depp show.

[markanne54]

Bruce Campbell in Alien Apocalypse. A quite stupifyingly bad film, but Bruce was, well, Bruce and thus eminantly watchable no matter what rubbish he's in.

[bamigogy12345]

First!