Great actors do not lose their talent overnight. Increasingly, they end up in a conflict between the too much/ too little costume, the too much/ too little plot, the too earnest/ too skity tone.
The following performances remain fascinating since they belong to individuals that have given all-timers. It is the whiplash, it is and in some instances the back-story context is as memorable as that which found its way into the screen.
1. Tom Hanks “Cloud Atlas” (2012)
Part of the reason why Cloud Atlas is still being discussed is its grandiose gimmick: the key actors in the movie have their roles in various times. Even those who like the structure of the film have also pointed out one particular swing as a miss Hanks as Dermot “Duster” Hoggins, a former gangster now a writer whose accent and broadness beg attention too much. An analysis of the reasons why the adaptation was deemed to be unfilmable also mentions that Hanks was totally miscast in the role and that his accent is laughably terrible. In a film whose structure is based on tonal plate-spinning, such a distraction would be an obtrusive element in an otherwise quiet scene.
2. Nicolas Cage “The Wicker Man” (2006)
There are performances that become cult artifacts; this one already did it almost instantly. The countryside-horror breakdown of Cage has merged with the shriek of the internet that people love the most and the scene about the bees has its legend. The bee keeper in the motion picture recalled, [Cage] desired all the bees on him. Before safety considerations dictated a workaround of a model head and compositing on the last shot, he said, P pour them on my head. The effect is a moment that is less dreadful and more of an accidental punchline-which is why it will not die on-line.
3. Halle Berry “Catwoman” (2004)
Catwoman came when superhero domination is the new status quo, and it has landed with a bang that has followed Berry over the years. What people nearly as well as the performance itself will recall is how she took the backlash full-on: she took the Razzie in person. During the ceremony, Berry joked that to perform so badly as he did he had to have plenty of bad actors with him. That self-consciousness was left to be the purist section of the motion picture heritage.
4. Al Pacino “Jack and Jill” (2011)
The cameo of Pacino, with his portraying himself, mugging the house as the Dunkaccino, can oftentimes be interpreted as a challenge. It became less enigmatic later, in his memoir, Pacino stated that he had accepted the job as he lost his money in a Ponzi scheme. The performance continues to scream a dislocation to the actor of his caliber, but the rationale behind it re-contextualizes it as a practical, as opposed to a puzzling, figure.
5. George Clooney “Batman & Robin” (1997)
Bad fits are one thing, but when movies appear to be bent on winning nothing it is another. Batman and Robin transformed Gotham into neon toy-box camp and Clooney, normally a screen presence simply playing around, finds himself stuck between earnestness and caricature. The larger decisions of the film do the most harm, yet his Bruce Wayne never really has a stable register and the character of Batman that comes to mind is remembered more of an impression than a detective.
6. Robert De Niro “Dirty Grandpa” (2016)
There have been a fair share of paychecks in De Niro late career digressions, but this one stands out in its aggressiveness in seeking humiliation. As a sexually charged retiree on a spring-break vacation, he goes through stuff that is meant to be humiliating instead of stinging. It is not that a legend attempted to be humorous, De Niro has already done that successfully, but the film demands that he sacrifice craft in favor of crudity and regards it as a joke.
7. Natalie Portman -Star wars episode II- attack of the clones (2002)
The prequels to Star Wars were filled with solemn actors and then given lines that read like a case of stress test. Portman Padma always sounds rigid and strangely inexpressive, particularly in scenes which are constructed around romance and politics in which subtext is meant to do the heavy lifting. The play has been turned into a reference point of how even a movie star like Oscar could end up looking out of place when the playwright provided nothing to the actor but pose rather than character.
8. Robert Downey Jr. “Dolittle” (2020)
Hardly any star setting could be more naturally delightful than that of Downey, and this is the reason why the setting of Dolittle is so jarring to get in touch with. Whimsy and warmth are required in the role, but the completed performance feels strangely airless an eccentric voice on the lips of a character who never quite appears. It is the sting of the flat, which follows a decade of Me-Too Downey charisma being virtually a genre.
9. Tom Hardy “Capone” (2020)
Hardy is known to make drastic decisions, and the Capone turns that dial until it snaps out. There is so much physical effort and distress of grunts and coughing that goes into the performance, and the movie leaves a lot to be desired about what exactly the physical effort is culminating in. One of the quotes that a critic has used extensively regarding the movie has profaned the approach; the more palatable conclusion is that the transformation becomes the narrative and the narrative gets in the way.
This interest is not, in any of these, really gotcha as much as reminder: the point is that cinema is a collaborative game, and even stars cannot better act out a bad tone, a bad idea or even a bad script in which they have no one to play off.
The silver lining is strangely reassuring to the viewers. When the best in the business can miss this pill, and still not hit the wrong side, then a slip no longer begins to appear like a disaster but begins to appear like business.
