Actors and actresses who are just terrible in everything

[Ignatius_S]

Despite being universally loved, I've always found Julie Walters a bit hammy.

I'm not a huge fan of Walters, but thought she was fantastic in National Treasure.

[BlodwynPig]

Ben Kingsley
Kenneth Branagh
Su Pollard

[Phil_A]

Ben Kingsley

No. No no no no no no no no no! No!

[Shit Good Nose]

No. No no no no no no no no no! No!

I have no strong feelings either way for Benny boy, BUT Trevor Slattery wearing his team (Chelsea?) top in Iron Man 3 is just about one of my favourite Marvel moments.

[Keebleman]

Apart from anything else, Kingsley is to be admired for the way he has been able to sustain his huge success with Gandhi into a long-running career at the very top.  That one big hit seems to scream typecasting and one-hit-wonder.  Compare with F Murray Abraham who has scarcely been short of work since Amadeus but hasn't anything like Kingsley's cachet.

[Gulftastic]

Kenneth Branagh

I liked him in HBO's 'Conspiracy'. In a film full of thesps giving it their all, he was a stand out.

Also, that film contains the best performance ever from Colin Firth, who I've never been impressed with in anything before.

[QDRPHNC]

Andie McDowell RUBBISH

[Konki]

Ben Affleck is always shit isn't he? The big lummox.

[Thomas]

Agree wholeheartedly. Radcliffe is fucking abysmal. He simply cannot convey any emotion convincingly. Just widening your eyes and swallowing a bit does not equal 'fear'.

I was pleasantly surprised by his performance in Imperium.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Ben Affleck is always shit isn't he? The big lummox.

He's never been anything better than barely competent as an actor (although he's often been worse). His directing is also uninterestingly competent. Nothing more, despite the plaudits.

[Keebleman]

He's never been anything better than barely competent as an actor (although he's often been worse). His directing is also uninterestingly competent. Nothing more, despite the plaudits.

I disagree about his directing.  I thought The Town was very good, and Argo was a superb entertainment.  The political background was deftly sketched at the beginning and the metamorphosis into straightforward thriller was handled with admirable smoothness, no discordant clashes of tone.  Haven't seen the other two films he's made though.  The reviews of his latest were so uniformly dismal I was put off.

[easytarget]

Joshua Malina

Hello, I've come to ruin The West Wing.

Christ alive

[Phil_A]

Andie McDowell RUBBISH

Hmm. She was okay in a couple of things(well, Groundhog Day) but clearly possessed of a very limited acting range. It's surprising she's sustained a career as long as she has.

[Red Lantern]

Kenneth Branagh

Haha! I was just thinking of posting about Sir Ken when I read this. My wife and I have a running gag about him. I saw Frankenstein in the cinema in 1995 and there's a scene when he's talking to Helena Bonham-Carter and I remember laughing out loud at how hammy he was.

[Icehaven]

Anthony Hopkins. He's awful, one note, always looks like he's acting.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Mark Wahlberg

He has only ever got close to something resembling a decent performance in Boogie Nights, but I maintain that was by accident. His big thick lug shtick is really what he seems to be like. An arrogant prick in real life, his acting is just fucking terrible.  I generally avoid anything he is in.

If you're going to be the leading man in films then you need to have charisma and Wahlberg just doesn't have it.

Same for Ethan Hawke. A very boring actor.

[checkoutgirl]

Daniel Radcliffe is dreadful in the first couple of films, and then continues to be so all the way through.

Yeah, all the other kids seem to improve over time but Radcliffe just sort of pulls a face in lieu of acting. No aptitude for the job at all. Not even the background, ambient ability for acting that most people are born with. Just complete ineptitude. He was lucky that he looks a lot like the Harry Potter character and his mother is a casting agent and he was the right age for the role at the time. But even that doesn't explain why they picked him. Surely thousands of kids with more natural talent were auditioned. His mother must be a pretty powerful casting agent or has some libelous stuff on the studio president.

[the ouch cube]

He's not awful, but I've always found Tim Robbins both fairly bland and faintly but persistently annoying.

[Gulftastic]

Anthony Hopkins. He's awful, one note, always looks like he's acting.

God yes. His panto turn in 'Silence Of The Lambs' was a big part of why I hated that film.

[Twit 2]

I disagree about his directing.  I thought The Town was very good, and Argo was a superb entertainment.  The political background was deftly sketched at the beginning and the metamorphosis into straightforward thriller was handled with admirable smoothness, no discordant clashes of tone.  Haven't seen the other two films he's made though.  The reviews of his latest were so uniformly dismal I was put off.

Gone Baby Gone is very good. Mostly due to Casey Afflevck on top form and Ben having the sense to do the first time director thing of getting a great cinematographer in.

[thecuriousorange]

Tom Cruise

[Mr Brightside]

Robert De Niro has actually been shit longer than he was good.

[Small Man Big Horse]

He's not awful, but I've always found Tim Robbins both fairly bland and faintly but persistently annoying.

Nah, not having this, he was in a lot of great teen movies but then transitioned in to more respectful films with ease, Bob Roberts especially shows him at his best, and whilst I'm not particularly a big fan of Shawshank I do think it's a great performance. Plus he was really great in HBO's recent series The Brink, and I hope he does more on screen work soon.

[wosl]

Kenneth Branagh

He was very good as one of the two WWI vets struggling to cope with PTSD in A Month In The Country.  Not much of a stretch for him character-wise, but he got across the idea of a chipper, stoic personality being eaten at by deep-lurking damage very well.

[Gulftastic]

Tom Cruise

Not having that. Tom can be fantastic when he gives a shit and it's a half decent film.

Admittedly, that doesn't happen often, but he can act,

[Kelvin]

Small Man Big Horse reminded me of one in the Logan thread; Richard E. Grant. A man whose entire career is built on the fact that he looks and sounds a bit unhinged, rather than any actual acting ability.

Also, Jude Law. He always sounds like he's just caught his breath after a long run.   

[Small Man Big Horse]

Small Man Big Horse reminded me of one in the Logan thread; Richard E. Grant. A man whose entire career is built on the fact that he looks and sounds a bit unhinged, rather than any actual acting ability.

I think he's decent enough in the eighties and early nineties but something went horribly wrong after that and ever since I feel that at his best he's fairly bland, and at his worst he's excruciatingly awful and enough to put me off watching something I'm otherwise enjoying.

[mothman]

Once upon a time EGrant was considered a credible Next Doctor. If things had continued as expected there's no reason why he still couldn't be (even after playing a baddie on the show), yet he just... isn't even ever mentioned as a contender. I'm now ponderng when did it all go wrong for him? Because, even if you accept the premise of this thread as applicable to him, he was still successful for a while, but then suddenly he wasn't, anymore.

[the science eel]

Dennis Waterman
Jean Alexander
Steve McQueen

[biggytitbo]

Anthony Hopkins. He's awful, one note, always looks like he's acting.

There's a man who has never seen Shadowlands.