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Worst Portrayal Of Real People In Film Ever

Started by Steven, November 22, 2017, 05:29:49 PM

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kidsick5000

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 24, 2017, 12:58:21 AM
Kermit The Frog in a fright wig Charles Manson at 3:11 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5taTzrv400

Oh, he's perfectly fine with the script and hair pieces he had to work with.

There is some amazing hair work there. He almost moves his head too quickly for his moustache.

MoonDust

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 24, 2017, 12:58:21 AM
Kermit The Frog in a fright wig Charles Manson at 3:11 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5taTzrv400

Oh, he's perfectly fine with the script and hair pieces he had to work with.

Jesus Christ, this wins the thread!

LanceUppercut

Quote from: Gulftastic on November 23, 2017, 03:32:23 PM
I'm shocked this hasn't come up yet.

2004's 'Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story', staring Flex Wheeler (and a shit ton of make up) as the titular character.

Here's everyone's favourite clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wUa8yWMgoE

Fuck me I had to look that up, Flex Wheeler is a huge 20 odd stone bodybuilder, I was wondering how he got the part??, Good mistake to make though!

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: MoonDust on November 23, 2017, 11:46:35 PM
Assuming Jesus himself was an actual person as well, pretty much everyone playing every real person in every version of Jesus Christ Superstar is pretty terrible, in a strangely entertaining way (Jesus Christ Superstar is, I must admit, a guilty pleasure of mine).

Pretty much everyone in The Last Temptation of Christ as well.  A film I've never been able to take seriously and have never been able to understand how most others can, controversy be damned, due to the staggeringly out of place accents and characterisations in the film, a fact which, bizarrely, rarely gets mentioned whilst everyone goes on about what a challenging masterpiece it is.  Victor Argo as Peter?  YES PLEASE!  Irvin Kershner playing Zebedee as a New York Jew?  YES PLEASE!  Scorsese himself as Isaiah?  YES PLEASE!  And the fact that Roberts Blossom is in it at all...

Times when casting David Bowie seems like aiming for low-key...

Steven

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on November 24, 2017, 01:35:53 PM
Pretty much everyone in The Last Temptation of Christ as well.  A film I've never been able to take seriously and have never been able to understand how most others can, controversy be damned, due to the staggeringly out of place accents and characterisations in the film, a fact which, bizarrely, rarely gets mentioned whilst everyone goes on about what a challenging masterpiece it is.  Victor Argo as Peter?  YES PLEASE!  Irvin Kershner playing Zebedee as a New York Jew?  YES PLEASE!  Scorsese himself as Isaiah?  YES PLEASE!  And the fact that Roberts Blossom is in it at all...

Not to mention Harvey Kietel playing Judas with a Bronx accent.

It's streching it a bit though as it's arguable whether the Gospels lot were Real People, or in fact whether ancient Aramaic sounded a bit like you were from the Bronx. I'm more going for people who actually have something to go on of the character they are playing as the Beatles lot did, but STILL seem to dreadfully overact or play them badly. The various portrayals of Lennon are some of the worst, with his hammed up tremelo of a drawl.

Another example of that is In His Life: The John Lennon Story, hits all the cliched beats you'd expect and the guy playing Lennon is too old and almost spits out each sentence as one word in a staccato fashion, plus Harrison auditioning on the bus all open-mouthed like a wet-behind-the-ears teenager despite looking about 30.

MoonDust

Quote from: Steven on November 24, 2017, 01:58:03 PM
It's streching it a bit though as it's arguable whether the Gospels lot were Real People,

Certainly, but King Herod and Pontius Pilate were definitely real people, and are portrayed hilariously in Jesus Christ Superstar, especially the 70s version.

As for the modern version, Chris Moyles as King Herod for fucks sake.

Steven

Quote from: MoonDust on November 24, 2017, 02:07:23 PM
Certainly, but King Herod and Pontius Pilate were definitely real people, and are portrayed hilariously in Jesus Christ Superstar, especially the 70s version.

Oh, and also the bloke in The Passion Of The Christ plays Herod as Uncle Monty.

Rizla

Quote from: Gulftastic on November 23, 2017, 03:24:28 PM
'Take 'em on, Ringo!' shouts John as they are faced with a hostile Cavern crowd following the dismissal of Pete Best. Ringo does a slow build up culminating in a drum roll. All is forgiven! Pete who?

Pete Best was the technical adviser on BotB, and it shows in the scene where he gets sacked by Eppy. Pretty much the centrepiece of the film, almost Shakespearian in its tragedy and pathos.

I'd love make a supercut of all the Beatle bios, or just cut every Wooton village fete scene together.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Rizla on November 24, 2017, 02:17:15 PM
Pete Best was the technical adviser on BotB, and it shows in the scene where he gets sacked by Eppy. Pretty much the centrepiece of the film, almost Shakespearian in its tragedy and pathos.

"So what was it like Pete? We hear the Cavern audience were chanting 'We Want Pete'"

"Oh yeah, half of Liverpool turned up. Placards, small riot. The band never really recovered from it."

I've just realised that the bloke who plays Lennon, acts in the same way Vic Reeves does here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN-ASY9X1dU

bgmnts

It will always be John Wayne's portrayal of Genghis Khan for me. Always.

George White

CBC's Dieppe from 1993 about the Canadians who helped the British Army during WW2 tries its best to convince as British. Set mostly in London,  filmed entirely in Toronto, with a cast of Canadians and Canadian-based Brits e.g. John Neville, Nigel Bennett, the accents from Robert Joy and Victor Garber as Mountbatten are more accurate than an American production but while Garber is convincing, Joy is still quite over-mannered, but a lot of the accents are passable, especially from Dublin-born Gerald Parkes, Doc in the US/Canadian/Irish-shown Fraggle Rock. However, Gabrielle Rose, the Canadian-born actress known to us from her role in Rising Damp as Brenda during her post-drama school stay in Britain's accent as a British woman is nowhere near as convincing as her accent as Brenda (which although seemed to go from region to region, no more than any other British actress of the period). Certainly, there's more knowledge of British life and culture (pub songs, a scene set during the making of In Which We Serve), and Toronto is shot in such a way to mask the locations, lots of tight closeups, and a lot of Canadian-British actors in small parts. It almost works. But perhaps a few non-Canadian based actors may have helped.

Garber also played Prince Charles in the other godawful William and Kate film, with American Jane "the Betsy" Alexander and Jean "Joan in the US Reggie Perrin" Smart as Camilla. ITV comedy drama bit-part regular Mark Penfold plays Phil the Greek.

George White

Quote from: kidsick5000 on November 23, 2017, 03:18:14 AM
There's another Beatles one, much worse than The Two Of Us.

Birth of The Beatles produced by Dick Clark, directed by Return of the Jedi's Richard Maquand and starring Nick Cotton as George, Mid-40s Marc Rley as John and the Nigel Havers as George Martin

There's a semi decent version here
https://youtu.be/HKQDLVIPmTo?t=5m41s
It's addictive
Gary Olsen as Rory Storm, the Bill's Ray Ashcroft as Ringo, one-time Coronaton Street guest Stephen McKenna as 34-year-old John, The Bill multi-guest/Eastenders guest/Porridge the Movie's Rod Culbertson as Paul and Richard "Colonel from 'Allo 'Allo" Marner as Bruno Koschmider. Backbeat has Wolf "Dietrich from Raiders/the German Ambassador off Ferrero Rocher" Kahler as Bert Kaempfert and that guy! du jour PaulHumpoletz as Koschmider.

St_Eddie

Worst portrayal of real people in a film ever?  I dunno but it probably involves Johnny Depp.  Most terrible things involve Johnny Depp.

lebowskibukowski

I haven't seen it myself but my sister contends that Tom Hardy's portrayal of the Kray twins in Legend is the most ridiculous thing that may have ever happened in filmic history. I can easily believe this to be the case...

Avril Lavigne

CBGB from 2013 might win for having the most bad portrayals of real people.  Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, The Police - none of the actors look, act or sound anything like their real counterparts & it seems like they were just chosen off the street a few days before filming began, including The Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop.  The fake Debbie Harry wouldn't win a lookalike contest in my local pub with all the lights off.

I'd post the trailer but it doesn't really do justice to how bad the portrayals are & it focuses much more on the non-famous characters, probably because of the above reasons.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: lebowskibukowski on January 18, 2018, 08:15:11 AM
I haven't seen it myself but my sister contends that Tom Hardy's portrayal of the Kray twins in Legend is the most ridiculous thing that may have ever happened in filmic history. I can easily believe this to be the case...

I thought this until I read up on Ronnie Kray and discovered he actually was that barmy

Ignatius_S

Do people playing themselves count? If so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9SFY2tumWA

Quote from: lebowskibukowski on January 18, 2018, 08:15:11 AM
I haven't seen it myself but my sister contends that Tom Hardy's portrayal of the Kray twins in Legend is the most ridiculous thing that may have ever happened in filmic history. I can easily believe this to be the case...

From various stuff I had been told or had read, I was expecting one extreme or the other – either his performance/s was/were brilliant or awful – but IIRC, Hardy was pretty good.

Prior to seeing the film, I was a little leery of Hardy being cast in a dual way, feeling it was fundamentally a gimmick. Although I did like him, that feeling did persist.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Wet Blanket on January 18, 2018, 11:33:37 AM
I thought this until I read up on Ronnie Kray and discovered he actually was that barmy

Ah, that's interesting – I suspect that you weren't alone and would explain quite a bit of the reaction.


Shit Good Nose

Yeah, Hardy's is a more realistic portrayal of both twins than the Kemps, but the Kemps' portrayals probably fit better in a more realistic cinematic universe and people's general understanding of the Krays.  If that makes sense.

I think it's one of those cases where, in cinematic terms, people find it difficult to take a real person/sequence of events as realistic if they're ridiculous, even if said person/sequence of events really were that ridiculous.  I can't think of it off the top of my head right now, but there's a based-on-a-true-story film (relatively recent - like made within the last 10 years or so) where the makers of it decided to dial down a lot of the stuff because people just wouldn't believe it.  Bugging me as to what that film is........

phantom_power

Of course Hardy has form in this with his amazing, ridiculous performance in Bronson

Dex Sawash

Bruno Ganz made Hitler look like a wrongun in  Downfall

hard rocx and mettals

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 18, 2018, 12:10:30 PM
I can't think of it off the top of my head right now, but there's a based-on-a-true-story film (relatively recent - like made within the last 10 years or so) where the makers of it decided to dial down a lot of the stuff because people just wouldn't believe it.  Bugging me as to what that film is........

'ere ya go http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/RealityIsUnrealistic/Film

ieXush2i

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 18, 2018, 12:10:30 PM
I can't think of it off the top of my head right now, but there's a based-on-a-true-story film (relatively recent - like made within the last 10 years or so) where the makers of it decided to dial down a lot of the stuff because people just wouldn't believe it.  Bugging me as to what that film is........

Inglourious Basterds

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: hard rocx and mettals on January 18, 2018, 02:03:20 PM
'ere ya go http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/RealityIsUnrealistic/Film

Thank you - it's Hacksaw Ridge I was thinking of.  There are only two things mentioned in that list, but there were other "no fucking way!" moments that they left out as well, both in and out of battle.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: Avril Lavigne on January 18, 2018, 10:59:27 AM
CBGB from 2013 might win for having the most bad portrayals of real people.  Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, The Police - none of the actors look, act or sound anything like their real counterparts & it seems like they were just chosen off the street a few days before filming began, including The Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop.  The fake Debbie Harry wouldn't win a lookalike contest in my local pub with all the lights off.

And she's played by none other than Malin Åkerman, who was great as Dr. Valerie Flame in five seasons of Childrens Hospital but who tends to get films parts that almost never makes sense for her, like Silk Spectre in Watchmen.

For Patti Smith, they used Sting's daughter.

MoonDust

Jackie Onassis in series two of The Crown. Portrayed by Jodi Balfour.

Granted, I've never seen any other portrayal of Onassis other than this example, but fucking hell, what was that accent she was trying to pull?

Wikipedia says Balfour was born and raised in South Africa, which may explain her terrible accent when trying to sound American. Surely a show like the Crown, which is Netflix's highest budget production to date, could have cast someone better to at least give a semblance of authenticity?

Edit: Realise this is a TV show and not a film portrayal. Still stands as a shit portrayal though.

Twed

Quote from: Steven on November 22, 2017, 05:29:49 PM

I think it's a very accurate portrayal of the Louis Theroux era of The Beatles.

Attila

Quote from: MoonDust on November 24, 2017, 02:07:23 PM


As for the modern version, Chris Moyles as King Herod for fucks sake.

But Rik Mayall plays Herod in the more recent version...unless there's one after the 2000 version?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaOfBQ5uw6M

buzby

Quote from: Attila on January 23, 2018, 11:49:58 AM
But Rik Mayall plays Herod in the more recent version...unless there's one after the 2000 version?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaOfBQ5uw6M
There was an arena tour production in 2012 (tied in to ITV's Superstar talent show to find an actor to play Jesus) that featured Moyles, Tim Minchin (Judas) and Mel C (Mary Magdalene)

Attila