Could you imagine a world in which Jim Carrey gets hacked to death by future-Batman to then be the Batfleck's arch nemesis? Maybe that post-apocalyptic post credit scene would finally have some reasonable pacing and nuance.
Jesus... Jared Leto made me say that Jim Carrey as a Batman villain would have nuance...
Valerian. Recast both leads if you can, but in a pinch just DeHaan. Give Valerian himself a single iota of charisma and the movie ends up a slight but interesting lark instead of a slog.
There’s a line I’ve heard a couple times that if you swapped the pairs from Valerian and Passengers, both movies end up better, if maybe not quite “good.”
Good call. As the scene opened I thought they were siblings. The chemistry was so bad (and Luc Besson is such a pervert), I still wasn't sure after the first scene.
I mean, neither of them are a good choice for the character. Veronique is a smart redhead who's good with all sorts of creatures in the comics. She's mostly the calm and diplomatic one who can talk her way out of a situation and is usually in a good mood. Casting her with a blond person that has a resting bitch face throughout the movie is the worst offence to the character. Valerian is always portrayed as a bit hotheaded and lazy but also very smart and experienced. In the movie they made him some type of hotheaded action hero when him being experienced, techsavvy and a good strategist is a big part of his character in the comics.
That being said, the sibling thing isn't too far off. They are never portrayed as having a romantic relationship and (spoiler)
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
end up being raised together as actual siblings after being rejuvenated in the second to last comic.
:::
Replace both leads with a couple that has chemistry but retains that slightly antagonistic spark and it would've made a good movie. I don't even have an alternate casting, just, "not them."
I guess Steven Seagall movies are the low-hanging fruit, huh?
Okay, semi-semi-serious answer: the first Aliens Vs Predator movie. I replace the predator with Animal from the Muppet Show. That would at least make the movie fun.
Along these lines, now I'm seeing Alien with Elmo as the main antagonist - would be a huge step up.
(I know Elmo is not Muppet Show but is from the Muppets Cinematic Universe.)
I still want to visit the alternate timeline where Lucas didn't cave to fan pressure. And the big reveal in Ep 3 is that Jar Jar is revealed to be the Sith Lord. Could Lucas have pulled off a Shyamalan-level surprise? We'll never know.
You could replace the with anything weird and the movie would be better because it would fall into the "so bad it's funny" territory, right now it's just "so bad" without the funny part.
Double recast in the MCU:
Starlord should have been played by Jeremy Renner, and Hawkeye should have been played by Crisp Ratt.
It would have fit the characterization in the comics better. In the comics, Hawkeye is more of a goofy wisecracking dude who gets lots of chicks, and Starlord is more of a responsible & respectable straight-man for the rest of the GotG to annoy with their weirdness.
The Borderlands movie. Anyone other than who they casted. Lilith is between late 20s to middle 30s. Roland is supposed to be a intimidating soldier. And Jack Black for Claptrap?! Come on
If you recast Jared Leto in Tron: Aries, everyone might have actually tried instead of saying "This is gonna flop anyways, why bother writing a good script?"
I didn't watch it specifically because of Leto. I was absolutely stoked each time I saw an ad for it (forgetting that Leto was in it) right up until his stupid face popped up in the trailer.
If they had somebody else, even a complete no-name actor, I would have watched it. It is impressive how effectively they pushed away their audience.
Sadly he wasn't the worst part of the film. He actually fit his role pretty well. The main female lead was pretty damn wooden. I was totally expecting my feelings towards the leading roles to be reversed but I actually think you'd have a better film if she was replaced rather than Jared. And I hate him in most things. I do think however if you replaced him in blade runner 2049 it'd be a better film. Even though he fits that role really well, probably better than the one in Tron, he's still the weakest part of that film specifically.
Remove Joel Silver from the production team of the Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions. Creative control to the Wachowskis.
Allow the countercultural, noir elements that made the first Matrix excellent. Police and innocent bystanders are potential if not actual enemies. Fewer set-piece fights; more skillful, thoughtful moments like the fight against Seraph.
And, certainly, a different end-fight arc. Once Smith has the Oracle's power, a slugfest stops making sense.
Speaking as someone who genuinely loved all four Mayrix movies, while simultaneously able to recognize the decline in quality as the franchise continued: The Wachowskis didn't understand the media they were ripping off. They were mashing action figures together, effectively, and that's ok. The first movie was lightning in a bottle, of course the sequels wouldn't hold up, but I'm glad they exist because it inspired a significant portion of my own writing.
I agree that having the Wachowskis back in charge of the franchise would be an improvement, not because of their skill as writers and directors, but because of the passion and vision for the art (assuming that they still care, anyway.).
I keep saying Reloaded and Revolution would make one great sequel if you cut all the crap out. As they are the scenes are just a little too long and there's too much gratuitous fighting. But there are enough great ideas for one great movie, just not two.
Haven't seen Star Trek: Into Darkness since before I watched the actual show, so I can't really say if it would fix it, but it would be improved by removing the Cumberbatch of it all
This is an old one, but the Maltese Falcon is a nearly perfect movie, but it is absolutely ruined by Mary Astor as the femme fatale.
She's supposed to be this stunningly beautiful woman, Spade's Secretary warns him to brace himself before she comes in because "she's a looker." Then she enters, and she's just sort of normal. Then his partner comes in and completely loses his shit over how gorgeous she is, and I'm sitting there thinking "Her? What's the big deal?"
Throughout the entire film, she's portrayed as this conniving woman whom Bogey can't resist, but I just didn't see any chemistry at all.
I told my son, who is an extremely knowledgeable cinephile, and he told me that's a thing. Filmies have noticed how absolutely wrong she was for that part. She was a fine actress, but that role called for a completely different kind of actress. It was probably a studio thing, insisting that she get the part, since she was between pictures, and they wanted something high profile to boost her career, and a Bogey mystery would be perfect. Unfortunately, she was terrible in that role.
Who should replace her? Pretty much anyone else at the time, maybe Barbara Stanwyck.
Some guys made a ten-hour film about paint drying to piss off the censors. Replacing the wall with about anybody would probably be a vast improvement...
Star Wars - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith would both be infinitely better if a better actor than Hayden Christensen had been cast as Anakin Skywalker.
I also think Mads Mikkelsen was a terrible, awful replacement for Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3. He's such a wooden actor and lacks the subtlety and nuance that Depp brought to the role.
In regards to Star Wars, I remember watching the behind the scenes documentary on the Phantom Menace DVD where you get to see them auditioning child actors for the part of Anakin.
Specifically, you watch them screen test the final three kids, one of which is obviously Jake Lloyd.
In my opinion he was second place of the three, I could never understand why George chose him.
Poor Jake Lloyd had a really tough time in life because of his involvement in Star Wars, sadly.
I think HC was only cast because he was a stereotypically hot guy, TBH. His acting is just atrocious all the way through. (Though he's acquitted himself way better in the new series as Anakin and Vader.)
There's also a very real problem of Lucas not really caring to get the best out of them, and for the younger actors it's disastrous. Natalie Portman is generally a bit better at picking solid projects than elevating them (IMHO), but she's every bit as bad as the Anakins in the prequels. Only the veterans who could draw on prior experience, and especially the British-trained theater actors, could work with the abstractions of the set and chew the scenery convincingly without a lot of helpful guidance.
On ANH, George was still a young Turk in naturalistic New Hollywood, and anyway he had exactly one mainstream success under his belt, so people could push back; there's also the sometimes exaggerated but very real contributions of the editing team picking good takes and splicing them together in a way that feels right, certainly in the moment. On ESB he did his best work by going with scriptwriters and a veteran director who'd done a dozen films. Even on ROTJ, the non-guild director was a guy who'd done a lot of intimate character work on British TV, and if the plot was straining under its weight, you still got solid line readings and some convincing emotion.
Star Wars - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith would both be infinitely better if a better actor than Hayden Christensen had been cast as Anakin Skywalker.
I really think George Lucas as director was the problem there. Hayden Christiansen isn’t a terrible actor. Neither is Natalie Portman or Ewan McGregor. But all three of them have just terrible, awful line reads in those movies.
Portman’s career took a hit from those movies, though she recovered because she already had a foothold in the industry. McGregor was a well-known actor already, so he wasn’t hurt. Christiansen got demolished.
A bad actor makes themself look bad. A bad director makes every actor look bad.
Snow White and the Huntsman could have been decent, but Kristen Stewart is terrible in it. She's not a bad actress (see Underwater) but she's not the right fit at all here.
I strongly disagree that Kirsten Stewart has an iota of talent as an actress. She has two emotions she expresses: sulky and panicky, and she does neither well. She was no better than her baseline in Underwater and that film wasn’t very good either IMO (and I love Cthulhu stuff).
However, I didn’t like Snow White and the Huntsman either. I saw it years ago but can’t really remember much about it, because I found rather bland. It wasn’t just Stewart’s milquetoast performance.
Yeah those damn kids, growing up during Covid. How could they be so thoughtless as to allow time to have an effect on their bodies? Weren't they thinking of us at all?
You could put Daniel Day-Lewis in that role and I think it would still be a terrible film. A good actor cannot rescue a story that inept. They might be able to wring some pathos from otherwise inept dialog, but it's not going to change the fundamental structural issues with the movie, and, as you allude to, it might strip it of what makes it entertaining in the first place.
105 Comments
smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works · 74 pts · 252d
Suicide Squad. Jared Leto is replaced by Jim Carrey.
I honestly can't tell if I'm serious about this or not.
TVA@thebrainbin.org · 20 pts · 251d
Honestly, any movie Leto is in, replacing him with Jim Carrey would improve it.
fartographer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 251d
Could you imagine a world in which Jim Carrey gets hacked to death by future-Batman to then be the Batfleck's arch nemesis? Maybe that post-apocalyptic post credit scene would finally have some reasonable pacing and nuance.
Jesus... Jared Leto made me say that Jim Carrey as a Batman villain would have nuance...
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 252d
But he's already the Riddler!
smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 251d
And? If DC released a movie with Jim Carrey cast in every role, would you not go see it? More Jim = more better!!
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 6 pts · 251d
As long as Meryl Streep plays Batman I'm happy.
smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 251d
Meryl Streep is also played by Jim Carrey.
fartographer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 252d
Jim Carey would have absolutely made that movie.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 251d
Carrey would be great if you're going for a 60's era, campy Joker.
I'd love to see Crispin Glover or Andy Serkis take a turn as the Joker, myself.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 251d
Or Hamill, since the guy is having a live action resurgence.
smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 251d
If Robin Williams was still around I'd want to see him in the role.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 251d
Dude Crispin Glover Joker would be awesome
fartographer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
The only difference between Crispin Glover and the Joker is that Glover's attack missed.
devolution@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
Not even Jim Carrey could have saved that slop.
wjrii@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 252d
Valerian. Recast both leads if you can, but in a pinch just DeHaan. Give Valerian himself a single iota of charisma and the movie ends up a slight but interesting lark instead of a slog.
There’s a line I’ve heard a couple times that if you swapped the pairs from Valerian and Passengers, both movies end up better, if maybe not quite “good.”
Vanth@reddthat.com · 15 pts · 252d
Good call. As the scene opened I thought they were siblings. The chemistry was so bad (and Luc Besson is such a pervert), I still wasn't sure after the first scene.
Waldelfe@feddit.org · 8 pts · 252d
I mean, neither of them are a good choice for the character. Veronique is a smart redhead who's good with all sorts of creatures in the comics. She's mostly the calm and diplomatic one who can talk her way out of a situation and is usually in a good mood. Casting her with a blond person that has a resting bitch face throughout the movie is the worst offence to the character. Valerian is always portrayed as a bit hotheaded and lazy but also very smart and experienced. In the movie they made him some type of hotheaded action hero when him being experienced, techsavvy and a good strategist is a big part of his character in the comics.
That being said, the sibling thing isn't too far off. They are never portrayed as having a romantic relationship and (spoiler)
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler end up being raised together as actual siblings after being rejuvenated in the second to last comic. :::
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 251d
There's such weird chemistry in Valerian, that they seem like brother and sister.
But that's on brand for Luc Besson, who wanted Leon to be even creepier than it is.
Dalacos@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
This is what I came to say if it wasn't already.
Replace both leads with a couple that has chemistry but retains that slightly antagonistic spark and it would've made a good movie. I don't even have an alternate casting, just, "not them."
spittingimage@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 251d
I guess Steven Seagall movies are the low-hanging fruit, huh?
Okay, semi-semi-serious answer: the first Aliens Vs Predator movie. I replace the predator with Animal from the Muppet Show. That would at least make the movie fun.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 251d
Replacing any character from any movie with any Muppet makes the movie immediately better.
Inucune@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 251d
Gonzo as Anton Chigurh in No County for Old Men.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 251d
Cookie Monster as Hannibal Lecter.
"Humans are a sometimes food..."
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
Not the swedish chef? Think about it... could be good.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 250d
Seagal was perfect in Executive Decision though (he dies in the first 10 minutes)
gergolippai@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 251d
Along these lines, now I'm seeing Alien with Elmo as the main antagonist - would be a huge step up. (I know Elmo is not Muppet Show but is from the Muppets Cinematic Universe.)
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 252d
Star wars prequels. Jarjar replaced by nobody.
LORDSMEGMA@sh.itjust.works · 32 pts · 252d
Alternatively, Star War prequels with everyone replaced by Jar Jar
HorikBrun@kbin.earth · 7 pts · 252d
Some lemmings just wamt to watch the world burn.
JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 251d
Meesa no starta da fire
JayleneSlide@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 252d
I still want to visit the alternate timeline where Lucas didn't cave to fan pressure. And the big reveal in Ep 3 is that Jar Jar is revealed to be the Sith Lord. Could Lucas have pulled off a Shyamalan-level surprise? We'll never know.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 251d
Only if it meant more toy sales, which was all Lucas cared about
moobythegoldensock@infosec.pub · 11 pts · 251d
Eh, Jar Jar was a symptom of the problem, he himself was not a bad character. He fit in much better in The Clone Wars.
kubok@fedia.io · 3 pts · 251d
There were actually few characters that were not jarring. Jar Jar doubly so. Well-chosen name.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
There are cuts of the prequels out there that cut out the Gungans almost completely.
discocactus@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
Idk Chris Rock would have made a good Jar Jar.
blarghly@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 252d
All bad movies
Replace all actors with Nick Cage
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 251d
Including the bad nick cage movies. Just add more nick cage to fix it.
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 252d
rikudou@lemmings.world · 5 pts · 252d
You could replace the with anything weird and the movie would be better because it would fall into the "so bad it's funny" territory, right now it's just "so bad" without the funny part.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 252d
ERAGON! FUCK YEAH!
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 251d
Idk how you could do that since there is not--and has never been--an eragon movie.
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 251d
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 251d
MATT. DAMON!
OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 251d
Double recast in the MCU:
Starlord should have been played by Jeremy Renner, and Hawkeye should have been played by Crisp Ratt.
It would have fit the characterization in the comics better. In the comics, Hawkeye is more of a goofy wisecracking dude who gets lots of chicks, and Starlord is more of a responsible & respectable straight-man for the rest of the GotG to annoy with their weirdness.
Monster96@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 251d
The Borderlands movie. Anyone other than who they casted. Lilith is between late 20s to middle 30s. Roland is supposed to be a intimidating soldier. And Jack Black for Claptrap?! Come on
thermal_shock@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 251d
I'm so tired of the jack black train.
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com · 1 pts · 251d
At least krieg fit
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 251d
If you recast Jared Leto in Tron: Aries, everyone might have actually tried instead of saying "This is gonna flop anyways, why bother writing a good script?"
TheDoozer@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 250d
I didn't watch it specifically because of Leto. I was absolutely stoked each time I saw an ad for it (forgetting that Leto was in it) right up until his stupid face popped up in the trailer.
If they had somebody else, even a complete no-name actor, I would have watched it. It is impressive how effectively they pushed away their audience.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 250d
I was so excited for this movie until I saw him and knew it would be a dud
Gonzako@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
I think if you recast everything let has been in all of those movies would have been improved
T00l_shed@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 250d
With the exception of lord of war. I feel like he was perfect in that role
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 250d
Sadly he wasn't the worst part of the film. He actually fit his role pretty well. The main female lead was pretty damn wooden. I was totally expecting my feelings towards the leading roles to be reversed but I actually think you'd have a better film if she was replaced rather than Jared. And I hate him in most things. I do think however if you replaced him in blade runner 2049 it'd be a better film. Even though he fits that role really well, probably better than the one in Tron, he's still the weakest part of that film specifically.
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 249d
I just looked her up, apparently her top credit on IMDb is "Interesting Person #2" in Into the Spiderverse.
eightpix@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 251d
Remove Joel Silver from the production team of the Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions. Creative control to the Wachowskis.
Allow the countercultural, noir elements that made the first Matrix excellent. Police and innocent bystanders are potential if not actual enemies. Fewer set-piece fights; more skillful, thoughtful moments like the fight against Seraph.
And, certainly, a different end-fight arc. Once Smith has the Oracle's power, a slugfest stops making sense.
isyasad@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 251d
You might be right but that's not a simple casting change
glitchdx@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
Speaking as someone who genuinely loved all four Mayrix movies, while simultaneously able to recognize the decline in quality as the franchise continued: The Wachowskis didn't understand the media they were ripping off. They were mashing action figures together, effectively, and that's ok. The first movie was lightning in a bottle, of course the sequels wouldn't hold up, but I'm glad they exist because it inspired a significant portion of my own writing.
I agree that having the Wachowskis back in charge of the franchise would be an improvement, not because of their skill as writers and directors, but because of the passion and vision for the art (assuming that they still care, anyway.).
cathray@feddit.org · 3 pts · 250d
I keep saying Reloaded and Revolution would make one great sequel if you cut all the crap out. As they are the scenes are just a little too long and there's too much gratuitous fighting. But there are enough great ideas for one great movie, just not two.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
this would have been so much better.
theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 251d
Haven't seen Star Trek: Into Darkness since before I watched the actual show, so I can't really say if it would fix it, but it would be improved by removing the Cumberbatch of it all
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 12 pts · 251d
Cucumber was not the right casting choice for Khan. But then Ricardo Montalban's portrayal of Khan is a tough act to follow.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 251d
He could have been literally anyone else from the Botany Bay sleeper ship and you wouldn't have to change a thing in the movie.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
Yeah.
That was a really, really bad choice, especially considering how race-based casting became a huge issue around that time.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 251d
This is an old one, but the Maltese Falcon is a nearly perfect movie, but it is absolutely ruined by Mary Astor as the femme fatale.
She's supposed to be this stunningly beautiful woman, Spade's Secretary warns him to brace himself before she comes in because "she's a looker." Then she enters, and she's just sort of normal. Then his partner comes in and completely loses his shit over how gorgeous she is, and I'm sitting there thinking "Her? What's the big deal?"
Throughout the entire film, she's portrayed as this conniving woman whom Bogey can't resist, but I just didn't see any chemistry at all.
I told my son, who is an extremely knowledgeable cinephile, and he told me that's a thing. Filmies have noticed how absolutely wrong she was for that part. She was a fine actress, but that role called for a completely different kind of actress. It was probably a studio thing, insisting that she get the part, since she was between pictures, and they wanted something high profile to boost her career, and a Bogey mystery would be perfect. Unfortunately, she was terrible in that role.
Who should replace her? Pretty much anyone else at the time, maybe Barbara Stanwyck.
ramsgrl909@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 251d
Babygirl - Replace Nicole Kidman with someone who can still show emotion on their face
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 251d
Some guys made a ten-hour film about paint drying to piss off the censors. Replacing the wall with about anybody would probably be a vast improvement...
spittingimage@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 250d
I too would watch paint drying on Scarlett Johansson.
GaryGhost@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 251d
Replacing Chris Pratt in Jurassic Park. He's cringe
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 9 pts · 251d
He's bad in those movies, but I don't think it fixes them. Not by a long shot.
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 251d
Recasting Chris Pratt in all of his movies would greatly improve all of them.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 251d
Which character is he in Jurassic Park? I don't remember the guy from
communityparks and rec in there.harmbugler@piefed.social · 12 pts · 251d
I believe he plays Chris Pratt, same as his other films.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 251d
I should have known, lol.
Is he the little boy the brother of the computer hacker girl?
__Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 251d
Not old Jurassic Park, he's in the newer Jurassic world movies
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 251d
Oooh
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
yup. with damn near anyone ffs, he's a derpy twat.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 251d
Star Wars - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith would both be infinitely better if a better actor than Hayden Christensen had been cast as Anakin Skywalker.
I also think Mads Mikkelsen was a terrible, awful replacement for Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3. He's such a wooden actor and lacks the subtlety and nuance that Depp brought to the role.
UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 251d
In regards to Star Wars, I remember watching the behind the scenes documentary on the Phantom Menace DVD where you get to see them auditioning child actors for the part of Anakin.
Specifically, you watch them screen test the final three kids, one of which is obviously Jake Lloyd.
In my opinion he was second place of the three, I could never understand why George chose him.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 251d
Poor Jake Lloyd had a really tough time in life because of his involvement in Star Wars, sadly.
I think HC was only cast because he was a stereotypically hot guy, TBH. His acting is just atrocious all the way through. (Though he's acquitted himself way better in the new series as Anakin and Vader.)
wjrii@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 251d
There's also a very real problem of Lucas not really caring to get the best out of them, and for the younger actors it's disastrous. Natalie Portman is generally a bit better at picking solid projects than elevating them (IMHO), but she's every bit as bad as the Anakins in the prequels. Only the veterans who could draw on prior experience, and especially the British-trained theater actors, could work with the abstractions of the set and chew the scenery convincingly without a lot of helpful guidance.
On ANH, George was still a young Turk in naturalistic New Hollywood, and anyway he had exactly one mainstream success under his belt, so people could push back; there's also the sometimes exaggerated but very real contributions of the editing team picking good takes and splicing them together in a way that feels right, certainly in the moment. On ESB he did his best work by going with scriptwriters and a veteran director who'd done a dozen films. Even on ROTJ, the non-guild director was a guy who'd done a lot of intimate character work on British TV, and if the plot was straining under its weight, you still got solid line readings and some convincing emotion.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 251d
I don't think George has ever had an eye for good actors. He just got lucky with Harrison Ford who carried the shit out of the original trilogy.
TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 2 pts · 250d
I really think George Lucas as director was the problem there. Hayden Christiansen isn’t a terrible actor. Neither is Natalie Portman or Ewan McGregor. But all three of them have just terrible, awful line reads in those movies.
Portman’s career took a hit from those movies, though she recovered because she already had a foothold in the industry. McGregor was a well-known actor already, so he wasn’t hurt. Christiansen got demolished.
A bad actor makes themself look bad. A bad director makes every actor look bad.
Blackmist@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 251d
Snow White and the Huntsman could have been decent, but Kristen Stewart is terrible in it. She's not a bad actress (see Underwater) but she's not the right fit at all here.
Tedesche@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
I strongly disagree that Kirsten Stewart has an iota of talent as an actress. She has two emotions she expresses: sulky and panicky, and she does neither well. She was no better than her baseline in Underwater and that film wasn’t very good either IMO (and I love Cthulhu stuff).
However, I didn’t like Snow White and the Huntsman either. I saw it years ago but can’t really remember much about it, because I found rather bland. It wasn’t just Stewart’s milquetoast performance.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 250d
Kristen Stewart is an utterly shitty actress.
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 252d
Redo The Adventures of Pluto Nash, but replace Eddie Murphy with Michael Cera from 2010.
flamiera@kbin.melroy.org · 5 pts · 251d
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 251d
Lol, I like that
AAA@feddit.org · 4 pts · 251d
Needs a bit more than just a re-cast, but it'd be a good start for Jupiter Ascending.
spittingimage@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 251d
A re-conceptualisation and re-write would help a bit.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 251d
A request: who would you replace Jerry Seinfeld with in a B movie?
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 251d
I'm not even joking when I say Nicholas Cage.
mech@feddit.org · 3 pts · 251d
Re-cast The Last Airbender movie with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Maya Rudolph.
Liljekonvalj@feddit.org · 2 pts · 251d
Not a movie- but: stranger things
Akasazh@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 251d
What's the casting choice you would change?
trk@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 251d
It would be good if the kids were played by kids, like the first season... And not fully grown adults, like the last season.
Dasus@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 251d
Yeah those damn kids, growing up during Covid. How could they be so thoughtless as to allow time to have an effect on their bodies? Weren't they thinking of us at all?
Shame.
MightyThistle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
Exposure to the Upside Down just ages you like that
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 250d
Kind of curious if The Room would be a good movie with a talented lead, or just forgettable.
redhorsejacket@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 250d
You could put Daniel Day-Lewis in that role and I think it would still be a terrible film. A good actor cannot rescue a story that inept. They might be able to wring some pathos from otherwise inept dialog, but it's not going to change the fundamental structural issues with the movie, and, as you allude to, it might strip it of what makes it entertaining in the first place.
ReiRose@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 250d
Explain to me what the plot is to answer your question.
DrSleepless@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 252d
Highlander. Recast the lead actor and Sean Connery and you have a great movie.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 251d
A Frenchman playing a Scot and a Scotsman playing an Egyptian turned Spaniard. The oddest decision ever.
discocactus@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 251d
Jack Black is the Grinch.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
Check out "Dear Santa" if you like Jack
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · -2 pts · 252d
The Master
Keep all the high profile actors. Replace the shitty screenplay author
Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 252d
Oh yes. Critically acclaimed bad move The Master.