The late and impossibly great Christopher Lee is quoted as saying “Every actor has to do terrible films from time to time, the trick is never to be terrible in them”. It should be said that while I believe I could just do an entire Christopher Lee based prompt on it’s own (and not just movies either, he was super cool in so many ways) I bring up this quote because I think of it whenever I think of the first Venom movie and as part 3 is coming out this Friday I felt it would be good to try and keep up with current (movie) events like i’m a member of hip young society. For full disclosure I did not really like the first Venom movie, but I have to give credit to Tom Hardy for what must have been an “all-in” performance at the very least from a physical standpoint.
And Lee is 100% right here. Actor’s do not have 100% control over whether or not the projects they sign on to will be good. There are ways they can hedge their bets with good agents and working with those who often put out a higher quality of film work, but at the end of the day nothing is 100% and at the end of the day any given performer may end up in a dud, bomb, flop or just plain bad movie and then they just have to finish the job and move on to the next one…
Or do they? Well yes finish the job, but they don’t have to do just that. They can go all in and turn in inspired, subtle, bonkers, committed, professional performances, or failing that some combination of all above and more that I did not list go for it and see what sticks! Great performances are one of the major keys into unlocking what may eventually become a cult classic and even if it does not achieve that status a great performance can become the only thing people will remember about a bad movie. All this being said today’s prompt: What are your picks for great performance/performances in otherwise bad movies?
For my pick I would highlight Face/Off. It is a bad movie (possibly terrible) that I really do love. This is in large part because it has not one but two great performances that really go above and beyond and make it a super fun watch. Nic Cage starts out the movie dialed up to 11 and Travolta is somewhat muted, but when the proverbial faces come off then Travolta is doing a Nic Cage impression while Cage somehow manages to pull off an impression of what he imagines John Travolta thinks a Nic Cage impression would look like and watching that makes you forget or at least give a pass to all the other nonsense stuff that happens in the background, suspension of disbelief is so much easier for me if there is something to enjoy on screen as a distraction, and this movie really does give you something!