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Took the Bad Film Seriously: Difference between revisions
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** Perhaps a better fit for this trope is Justin Chatwin as Goku. Holding back other considerations of how his character's motivation are changed from Anime to Film, his performance of Goku as an [[I Just Want to Be Normal|insecure teen]] is pretty good, even adding some character development as he becomes self confident to the point of gaining [[Heroic Willpower]].
* [[Thora Birch]] in the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons (film)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' movie. (Unlike Jeremy Irons, who just [[Ham and Cheese|had fun going over the top with his role]].)
** Also [[
* Ed Speelers in the title role of ''[[Eragon (film)|Eragon]]''. You can tell that he wants to act so badly (he succeeds in acting so badly!), but his delivery combined with an atrocious script makes for [[Narm]] heaven.
** Sadly Jeremy Irons did not reprise his spastic, perpetually-near-orgasm performance from ''Dungeons and Dragons'', playing Brom in a genuinely convincing way despite the scriptwriters’ best efforts to the contrary. Tragically, all he really accomplishes is making everyone else look even worse in comparison.
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*** Given that von Sydow was capable of hamming it up when required, (''Prepare her for our '''pleasure!!''''', anyone?) it's probably the latter.
* Anything [[Ed Wood (creator)|Ed Wood]]'s ever done. ''[[Glen or Glenda]]'', especially.
* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Dungeon Siege|In The Name of the King]]'' takes it seriously, even the hammy villain. You have to wonder if the all-star cast noticed that their director was [[Uwe Boll]]. Regardless, everyone makes a fine effort... we even get to see <s>[[Lord of the Rings|Gimli]]</s> [[John Rhys-Davis]] as a wizard! And [[
** [[Jason Statham]] was probably the only actor in the movie to make an genuine effort at good acting. [[Ray Liotta]], [[Leelee Sobieski]], [[Burt Reynolds|Burt (freakin') Reynolds]], [[Kristanna Loken]], [[Mathew Lillard]], [[Ron Perlman]]... none of them even attempted to give the movie a common accent. At least Liotta and Rhys-Davis did give a fair amount of [[Ham and Cheese]] to show that they knew how bad the movie was.
* Although it isn't a strictly ''bad'' film, [[Roger Ebert]] noted that in ''[[Jurassic Park|The Lost World: Jurassic Park]]'', Pete Postlethwaite was the only cast member who seemed "convinced that he is on an island with dinosaurs, and not merely in a special-effects movie about them." Unsurprisingly, his [[Great White Hunter|character]] is arguably [[Ensemble Darkhorse|the most memorable]]. After working with Postlethwaite, [[Steven Spielberg]] called him "the best actor in the world".
* [[Gina Gershon]] in ''[[Showgirls]]'', an immensely [[camp]]y movie that she comes close to [[So Bad It's Good|salvaging]].
** [[Elizabeth Berkley]] could be said to have taken ''[[Showgirls]]'' too seriously. This is why she received the majority of the backlash from it. At least everyone else gave the impression that they were trying to distance themselves from it.
*** [[Kyle McLachlan]] was rumored to have stormed out of a screening because he was told by [[Paul Verhoeven]] that they were making a serious art film and not... well, ''[[Showgirls]]''. McLachlan himself claims no such event took place.
** If you watch the "Making Of" featurette included in the DVD, it seems like ''everyone'' involved the film took it way too seriously. It's downright surreal, hearing people go on about "complex emotional bonds" and making serious attempts at character interpretation for a movie that turned out to be... ''[[So Bad It's Good|Showgirls]]''.
* If anybody's watched the documentary "Best Worst Movie", then they know that Claudio Fergasso of ''[[Troll 2]]'' infamy takes his film ''very'' seriously.
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* [[Roger Ebert]]'s review suggests Guy Pearce in ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
* Just about everyone in ''[[X-Men Origins: Wolverine]]'' did this, with Ryan Reynolds and Danny Huston being possible exceptions.
** Reynolds was busy proving that just because you aren't taking the ''film'' seriously doesn't mean you can't have a blast taking [[Deadpool|your
* In the opinion of Richard Roeper and A.O. Scott, Denzel Washington in ''[[Déjà Vu (film)|
* Due to its extremely dysfunctional production and many competing explanations for what went wrong, we may never know exactly ''why'' [[Peter Sellers]] underplayed the role of Evelyn Tremble in [[James Bond]] spoof ''[[Casino Royale (1967 film)|Casino Royale]]'', but his work (while funny) certainly clashes with that of the hammy stars brought in to make up for his being fired from it. ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' suggests he underplayed it deliberately so he could be taken seriously.
* Later Sellers headlined the 1979 comic version of ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]''. According to biographer Alexander Walker, it was upon reading the completed script that Sellers ''desperately'' tried to get out of it, but couldn't because his only-recently revived career and his plans to finally make his dream project could not withstand the legal morass it would result in. In the finished film he does a fine (though not hilarious) job with the roles of hero Syd and goofier Prince Rudolf, again in contrast to some hammier supporting actors, but there's an air of defeat hanging about him throughout; one can tell he knew he couldn't save the movie no matter what he did on- or off-screen. (He got to do [[Being There|that dream project]] next, and thankfully, it worked out much better for everyone involved.)
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* ''[[Hounddog]]'' has the following critical consensus (by and large): [[Dakota Fanning]]'s acting - excellent. Other children's acting - very good. Adult acting - good (from most) to average. Script, directing, editing and post-production - horrible.
* ''Skin Walkers'' (2007) a now all but forgotten werewolf film notable for only two things. 1) The Gun-Toting Werewolf Granny. 2) The entire cast and crew play the extremely silly plot and spout off the absolutely atrocious lines dead-set-seriously. In the entire film, there's only one intentional joke, but it's nowhere near as funny as the hilarious stuff played absolutely straight elsewhere. (Even the Gun-Toting Werewolf Granny is meant to be taken seriously!)
* ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]'' suffered from this... though oddly enough, it wasn't because of the actors (especially [[Raul Julia]], who made [[Ham and Cheese]] a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|gourmet delicacy]] with his portrayal of General M. Bison); it was because of the director, Stephen E. De Souza, who directed it as a super-serious action movie instead of the campy [[Video Game Movies Suck|Movie Of The Game]] it was supposed to be. This is
* ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'': Played straight by most of the main cast. In fact, [[Michael Ironside]] seems to be the only person who knows what kind of movie he's doing.
** [[Neil Patrick Harris]] might also [[Putting on the Reich|
* An example of making the film ''better'': [[Slim Pickens]] in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' played his role absolutely straight as he thought it was a dramatic film (which, to be fair, it was originally until it was realized that a lot of lines and scenes, while they made sense, were just too hilarious to be taken seriously). This is due to [[Enforced Method Acting]]
* [[Morgan Freeman]] and [[Kevin Spacey]] in ''[[Edison]]'' don't phone in their performances. As a result, any scenes featuring them (and lacking [[Justin Timberlake]] and [[Dylan McDermott]]) are much more suspenseful than the rest of the film.
* Chiwetel Ejiofor in ''[[2012]]''.
* [[Hilary Swank]] in ''[[The Core]]'', especially in contrast to the screaming [[Ham and Cheese]] provided by co-star Stanley Tucci and the visible amusement of Delroy Lindo. Aaron Eckhart is a borderline case in that his performance is fairly straight-faced, but he recounted in a later interview that he and Tucci nearly peed themselves laughing during certain scenes because the movie was SO ridiculous.
** Hilary Swank again in ''The Affair of the Necklace'', which ensnares much of its principal cast in this trope. The only exception is, naturally, [[Christopher Walken]].
* ''[[Wild Things]]'' isn't necessarily a ''bad'' movie. While the film seems to be trying to be a [[Stealth Parody]] of the erotic thriller genre, the cast doesn't seem to agree on how seriously to take the script. As a result, many see it as [[So Bad It's Good|unintentionally hilarious]].
* [[Alec Guinness]] in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' film (''[[A New Hope]]''). He thought the film was bad but gave it his best. The rest is history.
** [[Natalie Portman]] is generally considered a very good actress. The exception is ''Star Wars''. When she's in ''Star Wars'', she's considered to be dreadfully wooden. But if she's in a film that's not ''Star Wars'', she's a critically-acclaimed [[Academy Award]] winner. It's actually very similar to Kristen Stewart's relationship with ''Twilight'' (see below).
* According to Mel Brooks' commentary on ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'', this occurred with Frankie Laine when he recorded the title song. He simply didn't realize the film he was singing for was a parody, and Mel didn't have the heart to tell him after he recorded this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-HRbsejTyw gem].
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* According to [http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy this review] by Charlie Jane Anders, Shaun Toub plays General Iroh this way in ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', and to a slightly lesser extent, Dev Petel plays Zuko seriously for the most part.
* Reviews of ''[[Reign of Fire]]'' mentioned that this movie about dragons conquering the earth would have been greatly improved if the director had realized he was dealing with a [[Camp]] story, not a dark story that should be set in a serious [[Crapsack World]].
* [[Morgan Freeman]]'s sheer presence and awesomeness is the only interesting thing in the otherwise entirely unremarkable ''Along Came a Spider''.
* Jackson Rathbone is actually an ''awesome'' actor. His role as
** [[It Got Worse]] with ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', when he played Sokka as Jasper with a boomerang.
** [[Dakota Fanning]] arguably gives the best performance of anyone in the whole ''Twilight'' series. [[Kristen Stewart]], who is critically acclaimed in pretty much anything that's not ''Twilight'', tries for a serious performance as well. Her interviews indicate as much, but ultimately she just makes Bella come off as wooden (to be fair, though, you'd be hard-pressed to find one character in the Twilight books with an actual personality). Much like Tina Louise below, Stewart also seems to the cast member most resentful of her ''Twilight'' fame.
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* While its "badness" is debatable (as there's a lot of indicators that it was ''meant'' to be silly), the movie ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'' would have been a lot more hysterical if Heath Ledger had taken the [[Ham and Cheese]] route, but he took his character dead seriously.
* Michael Gough was literally the only actor in ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' who wasn't given horrid one-liners for dialogue or forced to act like a ham-crazed clown. Consequently, his scenes end up being the closest thing to sincerity that the film has.
* ''[[The Expendables]]'' is essentially a knowingly-cheesy pastiche of every action film made in the
* [[Christopher Reeve]] had to have known that the ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]'' film franchise was on its last legs when he signed up (with stipulations) for ''[[Superman IV]]: The Quest For Peace''. To note, Reeve would only take the film if several conditions were met, one of them being a strict anti-nuclear message. While other members of the cast understand how bad the script is ([[Gene Hackman]] was there
* Ryan O'Neal in ''An Alan Smithee Movie: Burn Hollywood Burn''.
* In the utterly terrible [[In Name Only]] [[The Film of the Book|adaptation]] of ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'', the only actor who seems to be taking it at all seriously is Alexander Ludwig, who plays Will. He's so earnest and such an awful actor that it's hilarious when it's not cringeworthy.
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** In the same vein, [[Faye Dunaway]]'s performance as Crawford in the adaptation of ''[[Mommie Dearest]]''. She genuinely believed the script and film would be hard-hitting, provocative and would win an Academy Award. Unfortunately, most of the unintentional humor is mined from her overwrought, ridiculously serious performance that borders on campiness - the rest of the cast seemed to be in on the joke and hammed up their performances. The production studio turned its back on Dunaway and starting promoting the film in daily papers as a ''comedy'' once word got out about her performance.
* Honor Blackman in the original ''[[Jason and the Argonauts]]'' promptly steals the show in a movie that has stop motion skeletons fighting Greek soldiers and mermen holding clashing rocks apart, mainly because she's the only one with well-written lines that don't sound forced or hammed up in the delivery.
** Similar case with the original ''[[Clash of the Titans]]''; you feel like you're watching a different movie when you see the scenes with the deities on Olympus. Not surprising given they're played by [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Maggie Smith]].
*** And in the remake, everyone not named [[Ralph Fiennes]].
* Non-actor example: [[Alan Menken]] is a celebrated living accolade of [[Walt Disney|Disney]], having done the music for [[The Little Mermaid|over]] [[Beauty and the Beast|half]] [[Aladdin (Disney film)|the]] [[Pocahontas|movies]] [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|of]] [[Hercules (1997 film)|the]] [[The Renaissance Age of Animation|Renaissance era]], so many people consider the songs and music of ''[[Home on the Range]]'' to be the only saving-grace of the film. In a behind-the-scenes interview, he talks about how 9/11 happened during the film's production, and the song, "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?" was meant to aid the embalmed and go out to the people who suffered.
* Kirsten Storms in ''[[Zenon|Zenon: Girl of the Twenty-First Century]]'' and sequels. For that matter, most of the actors; the films wouldn't have worked if the actors had betrayed even a hint of irony or self-awareness. (Though Phillip Rhys going for [[Ham and Cheese]] didn't hurt.)
* [[Paul Giamatti]] in ''[[Lady in the Water]]''. Despite the film's general badness, Giamatti is good enough to make his climactic monologue a legitimately emotional moment.
* Many people, fans, critics and regular movie-watchers alike, agree that the only saving grace that the 2010 ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street]]'' remake has is [[Jackie Earle Haley]]'s awesome portrayal as Freddy Kruger. While the movie has a lazily-written story and dull characters and overall is just seen as a cheap attempt by the company to get some extra cash, Haley does his hardest to make his Freddy as menacing, as dark, as so no-nonsense and as evil as he can. This gives us an an extremely horrifying and monstrous Freddy that perhaps even surpasses Robert England's Freddy in the question of sheer evilness (not in acting though) and maybe is the only thing that makes the movie tolerable to watch.
* [[Peter Cushing]] said of his [[Hammer Horror]] career that, no matter how cheesy the script was, he would treat it with as much dignity as he would ''[[Hamlet]]''..
* The late composer [[Elmer Berstein]] made a living during his later years by scoring comedies. By suggestion of ''[[Animal House]]'' director [[John Landis]], the comedy would be much more effective if the music sounded dead serious. For example, the theme for the ZAZ parody ''[[Airplane!]]'' features a main theme that sounds as if it belonged to an actual thriller.
* [[Catherine Tate]] in her almost cameo appearance in the [[Jack Black]] film ''[[Gulliver's Travels (2010 film)|Gulliver's Travels]]''. She gets very little to work with as the Queen, but she does her best to make it funny. Compare with [[Dull Surprise|Billy Connolly]], who's practically sleepwalking through the movie.
* ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' isn't ''bad'' but it is a film [[Starring Special Effects]] with less of an story and acting emphasis. However, Olivia Wilde gives a rather touching [[Skilled but Naive]] portrayal of her character Quorra, who could have easily ended up just another [[Shallow Love Interest]].
* Ciaran Hinds in ''[[Race to Witch Mountain]]''.
* [[Henry Fonda]] provides a heart-wrenching dramatic performance in, of all things, the ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' movie. It's not that his acting was bad, it was just out of place. Like he really thought this movie would win an Oscar. This is to contrast [[Alec Baldwin]]'s obnoxiously happy not-at-all-serious character and a teenage [[Mara Wilson]]'s lazy acting. As the Nostalgia Critic puts it so eloquently:
{{quote|'''NC''': (after HF's dramatic monologue) It's Thomas the fucking Tank Engine!}}
* [[Kate Beckinsale]] in the 2012 remake of ''[[Total Recall]]''. ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s J. F. Sargent lists it among [http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-amazing-performances-hiding-in-terrible-movies/ 5 Amazing Performances Hiding in Terrible Movies], calling her character's lack of [[Genre Blind]]ness in action sequences "the only thing that works in this whole movie".
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