When I saw Don’t Worry Darling, I was pretty aware that the film I was watching wasn’t technically great.
But you know what? I’ll defend it to this day for Florence Pugh’s performance alone.
In a Reddit thread posted to r/movies, site user u/Desiderata_Darrieux wanted to hear about the exact inverse of that situation.
“Can a bad performance ruin a movie, and if yes, which one (and say why)?” they asked the forum recently.
Here are some of the most-upvoted responses:
1) “Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne in Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets.”
“They take what could and should have been last decade’s Fifth Element, and turn it into the World’s Most Miscast Movie Of All Time.” u/Data_Chandler
2) “Keanu Reeves in the 1992 Dracula.”
3) “Conor McGregor in the Road House [2024] remake.”
“I liked it for everything that it was, with the exception of whatever the Hell Conor McGregor’s character was supposed to be. The accent he used in it was honestly one of the worst takes on any sort of accent I’ve ever heard.” u/Wonkymofo
4) “Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven.”
There are things to love about that movie, but I dislike it, and that’s mostly because Bloom just sucks the energy out of every scene he’s in. His wistful, romantic style works when it works (Troy, PotC, LotR), but this is absolutely not his movie. Such a bummer because it looks so spectacular and so many other actors are absolutely killing it.And before anyone suggests: yes, I’ve watched the director’s cut. It’s still not a good movie.” u/ricmo
5) “André the Giant in The Princess Bride.”
“I mean, his acting is awful, but it’s impossible not to love him.” u/Kolermigon
6) “Casey Affleck in Interstellar.”
“For everything outside the recorded video messages, anyway. He was given total dog shit lines, a one-note character, a stand-in for a wife (with no lines), and a kid with two clearly ADR’d lines (including famously in my household, ‘the dust’), all inside a subplot with terribly undermatched stakes that reeks of rushed reshoots.
Love this movie, hate this whole part.” u/Keytars
7) “Jared Leto in House Of Gucci.”
“It’s not a great great movie but it would be taken seriously if Jared Leto didn’t play his role like he was auditioning for Super Mario Bros.” u/Desiderata_Darrieux
8) “I’m not usually one to dunk on Kristen Stewart but she was awful in Snow White and the Huntsman.”
“So wooden and boring.” u/Viviaana
9) “Tom Hanks in Elvis.”
“Great movie. Exciting. Ruined by a very poor Colonel. P.S. I love Tom Hanks as an actor. Everyone is allowed a mistake.” u/Lyzandia
10) “Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast.”
“It’s not like the movie was otherwise going to be a masterpiece, but the rest of the cast, the production values, and even a lot of the tweaks to the story were surprisingly great. And then you’ve got Emma Watson in there, who was very noticeably auto-tuned and who never really looks or acts like Belle, she just looks and acts like Emma Watson the whole time.” u/AegisToast
11) “It’s a classic example, but Sofia Coppola in The Godfather III.”
