Horrible scripts rescued by great acting/directing?

[Buried Alien]

Which movie or scene from a movie has a script that, if read off a piece a paper, sounds absolutely *horrible*, but ended up working anyway because of excellent acting by the actors and skillful directing by the director?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

Big Trouble in Little China

[Thorlief]

well I guess BTILC is intentional

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
"Remus, my old friend. Have you taken your potion tonight?"

thank god for Oldman and Thewlis..and Cuaron, but it still made me cringe a bit

[Monkey]

Big Trouble in Little China

...to be fair, I think it's meant to be bad a bad script.

[founder81]

Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

(or maybe it did have a decent script and Kevin Costner's monotone acting brought it down)

[Jared_Humpherys]

Russell Crowe in "Virtuosity."

[Gargus]

Big Trouble in Little China

You considered that good acting? Id hate to see what you consider bad acting. But atleast big trouble had a more unique script than most movies that come out, between it and the style very few movies ever made like it. Id would have to say big trouble needed no saving, it was good on its own. Granted girl in trouble and such is pretty cliche it had enough twists and turns to the whole thing it stayed good.

But my pick has to be, die hard.

Terrorist bank robbers take over a building to heist money from a vault and off duty cop is there to foil the crime. Pretty lame on its own but mctiernan's directing was perfect for that movie and with willis, rickman and yes even gudonov they kept the characters interesting.

[Tobias March]

The Big Hit. It's spectacularly awful, yet Lou Diamond Philips and Mark Wahlberg seem to have great fun with it. If you enjoy this film it's almost like you're in on some strange joke shared by only a few people.

It's a ridiculously bad film though, but I love it :)

[HomerJay]

But my pick has to be, die hard.

Terrorist bank robbers take over a building to heist money from a vault and off duty cop is there to foil the crime. Pretty lame on its own but mctiernan's directing was perfect for that movie and with willis, rickman and yes even gudonov they kept the characters interesting.
GOOD ONE.
It's now legendary that it almost didn't get made because they couldn't find a lead. ALL the big action stars of the day turned down the role of McClane. They finally decided to take a chance on a TV actor and the rest is history.

With a different cast & director, it could have been a VERY different movie. If there was ever a movie where the strength is in the choices made by the performers, it's DIE HARD.

[SPAfreak]

The Big Hit. It's spectacularly awful, yet Lou Diamond Philips and Mark Wahlberg seem to have great fun with it. If you enjoy this film it's almost like you're in on some strange joke shared by only a few people.

It's a ridiculously bad film though, but I love it :)

Put me down for a fan. Bokeem Woodbine is great in the film as well.

Of course what do I know? I think Hudson Hawk is a masterpiece.

[GRANT!]

The first X-Men movie. I wouldn't say it's horrible but the plot was really silly, most of the characters were thing and it had some questionable dialouge. But there's some cool stylistic things Singer had and some great performances especially by Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen.

[berk]

The Big Hit. It's spectacularly awful, yet Lou Diamond Philips and Mark Wahlberg seem to have great fun with it. If you enjoy this film it's almost like you're in on some strange joke shared by only a few people.

It's a ridiculously bad film though, but I love it :)I thought it was really funny and, for the most part, intentionally so. It came off to me as an enjoyably energetic comedy inexplicably marketed as a straight action flick.

[Sean Whitmore]

The first X-Men movie. I wouldn't say it's horrible but the plot was really silly, most of the characters were thing and it had some questionable dialouge. But there's some cool stylistic things Singer had and some great performances especially by Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen.

I'd agree there, and go so far as to suggest that most comic-book movies are weakest in the script department, and live or die based on how well the actors inhabit the key roles.


SEAN

[GRANT!]

I'd agree there, and go so far as to suggest that most comic-book movies are weakest in the script department, and live or die based on how well the actors inhabit the key roles.


SEAN

Pretty much. I say X-Men managed to do more with not a lot.

[Magneto_X]

The Big Hit. It's spectacularly awful, yet Lou Diamond Philips and Mark Wahlberg seem to have great fun with it. If you enjoy this film it's almost like you're in on some strange joke shared by only a few people.

It's a ridiculously bad film though, but I love it :)

Same here.

For some reason it's cheesiness works.

The Chinese babe helps, too. :D

[Albert]

Terminator Not a horrible script, but alot of key scenes are without dialogue, making it largely a director's piece. Perhaps the same can be said for the first Conan as well.

[Tien Long]

Using Blade Trinity as a comparison, I would say that the first and second Blade movies were saved by their respective directors, Steve Norrington and Guillermo Del Toro. The style and the look of the first two made David Goyer's scripts work.