The first problem was most people didn’t think a Carrie remake was necessary, but of course, this is Hollywood – they think we’re goldfish the way they remake things. The other problem with the remake was the lead actress, CGM, who is beautiful. Yes, for this film, that’s a knock. In King’s original – and first – novel, Carrie is a doughy, pasty, stringy-haired, pimply outcast who is bullied relentlessly.
Moretz is pretty, has beautiful gold curls, and seems more like a bully than the bullied. She may be able to act awkward, but it just doesn’t strike right, even after the pig blood falls.
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is one of the iconic comic book villains, up there with the Joker and Magneto. Plenty of people were hoping for a powerful actor who has already been stunned as a bald villain – like Bryan Cranston in "Breaking Bad" when he says, "I am the one who knocks" – but instead, we got Jesse Eisenberg. He's certainly not a bad actor, looking at his previous outings, but he just didn't have the power to play this unforgettable villain.
Superman's arch-nemesis needs more, and Eisenberg just didn't have it in him. Many found his character too manic, too loud, and too wild for what a good Luther should be – a little bit too close to the Joker for a lot of people's liking.
Johnny Depp as Tonto in The Lone Ranger
Nothing beats Johnny Depp as an interesting character, but this casting choice was a bit too interesting for most people. "The Lone Ranger" was a huge box office bomb for Disney, losing almost two hundred million dollars, and Depp's casting was a primary issue. Tonto is a Native American character, and it would have been a great way for a Native American actor to show his skills. Instead, we got Captain Sparrow – and his costume for the film also raised some eyebrows.
Depp's acting wasn't the problem, but his "redface" is the leading storyline when most people talk about this movie.
John Cusack as Richard Nixon in The Butler
John Cusack is quirky, lovable, and pudgy, which is why he's cast as the romantic lead in rom-coms like "Say Anything" or "High Fidelity." But casting him as one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history was a big misstep for the casting directors of "The Butler," which features him in a terrible prosthetic nose which distracts from everything else on the screen and neither looks nor sounds anything like the thirty-seventh president.
Lee Daniels directed "The Butler," and he also miscasts Cusack as a murderous maniac in another one of his films, "The Paperboy."
Keanu Reeves as Johnathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Keanu Reeves has had some bad performances to his name, but let's forget about "Point Break" for now. We're talking about Bram Stoker's "Dracula," directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola is certainly not a slouch at picking the perfect actors, and as beloved as Reeves is now, this was a misstep. Johnathon Harker is an Englishman, and Reeves is not, which led to a stilted and unnatural accent out of the actor.
Coppola has said that he wanted to do it perfectly and focused too hard, so the accent became unreal. He also had unnatural reactions and affectations.