Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

I was thinking about movies with performances in some scenes that were meant to be serious or even scary, but are just funny to watch.


For example, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest had some over-the-top scenes that were intended to be serious but are so ridiculously melodramatic that they are just funny to watch...

Mommie Dearest: the "Pepsi board meeting" scene
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OKn00A40uWE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mommie Dearest: the "not one of your fans" scene
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqM1ttqNA9k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mommie Dearest: the "garden pruning" scene
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PtwRKtvezd8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mommie Dearest: the famous "wire hangers" scene
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tUkE9qaVgmo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Any other movies with unintentionally funny scenes? (And please link in video clips of the scenes if you can find them, or at least a description of the scene and why it is funny.)


[ NOTE: I did a search on this topic and found this old thread - LINK - but it limits the selection to just "good" movies, and I'm OK with movies that aren't necessarily good as long as the performance are unintentionally hilarious ]

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Always worth a revisit.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/if5eP3crl_4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Nick Cage .... any movie. (The Wicker Man being his masterpiece)

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

No Retreat No Surrender. The whole movie is funny.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Keanu and Winona in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Both just awful.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

The Anakin/Padme romance, especially the sand scene.

The Rocky/Apollo bromance on the beach in Rocky III.

Any scene where someone dies and another person screams NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Anytime Arnold opens his mouth. Get to the choppa! It's not a tumah!

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Was thinking the same thing.. along with the guy from "The Room" (already mentioned).

Plus that one Ryan O'Neal scene was pretty hilarious in whatever movie that was.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

I just watched that movie about a week ago (Tough Guys Don't Dance) Aside from that scene, there's also the "Must-Hear" southern-belle accents that John Bedford Lloyd and Debra Stipe deliver.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Robert DeNiro in Awakenings. You know the scene.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

The Happening - the whole movie

Everything in Revenge of the Sith.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Coppola's daughter final line in Godfather III... "Dad?" *dies*

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Delores Nascar in Epitaph (1988). Little seen zero budget female version of The Stepfather (1987) that was picked up and then re-released by Troma. Nascar only appeared in a couple of movies in the 80s and 90s, but her performance in Epitaph is her legacy, and it actually rivals Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford performance.
It is mind blowing "wow!" and unintentional hilarious the same time, and a huge favorite of mine.

Even though nominated for the Oscar, but Ben Kingsley's performance in House of Sand and Fog (2003) kills me. His breakdown near the end always has me in tears from laughter. But I guess I'm the only person on earth who thinks it is funny.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

What?! No...

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Rq-7zEVuwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Was going to mention Hayden's Star Wars prequel "performances" but Han beat me to it.

Are you talking only about "A" movies? There are quite a few gems among big-budget movies, of course...Brando specialized in them (Island of Dr. Moreau was particularly bad), but there are obviously all of the MST3000 wonders such as Joe Don Baker's classic turn as "Mitchell."

Pick almost any '50's or early 60's low-budget sci-fi movie & half the performances are ludicrous. Just saw "World Without End" in the wee hours last night/this morning on TCM...just looking at the little skullcaps worn by the "earthlings" in the 2020's is hilarious (along with their overwrought performances).

And the biker genre is rife with examples. If you're talking about well-known actors such as Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, etc., you can find lots of fun stuff that was supposed to be really disturbing back then.

One of the best/worst is Dennis Hopper in "Glory Stompers" (he says, "Man" in every line). Entire movie is on Youtube (link provided here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p661pI8CYtQ)...check out the action around 11:10 mark in which two bikers go to move a body...and, just after one accidentally trips over the body, the "body" lifts one arm to assist the guys carting him off into the weeds. Then there's the scary guy at the end of that scene wearing a Nazi helmet that is construction-worker-helmet yellow.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

I beat Han to it. I shot first! :(

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

I'm of the opinion that the performances in that movie were INTENTIONALLY bad. It's the only way to explain them.

So you did. I did not notice. Apologies.

The guy in the seat next to me actually got mad when I laughed at some particularly cringe-worthy dialogue.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eal4fep7pK4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uvmytj56Tck?list=RD9Rq-7zEVuwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Most white guys in any older Hong Kong kung fu movies or Japanese kaiju movies. I swear they just went out onto the streets of HK or Tokyo, grabbed the first white guy they found, put them in costume, and shoved a script with some slightly unnatural English dialogue in front of them and told them to read it.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

The movie that lead me to create this thread wasn't Mommie Dearest, it was being reminded of the 1998 horror movie Urban Legend. I liked the concept of a horror movie with a villain who kills based on famous urban legends... but Se7en, this is not.

And if you haven't seen this movie yet and are still worried about being "spoiled" on it, stop reading now and get around to watching the damn movie already!



As for everyone else...

All I can say is this: what the hell were they thinking with Rebecca Gayheart's performance?!!! Honestly!!!

I get that it was intended to be serious and scary and all that, but it didn't work at all - even way back then! On 1st viewing, I was thinking this is so over-the-top, that it's kind of funny.

And someone has put together a video highlighting its unintentional hilariousness:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NUNCo-qb84Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

Did somebody say Wicker Man?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Pe4GzksYI8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


(However, I do recommend the original '70s-era Wicker Man as a far better movie well worth seeing as an actual drama and not unintentional comedy)

In some cases, that is essentially what they did, from what I understand. I guess sometimes they'd literally just use tourists.

Re: Unintentionally Hilarious Performances
 

This is the best. :lol: