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(Onion AV Club) Amusing The most overly distracting actors of our time. You're goddamned right Jim Carrey's on this list   (avclub.com) divider line 102
More: Amusing, humans, Jim Carrey, Robert Duvall, James Gandolfini, Al Pacino, Vincent D'Onofrio, Andrew Garfield, Philip Seymour Hoffman  
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8113 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 30 Jul 2010 at 8:43 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2010-07-30 05:14:31 PM
I like Jim Carrey, he may have picked all the wrong scripts this past decade, but at least he spaces his awful movies out to only one every year or so, as opposed to Will Ferrel who either stars in, or makes an appearance in, a lousy movie every three months.
 
2010-07-30 05:16:07 PM
 
2010-07-30 05:21:00 PM
Most really huge big name actors wind up in this category. There are exceptions...but after a while you just watch the movie and it's more like Tom Cruise pretending to be some guy rather than an actor playing a part.
 
2010-07-30 05:35:43 PM
Brendan Frasier has got to be one of the most annoying, terrifically awful actors of all-time. I would rather watch Keanu in a stupid chick flick then have to endure the shiatfestical that is Brendan Frasier's acting.

/ Recently caught Inkheart on Netflix
 
2010-07-30 05:45:26 PM
Al Pacino was great as Jack Kevorkian in "You Don't Know Jack."
 
2010-07-30 06:18:37 PM
"Hey, look at Mork terrorizing and killing people!"

I used to like Robin Williams.

Then I grew up.
 
2010-07-30 06:26:52 PM
You know who takes me out of every movie she's in? Drew Barrymore. And not in a good way. I know I'm not alone in finding her performance in Donnie Darko super-distracting-mostly because she's a really bad actress.

Hell. Go there. Now.
 
2010-07-30 06:27:06 PM
Adjective Bird Whiskey: Most really huge big name actors wind up in this category. There are exceptions...but after a while you just watch the movie and it's more like Tom Cruise pretending to be some guy rather than an actor playing a part.

Yep. Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Al Pacino all end up being hired to play themselves playing a character.

Some actors don't seem to have that issue- Brad Pitt, George Clooney tend to have some great range.
 
2010-07-30 06:28:43 PM
Have you ever seen any interviews with Jim Carrey or Robin Williams? They never farking sit still, they never shut up, they never let the person interviewing them finish a god damn question. I can't stand those mother farkers. All of their farking responses have to be "super funny" too, except they are painfully not funny. They have some good roles in a few films (in fact, I like their roles in dramas more than comedies -- for both of them, such as Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and One Hour Photo and What Dreams May Come, etc.), but in person they act just as moronic, if not more so, as they do in comedy films. fark it's annoying. That's how I really feel.
 
2010-07-30 06:31:04 PM
ignite ice: Have you ever seen any interviews with Jim Carrey or Robin Williams? They never farking sit still, they never shut up, they never let the person interviewing them finish a god damn question.

Cocaine's a helluva drug.
 
2010-07-30 06:32:04 PM
Andrew Garfield? Wasn't he one of those presidents between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt?
 
2010-07-30 06:38:37 PM
Pacino and Jackson can give astonishingly understated performances. You just have to see them on stage.

It's where the heavy acting chops show up.
 
2010-07-30 06:56:50 PM
T.M.S.: Pacino and Jackson can give astonishingly understated performances. You just have to see them on stage.

It's where the heavy acting chops show up.


Anyone who cannot get past Al Pacno as an actor and not a character has never seen Angels in America.
 
2010-07-30 07:23:01 PM
Julia Goddamned Roberts
 
2010-07-30 07:25:47 PM
I have felt this way about Sean Penn for a long time, and he very nearly overcame it in Milk. For a few moments during the film, I actually forgot I was watching Sean Penn.

I wouldn't have cast anyone besides Jim Carrey for The Truman Show for the simple reason that that movie is the only reason I can stand that guy at all. I loved that movie, and if he hadn't been in it, I would utterly hate him. He did a pretty convincing Riddler and that was about it.
 
2010-07-30 07:26:46 PM
Oh, and Ed Norton is coming dangerously close to this territory. He needs to try something different before he goes stale.
 
2010-07-30 07:49:08 PM
Tom Cruise is *that guy* for me. I can't watch anything he's in anymore, and I'll avoid it on purpose. "Tropic Thunder" is probably the only movie I've ever seen him in where he didn't annoy the piss out of me.
 
2010-07-30 08:04:51 PM
I agree with the inclusion of Sheb Wooley. Damn annoying.
 
2010-07-30 08:34:24 PM
oldebayer: T.M.S.: Pacino and Jackson can give astonishingly understated performances. You just have to see them on stage.

It's where the heavy acting chops show up.

Anyone who cannot get past Al Pacno as an actor and not a character has never seen Angels in America.


His Roy was exactly what that production needed. In many ways.

But it still allowed him to fall back on several of his "bag of tricks."

The best Cohn I ever saw was Jonathan Hadary. But I am biased.
 
2010-07-30 08:37:05 PM
Future additions to the list, if they take any roles in anything from here on out: Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn.

Only it won't be "I see Terry O'Quinn playing a character instead of just seeing that character," it'll be "That's Locke, dammit."
 
2010-07-30 08:55:28 PM
Robin Williams is so annoyingly distracting, I can't even stand to listen to him do voices in the animated movies my 5 year old insists on watching over and over. He completely ruins every scene of "Happy Feet" and "Robots" that he's in. He's a hyperactive attention whore who sucks all the oxygen out of the scene. Not to mention the fact that his alleged "improv" is all carefully prepped beforehand.

He reminds me of that embarrassing uncle that everybody has, the one who thinks he's really entertaining at family get-togethers, singing "funny" songs and fluffing card tricks, and eventually getting drunk, trying to steady himself on the mantelpiece and missing, and sliding along taking out all the knick-knacks and holiday cards before crashing to the floor and passing out.

downstairs: Some actors don't seem to have that issue- Brad Pitt, George Clooney tend to have some great range.

Brad Pitt? Seriously? I can't think of a single movie where he isn't playing "Brad Pitt, World's Sexiest Man", smirking to himself about how much the camera loves him -- double for any movie that co-stars Clooney, where they play "George and Brad, best buddies".
 
2010-07-30 08:59:50 PM
 
Boe
2010-07-30 09:04:00 PM
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was still a farking great movie.
 
2010-07-30 09:06:14 PM
Jeff Daniels. I can't help but see him with his big case of mud-butt from "Dumb and Dumber"
 
2010-07-30 09:15:10 PM
czetie: Robin Williams is so annoyingly distracting, I can't even stand to listen to him do voices in the animated movies my 5 year old insists on watching over and over. He completely ruins every scene of "Happy Feet" and "Robots" that he's in. He's a hyperactive attention whore who sucks all the oxygen out of the scene. Not to mention the fact that his alleged "improv" is all carefully prepped beforehand.

He reminds me of that embarrassing uncle that everybody has, the one who thinks he's really entertaining at family get-togethers, singing "funny" songs and fluffing card tricks, and eventually getting drunk, trying to steady himself on the mantelpiece and missing, and sliding along taking out all the knick-knacks and holiday cards before crashing to the floor and passing out.

downstairs: Some actors don't seem to have that issue- Brad Pitt, George Clooney tend to have some great range.

Brad Pitt? Seriously? I can't think of a single movie where he isn't playing "Brad Pitt, World's Sexiest Man", smirking to himself about how much the camera loves him -- double for any movie that co-stars Clooney, where they play "George and Brad, best buddies".


Robin Williams was pretty good in Birdcage. Except for his jazz hands scene.
 
2010-07-30 09:17:39 PM
Bill Murray.

What? Fark you, it is not treason to say so on Fark. Yeah, he's a comedy god, but his smarmy I'm-so-much-better-than-this,wtf-am-I-doing-here schtick is all over most of his films, and it gets distracting, ok?
 
2010-07-30 09:19:53 PM
TheShavingofOccam123: czetie: Robin Williams is so annoyingly distracting, I can't even stand to listen to him do voices in the animated movies my 5 year old insists on watching over and over. He completely ruins every scene of "Happy Feet" and "Robots" that he's in. He's a hyperactive attention whore who sucks all the oxygen out of the scene. Not to mention the fact that his alleged "improv" is all carefully prepped beforehand.

He reminds me of that embarrassing uncle that everybody has, the one who thinks he's really entertaining at family get-togethers, singing "funny" songs and fluffing card tricks, and eventually getting drunk, trying to steady himself on the mantelpiece and missing, and sliding along taking out all the knick-knacks and holiday cards before crashing to the floor and passing out.

downstairs: Some actors don't seem to have that issue- Brad Pitt, George Clooney tend to have some great range.

Brad Pitt? Seriously? I can't think of a single movie where he isn't playing "Brad Pitt, World's Sexiest Man", smirking to himself about how much the camera loves him -- double for any movie that co-stars Clooney, where they play "George and Brad, best buddies".

Robin Williams was pretty good in Birdcage. Except for his jazz hands scene.


He was also brilliant in World's Greatest Dad. It was a superb dark comedy.
 
2010-07-30 09:21:18 PM
TheShavingofOccam123: czetie: Robin Williams is so annoyingly distracting, I can't even stand to listen to him do voices in the animated movies my 5 year old insists on watching over and over. He completely ruins every scene of "Happy Feet" and "Robots" that he's in. He's a hyperactive attention whore who sucks all the oxygen out of the scene. Not to mention the fact that his alleged "improv" is all carefully prepped beforehand.

He reminds me of that embarrassing uncle that everybody has, the one who thinks he's really entertaining at family get-togethers, singing "funny" songs and fluffing card tricks, and eventually getting drunk, trying to steady himself on the mantelpiece and missing, and sliding along taking out all the knick-knacks and holiday cards before crashing to the floor and passing out.

downstairs: Some actors don't seem to have that issue- Brad Pitt, George Clooney tend to have some great range.

Brad Pitt? Seriously? I can't think of a single movie where he isn't playing "Brad Pitt, World's Sexiest Man", smirking to himself about how much the camera loves him -- double for any movie that co-stars Clooney, where they play "George and Brad, best buddies".

Robin Williams was pretty good in Birdcage. Except for his jazz hands scene.



He's always good in films where he plays it 'fruity'. I've never seen a hetero man do the ghey as often and naturally as he does. And yes, it has made me wonder, and he is one celeb that years from now I wouldn't be surprised to read in some unauthorised biography that he batted for both teams.
 
2010-07-30 09:21:57 PM
Although they are truly phenomenal actors, I can't watch a movie starring Gene Hackman or Sean Connery without thinking: "That's Gene Hackman/Sean Connery."

/I know, I know, suck it, Trebeck
 
2010-07-30 09:24:13 PM
Jimmy Devil Rocket Science: I have felt this way about Sean Penn for a long time, and he very nearly overcame it in Milk. For a few moments during the film, I actually forgot I was watching Sean Penn.

I wouldn't have cast anyone besides Jim Carrey for The Truman Show for the simple reason that that movie is the only reason I can stand that guy at all. I loved that movie, and if he hadn't been in it, I would utterly hate him. He did a pretty convincing Riddler and that was about it.


I think he nailed Andy Kaufman in Man in the Moon. That's the last time I was able to suspend disbelief with him.
 
2010-07-30 09:25:36 PM
GungFu: Bill Murray.

What? Fark you, it is not treason to say so on Fark. Yeah, he's a comedy god, but his smarmy I'm-so-much-better-than-this,wtf-am-I-doing-here schtick is all over most of his films, and it gets distracting, ok?


No, you're 100% right. The guy's a laugh riot, but you never, ever forget he's Bill Murray.

I especially agreed with the comment in the article about the Wire. Maybe it's because the show was so good or that almost all the actors were relatively unknown beforehand, but to my mind, they will always be those characters. Why is McNulty pretending to be an ancient Greek? Why is Stringer Bell an American army officer?
 
2010-07-30 09:27:54 PM
Jimmy Devil Rocket Science: Oh, and Ed Norton is coming dangerously close to this territory. He needs to try something different before he goes stale.

I think that is just his voice.
 
2010-07-30 09:28:25 PM
zato_ichi: Jeff Daniels. I can't help but see him with his big case of mud-butt from "Dumb and Dumber"

He was funnier on crutches in a house full of plants and bunting.

/everything good is obscure on fark
 
2010-07-30 09:29:53 PM
czetie: Brad Pitt? Seriously? I can't think of a single movie where he isn't playing "Brad Pitt, World's Sexiest Man", smirking to himself about how much the camera loves him -- double for any movie that co-stars Clooney, where they play "George and Brad, best buddies".

I dunno... Brad Pitt doesn't stick out as much as some of the other ones. Can't say I've seen everything he's done, but he was ok in 12 Monkeys and The Assassination of Jesse James. Not Oscar performance acting or anything but he certainly wasn't as jarringly obvious as anything Tom Cruise does.
 
2010-07-30 09:30:19 PM
TheShavingofOccam123: Robin Williams was pretty good in Birdcage. Except for his jazz hands scene.

He was also pretty good in Insomnia. Somehow, he and Pacino neutralized each other in that movie. Or maybe Christopher Nolan is an even greater genius than previously supposed.
 
2010-07-30 09:33:02 PM
Elzar: Brendan Frasier has got to be one of the most annoying, terrifically awful actors of all-time. I would rather watch Keanu in a stupid chick flick then have to endure the shiatfestical that is Brendan Frasier's acting.

/ Recently caught Inkheart on Netflix


I thought he was great in Gods and Monsters.
 
2010-07-30 09:34:03 PM
I didn't mind tom cruise until he farking went off the deep end irl. After that its all I can do to try not to think about the stupid shiat hes said about scientology.
 
2010-07-30 09:34:08 PM
Uncorrect: but he certainly wasn't as jarringly obvious as anything Tom Cruise does.

Yeah, I'll grant you Tom Cruise as World's Most Annoying Actor.

And Keanu Reeves is just two legs short of making a great dining table. He's the male Andie McDowell.
 
2010-07-30 09:34:56 PM
Elzar: Brendan Frasier has got to be one of the most annoying, terrifically awful actors of all-time. I would rather watch Keanu in a stupid chick flick then have to endure the shiatfestical that is Brendan Frasier's acting.

/ Recently caught Inkheart on Netflix


He was Ben and made Dr. Cox cry, goddammit!
 
2010-07-30 09:35:33 PM
ignite ice: Have you ever seen any interviews with Jim Carrey or Robin Williams? They never farking sit still, they never shut up, they never let the person interviewing them finish a god damn question. I can't stand those mother farkers. All of their farking responses have to be "super funny" too, except they are painfully not funny. They have some good roles in a few films (in fact, I like their roles in dramas more than comedies -- for both of them, such as Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and One Hour Photo and What Dreams May Come, etc.), but in person they act just as moronic, if not more so, as they do in comedy films. fark it's annoying. That's how I really feel.

Robin Williams' interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast was great. Completely different then any other interview with him I've heard. He's totally mellow and much more honest, particularly where he recounts a conversation with himself about whether to commit suicide or not.

Also, as to Brad Pitt...he's a guy who looks like a leading man, but I think he's much better at character actor roles, like in Snatch or 12 Monkeys.
 
2010-07-30 09:35:53 PM
Jim Carrey was great and not distracting in The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Majestic, and I Love You Phillip Morris.
Bill Murray can be I guess, but he is farking awesome so he can be Bill Murray all he wants.
 
2010-07-30 09:39:22 PM
bighasbeen: Julia Goddamned Roberts

This!!!!

I just don't understand how she can have a career. That vein in her forehead should get second billing.
 
2010-07-30 09:41:43 PM
Catran: bighasbeen: Julia Goddamned Roberts

This!!!!

I just don't understand how she can have a career. That vein in her forehead should get second billing.


The teeth would be soooo upset at that
 
2010-07-30 09:53:03 PM
i54.photobucket.com

Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing and some others were great, but these days all I see is Johnny Depp in his latest 'costume'.

Some of these actors bank on being the same persona, and people don't like or even want to see them 'act'.

Clint Eastwood comes to mind.
 
2010-07-30 09:56:12 PM
GungFu: Bill Murray.

What? Fark you, it is not treason to say so on Fark. Yeah, he's a comedy god, but his smarmy I'm-so-much-better-than-this,wtf-am-I-doing-here schtick is all over most of his films, and it gets distracting, ok?


Agreed. The only movie of his where I can convince myself that I'm not watching a guy named Bill Murray is Lost in Translation.

Seems to be a trend in this thread - comedians who play the same damn role in every movie except for dramas, which they're great in. I think it's more of a problem with the writers than the actors though, comedies seem to get written with specific actors in mind.
 
2010-07-30 09:58:46 PM
Reverend Otis: Clint Eastwood comes to mind.

Everyone I've ever known has made of me for not liking Clint. He's overacted a crotchety wanna-be tough guy in damn near everything he's done.
 
2010-07-30 10:00:13 PM
What - didn't you see the outtake scenes shown during the credits of Liar Liar?
Carrey overacted in all but 2-3 of the movies he was in, and he knows it, and he knows everyone else knows it, and he doesn't care.
Except for The Truman Show (maybe The Majestic too?), I can only remember one movie that he didn't intentionally constantly overact in, and "no one" saw it (The Number 23)... cheers
 
2010-07-30 10:00:21 PM
InternetLOL: comedies seem to get written with specific actors in mind.

They definitely do. I like Will Ferrel, but you don't get to see him act at all in most of his movies. He came off with a greater range on SNL imo. Then there was that serious film he was in, and he did great in it.
 
2010-07-30 10:01:23 PM
czetie: He's the male Andie McDowell.

I think that's my new, favorite insult.

\My old, favorite insult was "booger head." I like the classics.
\\Your profile cracked me up, btw.
 
2010-07-30 10:05:39 PM
Way too many farking words, not enough list type things.
 
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