10 Worst Casting Choices Ever

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@perfect_storm: I agree with you on everything, and I admit that Dracula was Reeves' worst performance in his career. And you have it completely right that Keanu's forte isn't reciting lines. And you do know his perfectionism well... You're British? *puts hands up* Alright, I'll take your word for it. :) I apologize for the earlier sarcasm; it's just that I've seen "deer in headlights" and "surfer dude persona" and "wood" in so many pointless media snowballs against Keanu that eventually I just start looking at things a little too cynically. Keanu Reeves admits himself that he was under stress at the time and didn't give his best performance, so I'll go with what he says. :) @finkster: I'll consider the option.

Um, bobtheclarinet? I love Keanu Reeves. Honest, I do. I think he can at times turn in fabulous performances, and even when he's dire (he wasn't great near the end of Sweet November, for example) there are often islands within those movies that make you think, hmm, in another role he could be excellent (the restaurant scene, with the asshat putative boss? He rocked). But the accent in Dracula was shockingly bad. I'm a Brit. Trust me, I know. It wasn't in any way okay. He's a superb physical actor, and manages to move quite differently in different roles, when a lot of actors are dead from the neck down. And I think he's underrated in terms of ability to facially emote, too; he's subtle and restrained, but he acts with the eyes which is rarer than it should be, and really effective... to anyone not preferring scenery-chewing. BUT - and it's a big but - his vocal delivery is ofte sorely lacking. His line delivery is often very, very wooden. The sad thing is that the major Brit theatres have specialists who voice-train their actors intensively, and bring out all the nuance, range and timbre possible. Brian Blessed wasn't born with that voice, it was RSC developed. And Keanu Reeves is universally described as being a perfectionist workaholic, so if they got their hands on him I imagine it could be resolved, or at any rate hugely improved. But they haven't, and unless he is well aligned with a role, or given near-unlimited takes as with the Matrix movies, that line delivery will let him down over and over again. If you hear him in an interview when he's interested, and then see him in a movie where he's not well cast, the lack of animation in his voice when acting is even more apparent. Like I say, I love the guy when he's done good work. But pretending he doesn't do awful work is pointless.

I don't have any problem with these guys in their roles. All the crap above is just non-applicable. I haven't seen anybody else in those roles so I can't compare. I'm the dubbed Czech Hollywood Warrior Priest from Serious Entertainment. God bless, Satan caress.