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badaccents_061129.sPubDate = "12/19/2006 12:11:59 AM GMT";
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badaccents_061129.appFooter = "Patrick Enright is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in MSNBC.com, Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Movies.com and Seattle Weekly.";
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badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","","","http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badaccent_vmed_12p.small.jpg","","\"Blood Diamond\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Warner Bros.", "198", "132", "", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "For someone who burst into fame as the not-so-secret crush of legions of teenage girls, Leonardo DiCaprio has proved himself to be a pretty respectable actor over the years. This week, though, he faces a foe more daunting than a titanic iceberg: the foreign accent. In “Blood Diamond,” DiCaprio plays South African mercenary Danny Archer like a cross between Geoffrey Rush and Foghorn Leghorn: “What if I hilped you find your femly?” he whines. “Thet makes us pahtnehs.” In his failed attempt to sound like he’s straight outta Johannesburg, DiCaprio’s in good company — plenty of respectable actors have run afoul of dialects over the years. Hell, some have even won Oscars for them. So buck up, Leo, and take a look at some of the worst accents ever seen on movie screens:";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Ocean’s 11”","","http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_oceans11.small.jpg","","\"Ocean's 11\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Warner Bros.", "130", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
Kudos to George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh for remaking the dullest heist film in history — the 1960 movie is seriously just two hours of the Rat Pack swaggering through Vegas casinos and swigging drinks. Then again, the original has one big thing going for it over the 2001 remake: It’s missing Don Cheadle and his painfully bad Cockney accent. As explosives expert Basher Tarr, Cheadle drops H’s and spits ridiculous rhyming slang (“barney” = “trouble,” apparently) until you start to wonder whether he’s doing a bad accent or has a speech impediment. “Oll roight, chaps, ‘ang on to yah knickahs”? That hurts.
";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Scarface”","","http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_scarface.small.jpg","","\"Scarface\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Universal", "127", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
Al Pacino gets most of the attention in “Scarface,” which is fair enough. You can’t really top “Say hello to my leetle frien’!” or “I keel a comuniss for fun” for scenery-chewing. But honestly, Pacino’s Cuban accent ain’t half bad. The real miscreant here is Robert Loggia, who plays the doomed Frank Lopez like a deranged Speedy Gonzalez. Of course, pretty much everyone in this thing is doomed in one way or another — hello, chainsaw! — but Frank’s death is the only one that’s sweet, sweet music to the ears.
";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Quiz Show”","","http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_quizshow.small.jpg","","\"Quiz Show\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Buena Vista Pictures ", "130", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
It’s not just overseas dialects that can be challenging; even the homegrown ones can trip up the tongue. Case in point: Rob Morrow’s bad Boston accent in this otherwise impeccably crafted and acted tale of the real-life TV game-show scandals of the ‘50s. As the ambitious young investigator digging up dirt on two contestants, played by John Turturro and Ralph Fiennes, Morrow flattens his intonation until he sounds like a stereotype of a stereotype. Paak yer caa in Haavad yaad, indeed.";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes”","","http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_greystoke.small.jpg","","\"Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "", "139", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
Let it never be said that Andie MacDowell is a good actress. In her movie debut, the cosmetics model hit an all-time low: Her British accent was so thoroughly, resoundingly off-kilter that the filmmakers had to bring in Glenn Close to overdub her entire dialogue. That makes MacDowell’s “performance” the only bad accent here never actually to be heard by audiences. Bonus awful-accent footnote: Christopher Lambert stars as Tarzan. That’s the same Christopher Lambert who appears in all 37 “Highlander” movies as Scotsman Connor MacLeod and never once manages a convincing brogue.";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Mary Poppins”","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_poppins.small.jpg","","\"Mary Poppins\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Buena Vista Pictures", "136", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
It may be a jolly holiday with Mary, but not even a fistful of sugar can make Dick Van Dyke’s laughable Cockney accent go down easier. As Bert, the jolly chimney sweep with whom the magical nanny swans about, Van Dyke’s enunciation rivals Don Cheadle’s for awfulness. It’s so notoriously bad, in fact, that in the United Kingdom, the phrase “a Dick Van Dyke accent” is often used to describe an American actor who tries and fails to sound British. And yet Van Dyke still reportedly considers the role his most memorable performance. It sure is, Dick, but not for the reasons you think. ";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“The Untouchables”","","http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_untouchables.small.jpg","","\"The Untouchables\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Paramount Pictures", "159", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
When casting his otherwise excellent Prohibition-era mob drama, director Brian De Palma must not have cared too much about dialect accuracy. If he had, he wouldn’t have given the Cuban-born Andy Garcia the role of Italian-American sharpshooter George Stone, aka Giuseppe Petri, or Scotsman Sean Connery that of Irish cop Jim Malone. But while Garcia acquits himself remarkably well, Connery sounds straight from Edinburgh rather than Dublin. No matter; like Vivien Leigh, Connery won an Oscar (his only one) for his performance, despite his accent. Apparently Academy voters aren’t all that discerning either. ";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Gone With the Wind”","","http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_gonewithwind.small.jpg","","\"Gone with the Wind\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "MGM", "148", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
In some quarters, criticizing a universally acclaimed, multiple Academy Award-winning classic would get you ridden out of town on a rail or slapped in the face with a glove and challenged to pistols at dawn. Journalistic duty, however, requires the calling out of one Miss Vivien Leigh, who won an Oscar for portraying Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara, even though she sounded more like she was from poshest London than from a Georgia plantation. True, a lot of early Hollywood actors had a touch of the British, but Scarlett deserved to have her Green Card revoked.";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Bram Stoker's Dracula”","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_dracula.small.jpg","","\"Bram Stoker's Dracula\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Sony Pictures", "112", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version of the classic vampire tale is a decadent, sprawling mess, entertaining chiefly for Tom Waits’ over-the-top Renfield, Gary Oldman’s hilarious hair and a ton of bad, bad pronunciation. Uberdude Keanu Reeves is his usual wooden, one-dimensional self, conveying a British accent about as well as he conveys emotions such as happiness and fear, and Winona Ryder is similarly linguistically challenged as bloodsucker bait Mina. And then there’s Oldman himself, with a hilarious Trrrransylvahnian lilt to his English.";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”","","http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_robinhood.small.jpg","","\"Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Warner Bros.", "198", "166", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
Here’s an interesting one: the only bad accent that isn’t an accent at all. In his turn as the legendary British outlaw, Kevin Costner appeared to make no effort whatsoever to sound like he was from the forests of Nottinghamshire — this fella is 100 percent pure, unadulterated American, an inconsistency that is particularly notable when Costner faces off with the Sheriff of Nottingham, portrayed hilariously by Brit Alan Rickman. Let’s face it, when Mel Brooks takes a dig at you (in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” Cary Elwes’ Robin quips that he’ll be taken seriously because, “unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent\"), you know it’s time to call the dialect coach. As an added twist, the indefatigable Sean Connery reappears, Scottish brogue and all, to play the king of England. Huh? ";
badaccents_061129[i++] = new Array("","“The Last Temptation of Christ”","","http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061129/061129_badccents_lasttemptation.small.jpg","","\"Last Temptation of Christ\"", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "Universal", "183", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
badaccents_061129[i-1].body = "
All of the above acting missteps pale in comparison to Harvey Keitel’s truly catastrophic accent failure in Martin Scorsese’s controversial tale of the life of Jesus. Keitel stars opposite Willem Dafoe’s Christ as Judas, but this Judas is apparently from the meanest streets of Brooklyn. \"Dat can't be,\" Keitel moans. \"If yoah da Messiah, why d'ya hafta die?\" On the one hand, it's oddly fitting that biblical bad boy Judas has a thuggish vibe. On the other hand, it's just bad, bad acting.
";
// END editorial data