I haven’t seen him in a lot of things, but he was in one of the Mission Impossible movies and I liked him there as well.
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Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke in Terminator Genisys.
He’s way too buff to come from a future dominated by machines, and she’s like a whiny cosplayer with Daddy abandonment issues.
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Let me preface my post by saying that Rob Paulsen is a veritable titan of voice acting. He’s brought rich life to so many beloved characters- Pinky of Pinky & The Brain, Wakko Warner, Morte from Planescape: Torment, and those are just 3 off the top of my head.
Having said that, when he took over as Arthur on The Tick, something just never clicked. It was a serviceable performance, but it just lacked the heart that Mickey Dolenz brought to the table.
Similarly, John Astin as the Riddler on the 1966 Batman TV series. Again, out of context, he was fine. Following Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, though?
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A few I haven’t seen mentioned yet…
Brandon Routh as Superman in Superman Returns. May be another case of the direction of the role, rather than the actor, sucking. Brandon Routh should have been a good Superman, he certainly looks the part, but the demeanor was all wrong. There have honestly been several lackluster portrayals of Superman, but this was the first big screen portrayal after Christopher Reeve, and it fell well short of that legacy.
Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in the Psycho reboot/reshoot. This movie was just a bad idea, and there is really no one they could have cast as Norman Bates that would have saved it. But still Vince Vaughn?
Sam Rockwell as the father in the Poltergeist reboot. For some reason, like Jeremy Renner, Hollywood was really trying to make Sam Rockwell happen for a good decade or so. I don’t find Rockwell nearly as likable as Renner, however, and he comes nowhere close the the performance by Craig T Nelson in the original.
Jesse Eisenburg as Lex Luthor in Batman v. Superman. I get that some people think that Mark Zuckerberg is an evil supervillain, but Lex Luthor he is not. Not sure why Eisenberg chose to play the same role in both films. Worse than Keven Spacey even in Superman Returns.
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Kath Soucie’s Jeanine in the Q5 era of Real Ghostbusters. Feels like an entirely different character. I don’t mind Soucie as a voice actress, but this choice didn’t really work. Also, oddly motherly.
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Clancy Brown was the best Lex Luthor.
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The idea is to cast Bradley Cooper as Frank Bullitt in Spielberg’s remake of Bullitt, and…
[exhales sharply, winces]
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I… can’t… even…
No… words…
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So, I have an entry, but for a TV show. The show, American Housewife had a great cast, with the youngest, Anna-Kat, stealing scenes and getting some great lines.
Alas, Tarantino took her for a movie project, and they recast her and the show went downhill rather quickly from there. Just selfish of me, of course…
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Great thread 
The only time I’ve been truly horrified by a new cast was in the 2012 remake of Total Recall. Colin Farrell instead of Arnold… Kate Beckinsale instead of Sharon Stone… Jessica Biel instead of Rachel Ticotin… and no Michael Ironside?!? lol. That was really tough for me.
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I had the exact same reaction to Chris Pratt replacing Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones years ago. I’m happy that was brushed away. But could that have worked? Probably. Should it work? That’s the question. We get so attached to the past we make it hard on ourselves to permit change to anything we hold dear. Only James Bond can be recast. It seems. Everything else is an uphill climb and the longer it goes and the more we become accustomed the harder the acceptance.
Expressing that not everything ought to be remade either. It’s situational. The right talent and the right director gives me pause to wait and see the outcome. Steven Spielberg directing Bullitt is one of those times. He has earned my respect enough to see where it goes. Spielberg loves the past and knowing him I can’t imagine Spielberg attempting anything he wasn’t fairly confident he could achieve. Bradley Cooper is a fine actor and disappears into a role. What trips one up is the specter of McQueen. He’s a legend and I love him. But sometimes you have to go for it. Anyone remember Damian Lewis in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)? He nailed playing Steve. So it is possible to step into those shoes.
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Well Spielberg did direct the West Side Story remake, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Bullitt goes the way of his WSS. As a huge fan of the original Broadway show and 1961 film, I haven’t and have zero intentions of watching the Spielberg remake. Even with Rita Moreno as a different character, there are just some things that shouldn’t be remade no matter who’s directing it.
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There is and always will be only one Jim Phelps, and he is not and never was a traitor.
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I really enjoy the Mission Impossible movies, but I didn’t like how they moved into them in the first movie, either. I get the need to pass the torch as it were, but they didn’t need to tear the original character down to do it.
That’s a disappointing trend actually with many reboots and remakes.
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I did enjoy what they did with The Man from UNCLE - even though Ilya was almost completely different, it worked, and Henry Cavill captured Napoleon Solo so perfectly.
I think it takes a delicate touch and love for the original to make a good reboot or adaptation. Trouble is, so many don’t have that love.
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Would you call J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) that or not? I hear love and dislike on it so strongly I don’t know where people stand. Many at the time thought the Abrams reboot was successful.
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I still haven’t seen any of the rebooted Star Trek movies…
I’ve heard mixed reviews as well, just haven’t gotten around to seeing them.
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I like to point this out, because I heard the words come out of his mouth in person: He didn’t want to keep playing Bond because he thought it would hurt his chances with the ladies. He thought he was going to go to Italy and get a million dollars a picture for…IDK…Spaghetti Westerns?
After his recent accident, he’s a shoo-in for a Pirates of the Carribbean reboot. (Too soon?)
I find Renner off-putting in a lot of cases. Like a lot of people here, apparently, he doesn’t strike me as a charismatic leading man. That said, he was just terrific in Wind River as was (fellow Marvel alumnus) Elizabeth Olson.
I also feel that way about Robbie. She’s good in Babylon, though, and almost manages to not slip into her Aussie accident (playing more-or-less Clara Bow).
But I do feel like people are insisting on her.
Conor at Rifftrax described a similar situation with Amanda Seyfried. Not that that had anything against her but there was this constant barrage of media about how beautiful and amazing she was, to the point where whenever they’d see her in anything they’d go “Amanda Seyfried? Ewwwwwww!”
Not all PR is good PR, no matter what they say.
Wow, deep cut. I kinda agree, tho’ both with how great Paulsen was and how Dolenz had something special.
Dang, I really feel like I’m among my people…
For some definition of “worked”, no doubt. Harrison Ford is a type we don’t have much any more. (Maybe we can’t?) Even back in the day, he was kind of an anachronism, a guy very much in the mold of a Bogart, a Lancaster—oh, like Bruce Willis, for another latter-day example.
Hard-boiled personality, tough and wiry (as opposed to swole), attractive to and attracted to ladies but not a sap about it, not quick to violence but not afraid of it, can take a punch but it hurts… Even if Pratt could pull it off, what vehicle would allow him to express it?
Can we make an Indy movie in the 2020s that will have any of the feel of the ones from the '80s? I don’t think so.
That’s because it’s a fun movie and a cute homage and also the death knell of Star Trek as a movie property.
Forgetting the matter of quality (you kinda have to), Star Trek was about ideas, personalities, poor command choices, and space battles that are more naval than the dogfights that Wars made popular.
J.J.'s movie was “we can make Star Trek like the Apple-designed version of Star Wars”. Who needs it?
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You’re missing out. Spielberg’s West Side Story is brilliant, especially considering it’s his first time out directing a musical. Ariana DeBose was great as Anita, and Mike Faist as Riff got robbed of the Oscar. He sometimes gets a little too dynamic with the camera rather than letting the dance number carry the scene, but overall he’s just as deft at his craft as always.
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Agreed. You couldn’t continue successfully on that tact. As evidenced by the dip of quality and increased predictability of each ensuing sequel in that mold. Once Abrams abandoned ship for Star Wars, the problems multiplied and it became a parody of its former self. Which is why the movie franchise is currently dead at the moment.
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