Twitch-O-Meter: When Oscar Goes Bad.

Jeremy Irons
Mr. Irons, come on down!  Jeremy Irons won in 1990 for Reversal of Fortune.  The man has an impressive body of work to his name both before and since, with even his commercial pay check roles generally being memorable, as was the case with his part in Die Hard: With A Vengeance.  And yet ... there he is in Dungeons and Dragons, the 2000 adaptation of the classic role playing game that stands, quite simply, as one of the worst films ever made.  It’s unbearable stuff and Irons himself is truly horrible in it.  Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy, what were you thinking?

Ben Kingsley
One of these things is not like the others:  Gandhi.  Bugsy.  Schindler’s List.  Sexy Beast.  BloodRayne.  At least Sir Ben’s honest about what’s going on when he goes slumming.  The man had a pool to pay for, don’t you know?

Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage has always had a sort of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on, the man basically being either spectacularly good or absolutely, truly wretched throughout his entire career.  Thing is before winning the Oscar in ‘95 for Leaving Las Vegas he tended to make more interesting choices, seeking out the quirky independents where he generally shines, whereas post-Oscar he’s obviously started viewing himself as a movie star and tended to follow the big pay days, leading to more poor role choices and more bad Nic than good.  Cage is astonishingly bad in Kiss of Death - which I paid full theater price to pay - but that also released in ‘95, which means he hadn’t won anything yet and therefore it doesn’t qualify for this list.  Of the stuff that does qualify I’ll cast my vote for The Wicker Man though all signs are the remake of Bangkok Dangerous will be cleaning up come Razzie-time.  Maybe he should just stay away from the remakes ...

Jon Voight
Angelina’s daddy’s made a LOT of films since winning the Oscar for ‘78’s Coming Home and most of them are really quite good but, as is the case with Irons, when he makes a bad one it’s spectacularly bad, though usually entertainingly so.  Anaconda‘s the winner here, though it certainly falls into the so-bad-it’s-good category, and I hereby submit that whoever told Voight that he should make the Bratz movie should be fired immediately.  And then kicked in the nuts.

Tom Hanks’ hair
I submit the following for your consideration: 
In 1993 Tom Hanks shaves his head and wins an Oscar for Philadelphia.
In 1994 Tom Hanks shaves his head and wins an Oscar for Forrest Gump.
In 1998 Tom Hanks shaves his head and is nominated for an Oscar for Saving Private Ryan.
In 2006 people can’t figure out why The Davinci Code failed to rake in buckets of cash and awards.  It was the hair, man!  The hair!  Hanks’ power is inversely proportional to the length of his hair!