Posted by Neil at 209.245.186.87 on July 09, 2001 at 12:46:46:
In Reply to: Bad casting in VA flicks posted by *Andy the Fanboy* on July 09, 2001 at 01:36:26:
: Brian O'Halloran was a mediocre Dante../
I disagree. A number of people in CLERKS are clearly faking their way through their lines, but O'Halloran is clearly game the whole time. I actually have more problem with him in later cameos where he tends to be a little overcooked.
: Jeremy London, I really didnt like in Mallrats, and thought it coulda been better casted...
Definitely. Not many disagree there.
: But the one I *really* hated was Fiorentino in DOGMA. I find her to be a pretty horrible actress, particularly in this flick.
I've generally like her work, but she definitely struggled – in places – in DOGMA.
Ultimately, Kevin Smith writes awkward dialogue. It's one of those little secrets. Because the humorous bantering chatter about mundanity, it plays like what we like to remember our more mundane conversations to have sounded like.
Affleck is brilliant at reading it. Lee struggled in places in MALLRATS, but has nailed it in everything since then. Joey was very good at it. Rickman and Rock acquitted themselves quite nicely in DOGMA.
With CHASING AMY, he was able to hone down the cast to just proven readers, so it had easily the least difficulty with awkward performances.
In DOGMA, Matt is wonderful some of the time, but awkward others; Kevin is more over-the-top than usual, which works better some times than others; Linda struggles quite a bit… The idea of Janeane Garofolo is certainly intriguing, although she was oddly stiff in her scene, too.
Mewes is the only person whose performance in DOGMA really blew me out of my seat, though. He really rose way above the performances he's given before and reached an entirely new level. Hopefully he'll be given - and hopefully he'll take - the opportunity to move onto new things.