MovieChat Forums > The Amityville Horror (1979) Discussion > James Brolin was awful. awful, awful

James Brolin was awful. awful, awful


James Brolins performance here is one of the worst performances i have ever seen! I ve heard he attacked Margot cause of her method acting?? WOW now i understand why his performance was, instead of a Jack Nicholson-The Shining type of a performance, was a wooden, awkward, over the top and annoying one(i had a feeling like he thought when he did those scenes LOOK AT ME IM ACTING). Again since this is a typical haunted house horror film his character was supposed to get more frightening and haunting as the days in the story went by(again like Nicholson in Shining), instead he was unconvincing and very irritating with his same LOOK AT ME IM SCARY face that he kept from the second day already(LOL) till the end of the movie, without changing it a bit. He also had 0 chemistry with his wife and children(at the beginning). Another more professional actor would have done miracles with this underwritten part/character. Again a very laughable performance that includes such an obvious, over the top acting that for an example children in amateur high school plays are using. Margot on the other hand saved the day and was very convincing at times, as she used as much as she could of her screentime to actually show her characters depth. I guess its No question why Margot overshadowed Brolin with her performance.

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I was responding to OP.

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I thought he was fine considering the given script and storyline.

What would have made his performance better to you?

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I liked both of them. Brolin's transformation into a raging madman was amusing.

-Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come

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Yep, even he thinks so. He stopped short of admitting it but strongly implied on the interview on the DVD that he was terrible, I agree with him.

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He's a cool 70s dude.

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I don't think he was that bad.

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The whole movie is awful.

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I thought the acting was all right.

I saw interviews with Brolin and Kidder and they had trouble taking the whole thing seriously. They didn't find the Lutz's story believable. I guess the studio wanted them to make up some stories about strange things happening on set to promote the movie so one of them talked about a jacket falling off a chair on its own.

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Lol! If that happens it's because you didn't hang the jacket on the chair right.

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