Is Kristin Chenoweth just doomed to make bad movies?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:06pm

Four Christmases is getting ripped apart.
Deck the Halls?
RV?
Bewitched?

If I were her I would avoid any Christmas themed films, anything based on a TV show or anything with Robin Williams or Danny Devito.

[xoangel2789xo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:08pm

I thought Running with Scissors was okay, though she had a small part.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:09pm

I liked RV and Bewitched.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:15pm

I think Chenoweth is very talented and very overrated.

An actress she is not. A performer she is.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:23pm

she needs to come back to broadway...where she belongs

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 7:29pm

I really liked RV. Obviously it's not Shakespeare, but it made me laugh and that was the point.

[into_the_woods2]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:02pm

i think movies are just getting worse and worse these days...in the past thirty years there have been very few good movies, IMO

i love kristin to death. i think she is one of the most talented performers of today. however, her comedic skills work A LOT better on stage than in movies or television.

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:09pm

Spectacular on stage....depressing on film.

[sally1112]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:17pm

I think her problem is she takes any and every script that she is offered. It is ok to pass on a project, especially if it sucks.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:22pm

I think she's wonderful on Pushing Daisies (Emmy nomination) and got great press from her time on The West Wing. I know thats television, but its still film. Just sayin'.

I agree with the last poster, I think she just takes sucky scripts.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:39pm

Stranger than Fiction is great, but she had the tiniest part in it.
Bewitched, RV, and Deck the Halls were travesties. Especially Bewitched.

"Okay, so have I got the movie for you! You sitting down? We remake...Bewitched!"
"That old TV show?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
"Great! We'll cast Eric McCormack and Reese Witherspoon!"
"No, I was thinking Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman."
"Okay...go on..."
"Well, they bring back the old TV show, and they cast this actor as Darren."
"Wait, what?"
"And they cast this regular lady as Samantha, but she's really a witch!"
"What the **** are you talking about? I thought we were bringing back Bewitched?"
"Well, yeah! But we gotta make it hip and updated for the kids!"

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:44pm

I did not mean to imply that SHE is bad, and who could blame her for taking roles in movies with Kidman, Williams, etc., but Jesus just ain't sending her The Hours or Good Will Hunting...

[pli1018]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 8:54pm

Right, I don't think the problem is Chenoweth's skills as an actress, I think it's her choices. I will admit though when they announced she'd be playing Reese Witherspoon's sister, which I felt was spot-on casting, I was a little excited for Four Christmases. Then I saw the trailer. :)

[AStack75]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:06pm

Into Temptation is supposed to be a more serious role.
http://intotemptationthemovie.com/

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:09pm

What happened to the Dusty Springfield biopic she was going to do?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:10pm

I haven't seen FOUR CHRISTMASES but I was kinda looking forward to it. Plus, to be fair, this picture included five Oscar winners and I think the premise sounded interesting.
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS also sounded good on paper, not her fault it was a travesty, plus she was pretty good in it.
DECK THE HALLS, RV, BEWITCHED and PINK PANTHER are tragedies indeed but oh well. I still think she was hilarious in DECK THE HALLS regardless of how awful the actual film was.
It's interesting because on TV she is at the top of her game: ANNIE, WEST WING, and of course her best screen role PUSHING DAISIES.
Oh well, I think she is rather difficult to cast. She is not one of those actresses who can just transform themselves, but she is brilliant at what she does. I love seeing her on screen and on Broadway and hope one day she finds a GOOD film project.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:11pm

"Into Temptation is supposed to be a more serious role."



Seriously messy:

John Buerlein works the crossword while old women confess the sins of their husbands and the homeless sleep it off in quiet pews--just another day at St. Mary Magdalen’s Downtown Catholic Church where he is the overworked, underpaid pastor.

His shift is nearly over when a beautiful call girl enters, Linda, to confess a sin she hasn’t committed yet:

“I’m going to kill myself.  On my birthday.  And I’m Aries, Father, so I don’t have a lot of time.”

Then she disappears and Fr. John sets out to find her.  

Along the way he befriends an ex-prizefighter, a street-smart librarian, a renegade street-whore, an omniscient cab driver, and a moody pimp who quotes Robert Frost.  Together this ad-hoc congregation sets out to save a life…and possibly redeem their own.  

Fr. John is hit, hit-on, held at knife point, treated to a peep show, and informed by the archdiocese in no uncertain terms that his career is in jeopardy if he doesn’t cease and desist.  

Then his first love turns up after 20 years, as beautiful as ever, to tell him she is divorced and that she never stopped loving him.  He was her first.  She was his only.  Shockingly, John’s mother encourages the reunion.

When John emerges from his descent into the world of pornography and prostitution to stand again before his congregation, he is a profoundly changed man, as are the members of his church who now hang on his every word.

Updated On: 11/27/08 at 09:11 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:58pm

Other than her disastrous sitcom, she's been quite successful on TV. Emmy nominated for Pushing Daisies, and she was wonderful the last two seasons of The West Wing.

But, her films have been...not good choices. I was actually looking forward to seeing Four Christmases, because the premise sounded funny. I'll probably still see it.

I do agree that she is an enormous talent. I love her and think she's fantastic, but she definitely comes across the best onstage.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 10:03pm

She's just brilliant on Pushing Daisies, but here's the thing about movies: Most of them suck. Sad, but true - something like 80% of the films that get national distribution suck, and Kristin Chenoweth isn't high up enough on the showbiz totem pole to get offered the best of the best. We say her "choices" have been bad, but I doubt she's offered great premium stuff all the time and decides to go for the Four Christmases of the world instead. She's probably invited to audition for Four Christmases and five other things that are just as bad and has to go for the one that looks the most promising for whatever reason.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 10:32pm

wait...she was in Stranger Than Fiction?

wow I don't remember seeing her at all!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/28/08 at 12:26am

She was literally in it for like fifteen seconds. She's interviewing Karen Eiffel on the TV when Harold realizes it's her voice he's been hearing. And on the DVD they have a special of three or four extended scenes of Chenoweth's character.


I think she's a good actress when given the right material for her talents. PUSHING DAISIES is perfect for her. A mix of sweet, sour, and quirkiness. That in a nutshell is Chenoweth.

That INTO TEMPTATION thing looks like it will be forgotten before it's even remembered. She should just be a little more sensitive to the material she picks. Broad comedy she does well on stage. On film, not so much. Although I have to say she was actually pretty good in BEWITCHED (which was a mess. I remember leaving the theater thinking "wasn't that supposed to be a comedy...? I didn't laugh once.")

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/28/08 at 12:31am

Well she's a personality. She's known for being this cute little button full of energy. I don't think people would really buy her as this hardcore dramatic actress. But that said, there are plenty of GOOD comedies out there. I could see why "Four Christmases" would be a good film on paper, but sometimes things get lost in translation. I think she needs to go to some indie comedies and get some real acting under her belt - and I don't mean her singing voice.

[skb2010]

Posted: 11/28/08 at 12:35am

But she is amazing in Pushing Daisies.

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 11/28/08 at 12:37am

Chenoweth needs to join the cast of Mad Men now that the great show Pushing Daises is going off.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 11/28/08 at 1:00am

RV grossed 71 million and Bewitched grossed 62 million. While neither were art house fare, I'm sure they didn't dent her career the way genuine box office bombs do.