What's the worst Melanie Griffith movie?

I nominate "Shadow of Doubt" (1998). Directed by Randall Kleiser (Grease, The Blue Lagoon) and co-starring Hewy Lewis. Yes, Hewy Lewis. She plays Kitt Devareaux, a high-priced lawyer, stomping around the courtroom in heels and throwing off barbs in her best baby voice.

Cherry 2000 is pretty awful.

The godawful film version of Bonfire of the Vanities has to be in the top ten.

The year after was Another Day in paradise which she was genius in.

It's Huey Lewis.

And I nominate A Stranger Among Us, in which Melanie plays a hard as nails cop who pretends to be an Hasidic Jew. She's miscast TWICE in the same damn movie!

Cecil B. Demented was a misfire.

Except for Working Girl, all of them.

What's the one during WWII with Michael Douglas?

Even in Working Girl her voice was just not right for someone discussing acquisitions and mergers.

That Hasidic Jew movie just made no sense at all.

R7 - Welcome, Helen Keller. Tess's Staten Island girly accent was a semi major plot point. I guess being deaf blind and dumb, you could sense that, and an idiot described the movie poorly to you.

Was Griffith a one hit wonder?

Shining Through, in which we’re asked to believe she’s an Allied spy in WWII Berlin.

Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" was great. I thought "Milk Money" was awful.

Listen, the woman doesn't have a whole lot of range ...

That's like asking which child do I hate more.

Is this THE annual thread on this topic, or is it semi-annual now?

Melanie gave excellent performances in four outstanding films: Night Moves, Body Double, Something Wild, and Working Girl.

She's also starred in many duds. I think her worst was the pointless, laugh-free remake of Born Yesterday.

I liked her in Pacific Heights.

When discussing Melanie Griffith's filmography, it does make more sense to discuss her successes rather than her failures, lol. She has a lot of entries to vie for the title to answer OP's question.

Is it one of the most infamous bombs of all time, Bonfire of the Vanities? Is it Shining Through, where she was cast to play a WWII-era Jew who speaks fluent German with the accent of a "Berlin butcher's wife"? I dunno.

I think Griffith is a limited actress who was perfectly cast in Working Girl and knocked it out of the park. She has an undeniable vulnerability and flirty spirit that works well on camera. She was also quite good in Something Wild and Body Double. I think with capable directors (Mike Nichols, Jonathan Demme, Brian De Palma) in interesting ventures, there was a certain magic. She looks fun in Cecil B. Demented. I think a pairing with David Lynch would be interesting.

She was a real one note actress

Nah R9, she sounded like a burbling baby.

She tried to be a leading lady after the Oscar nom and spent a good 5 years trying. She could’ve had a solid career as a character actress/supporting player during that time. I liked her in nobody’s fool, now and then and another day in paradise.

Mel made mostly terrible films. I love her. Cherry 2000 is one of my favorite bad movies to watch, completely ridiculous. Automata is bad too, I will watch it when its on TV.

Anyone who hasn't seen BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES needs to check it out. It's awful but totally entertaining. Its the kind of bad movie that can only be made by an incredibly talented filmmaker

Her Tess character would have been more convincing if she'd had Cyn's accent.

remember she worked with woody allen in celebrity.

Lots of people have an issue with Griffith's voice in Working Girl, so I'm not surprised to see that in this thread. The actress herself couldn't do much about it, as she isn't a vocal chameleon.

Nichols was making a big-budget rom-com. He also professed that Working Girl was essentially an "immigrant story." He needed to first cast someone young, attractive, and sexy, who could also exist in this movie version of the corporate world. She was essentially starting from the ground-up in an environment dominated by generations of white men, so it makes sense that there was a "little girl" aspect to Tess. It made her look even more like a fish out of water (which she was). I appreciated the subtle vocal distinction Griffith made from her version of Staten Island to being more "professional." Griffith owned the screen and was so much fun to watch. It was a star-turn and a deserved Oscar nom. Depending on my mood, I might even give her the win (her or Glenn Close). I'm a sucker for rom-coms and comedies.

I think Colin Higgins (he wrote Harold & Maude and wrote/directed 9 to 5, Foul Play, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) could have done a lot with Griffith as well. Sadly, he died of AIDS in 1988 (right before Working Girl came out). We lost a lot of gay male directors of that era who didn't get to fully realise their potential and share their riches with the public. Emile Ardolino (Dirty Dancing, Sister Act) would be another.

Also, I'm hoping the "who would you have cast" poster will do a poll for Tess McGill? I'm curious who others thought could play the role at the time (I just can't imagine anyone other than Griffith). Her TV counterpart Sandra Bullock hadn't even made a feature yet and was probably too young. Kathleen Turner would have been fun I suppose. but wouldn't have had Griffith's sweet "innocence" or naivety.

I'd love to hang out with Melanie Griffith and Jamie Lee Curtis one night. That would be fun.

She could have played the Sharon Stone character in Casino. It might have re-energized her career. She seems like a good person IRL so I hope she finds another great film one day.

I thought she was also good in a tearjerker I sort of liked called Paradise with Don Johnson. They play a grieving couple and she is surprising effective in it.

she had her plastic surgery reversed and looked much better but hasn't seemed to capitalize on it for film. On paper the remake of Born Yesterday should have worked, except that Don J is no William Holden. i'm no fan of Judy Holliday - i find a little of her goes a long way - but since Melanie seemed to be channelling her anyway ... but alas it was another stinker.

She was always so cute, and seems like a sweetheart. Sad she did so many crazy things to her face.

How could you narrow it down to just one?

I just watched the trailer for Paradise. Both of them are pretty at the time, 1991. And Elijah Wood was cute, too.

r26 Emile Ardolino directed her in the completely useless BORN YESTERDAY. Still dont know why that movie got made

The only consistently worse actress from that era was Rebecca DeMornay. Try watching The Slugger's Wife.

She was married to both Don Johnson and Steven Bauer (when they were still young and beautiful), so she's gotten more good dick than most people get in a lifetime.

Thank you, Helen Keller at R35. (Helen has completely overlooked this husband. I guess not a young and good looking?)

R33 Computer says "no."

R27, that thought crossed my mind whilst making my last post, but I didn't think anyone would agree. Thank you for writing that!

Any movie with young Tom Beringer is worth watching.

Steven was HAF

I always thought Bandeiras was pretty meh.

r34 Rebecca DeMornay is a good actress. Slugger's Wife is not representative of what she can do.

I love Melanie Griffith. She starred in a lot of duds, and as others have pointed out, she spent the years after Working Girl trying to be an A-List star when she works best in quirky roles and character roles. She's not a conventional leading lady. I admit, though, that I kind of love Shining Through. It's preposterous but the last 30 minutes are really suspenseful.

She's great in Body Double, Something Wild, Stormy Mondy, Paradise and, of course, Working Girl.

*Monday

I think I'm the only person who likes her tiny voice.

My favorite line reading from A Stranger Among Us is when she says in her little voice, "My grandfather called it 'chutzpah'".

I don't think she's a very good actress, but I always find her interesting to watch. She really needed a good director to be a good actress.

Melanie does look good these days. Her mother Tippi looks like she has 14 cats, which apparently she does.

Happy to see she looks like a normal 63 year old. Her face was so fucked up for awhile. Tippi is a goddess.

R22 Agree with you. If you haven't already, you should watch Chappie. Also bad but good.

Melanie would have worked in Chicago. She did a stint on Broadway and was surprisingly very good.

I think Melanie could have done an interesting turn in Fatal Attraction.

Not sure what it says about me that OP’s description only makes me want to see this movie IMMEDIATELY! Sounds hilariously awful. Now I just have to find where to watch it

Fatal Attraction: Isn't Alex Forrest a book editor? Can't see Melanie making that believable.

In hindsight ALL of them

[quote]Isn't Alex Forrest a book editor? Can't see Melanie making that believable.

Well, she did play an investment banker and a Hasidic Jew.

[quote]I think I'm the only person who likes her tiny voice.

You are.

She won a Razzie for her performances in "Shining Through" and "A Stranger Among Us" - she had quite a year!

[quote] Also, I'm hoping the "who would you have cast" poster will do a poll for Tess McGill?…Kathleen Turner would have been fun I suppose. but wouldn't have had Griffith's sweet "innocence" or naivety.

I can’t imagine Turner as Tess but she would have been interesting as Katherine Parker. She’s younger than Sigourney Weaver and only a few years older than Griffith but could have pulled it off. It’s hard to imagine anyone else an any of the roles though. Even with Griffith, who I think is the weak link and gets carried by the more talented supporting cast, I can’t think of anyone else who would be good as Tess. Meg Ryan maybe - she was still a year away from When Harry Met Sally at that point so there wouldn’t have been any preconceived rom-com expectations.

Wow, thank you R57 for reading my comment. That was a great reply! Turner would have been fantastic as Katherine Parker (Weaver was absolutely stellar, though, especially with her pedigree and precision). Meg Ryan would have worked as Tess as well. The studio wasn't 100% on Griffith and Nichols had to even fight for her (he wouldn't do the film without her). With Something Wild under her belt, as well as some critical cred for Body Double, she probably had a leg-up on Ryan. Timing-wise, you may be right and she didn't have a chance.

Michelle Pfeiffer could've played Tess, but she did a similar role in "Married to the Mob". I wish someone would give her a comeback role. Or can't her husband write her a series?

R59, she's playing Betty Ford in a TV series that's currently filming.

R59, I've always been perplexed by David E. Kelley not writing a movie or series that shows off the talents of his wife. Maybe they have agreed not to work together aside from the few nominal times they have (To Gillian, as well as a guest star on one or two of his shows).

It is weird to me that he has done more for Nicole Kidman's career than hers, though (he was the creator and wrote just about every script for all THREE of her recent series).

R59 Pfeiffer was wonderful in last year’s “French Exit”. It’s a fun book, too.

Nicole Kidman is oversaturated.

Even worse than Melanie Griffith was Teresa Russell. Couldn't act at all, but kept getting roles.

[quote]I thought "Milk Money" was awful.

Granted, I was a tween and the target audience, but I loved MILK MONEY when it came out. It was basically PRETTY WOMAN meets E.T. Motherless boy encounters a hooker on the run from the mob and hides her in his suburban treehouse. I rewatched it two or three years ago since I was in middle school and found myself enjoying it, particularly the un-PC humor/language/scenarios that would be considered no-no's today. Also, Melanie is very likable and Ed Harris was a DILF. It also developed my teenage crush on Adam LaVorgna.

r50 griffith would not have worked in fatal attraction. she was in her 20s and desirable. part of what made glenn close's character so scary was that she wasn't a physical improvement on what the guy already had at home (to be blunt). close's character was over 40 and staring into the abyss of permanent spinsterhood. that made her dangerous