What's A Nice Actor Like You Doing In A Movie Like This?: The ultimate guide to the most embarrassing movies in history, and the celebrities who appeared in them.

by Dan Whitehead

"Thoroughly enjoyable and laugh out loud funny" 8/10 - JoBlo.com "Informative and hilarious" - Collider.com "Perfect bathroom reading for people who like saying stuff such as ‘Adrien Brody? He’s great in Mario Van Peebles’ Solo.’" - Badass Digest What's A Nice Actor Like You Doing In A Movie Like This? is an exhaustive guide to the films that the great and good of Hollywood wish you'd never seen, and hope you'll never remember. It doesn't matter if the role in question marked an inauspicious debut or an ignoble ending; no career is safe from this tongue in cheek trawl through the dustbin of movie history. From critical darlings to box office behemoths, from respected thespians to mainstream megastars, from cult obscurities to infamous blockbuster turkeys, and from the legends of the past to the bright young things of the future - this book unearths the skeletons lurking in every celluloid closet, and subjects them to the cruel unflinching spotlights of common sense and good taste. Between the pages readers will thrill to such eye-popping wonders as killer frogs, giant man-eating rabbits, moon-faced robot spies, disembodied hands, several Anti-Christs, dancing zombies, nude space vampires, barbarians in hotpants, lusty ghosts, psychotic clowns, randy computers, evil test-tube babies, crap Russian superheroes...and a confused Jack Nicholson trying to punch a falcon. Each movie is lovingly described in all its awful glory, with special attention paid to the contribution made by the slumming star in question, no matter how small. Additional information related to the film and its creators is included under a catch-all Need to Know subheading, while other notable, odd or just plain weird offerings featuring the same actor are included as Honorable Mentions. With over 190 alphabetically indexed and cross-referenced entries, What's A Nice Actor Like You Doing In A Movie Like This? is the most comprehensive and hilarious guide to the films Hollywood would rather forget.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Humor

500 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2010

Reviews

[Zeljka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool and funny retellings of every ridiculous film in which each actor or actress mentioned in the book performed. Those films are mostly - that’s not really surprising - horror films, mostly made in time when special effects were downright silly and the stories for them equally, hilariously stupid. This book was really delightful read, I laughed occasionally really hard, and to be honest, with its detailed analyses it saved me time to explore these cinematic curiosities by myself.

[Tonya Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to skim

The book was well written. Thankfully, I only seen three or four of the many movies listed. Interesting to read

[Deren Kellogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun guide to roles in obscure or trashy films by actors and actresses who later became stars (or, in some cases, after their stars had faded). For instance, Jennifer Anniston played the female lead in the cheapjack horror film "Leprechaun" before "Friends" made her a star. Other performers had even more obscure beginnings. Despite the title, not all the films Whitehead covers are embarrassing: he admits that "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1961), in which Michael Caine debuted in a very small part, is "one of the finest British films of its era". However, most of the films he covers were hilariously inept. If you like snarky reviews of terrible movies, as I do, you'll love this.

Whitehead gives fairly detailed plot synopses, discusses the role of the actor or actress he's profiling, and makes some comments on the quality of the movies. He also includes fascinating trivia on many of the films. The book (unlike many inexpensive books available for Kindle) is well-written and free of grammatical errors or typos. If you're interested in film trivia, it's well worth your money.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun read - the author knew his stuff and had context for what was going on in the actors' lives at the times of their horrible choices, which made the book seem more like laughing with them than at them - which made it much more fun in my opinion. A fun one to have on hand to pick up when you have a few minutes - or to read through all at once on a sick day or at the beach. :)

[Billy Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun rundown of the zany clunkers that the big stars have hiding in the depths of their filmographies. It's a quick and light read but relies way too much on plot synopses. Would have rather read more behind-the-scenes anecdotes or other reasearch-type info.

[Anne Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Just the plots of the awful movies actors who were later big stars appeared in are funny enough, but his style of writing is hilarious. My favourite was Arnie in Hercules in New York.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little romp through Hollywood's top actors' most embarrassing moments. The weird and the cool and the wtf from A to Z.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny appreciation of bad and/or odd movies...

[m. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and weighty trawl through lesser-known films of famous actors, mostly pre-fame or post-fame horror low budget films.