10 Embarrassing Times Movie Actors Tried To Be Badass
8. Timothy Olyphant - Live Free Or Die Hard
If we were cautiously optimistic when Live Free Or Die Hard was announced, any warm feelings towards the franchise were quickly cooled when we met Timothy Olyphant’s villain, Thomas Gabriel. A computer hacker with ludicrous levels of power even by Hollywood hacker standards, this was a swing and a miss for the talented actor, who clearly didn’t try very hard in the role but nonetheless came out of it looking foolish.
Olyphant is an effortlessly charismatic performer whose minimalist turns can garner great results, but even by his own standards he’s reserved here. He spends much of his time sat behind a typically clickety clackety movie keyboard, somehow single handedly shutting down the USA for reasons too dumb to go into.
Die Hard as a franchise has created some of cinema’s finest villains, but Thomas Gabriel is a swing and a miss. His hacker powers are beyond stupid, and Olyphant, who filmed his whole part in three paycheck-eyeing weeks, is totally uninvested. Not a great look (though arguably less damaging than Hitman).