10 Great Movies (That Were Led By Terrible Performances)

5. Titanic (1997)

Personally, Titanic is something of an enigma. Before Avatar came along, it was the highest-grossing film ever. It won eleven Oscars, beating out the likes of L.A Confidential and As Good As It Gets for Best Picture. All this for two and a half hours of boredom and a really cool scene at the end? Of all the heart-wrenching true-life tales of the Titanic, James Cameron opted for the fictional stylings of a poor boy falling in love with a rich girl. We could have bought into it if the acting had been better. Leonardo DiCaprio is like wine. His talent increases as he gets older, but there is a reason he wasn't nominated for Best Actor here. His performance as Jack is just so sickly and sappy - not to mention unbelievable. His lines feel forced and artificial, and while there are snippets of the man he was to become in later years, he is overshadowed in every scene by the likes of Kate Winslet and even Billy Zane. He may have stolen the every girl's heart in Titanic, but this is one act that was just too hard to swallow. Thankfully, the film is saved by the breathtaking sequence in which the ship hits the iceberg and tragically sinks; particularly poignant due to the fact it is a real historic tragedy.