10. Matthew Modine's Entire Performance
Up until The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan's Tarantino-like penchant for casting cult and occasionally forgotten actors hadn't missed a beat, but the decision to cast Full Metal Jacket star Matthew Modine as conniving top cop Foley was a step too far. It's obvious that the character is there to be hated - he is the antithesis of everything Commissioner Gordon represents, and Nolan had spent so much time building up the mythology of Gordon, any opposing force was bound to come off as a malignant one. But, Modine's performance lacks the nuances that most of his co-stars bring to their performances: his villain is blatant, to an almost pantomime-like degree, and though we are invited to openly hate him (to give weight to his ultimate heroic about-turn,) it's actually difficult to care much either way what happens to him. It seems even Nolan got sick of the character's screen-time by the conclusion of the film, giving him an honourable change of heart, but not following up with the hero's death that the script seemed to be setting up. Instead, Foley becomes a statistic of the most ludicrously conceived, and tactically hilarious street battle in the history of cinema, showing his unsuitability to be considered in the same breath as Gordon or Batman, by leading a charge of unarmed (other than close combat weapons) police against tanks and guns.