12 Awesome Performances In Otherwise Awful 2016 Movies

This year moviegoers have seen more than their fair share of absolutely terrible films, but even in the most bad of movies there’s often one or two elements that keep us gripped enough to hold out until the final credits roll. Sometimes it’s down to thrilling cinematography and visual effects or a vaguely intriguing plotline, sometimes it’s down to plain old martyrdom and wanting to get your money’s worth from a movie no matter how awful it is.

More often than not, it’s the outstanding performance of a single solitary cast member amidst a sea of crap that keep us moviegoers from walking out of a film and 2016 has seen plenty of movies of this ilk.

It’s been said that a good performance can make or break a movie, and though these actors’ star turns didn’t make their movies immune to the gripes of critics or box office snubbing, they certainly make their middling movies more entertaining and save them from drifting into critically panned obscurity.

Steven Spielberg’s big budget take on the Roald Dahl book of the same name tells the tale of young orphan girl Sophie and her adventures in Giant Country with the eponymous Big Friendly Giant. Roald Dahl movie adaptations can be decidedly hit or miss: we’ve seen great films like Nicolas Roeg’s The Witches and not so great movies like Tim Burton’s take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and unfortunately The BFG is more on the miss side of things.

It’s not necessarily terrible, but the movie definitely suffers from a distinct lack of Dahl’s signature quirky, dark humour which seems to have been swapped up for Spielberg’s syrupy sentimentality instead. What saves it from utter mawkishness, however, is Oscar winner Mark Rylance’s performance as the Big Friendly Giant. Though there’s something very ‘uncanny valley’ about his CGI giant, he gives the film much-needed lovability and delivers Dahl’s quirky, made-up vocabulary with aplomb.