12 Movies So Good You Overlook Major Flaws

5. Cameron Diaz Is Wildly Miscast - Gangs Of New York

Martin Scorsese's period crime epic is a movie within which lies a flabbergasting masterpiece, yet its messier elements just don't quite come together into a fully potent whole.

It's not one of Scorsese's best but it is a terrifically evocative period piece with a force-of-nature performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as the villainous Bill the Butcher.

Leonardo DiCaprio is solid if hardly on top form, but the movie's most prominent issue is the presence of a distractingly miscast Cameron Diaz. Now, this isn't just an excuse to rag on the actress - because lord knows, the Internet loves doing that - but she indeed feels fundamentally wrong for the part.

It's not just that Cameron Diaz, the movie star, sticks out in a period piece filled with actors disappearing into their roles, but also that her pickpocket Jenny feels shoehorned into the film simply so a pretty starlet can be cast to give the film a more mainstream appeal.

The romance is a needless stock element in a movie already overflowing with tension and intriguing character dynamics. Though Meryl Streep herself would've struggled to make much of the part, Diaz is an especially cynical casting choice.