Adrien Brody: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

3. Leonard Chess - Cadillac Records (2008)

Cadillac Records should have been a great prestige pic - but music biopics are a notoriously hard animal to pin down, especially when they focus on a whole recording studio rather than just one musician. Among the stars to follow in the movie are Etta James (Beyonce, stealing the show), Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright). It's a crowded cast, and the entire film loses focus because of that. Brody's performance gets lost in the shuffle - especially considering that he's just playing a man who wanted to make money off of musicians and had a thing for Etta James. It wouldn't have been a problem if he tried to inject a bit of life into it, but for some reason the entire movie feels like his heart really isn't in it. Nevermind the fact he looks absolutely nothing like the real Leonard Chess.