Joel Edgerton: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Sam Carter - The Thing

Maybe it's because I have such fond memories of growing up with John Carpenter's version of The Thing, itself a remake of The Thing From Another World, that makes it so difficult for me to find anything good to say about the 2011 remake/reboot. There's probably some truth to that, but even striving to be as objective as possible it's clear that Edgerton's role doesn't hold a candle - or flamethrower - to Kurt Russell's laconic portrayal of MacReady. Given his ability as an actor, he never seems to transcend the generic "hero walking around cautiously" stereotype found in countless other horror movies. In that sense it's a perfectly passable performance which might have worked better had the accompanying scares actually worked - as it stands, it's a by-the-books plod through familiar acting territory we've all seen a million times before.