Jon Hamm: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Dr Michael Granier - The Day The Earth Stood Still

The original The Day The Earth Stood Still is one of the best sci-fi films ever made, a classic of the black-and-white B-movie era which managed to spin a hoky premise into something more enduring and intelligent. The 2008 remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still manages to fail at replicating everything which made the original great. There's no iconic lines of dialogue, no Gort, and replaces the Cold War theme of nuclear warfare with the contemporary issue of humankind's environmental damage to the planet. Which it does in a totally ham-fisted way compared to the elegant allegory of the original adaptation of Harry Bate's 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master". Part of that's the script, part of that's the direction, and part of that's the performances.

Obviously the absolute nadir is Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the alien being who comes to Earth to tell us we should recycle more and switch lights off when we're not using them, lest his race wipe us off the face of the planet. As we all know by now, Sad Keanu should only ever play Neo or Ted "Theodore" Logan. Nobody else does particularly well, either, least of all poor old Jon Hamm in the role of Dr Michael Granier, a NASA official who has to say a lot of smart-sounding stuff. Smart-sounding stuff that Hamm reportedly struggled with remembering and reciting, meaning he had to film his lines repeatedly. Which often makes for an uncharacteristically stiff, wooden performance from the Don.