Julianne Moore: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Electra €“ Assassins

Assassins is a cheesy action romp from 1995 that surprisingly was written by The Wachowskis but absolutely butchered by producer Joel Silver and director Richard Donner, turning what should've been a smart action thriller into the most risible of B-movies. It's a hilarious film for all the wrong reasons, even though Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas put in some good performances. Unfortunately, Julianne Moore doesn't. Her computer hacker character is hilarious and does many things that just aren't possible with computers now, never mind the halcyon days of '95. Moore tries her best with the quick-paced and witty dialogue but just doesn't pull it off, which might be a result of her acting style being so different to Banderas and Stallone, who are far more comfortable with in-your-face cheese than the an actress who usually turns in layered, restrained performances. The romance subplot with Banderas is really quite awful and feels stilted a lot of the time, because it comes out of nowhere and the characters are just so different. It's not a case of Moore being bad at acting here €“ it's just the wrong character type. We just don't believe Julianne Moore could ever be a brainy hacker, and it's a role that could and should have been better played by someone else. There's nothing wrong with trying to expand your horizons in acting, but there are some archetypes that just can't be done by certain actors. Unfortunately for Moore, this is one of them.