Michael Keaton: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Jonathan Rivers - White Noise (2005)

RoboCop is one in a string of films that has attempted to utilise Keaton's good name to try and bestow them with some level of prestige or respectability that they'd otherwise be bereft of. That for example White Noise, a mostly terrible and not at all terrifying horror film from a few years ago about ghosts getting recorded on tapes. What's scary about ghosts on tapes? Not a lot, besides people still using cassettes in the year 2005. There's some neat stuff done with just, like, creepy voices. But listening to creepy voices on ratty old tapes isn't a lot of motivation for a plot, let alone an Oscar-winning performance. Keaton tries gamely to imbue Jonathan Rivers with more than is on the page, but despite his valiant efforts he's still a long way from land, mired in a high-concept script that never quite convinces as horrifying, in a part that never convinces as quite human.