Patrick Stewart: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

...And 5 That Sucked

5. Gurney Halleck - Dune (1984)

Many of Stewart's bad performances are not entirely his fault. He's turned up in many productions which are in some way sub-par, and often has been the best thing in them. But just because the film around them is terrible doesn't excuse an actor from looking lost in the part, which brings us nicely onto Stewart's ill-fated role in the equally ill-fated Dune.

Based on the seminal novel by Herbert Ross, Dune is a sci-fi epic set in the far future where it is possible to travel through space instantaneously through a substance called spice melange. The spice, as it is known, is found on only one planet in the entire galaxy - Arrakis, an arid desert world populated by people called the Fremen. The film centres around the conflict between the houses of Atreides and Harkonnen over the control of Arrakis, and around a prophecy that a figure called the Kwisatz Haderach will come and liberate the Fremen.

By anyone's standards, Dune is a complete mess. Its director David Lynch still refuses to talk about it in interviews, and whichever version you plump for the plot is convoluted, the terminology impenetrable and the imagery downright disturbing. Stewart isn't the film's biggest problem, but he makes the very least of a part that could have provided some welcome weight and momentum. He delivers his lines like he doesn't really understand anything what he's saying, and seems lost among all the unconvincing special effects.