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Seven Subpar Posthumous Movies

Jul. 17 8:03 PM by Dave Rudden

With the release of The Dark Knight, critics are hailing the recently-deceased Heath Ledger's performance as Oscar-worthy. Unfortunately, the following seven movies aren't quite the same testament to the stars who appeared in them after their passing.

7- Aaliyah, "Queen of the Damned"

The multi-talented singer-actress Aaliyah was beginning to make her name as an action starlet before a plane crash took her life at the age of 22. She co-starred in the successful Jet Li flick "Romeo Must Die," and had agreed to play a pivotal character in the sequels to the hit film "The Matrix." Unfortunately, her final film seemed to be an ebb in her action career. As the eponymous "Queen of the Damned" Aaliyah starred in a dour action-horror vampire movie that had neither action nor horror. It was panned by critics, and disowned by the author of the novel on which the movie was based.

6- Chris Farley, "Almost Heroes"

Chris Farley wasn't an Academy-Award winning actor by any means, but he had carved out a solid niche in Hollywood, playing the hilarious goofy pratfaller alongside SNL friends like David Spade and Chris Rock. In "Almost Heroes," Farley played an incompetent explorer alongside Matthew Perry of "Friends" fame. When you add in the fact that the director was mockumentary-maker extraordinaire Christopher Guest trying to tackle a traditional screwball comedy, the end result is a movie that plays to nobody's stregth.

5- Orson Welles, "Someone to Love"

It's no secret that Orson Welles took some less-than-savory roles to finance his own productions, endorsing embarrassing products and taking roles beneath the caliber of a man known for making the greatest movie of all time. In "Someone to Love," a group of friends meet in a movie theater to muse about life and love, which is about as entertaining as it sounds. The film went largely unnoticed, and Welles final role was not one befitting the creator of "Citizen Kane."

4- John Candy, "Wagons East!"

Like Farley, one of John Candy's posthumous movies was a period comedy that used an odd setting and premise to cover up the lack of humor. "Wagons East!" also had a mismatched comedic pairing, with Richard Lewis' neurotic humor failing to mesh well with Candy's attempt at jolliness. Unfortunately, at this point in his career, Candy couldn't even project the happiness that he brought to projects like "Uncle Buck" and "Spaceballs," and as a result, "Wagons East!" failed to properly honor the actor.

3- Phil Hartman, "Small Soldiers"

While Phil Hartman's comedic skill on the small screen was quite apparent by his work on "Saturday Night Live," "The Simpsons," and "NewsRadio," his work in the movies seemed to consist of bit parts and character acting, mostly focused towards family-friendly roles. His final live-action role was the perfect example, as he played the nagging neighbor in "Small Soldiers," a children's action movie designed to sell action figures. Rumors circulate that Hartman was very interested in adapting his hilarious animated character Troy McClure into a live-action movie, which makes us even madder that he was tragically taken from us too soon.

2- Janet Leigh and Jonathan Brandis, "Bad Girls From Valley High"-

Bad Girls From Valley High was finished in 2000, long before the deaths of Jonathan Brandis in 2003 or Janet Leigh in 2004. The film languished for years before being sent straight to DVD in 2005. And there's good reason for it--the movie isn't very good. As the name might suggest, Bad Girls From Valley High is a paint-by-numbers horror movie that would have been at home in the late 1980's. Brandis' career never quite reached his teenybopper zenith, which was a shame since he made great efforts to take roles against that grain. Leigh, whose scream set the scene in "Psycho," had her final horror performance in a movie that didn't deserve to be a part of her horror legacy.

1- Raul Julia, "Street Figher"

Raul Julia had extremely impressive range as an actor, playing drama, comedy, and action with equal amounts of flair. In "Street Fighter," Julia actually does an able job of playing the egomaniacal madman M. Bison. Unfortunately, there's so much wrong with "Street Fighter"-- the too-serious tone in the face of camp, the awful supporting cast including Kylie Minogue and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and a need to keep true to a paper-thin videogame premise and its bizarre cast of characters led to the movie losing the fight against critics and audiences.

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