The Herald
Sir Sean Connery's attempt at an Irish twang has been named the worst movie accent of all time. His efforts to play cop Jim Malone in 1987 film The Untouchables topped a poll of experts at movie magazine Empire. It beat the performance of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins with his laboured cockney chimneysweep. Commenting on Sir Sean, the August edition of Empire says: "Whether he's a Russian sub captain (The Hunt For Red October) or even an English King (First Knight and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves), always that baritone Highland burr remains." Other Brits to make it into the top 10 include the late Lord Olivier at number eight for his "end of the pier Jewish" accent in the 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer. And Pete Postlethwaite is pilloried for the hammy Indian accent he attempts as Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects. Olly Richards of the magazine said: "Putting on a foreign lilt appeals to a star's vanity, giving them the opportunity to inhabit someone a million miles from themselves and prove that they are more than a pretty face. Sadly in most cases it does the exact opposite." Empire top 10 worst movie accents: 1. Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987). 2. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964) 3. Brad Pitt in Seven Years In Tibet (1997). 4. Charlton Heston in Touch Of Evil (1958). 5. Heather Graham in From Hell (2001). 6. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). 7. Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly (1996). 8. Laurence Olivier in The Jazz Singer (1980). 9. Pete Postlethwaite in The Usual Suspects (1995). 10. Meryl Streep in Out Of Africa (1985). |