MSN Movies had a list of their top 10 all-time worst movie accents. Their list included:

• Dick Van Dyke - Mary Poppins
  
• Brad Pitt - The Devil's Own
  
  
• Angelina Jolie - Alexander
  
• Gary Oldman - State of Grace
  
• Uma Thurman - Henry & June
  
  
• Tim Robbins - Mystic River
  
• Wynona Ryder - Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula
  
• Forest Whitaker - The Crying Game
  
• Liam Neeson - Schindler's List
  
• Special Mentions: Kevin Costner - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, JFK, A Perfect World, Thirteen Days

While I can agree on Kevin Costner's absence of any signs of effort at trying to sound even like an American doing an impression of an English accent in Robin Hood, most of these mentions I've either never seen or didn't question.

MY list of the top ten worst movie accents, however, goes something like this. In order:
10 - Val Kilmer - The Ghost and the Darkness. He's Irish...then he's American...then he's Irish...then he's American. But he was great otherwise.
9 - Dennis Quaid - Frequency. I like the movie, but yikes...that's supposed to be New York?
8 - Jim Caviezel - Frequency. Even worse.
7 - Kate Hudson - The Four Feathers. "Ew look, Oi'm Aynglish!"
6 - Mira Furlan - LOST. Okay, so it's not a movie, but it's too remarkable NOT to list - I almost always forget she's supposed to be French, to the point that I might think, "Ep, careful Danielle--you almost sounded French there!"
5 - Matt Damon - The Departed. He's FROM Boston - he has NO excuse for sounding almost as bad as the other stars.
4 - Kevin Costner - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Yeah, it was pretty damn bad, after all.
3 - Brad Pitt - Troy. Don't get me started.
2 - Okay: ANY portrayal of ancient Greece or Rome. They ALL sound English! Why?!?
1 - Daniel Day Lewis - Gangs of New York. It's beyond even being funny - it's as bad as they come.

Special Mentions: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen - The Departed. Their accents all sound SO forced, it's really quite embarrassing. Does Scorsese just have a passion for making things "his way," no matter how erratically off-center they may be? Thank the gods for Mark Wahlberg - he let out the true voice of Boston.

So what do the rest of you think of as the top 10 worst movie accents of all time?

Keanu Reeves in Dracula
That dude who's playing Irish in Heroes
Steven Seagal in Above the Law (he always has the same accent regardless of what city he's a cop in).
Any movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger is supposed to be American.
Nicolas Cage in Cap't Corelli's Mandolin

I'm stuck for any more.

Yup, both Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves in Dracula. I love the movie otherwise, but those two are so distracting with those accents.

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was also quite annoying to me.

And nearly any movie set in New Orleans where the people have southern accents. We don't talk like that here. How hard would it be to stop a person on the street and see how they talk? :mad:

...And nearly any movie set in New Orleans where the people have southern accents. We don't talk like that here. How hard would it be to stop a person on the street and see how they talk? :mad:

I'm always curious about New Orleans accents because I can't peg them. For instance, to my ear Emeril sounds like he's from Brooklyn. I think, though I'm not certain, that there is a connection between some New Orleans' accents and Brooklyn accents. Could be how the Irish and or Italians who immigrated to both places wound up speaking American English.

Then there's Ellen Degeneres who is from New Orleans but who has no accent at all.

Educate me, Noelie, because I really don't know what New Orleans folks sound like.

I'm always curious about New Orleans accents because I can't peg them. For instance, to my ear Emeril sounds like he's from Brooklyn. I think, though I'm not certain, that there is a connection between some New Orleans' accents and Brooklyn accents. Could be how the Irish and or Italians who immigrated to both places wound up speaking American English.

Then there's Ellen Degeneres who is from New Orleans but who has no accent at all.

Educate me, Noelie, because I really don't know what New Orleans folks sound like.

New Orleanians don't really have much of an accent as the south goes. In the movies, for some reason, they are always given a thick Georgia accent. For this reason I hate watching movies that represent New Orleans (that and they always have a bayou in the back yard, moss in the trees and a Mardi Gra or Second-Line parade). The closest I've seen to correct accents was the movie "Deja Vu". They didn't phony it up.

If you venture outside of New Orleans to Chalmette (the area that flooded the most in Katrina) you will find an accent similar to Brooklyn... We call those people "Yats". It's because they will sometimes say stuff like, "Where Y'at Dawlin'? (Where are you at darling?) This can mean lots of things... Like "hello". It's actually a very endearing accent and the language is rich with character and cute phrases. They might ask about "Yuh Mominem" (Your mom and them), which is how they might refer to your mom and family. I could list a ton of these but you get the idea.

Just to the south of New Orleans you get into Cajun accents which is really an entirely different language.

To the West, Baton Rouge, you start getting a bit more southern-fried but not as bad as much of the rest of the south.

Just north and/or east into Mississippi.... bring on the twang.

Anyway, my pick for worst accent in a movie would go to Kathy Bates (and everyone else) in "The Water Boy". At least it was comedy.

RIK

RIK pretty much nailed it.

The accents in Deja Vu were very good, and there are several folks in the series K-ville who I am pretty sure are local actors because they totally have the accent. I think Emeril is from somewhere in Massachusetts originally, but he DOES sound like he was born and raised here.

To give you an idea, one year at Mardi Gras I was downtown and I was talking to this guy. He asked where I was from and I said, "I'm from here." He says, "No, you're not. You're from New York." He argued the point with me for at least 15 minutes! I finally said, "Look, if you think I don't sound like I'm from here, you obviously don't know what people here actually sound like!"

My own accent is slightly more mellow because my grandmother was from Canada, but if you put me in a room full of Yats (see RIK's post), oh my god. I really fawl into da accent, dawlin!

Christopher Lambert in "HIGHLANDER"

Thanks RIK and Noelie. Clearly I've got to get me to N'Awlins so I can hear it firsthand.

You're right about Emeril. He's from Massachusetts and now lives in Mississippi on the Gulf Coast.

Christopher Lambert in "HIGHLANDER"

What about Sean Connery in Highlander? He's supposed to be Spanish!

And then there's Christopher Lambert in "Mortal Kombat". Not so much cuz his accent was not what it was supposed to be but because a natural-sounding Christopher Lambert as Lord Rayden was wrong, just wrong. Can you say "Welcome to Mortal Kombat" and make your audience laugh?

James Doohan as Scotty on Star Trek.

Oh, and what about Mike Meyers as Goldmember? In fact, most Dutch accents are frighteningly bad.

The absolute worst and most annoying award goes to:

Adam Sandler in Little Nicky.