wm lopez

How can you list his overacting performance in HEAT and leave off SERPICO?
Even in CRUISING he gave a better performance.

Hokeyboy

Anyone who has ever met a single person of Cuban descent would not vote for Scarface. So completely forced and unrealistic, it makes his performance in Scent of a Woman seem subtle...

jaeufraser

Definately his cameo in Gigli. Great work.

But seriously, Pacino is a talented actor, but his turns towards over theatrics is often a distraction in his later works. It can be fun, like in the Devil's Advocate, but when you step back and look, it can be silly. Loud and screaming doesn't always mean good. Especially when you step back and look at his earlier works, especially Godfather II, which I think was his pinnacle. His performance is reserved for the most part, with those few moments of anger having far greater impact than a fulll performance of yelling. It's just a beautiful performance and quite powerful.

Nonetheless great actor. Regardless of his occasional over theatrics, they can still be fun. And still delivers great performances all around. I think Insomnia is one of his best recent turns.

HistoryProf

where's Big Boy Caprice?


I went with Dog Day Afternoon, although I must concur that Serpico is a blatant oversight....and i'd say his role in Panic in Needle Park is more worthy than half of the 90s stuff on the list....

Pants

What do you mean "not realistic" he was so cold?! What'chu talkin' 'bout Scent of a Woman he didn't have any bling-bling in that movie.

Scarface all the way my 'niggaz. It's good because MTV told me it is and who are any of you to argue with them?

Ginwen

When you combine the Godfather movies, that's the pretty clear choice for me, since his character changes so much through the course of the movies, and it's all believable (he gets to show all the facets of his acting).

If it was just a single movie, it would be close between GF, GF 2, and Dog Day Afternoon. Scarface I think he's just too goofy to vote for that one (no love for comedy). Glengarry Glen Ross I don't believe he's even the best one in the movie.

dknight04

The Godfather I & II
Scarface
Heat

SilverScreen

My best friend (and yes, he really is my best friend) is Cuban and he's from Miami... in fact, his whole family is...

From my experience and everything that my friend and his entire family has said to me I would have to say that this statement is completely and totally wrong...

In fact, I have heard them all say on several occasions how absolutely incredible his performance was.

I would have to go with The Godfather (I & II) as his best movie(s) but based on pure performance alone I would have to go with "Scarface"

wm lopez

I grew up with Puerto Ricans and that's close.
And I noticed that the boys who were tough and were learning english used the "F" word a lot in their speech.

D-Ball

Godfather

Hokeyboy

You've got to be kidding me.

I've lived here for 32 years, my girlfriend is of Cuban descent, and have a lot of Cuban-American friends, many of them "Marielitos" who came over in 1980 on the same exodus that the Tony Montana character endured. They all love Scarface to death as a movie. However, they howl -- endlessly -- at Pacino's forced, overblown performance. He sounds about as Cuban as Genghis Khan... or Madeline Kahn...

The situations regarding the Mariel Boatlifts -- the makeshift camps, the struggling, the preponderance of criminals and mental patients who were released from Castro's prisons/hospitals and floated over to Miami -- all those scenes rang very true, especially among the Marielitos. But Pacino's performance? Laughable. I think he was charismatic in the role, but accurate? Not even close!

SilverScreen

No, I'm obviously not kidding...

I suggest you read more reviews if you truly stand by your opinion. I honestly think that either A) You really aren't as close to the "reality" as you say you are... this could be for a variety of reasons... or B) You've gotten 1 or 2 peoples opinions.

Let me put it this way as well... I have so many Cuban friends and I have been to Miami so many times with these friends that I feel almost at home with them as my own family.

I have NEVER heard any derogatory or negative remark (for that matter) in regards to Al's performance as a Cuban. In fact I have ALWAYS heard the opposite.

Hell, my best friend works for me and we love his performance so much that the movie gets quoted or comes up practically on a daily basis.

I can't tell you how much I completely and totally disagree and disregard what you're saying.

As a final note, let's just agree to completely disagree as there is no way we can come to an agree-able conclusion (obviously)...

BlackBeauty92

i have seen many of Al's movies... but not all, for example: i haven't got change to see Dog Day

so, based on what i've witnessed, i have to go with SERPICO as his Best Performance. why? cause i can see constant changes in his acting skill (from happy, all the way to hopeless at the end)...
probably the story & script also helps the performance in some way (i dunno)

but as of my personal favorite performance (not necesarrily the best performance) from Al would be: DEVIL's ADVOCATE
charming, seductive, aggressive, & all the fun stuff... he seems having fun with that character

Hokeyboy

Not close to the "reality"? 1 or 2 opinions? With all due respect, you don't know me or my background at all. I grew up and went to school in Little Havana. Although my ethnic background is German/Portugese, I grew up surrounded by Cuban/Cuban-American culture. I know what a "guajiro" is, the significance of the Pedro Pan flights and the Freedom Tower, who Alpha 66 are, what you use a "tiki-tiki" for, what you purchase at "La Vaquita", who starred on "Que Pasa USA" and why Steve Bauer should go back to being called "Rocky Echeverria", and darned if I didn't work for a summer at tapings of "Sabado Gigante."

I know a little bit of what I speak.

However, I will agree to disagree with you, and I certainly respect your opinion. Say! You like cake?

shill66

Donnie Brasco.

SilverScreen

I'm all over a nice slice of German Chocolate !



In all seriousness it does sound like you know what you're talking about.... I'm amazed at how different our opinions are.

Hokeyboy

I will say this: in 1983, the day after Scarface came out, almost every Latin guy in Miami - Cuban or otherwise - and many Gringos as well were worshipping Tony Montana. Even though Scarface wasn't a big box-office hit at the time, it was HUGE phenomenon down here (even if the production crew was muscled out of town and they had to film most of it in LA...) One of my closest friends Enrique - who was all of ten at the time - had the walk, talk, and attitude down pat, and the hardest drugs he was scoring were Flintstone vitamins. It was downright eerie... I think a lot of locals emulated their speech patterns and mannerisms accordingly.

Of course, Miami Vice started the next year, and Montana was pushed out in favor of Crockett and Tubbs...

wm lopez

SCARFACE not only wasn't a hit in 1983, but it got beat by SUDDEN IMPACT on the opening weekend.
And I did a poll during that time and 9 out 10 liked SCARFACE over SUDDEN IMPACT.
But SUDDEN IMPACT turned out to be a blockbuster.
Why didn't people go out to see SCARFACE in 1983?

Pants

Probably because of the controversy over its rating.

sataniko

Scarface!

Andalusia

I picked the "Godfather" films, but I really liked him in "Glengarry Glen Ross" too. His tirade against Kevin Spacey is very rewatchable.

Tony Dvdfan

I had a tough time choosing between Dog Day Afternoon and the Godfather films

JoeyOhhhh

Had to go with the Godfather films, simply his best effort.

I love most of Pacino's performances, but he usually is screaming so much that it kinda detracts from it (since I start to laugh).

All that being said, I disliked Serpico, and this poll really needs more of his other films on it.

wm lopez

Once CRUISING hits dvd it should become another of his movies with a strong following from a new young generation.
I mean in the last 10 years homosexuality has been shoved down are throats in the t.v. & movie culture, that movie is ready to come out now!

cajun_junky

It is a tie for Godfather and Scarface. I voted for Scarface because I just saw the movie again the other day.