FRwL

I think coming through realistic in movies is good enough for me. I appreciate the actors who go into a movie to stretch themselves but my favorite movies aren't really actor's movies, they're pulp style action/adventures, scifi/fantasy. Some of my favorite actors aren't known for their "acting", but more for their regular screen persona which they stick to basically only stretching a bit when needed, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, it's whether i like the story/premise first and then if i do the stars come after it. For example Colossus: The Forbin Project is a great movie that has a no-name cast in it, also Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Escape from New York, a lot of b-movies too.

dan30oly

Their political views are far more important to me.

tylergfoster

I feel like some of the people I know and watch movies with are not as tuned in to or interested in the qualities of dramatic acting as I am, especially if it's low-key or quiet. I watched The French Connection with someone the other day and I don't think he felt either way about Gene Hackman or Roy Schieder's performances.

Bandit03

It helps when an actor is giving a quality portrayal but I won't condemn a movie if the actors aren't Oscar material. There's a lot of movies out there that I enjoy while the acting was horrible.

Solid Snake

In general they'll ba few times where I'm like..damn..it's a bit off. Like Maggie Grace, she couldn't sell me the role too much. Neeson did well I think in Taken, not fantastic but for the character he was cool. Daniel Day-Lewis was just fucking awesome in Gangs of New York...every time he was on screen it was a joy. He stole any and all scenes where he's involved in that film. The only man who was toe to tow with him was Neeson in that film. Just depends on the movie. Also..Katie Holmes wins for being so lost in a film like Batman Begins...she is nowhere as woman enough to be in a world like that. She was so small and petite...I've only seen her in this and Pieces of April, which was kinda good. But BB had all this greatness and then...little Katie Holmes trying to stand strong against all the great actors around her.

slop101

Good acting is integral for a movie to succeed. Although, some actors don't necessarily need to be good actors if they're cast well and are believable in their roles.

Similar to what SolidSanke says above about Katie Holmes, if an actor isn't believable in their role, it hurts the movie - and only half of that believability comes from "good acting", the other half is casting, or the actor's presence.

DRG

A big one for me is Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane in Superman Returns. I didn't buy her in that role at all... she seemed like a kid trying to play grown-up.

Then you have the aforementioned Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's not the best actor, but I buy him in his action roles.

PopcornTreeCt

I agree, it's very important. Great acting lends to the authenticity of the picture. Take The Dark Knight as an example, Heath Ledger's performance was a major factor in the quality of the movie.

A movie cannot be great without great performances.

Ash Ketchum

Superhero movies, in particular, seem to rely on strong star performances in order to click with an audience. SUPERMAN (1978) with Chris Reeves is probably the first of its type that I'd categorize this way. More recently, of course, we've had Christian Bale in BATMAN BEGINS, Robert Downey Jr. in IRON MAN, and Heath Ledger in THE DARK KNIGHT.

Films like SUPERMAN RETURNS, DAREDEVIL, WATCHMEN and the two Hulk films didn't have the same impact because they didn't have strong star performances. I'm somewhat hesitant about Tobey Maguire in SPIDERMAN myself, but enough of the audience felt he delivered and I believe that his portrayal of Peter Parker/Spiderman remains a key ingredient in the SPIDERMAN films' enormous success.

Solid Snake

Superman Returns had the actor...they just needed to make him talk. I didn't know who he was as a character exactly. Daredevil....well he was just fucked all over. Watchmen had good casting I believe..Haley especially sold his Rorschach character. I thought everyone was well cast...the weakest character in Watchmen, which I also have noticed more recently in the comic as well, is Silk Spectre. She's cool and all..but the other guys are much more fucked up than she is, I thought the actress sold Spectre fine..

MoviePage

No, but how good someone grammars matters in thread titles to me.

Ash Ketchum

Haley was great in WATCHMEN, but it wasn't a strong star performance. It was a strong character portrayal, which isn't the same thing and is not enough to sustain a nearly-3-hour superhero epic. And nobody in WATCHMEN was strong enough to deliver what the film needed, more of a problem with the scope of the story and structure, not necessarily with the casting.

Brandon Routh--sorry, he just wasn't Superman to enough of the audience, and certainly not to me.

dino88

Pot and kettle come to mind.

hasslein

Yeah, and the other end of the spectrum, The Happening, was painful (for me) primarily because of the atrocious acting....

Dr Mabuse

Broken sarcasm detector comes to mind.

The Bus

If it wasn't for Denzel Washington, Training Day would not be very memorable. If it wasn't for Robert Downey Jr. or Heath Ledger, Iron Man and The Dark Knight would be on the same level as Transformers.

Yes, acting matters. It can make a generic movie watchable and a decent movie unmissable.

Solid Snake

For the first two I agree cuz well they were the leads. Ledger made the film better but I'm sure it would've been good if Ledger wasn't in it (maybe I dunno...it's too hard to see that especially now), I don't think it would've been generic if that's what you meant for TDK. I mean it still had Oldman, Bale, Caine, Freeman, and Eckhart...

JumpCutz

Give it a rest, we get it.

Solid Snake

story

Meaning neither would be as good as... Transformers?!

I don't often bother with matters subjective on these boards because it tends to be an exercise in futility. It's just so completely opposite my own point of view that it stuck out to me.

The Bus

No, they elevated each of the movies aboye and beyond what they were. The Dark Knight certainly has other great performances (Oldman among them) but the movie is a bit overlong and The Joker is its true spark.

Ash Ketchum

Shia La Beouf provided another example of a strong star performance that made what could have been just another giant robot movie into something endearing for audiences way beyond the Transformers' fanbase.

Rad14

Dark Knight, Transformers, Superman, Iron Man, give me a break! They are all big budget kid's movies!! I remember buying them as comic strips when I was a kid! When talking about "great acting" where are the Brando's, the Burton's, the Tracy's, the Laughton's, the Olivier's etc of today?

islandclaws

My favorite actor is Charles Bronson. I think that provides a succinct response.

Ash Ketchum

Bronson was great when he was a character actor. Becoming a star ruined him.

Great Bronson performances
APACHE
VERA CRUZ
DRUM BEAT
JUBAL
RUN OF THE ARROW
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
THE GREAT ESCAPE
THE SANDPIPER
THE DIRTY DOZEN
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

As a B-star, he was fine in MACHINE GUN KELLY.

But when he became a bonafide movie star in the 1970s, his range got limited and his films got more formulaic. Every so often after 1970 he did something worthwhile, such as HARD TIMES or TELEFON or THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, but it was pretty rare. I always found him miscast in DEATH WISH.