Actors you're not sure about
 

Who are some actors you're not sure are good or not? One that comes to mind is C. Thomas Howell. I honestly can't tell if this guy is really bad, or just really real acting.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Val Kilmer.

http://media.herald-dispatch.com/blo...mer-742605.jpg

He absolutely owned "Tombstone" and "Real Genius", but he's also given some real shit performances in many a shit movie.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I think Val Kilmer is lazy. He phones it in when it's obvious the film is garbage.

However, when he's in a good film, he's outstanding:

Like you mentioned "Tombstone" and "Real Genius"

Don't forget:
Heat
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Spartan
Willow
The Doors
Ghost in the Darkness

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

This guy since about 1999.

http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/ma/...ro_1890865.jpg

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Peter Sarsgaard

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Brad Pitt. He seems to be the same guy in every single movie.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

:thumbsup: Except I'm sure about him, so he doesn't fit for this thread. He just sucks (Inglorious Basterds excluded).

I'd say Clive Owen is the perfect example for me. I want to love the guy, but man he picks some shitty movies.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Brad Pitt (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS included!). The only thing I really liked him in was OCEAN'S 11, and only because I thought he worked well with Clooney and that the two should have made a western.

Johnny Depp. I had such high hopes for him in PUBLIC ENEMIES, given that he struck me as the absolute best choice to play Dillinger among current actors, and he wound up doing a poor job, although I think it may have been a case of the director not doing his job well enough and saddling him with a badly cast leading lady. But when I think back to past Depp performances, all I can think of as any good was ED WOOD, but even there, Depp didn't even begin to capture the quirkiness and eccentricities of the real Wood. Was it a case of the actor simply not being able to go far enough or the director holding him back?

Tom Hanks. The only performance of his I was impressed with was SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But give me a break with CASTAWAY, FORREST GUMP, PHILADELPHIA, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE and...what else is he famous for these days? Oh, yeah, THE TERMINAL, a horrible movie and one of the worst leading actor performances of the last 20 years. Don't get me started.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

No one else could have pulled off JOE VS. THE VOLCANO except Tom Hanks.

Also: Mark Wahlberg. Here is a guy who was SO outstanding in "The Departed" and "Boogie Nights", and an ABSOLUTE PIECE OF SHIT IN EVERYTHING ELSE. I'm not talking just OK, decent, whatever, I mean a FUCKING AWFUL ACTOR. I guess abs can take you far in this world.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Sarcasm?

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

First name I thought of upon seeing the thread title. Though no wanting for man love.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Have you guys that said Brad Pitt seen Kalifornia. Like nothing he's done since.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Viggo Mortensen
Clive Owen

2 of the blandest, nondescript actors I've ever seen.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

More bland than Paul Walker?

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Couldn't disagree more on Viggo. He is brilliant in Eastern Promises. Should have won the Oscar that year for it.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

A great performance, but also an exception. Why does he insist on mumbling all his lines? :( He's like the anti-Pacino...

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I used to like Owen quite a bit, but I've come to realize he's exactly the same in every role I've ever seen. Mannered, intense, and garbling like he's got a mouth full of nuts.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

is THAT even possible... ;)

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

more bland than Bill Pullman?

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

whats with the hate on pitt? c'mon the guy has a reeal respectable resume...

fight club
snatch
seven
inglourious basters

to just name a few....

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Hey now, Heath Ledger did the all-mumbling thing in Brokeback Mountain and critics were falling all over themselves calling it the greatest performance of Ledger's career. Which I guess makes sense, since he has a pretty mediocre filmography, and mediocre performances to match.

That doesn't mean he's good in them. Do I have to explain my Brad Pitt Theory again?

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I don't watch any Paul Walker movies so I can't comment on him, and I haven't seen Eastern Promises so I can't comment there either (I gave up watching Viggo years ago!).

Sorry but I consider both Viggo Mortensen and Clive Owen to be overrated. You can throw in Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale into that category too. All of them are the same in every movie IMHO, bland, wooden and nondescript. And these are major players too, starring in some of the biggest movies over recent years!!

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I am starting to have some serious doubts about Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn wasn't bad, but disappointing for a Herzog movie and I think The Prestige is brilliant.... other than that, he hasn't been great in anything as of recent.

Also, Casey Affleck... his career is still relatively young (at least as a leading man). Really though, he was perfectly cast in Assassination of JJ and moderately successful in Gone Baby Gone, but I'm not sure he has a range beyond what I've seen so far.

I lost hope in Ed Norton a long time ago.

And finally, I want to defend Wahlberg's performances in Three Kings and I Heart Huckabee's (a flawed movie sure, but his part really played to his strengths and I thought he was quite good).

Viggo is pretty great all around.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Tobey Maguire, although I think I'm pretty sure he just sucks.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I almost forgot, Hugh Jackman. Wooden and bland also!

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

The Brad Pitt comments are shocking to me.

Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Snatch., Seven, Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, Ocean's, Burn After Reading, Babel, Inglourious Basterds, Kalifornia, etc. etc. are all varied roles and varied characters that he played uniquely.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I find most of the choices in this thread shocking. A lot these guys do play similar roles, but that's because that's what they're offered. You become famous for a certain role and someone wants you you play a similar role. All of them at some point have shown some great range, even if they don't so much anymore or not for a while.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

See I disagree; I think Jackman is incredibly charismatic and a strong screen presence. He's just been in some incredibly shitty movies.

Fox will back up a dumptruck full of cash for him to continue doing Wolverine movies, but I'd rather see him walk away from that role forever after the twin crapfests of X-Men: The Last Stand and Wolverine. On the other hand, I thought he was exceptional in "The Prestige" and extraordinarily good in "The Fountain".

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

There are rules of DVDTalk, and one of them is to never ever criticize Brad Pitt. This board is infatuated with him. Any time I've said anything negative about the guy, as this therad proves again, people will come out of the blue to defend him. He is a a media darling and adored because of it, he could shit on screen for 2 hours and people will praise him for it. I think that fact that people have brougth up roles like Oceans & Benjamin Button to defend him, only prove the point for the select few of us that find him as charismatic as a brick.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

if I were to defend Brad Pitt, IF, I would use Kalifornia, 12 Monkeys, and Seven as my examples.


he doesn't make films unwatchable to me and I don't hate him, as he has his hand in some real quality movies, regardless of his performance in each. I wouldn't call him an excellent actor. Just someone who I think used his level of power wisely, and made and extreme profitable career while retaining credibility. He such a Nancy though... :)



Patrick Wilson. Loved Little Children, liked Hard Candy, hated Watchmen. Hope he picks some good roles in the future, but can't exactly tell if he has anything to bring to the table. His casting in Little Children was perfect, but the character was a clutz, so maybe he's another Keanu or something.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I'll echo the Brad Pitt comments. I'll also say Tom Cruise. He's made some good movies, but he's himself in every film.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Kristen Stewart, but I'm sure she's bad and shouldn't be as popular as she is.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

quite a Tom Cruise fan myself...

I consider him to have an excellent resume, supported by three Best Actor/Supporting nominations. His personal antics have overshadowed this, which is a shame, because he's given many good performances in some great films. Even his huge blockbusters have a certain "quality" to them. He recruits the best, and has a knack for working with some of Hollywood greatest current directors.

I do not work for Tom Cruise, btw, he gives me the creeps!

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I don't even know about that one...

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

my youtube attention span runs at about 45 seconds, is it really funny or something?

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I would throw in Babel as well. I thought his performance was powerful in that film.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Not really 6 minutes worth funny. It's the end of Seven voiced over by some college kids or something, I think.

But I do agree, that ending scene is weakened somewhat by Pitt's performance.

I don't really have anything against Pitt, though. There is a place for the "movie star" type in Hollywood and I think he fits the role pretty well. I think he's fine in Ocean's (which isn't anything that requires much ability beyond a little charisma) and sometimes knocks it out of the park like, for instance, in 12 Monkey's.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Absolutely agree, in fact I have decided that he is not a very good actor. When I first saw Boogie Nights, I thought he was very good, but my opinon of him has sank ever since.

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

Doesn't mean he played them well. He has a tendency to overact, to pitch his performance a little too much in one direction or another, diminishing the character's believability. Sometimes you need to tone it down and let the eyes do the talking and let the camera pick it up. Of the films you list, I only thought he was good in OCEAN'S and only because, as Clooney's chief sidekick, he had to play a straight man rather than a "top banana."

Re: Actors you're not sure about
 

I think a lot of those roles benefited from that though. 12 Monkeys he was crazy, Fight Club he was a cartoon in many ways, Inglourious Basterds he was an exaggeration, etc.. I thought he fit all those rolls really well. And I thought he did a great job in Babel as well.

It's like when people criticize Nicholson in The Shining. You might not like it, but it is exactly what Kubrick wanted, he wanted it over the top. So in that instance I wouldn't say there is overacting, overacting is a film to film thing. I think every director gets exactly what they want out of Pitt, and he has showed some pretty good range over his career. I wouldn't say he's great but he is solid. And I know what to expect from Pitt when he's in a film.