The man should have received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his scene-stealing role in 1996's Ransom; he was the best thing about Stephen King's The Stand in 1994; his brief uncredited scene in 1999's The Green Mile makes you shake your head and wonder how he can be so good by just...talkin'. His expressions, the way he looks at other characters on the screen, the way he enunicates his words.

I won't even mention his Oscar-nominated turn as Lt. Dan in 1994's Forrest Gump.

But this was all in the 90's. I haven't seen any of his films after 1999, but from what I've read, they haven't set the world afire. I have seen his TV show, CSI, but wasn't impressed. That is to say, I wasn't impressed with the stories or plots on the show, therefore his acting is irrevelant.

Gary's career reminds me of Guy Pearce, although Pearce only to a much lessor extent. Guy Pearce, for me, starred in two GREAT films, but nothing else he's done is worthwhile to me (L.A. Confidential and Memento). Like Pearce, I'm happy that we at least got Gary Sinise on film for the great roles he's done.

But............Will we ever see "greatness" from Gary Sinise again?

I watch CSI NY all the time.

I find it hard to compare his TV work with previous movies. Of course, not just with him but with any actor or actress. I just find it hard to compare something I see on TV in my living room to something I see on the big screen at the theater.

This guy was so good at playing a bad guy in Ransom, it's hard for me to think of him as anything else.

Add The Proposition to the list of great Guy Pearce films.

I agree. The schlock they put in the cinemas these days can't compare to the quality and variety of what TV has to offer.

Not that I've seen it, but this immediately came to mind.

Gary Sinise is one of those guys that for one reason or another just never caught fire even though he seemed to be doing all the right things. It is possible that playing as iconic a character as Lt Dan hurt him because I know a lot of people that will immediately start quoting Forrest Gump when they see him. Gary just never seemed to get that push that some get.

Maybe he didn't want it.

Guy Pearce seems to choose his projects very deliberately and seems to shy away from big budget affairs (The Time Machine and The Count of Monte Cristo excepted). With LA Confidential, Memento, The Proposition, and I would include Ravenous; he is crafting a very good body of work in my opinion.

I hope you're joking. TV shows are ....better than movies? Ummm, no.

Gary Sinise does great when he is a foil character. He is a great complement to a Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, or Nicholas Cage (Snake Eyes). However a few years ago he made the mistake of taking on leading man roles ("Impostor", "Mission to Mars"). The aloof, intuitive, personality that Sinise is so good at projecting just does not work when he is the central character. Once he gets back to what he is really good at we'll see his best work.

I thought he did a fantastic job in Of Mice and Men (1992), both starring and directing.

Wow. Well put.


(He stole the show in The Quick and the Dead!)

He did great in the Mission Space intro.

I believe this to be his most important work. He gave at least a dozen opportunites to bail on the mission, yet I never heeded his warnings. When I proceeded to get sick all over my command console, I realized that I should have had more respect for Gary's words of wisdom. From that point on and to this day, I will do anything Gary Sinise tells me. I now refer to him only as "sifu."

Obviously you've never seen 24.

= J

I would say so, for the most part.

I would add Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to Pierce's good roles.

LIAR!

My assumption is, the good, challenging scripts in the movie industry today, are difficult to find. Prominent actors, and actresses are just being more selective on choosing the characters of their interests to portray. Like for instance, take a look at all the awful theatrical movies that's been made in the past fews years, and the present.

No one's mentioned yet that an actor gets far more time to prep and far more takes to try different things in a movie than they ever get in a TV show. Actors get their scripts on TV a few days before the epsiodes shoot (and that's assuming there's no last minute changes) and they get maybe two or three shots at each scene before it's "locked" and they move on to the next one.

Some of them are.

Just about any drama (that was) on HBO outshines most of the cinema output. The Shield's another one. They are like one hour mini-movies and the acting is always above par from most everyone involved not to mention powerhouse writing and directing.

What's sad is that we don't have Gary Sinise on film from the early 70's, when he co-founded the Steppenwolf Theater Company. He did a lot of stage work through the 70's and early 80's, but sadly there's really nothing captured on film (with the exception of True West from 1983).

He had a "guest spot" on the TV series Knots Landing in 1980, and the scene was so brief I can scarsely wonder why they even bothered giving him a credit for it. It is perhaps the first time the world ever got to see Gary, and man! did he look young (guess because he was)!

I'm surprised he never got asked to do more work for that show, or for any show in those days. Compared to some of the poor actors who appeared on those shows, they could have done well to hire Gary. Of course, it could be that Gary's interests were not into being on TV - could be he was happy and content doing his theater work.

Normally I would agree with you. But there's maybe like 5 really good movies a year while often there are at least 5 really good episodes per season per series.

It depends on what you like. But overall TV is kicking movie ass. There is just nothing at the theatres ever.

Seems like actors who can't make it in movies are now doing TV

Yeah, I'm sure James Woods is having a rough time finding roles in Hollywood.

Actually, the most cited reasons are generally:
1. scheduling - they can work basically 8-5(for the most part) and be home for dinner with the kids

2. TV these days is good. There are some very solid shows out there, and others that put out a handful of top notch episodes every year

3. they find a character they like and want to see grow. You can't do that with a two hour movie.