Great Actors

See I'd class great actors in two different roles. IE theres actors where they've always done a great performance in any film they've been in, like Kevin Spacey, then theres actors like Jim Carrey. Now although I dont like a lot of his stuff, most of his middle comedy stuff has been repeats, he has shown with the likes of Eternal Sunshine, Number 23 and the Majestic, that he can infact do some really good serious roles. So versatility. Like David Jason, I love him for his serious roles in Touch of Frost, and his comedy roles in Only Fools. Thats what makes a great actor for me.


Edit: Apologies, that was a bit of a free for all for punctuation!
 
Sam Rockwell springs to mind, he's been in so many movies, very good actor and underrated.

Casey Affleck - I've seen his last few films, very good imo.
 
Plenty of good ones around now - but most fall for the trap of going down the action blockbuster route, which can typecast them.

I always respect actors who choose smaller interesting movies over the big pay cheque.

Current I think Javier Bardem must be near the top of the list. Utterly chilling performance in No Country for old men
 
Orange Peel said:
My issue with some of the so called greats is that they just play the same character (themselves) in every movie. Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman are two of the biggest offenders IMHO. Sure they're great at doing the same thing over and over again but surely acting is becoming a different person not just adapting slightly to fit the script/story.
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I actually started my earlier post off with a similar statement, but removed it. Of the greats the OP suggested, I think McQueen and Caine both suffered from essentially playing the same character repeatedly.
 
Can't beat old Jimmy Stewart for his simplicity in greats like "It's a wonderful life" and "Rear Window".

In terms of modern actors though, I have to say Leonardo DiCaprio has become the iconic male performer of the last ten years. Plenty of others obviously but he's well up there on his own for me.
 
I'm going to say Hugh Jackman. His acting has been very good in recent films like The Fountain, The Prestige (where I think he outshone Christian Bale) and Australia. Even X-men Origins had something going for it with his screen presence.
 
I certainly wouldn't say Caine and Eastwood are great actors. They're both very one dimensional in my opinion.

Christian Bale is one of my favourites at the moment. Has great screen presence and was superb in The Machinist.
 
Bale has proven quite versatile and dedicated as an actor, at least in his smaller films. From a physical point of view it was amazing how much weight he lost for Machinist and how quickly he beefed up for Batman. Terminator did put a spanner in the works though because he just looked the same in that as he did on Batman and screen presence was minimal from him and rather poor film overall.

I may also get stick for this but I think Tom Cruise is actually a good actor and quite versatile too, just a darn shame he's gone all nuts now and he has done an awful lot of cheese in his early days. He's mostly one for action films, but he has proven his worth in other genres. Similar thing could be said for Brad Pitt (apart from nuts bit), plenty of cheesy homoerotic macho men in hi early days but has made a mark for himself across different films.

Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have successfully managed to shake off the boyish heart throb image from Titanic and get himself taken seriously. While he has been steadily going up in my books, his work has been somewhat limited rather similar roles. Daniel Day Lewis is another one who takes his roles dead serious, but he doesn't do much work and kind of films he makes never really interested me that much.

I do also think that Seymour Hoffman is an underrated actor, he has been involved in a few dubious projects and poor man just never seems to get much screen time but he does carry a lot of presence with him. He has done a number of genres very successfully and has proven himself well in lead roles.

Other names I could throw in (in no particular order) are Johnny Depp, Sean Pean, Sam Rockwell, Edward Norton and even Don Cheadle for some of his parts (he just had to ruin those with all that rubbish in between). One I feel sorry for is Paddy Considine, man has already established himself in the UK and has shown his ability to act in the US, but he just doesn't seem to catch that role in the US (was utterly wasted as an actor in Bourne) and he's not getting any younger.
 
De Niro played the same character so often, he was only actually great in a few films, vastly over rated in many other films that gained cult status but weren't that good, and every but Heat in the past 10 years, maybe 15, has been truly awful.

Washington was great, then he sold out and did a whole range of utter crap and since then, including the "i'm a bad cop film" he's been the exact same character in everything he does, doing films with truly awful dialogue, do well with the MTV crowd but are basically all awful films.

Depp is great, Jason Schwartzman is fantastic in almost everything he does, often plays the same character though, but is very very good, Bored to Death, a new tv series with him in was brilliant last year(not sure if its got a series 2), Norton does too many awful films, but some truly brilliant ones inbetween, he does seem to be a great actor but hasn't had the career he should have had in terms of films he's done. In Fight Club, American History X(over rated but still good) and several other things he's been brilliant, he's done some utter turds aswell.

Sean Penn mostly plays the same role but after a long time certainly made the effort to do some vastly different things, but he's always at his best in his "default" character.

I think theres two absolute stand outs, Brad Pitt and Leo Di Caprio, and frankly Di Caprio is better, he really hasn't done many bad films, and he's played different characters in so many things he's done.

Shutter Island he's excellent in, he's been in loads, absolutely loads of fantastic films, Catch me if you Can was pretty god damned brilliant.

Dustin Hoffman is a VERY good actor, not very prolific though but usually does very good films, can do comedy very well, heartfelt, scientisty/soldier just about.

I would say Jason Schwartzman, Hoffman, Leo, Pitt.

When I look at the list in the OP of outgoing greats, for me of them I'd only count Pacino and Jack Nicholson and largely because they made the least crap at the end of their career's, but both have done some utter rubbish lately.

Pacino's latest greats, Righteous Kill is truly horrific, De Niro is miles worse but the film is utter crap, 88 minutes, Ocean's 13, Two for the Money, Gigli, The Recruit, Simone, I'm caught inbetween Insomnia was half decent half crap and I can't quite remember it. Any given Sunday is the last good thing he did 11 years ago.

NIcholson, Mars Attacks, Anger Management, The Bucket List, with a few good things and a couple great things inbetween, probably the least "sell out" acting great out there to be honest.

De Niro is an embarassement, since 97/98 its been almost pure unadulterated crap, and he's probably been his most prolific since then doing film after film of utter rubbish, ruined his career and considering he was mega rich by then I have no idea why.
 
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Got to agree about De Niro, chap's really has gone downhill in the last decade, insomnia was the last half decent thing I remember him do but other than that just feels like he's riding the money wagon.

Can't say I'm totally convinced by Jason Schwartzman though I had to google him to remind me who he is!
 
Robert Downey Jnr has had a resurgance since he went clean, he's done brilliant stuff over the years but overshadowed by the drugs, etc.
 
neoboy said:
Got to agree about De Niro, chap's really has gone downhill in the last decade, insomnia was the last half decent thing I remember him do but other than that just feels like he's riding the money wagon.
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Robert De Niro wasn't in Insomnia? :confused:
 
neoboy said:
I may also get stick for this but I think Tom Cruise is actually a good actor and quite versatile too, just a darn shame he's gone all nuts now and he has done an awful lot of cheese in his early days. He's mostly one for action films, but he has proven his worth in other genres.
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I think Tom Cruise is a solid actor, but has he ever really pushed emotional depths the way the likes of Pitt/DiCaprio/the rest have? I've not seen some of what are rated as his 'better' films, like Magnolia, but from what I understand, the don't push his character as much as, say, Seven or Shutter Island did for the other two. Or am I wrong?
 
For me I think Leonardo DiCaprio, is such a brilliant actor, and has come on in leaps and bounds recently, has a quirky funny side as well. Deffinatly a legend in the making.

When I first noticed this thread, I knew the ones people would be mentioning straight away, but I was quite surprised that actors like Keanu Reeves and Samual L Jackson weren't mentioned straight away in the same league as actors like Denzel.
 
Sinopa said:
I like Ryan Gosling. He performance in The Believer was astounding. One of the best "proper" actors of his generation. Also Joseph Gordon Leivitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
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Ryan Gosling was actually the first name that popped in my head when I read the thread title.

Brilliant in Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl too
 
For me it isnt a question about greatness but rather presence the Actor can be a big name or small same goes for the role.

For example that Actor who portrays Buffalo Bill the serial killer in Silence of the Lambs definatley has presence , he pops up in some of the most obscure television programmes or films yet always manages to capture the Camera yet I dont even know the Actors name.

Same as Laurence Fishburne he definatley has presence though he is a big name and deservedly so.
 
Bit of a random one but based on his performance in Chopper alone, Eric Bana has the potential to be something special.

Seems like he never really found the right film after that though. I've not seen a better performance from anyone in "my" generation than that of Bana.

Excellent film too.
 
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