Thursday, May 3, 2007

Part Deux - Evaluating Actors/Actresses

In keeping with the theme from the previous post - how do you rank actors and actresses? How do you compare character actors such as Jack Nicholson, DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Walken and Steve Buscemi to the actors who can apparently play any damn role (think Edward Norton, Nicholas Cage and Geoffrey Rush)? Should character flexibility count for anything, or can you be just as good essentially playing the same role in every movie, like Bruce Campbell or Robert Englund?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Vincent Donofrio dude !!!!
I think we should also consider the choice that these actors make
Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider or in Gone in 60 Seconds is just pathetic even if he does a great job in it. He has to think that Samuel L. Jackson has to work and so he should stop stealing his roles.

Anonymous said...

Dustin Hoffman and Nicholas Cage could just as well have switched place on your lists. Both have done a variety of roles, but are often type-cast.

Anonymous said...

How about Leonardo DiCaprio? Did only "pretty boy" roles for a while (think The Beach, Titanic, Romeo and Juliette, etc), but has started getting real roles. Like The Aviator and Gangs Of New York. Martin Scorsese has a thing for him. Which list would you put him on?

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you Anders, Di Caprio is a great actor (even in his first movies) and HE selects now his roles very carefully (blood Diamond, catch me if you can (damn, a Spielberg one))

Wilhelm said...

Pigeon: You're right about the choice part. Why the name of everything sacred did Ed Norton do "Death to Smoochy"? Shaft needs work, dammit. The Man is always tryin' to keep Samuel L. Jackson down.

Anders: Hmm...except Rainman - what other examples are there of Hoffman playing different characters? To me, the only difference in the characters Hoffman plays (except Rainman) is whether or not he is in a good mood or not.

Wilhelm said...

DiCaprio a great actor? I want some of what y'all are smokin'........

Anonymous said...

Sorry, didn't mean to say the Leonard was a great actor. More like a question of where he belongs: Pretty Boy or Serious Actor (TM). For me, he’s damaged. No matter how his acting is, I have the image of the Titanic pretty boy in my head. Just like Val Kilmer; after seeing him in Top Secret, I start laughing no matter how serious his role is. So The Doors and Heat were pretty weird for me. ;-)


Dustin Hoffman:
Kramer vs Kramer
Tootsie
Rain Man
Family Business
The Graduate
Little Big Man

Pretty diverse roles, there, I think.

Wilhelm said...

...like seeing Keanu Reeves as a nucular physics grad student in Chain Reaction, eh?

Anonymous said...

Djezes, Chain Reaction. I've forgotten about that movie, and now you reminded me. Oh, the horror.

Wilhelm said...

....nucular.....it's pronounced nucular.....

Anonymous said...

Damn I have to see this "movie" in english !!!!
A Another funny physicist is Denise Richards in James Bond (I don't remember the title, the one with Sophie Marceau)
Chain reaction is also interesting cause Morgan Freeman does not play the president (I have the feeling that he's always the president)

Anders if you want to see Val Kilmer in a great movie : The Salton Sea !!

Anonymous said...

No matter how good the movie is, I Val Kilmer ruins half of it. Think of a V.K. movie, and imagine Leslie Nelson playing the part of Val Kilmer. That's how I see the movie. But he has played in some good movies, I'll give him that. I liked Heat, good action flick.

I've seen that James Bond movie (can't remember the title either, but it was with Pierce Broznan as Bond and Desmond L-something as Q, maybe the last Bond movie with Desmond as Q?). My take on this: Any young chick (i.e. under the age of 25) isn't credible in a role as an experienced scientist with a PhD. There is no short cut to the "tenured academic" position... ;-)

Anonymous said...

The world is not enough
Garbage made the song

Wilhelm said...

...Word..if you know of any significant shortcuts to tenure, I don't even want to know at this point

Anonymous said...

..."you know of any significant shortcuts to tenure.."

The Sudbø/ MS Excel route?

Wilhelm said...

...apparently, the Excel/Photoshop route is only good for temporary positions, seeing as how Sudbø's ass is now firmly parked on the curb....

Anonymous said...

Well, he got greedy. He started using non-existing data bases (at least non- existing at the time he "used" the data from them). If he had just stuck to Excel and Photoshop, he could still be on the career fast track...