My man James Garner is like that. While’s he played a number of different roles, he’s best at the likeable, sly, soft-hearted rogue. See his TV roles of Maverick and Jim Rockford and those old Poloroid commercials, and his movies roles in The Great Escape , The Americanization of Emily , Support Your Local Sheriff , Support Your Local Gunfighter , The Skin Game and Murphy’s Romance .
I have to disagree. I think it seems that way because he never turns down a movie. He’s done 55 movies in the time since then (some still in production). His performances in Die Hard, The Great White Hype, A Time To Kill, The Negotiator, Changing Lanes, Unbreakable, Coach Carter, and **the Incredibles **have shown he can play a variety of different characters. All of them were done after Pulp Fiction.
How 'bout Brando? All this talk about what a great actor he was, I never got it. I thought he was pretty bad myself.
Oh come on. He was good in ‘Homer S. Portrait of an Ass Grabber’.
And that’s why we love him. (Snakes on a Plane!)
Can I say it again? Snakes! On a plane!!
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
There was a time when I would have agreed completely. But I saw Danza playing a lawyer on a dramatic series and I was amazed. He played this character he was highly intelligent and serious and he was convincing.
[\quote]
That would be The Practice. I remember the episodes in which he guest-starred; I too was surprised by his credibility.
I’ll defend Jim Carrey and I don’t think you need Eternal Sunshine to do it.
Even if we just stick to his straight up comedies, I think his characters in Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Me, Myself & Irene are each distinct and funny in their own way. More of the laughs in Dumb and Dumber came from his delivery and sense of timing than physical buffoonery. (“I’m going to Aspen”, “mmm. . .California, beautiful.”)
Now consider The Cable Guy, The Truman Show, Lemony Snicket, Man in the Moon.
This guy may be alot of things, but a one-trick pony, he’s not.
Look at that list of Carrey movies, and then compare to what De Niro has done over a similar period of time:
Cape Fear, Heat, Goodfellas, Analyze This (& That), Casino, Midnight Run, The Score, Meet the Parents (& Fockers).
You tell me who the one-trick pony is. Anyone of those characters could be plugged into any other one of those movies without missing a beat.
Don’t read too much into that. I do like De Niro. I think he showed more breadth (if not more depth) early on. He’s magnetic and I like watching him, but he can still be weak at times (cf. Goodfellas crying scene).
I can’t believe, on a board where “Lost” is as popular as it is, that we haven’t discussed Michelle Rodriguez yet.
“Blue Crush” - tough Latina chick.
“Lost” - tough Latina chick.
“Girlfight” - tough Latina chick.
That movie with aliens - tough Latina chick.
Good call.
The first time I saw her was Girlfight, and it was good and she was good, but that was pretty much all you’re gonna get from her.
She was also in S.W.A.T. - tough Latina chick.
What about The Fast and the Furious, where she played…oh, wait. Never mind.
Quote=Askia
Sammy Jackson. One of my all-time favorite actors but – let’s get real – he plays damn near the same exact do-not-piss-off-this-man-he’s-a-total-badass character in every single movie role since Pulp Fiction.
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I think Jackson’s typical character is the reason Joe Pesci doesn’t get much work lately. The story calls for a tough little ashole, Pesci is rumored to be ‘difficult to work with’, so they rewrite the part for Jackson, because he can play a tough prick with as much intelligence as he has cunning. And you gotta admit, Pesci’s stock character is cunning but not intelligent.
How much of his pre-1980’s work have you seen? Starting with, approximately, Apocalypse Now he started doing increasingly bizarre things. I have long held the opinion that he was doing much the same thing as Andy Kaufmann. He was entertaining himself by making his audience uncomfortable. I think that even his enormous weight gain was just to offend those who wanted him to be the young, beautiful Brando of the 1950’s.
I’d also like to humbly submit the movie “With Honors” which was not a typical Pesci role.
You should see him in Igby Goes Down, or The Tall Guy.
I won’t contest that De Niro has established his “gangster” character very well. However, if you’re suggesting that’s all he’s capable of I think you’re sadly misinformed.
Awakenings. The King of Comedy. Mad Dog and Glory. Frankenstein. Brazil. The Deer Hunter. Bang the Drum Slowly. Raging Bull. Taxi Driver.
Hell, he was the only funny thing in the live action Rocky and Bullwinkle movie as Fearless Leader.
Even in his gangster roles there’s a big difference between his characters in Analyze This/That, Goodfellas and Casino. And I don’t see how you can lump Max Cady from Cape Fear in with the gangster portrayals. Max Cady may be similar to Travis Bickle, but he’s no mafiosi.
Perhaps he is resting on his laurels a little. But damn, the guy has got some pretty huge laurels to rest on.
Didn’t Charleton Heston always play an arrogant prick with a big chin? I have to admit I haven’t seen much of his work besides The Ten Commandments and the science fiction he did in the 60s and 70s, but he always seemed to deliver his lines the same way.
I thought it was Terry Sweeney, who couldn’t do anything but a weird impression of Nancy Reagan.
I thought his cameo in JFK was pretty respectable.
This thread reminds me of a comment made snidely about a particular actor: “Alan Ladd has two expressions. Hat on and hat off.”
Kevin Spacey. And it’s a shame, because you so suspect he can do better…
mm
Nicholas Cage