Before you do, watch Punch-Drunk Love. Adam Sandler–like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams, IMHO–is best known for being goofy and wacky and juvenile, but can also do quiet and restrained when called upon.
Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s not a big box office draw, but she keeps getting top roles and an impressive salary. She’s bland, snotty, and she can’t act. But she’s got Cate Blanchette’s Oscar sitting on her shelf.
Harrison Ford.
Now close the thread.
Going back a few years but Errol Flynn* I love his movies and never miss one on TMC, but let’s face it he never played anyone but Errol Flynn.
You young whipper snappers can just look it up.
So, what is Brad Pitt, chopped liver?
hh
I have you all beat.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Nicole Kidman. Oh my God, I cannot figure out for the life of me how that woman gets work. Has she no shame? At her worst she is embarrassingly bad. And while we are at it, please stop calling her Australian. She devalues the currency…
mm
Forbidden Hollywood’s “We Shouldn’t Be in Pictures” featured Juliette Lewis, Melanie Griffin and Keanu Reeves.
My own vote will go to Eddie Murphy.
I’ll see your Eddie Murphy and raise you one Steven Segall.
I’ve never been able to understand why Freddie Prinze Jnr has been able to have any kind of career outside of modelling, because he has zero acting talent. Likewise Ashton Kutcher.
(And I honestly don’t see what’s so special about Tom Hanks. He acts, yes, but … so annoyingly. And the only movies he doesn’t annoy me in, it’s because he’s not actually acting, he’s just going through the motions. It’s weird that he annoys me more when he tries.)
I definitely have to second Steven Segall, too. The man is laughably bad. 
He did OK in Spanglish as well, actually being the eye in a nutty storm going on around him.
Normally I would say Keanu Reeves because of the blot he put on the otherwise wonderful Much Ado About Nothing. But Bill and Ted redeems him a little. So I would have to throw in with this Mr. Ford vote.
As I have often said, Reeves has quite a few first-class performances – in movies no one has seen. Things like I Love You to Death, Tune In Tomorrow. . ., Feeling Minnesota, and A Walk in The Clouds were not big hits, but showed some fine performances by Reeves.
Quite a few of the older movie stars were only so-so actors, since they were expected to project a personality, not act. Some that come to mind:
Ruby Keeler. Her acting ability was denegrated both by her main director – Busby Berkeley – and her husband – Al Jolson (though that may have been sour grapes).
Luise Rainer. I haven’t seen her films, but when someone (possibly Alfred Hitchcock) was complaining about never winning an Oscar, his wife said, “It’s not big deal. Luise Rainer won two of them.”
Esther Williams. “Wet, she’s a star. Dry, she ain’t.”
Elvis Presley. As a singer, he was a star, but no one ever parised his acting chops.
Many comedians/comic actors never “acted” other than playing themselves. This list includes W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, The Ritz Brothers, Eddie Cantor, Joe E. Brown, Mae West, Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis, Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen. (Chaplin and Keaton are specifically excluded, even though they played similar characters – they both showed a great deal of depth of characterization in them.
Dude! I have to jump in and defend Brad Pitt. I think he got started with some generic pretty-boy roles (Thelma and Louise, Legends of the Fall), but is actually a terrific and talented character actor who got typecast as a leading man because of his looks. Check out the following Brad Pitt roles and tell me he isn’t a good actor in these:
True Romance
12 Monkeys
Seven
Fight Club
Spy Game
Snatch
OK, anyone could have filled in in Ocean’s 11 and 12, but in all the above, those roles were very unique and took some really nuanced acting. He’s not exactly up to Johnny Depp or Edward Norton’s caliber, but I think he has much more range than he often gets credit for.
Let me also add Marilyn Monroe, who really wasn’t all that good, despite her renoun. It’s partly because her sort of character was dated, and partly because she was very much a one-note actress and her innocent and sexy act was inferior to many others. She really wasn’t a very good dumb blonde at all (compare her to Gracie Allen, Judy Holliday, or even Maureen Arthur*), probably because she was too smart in real life. She was also very one-note and – though she tried to change in her later films – her chirpy readings were all the same no matter who she was playing.
*Notably in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
I will take issue with the Harrison Ford vote. See “Regarding Henry” or “Witness” or really any work he’s done. He isn’t the best verbally, but like McQueen, his unspoken work is incredible. He can say more with his eyes in 5 seconds than other actors in an entire career.
Of those discussed here, He and McQueen don’t belong on this list. I’ll defend Hanks, but think his box office is way better than he himself is – but I love his work.
I’d say** Brendan Frasier**, but his movies match his skills, so it’s all right. Better him than somebody I care about.
How is it possible that I am the first to say Ben Affleck?
Ben Affleck has contributed very little to cinema besides Good Will Hunting, IMHO.
Son of a bitch, I just missed it.