That’s tough; I love trashy Saturday afternoon action flicks, but Seagal isn’t even good-looking enough for Mindless-Beefcake-to-Keep-the-Girlfriend-Happy.
Still, I kind of liked him in that really stupid one about the cook … Under Siege; he almost did a nice, understated dead-pan spoof that no-one does anymore (I loved Get Smart). He made that wooden inability to act work, just like Schwartzenegger did in Terminator.
Me, I hate Frodo; I can’t even remember his name, I hate him so much. I hope he makes lots and lots money so he never curses a screen again. He’s shrill and weak-faced and brings all the depth of sugar cookie to a role. I could just bear him in LOTR because a suffering little saint like some damned Dickens heroine is all he is fit for.
I agree she was terrific in that movie, but surely you DO know that it is widely panned as a terrible Oscar pick? You’ve heard of the urban myth that her name was announced by mistake, I presume?
Some urban myths are rooted in reality, but other urban myths are impossible, so stupid they defy logic and common sense. This is one of them. It’s not even possible for that to happen. I assume you know, but for those who may not know, only two people know before the Oscars start who ALL the winners are, and those are the two guys from Price Waterhouse (as it was known back then, now they’re PricewaterhouseCoopers), the guys with the briefcases holding the envelopes. Not even the people who count the ballots or type up the envelopes know who all the winners are. Those guys, though, they each memorize all the winners, in case something goes wrong. They’re standing at the wings giving out the envelopes to the presenters as they go onstage, and they listen to the announcements. If a presenter were to announce the wrong name, they have the authority to walk out on stage and stop the show, and to then announce the correct winner. That’s never happened, but it would have happened if Palance had called out the wrong name.
OK I’ll defend him. Early in his career he had the ability to not suck in the right movie. Under Seige was a good action movie and he didn’t suck in it. Under Seige 2 wasn’t too bad either. His first movie Above the Law wasn’t exactly well written but his action scenes were very good (and it had a still hot Sharon Stone). Before he got fat and crazier his fight scenes could carry a movie. I won’t ever say he was an actor let alone a good one.
She hasn’t exactly been burning up the screen as an actor. Since Godfather III she hasn’t done much acting so she doesn’t fit the OP (“who you can’t believe get top billing again and again”). She isn’t really a working actor.
And she was great in Godfather I.
Jerry Lewis is another one whose ego got in the way of his career. In his later life he could have transformed himself into a good serious actor. He was great in King of Comedy. He was great in his story arc on the TV show Wiseguys. But at that point he was never again going to be a lead actor.
Nic Cage was so bad (and is still so bad) that he couldn’t pull one line in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Not one line. And that’s with the last name of Coppola.
However, I sort of liked him in Family Man. I really had a crush on Tea Leone, so maybe that helped. But his eyes-half-opened acting style and his painful delivery have ruined just about everything else. Not convinced? See “Snake Eyes”
Keanu intrigues me, simply because I like most of what he’s done. I think one of his best films was Parenthood, but he was enjoyable in Speed, The Devi’s Advocate (except for the painful accent), and the Matrix.
I like most of Kevin Costner’s films, Bull Durham buys a lot of good will from me. And I loved Mr. Brooks.
More later. And I promise that no matter what, the human 2x4, Bill Paxton will never be mention in any positive way.
Keanu Reeves utterly ruined The Devil’s Advocate for me. Can you imagine what that film would have been like if they’d got - say - Brad Pitt in that role? But I did like Point Break.
He hasn’t been mentioned yet but Robert Downey Jr get a lot of undeserved critical abuse IMO. I liked him in Chaplin, even though I thought the film as a whole didn’t work, and he’s put in solid performances pretty much all along the way.
Also: there are a number of actors - Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, to name a few - who are capable of phenomenal performances when kept on a short directorial lead or in a supporting role, yet given free reign as stars will stink up a film something awful. Sometimes an artist is his/her own worst enemy.
Are you kidding? At least as far as the critics go, Downey went from “promising young actor” to “actor who’d have a phenomenal career if he stayed off the drugs” and finally, as of last year, to “most talented superstar who isn’t Johnny Depp.” I’ve never seen a bad review of any of his performances, even in his crappier films.
Her victory surprised a lot of people, but it really SHOULDN’T have.
First, unlike the Best Supporting Actor award, which usually goes to an old-timer (James Coburn, Alan Arkin, John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Jack Palance, et al) as a reward for a body of work, Best Supporting Actress tends to go to younger actresses .
People forget that, which is why they were shocked when Lauren Bacall lost Best Supporting Actress to Juliette Binoche.
Once you grasp that voters tend NOT to treat Best Supporting Actress as a lifetime achievement awards for veterans, it’s easier to see the young, relatively unknown American starlet beating the older, more respected British/Aussie stars.
Second, there’s the obvious reality that Marisa Tomei was nominated for her work in a mainstream American comedy that was seen and enjoyed by tens of millions. The other actresses were nominated for arthouse films that most people, even in Hollywood, never actually saw.
I’m sure some critics don’t like Sean Penn, either. This thread isn’t about actors who someone, somewhere doesn’t like, it’s about actors lots of people think are bad. *Iron Man *received nearly wall-to-wall accolades when it came out, and Downey’s performance was considered one of it’s strong points.
I don’t remember much of Kevin Costner’s work, so I cannot comment in general. However, I will never forgive him for the abomination that is “The Postman”, the movie version of what was a decent science fiction book. All of the interesting story and character development in the book was sucked out and replaced by an infantile desire to play a superhero style character. The world would be a better place if someone had thought to take away his camera and replace it with a cape to play with.
