Marlon Brando: He’s been repulsively hammy as often as he’s been brilliant. Some of his most acclaimed performances belong in the “repulsively hammy” category. He’s best when he’s most subtle and controlled. So, I’d say his best performance was in “The Godfather.” He was also surprisingly good in a bad movie called “Don Juan de Marco.”
**
Peter Sellers: I never liked “Dr. Strangelove.” Frankly, I think that when you look up the word “overrated” in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Stanley Kubrick. Still, Sellers was remarkably good in it, especially as inept PResident Merkin Muffley.
**
Samuel L. Jackson: He was at his best and most believable in “Changing Lanes.” And, while I didn’t think much of Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” Jackson was superb as Wesley Snipes’ junkie brother Gator.
**
Gary Oldman: He’s been pretty good in many parts, but he’s yet to make a movie I liked.
**
Robert Carlyle: Utterly charming in “The Full Monty.”
**
James Stewart: Oh gosh, this is tough. Few other actors have given so many great performances. His brilliance was in giving generally good men just a trace of selfishness, a tinge of madness, a hint of danger. His work made a host of mediocre movies interesting… and helped make Alfred Hitchcock look like a much better director than he really was!
His best performance… well, if ANYBODY but Jimmy Stewart had played George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the movie would have been repulsively sweet and saccharine. Stewart made a real, likeable, flesh and blood hero out of a plaster saint. He made us see BOTH why George Bailey loved Bedford Falls AND why part of him was dying to get out.
So… that’s still my favorite Stewart performance.
**
Sean Penn: Hilarious in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” compelling in “Bad Boys,” but absolutely perfect in “Dead Man Walking.”
**
Robert De Niro: Hmm. Tough one. I LOVED him in “Heat.” I thought he was superb in the mediocre comedy “Midnight Run.” But for me, his best performance ever was as Rupert Pupkin in “The King of Comedy.” He managed to be funny, charming, pathetic and scary at the same time.
**
Clint Eastwood: I’ve loved loads of his movies, but he’s rarely done much real acting. He just doesn’t have much range, and usually plays variations on the same character. He’s only given genuinely good performances in three movies: “The Beguiled” (a good one), “Unforgiven,” a very good one… and “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (his best movie and best performance, in my opinion).
**
Steve Buscemi: He’s been pretty good in a lot of movies, but not great in any I’ve seen. He almost always places the same kind of character.
But I suppose that character worked better in “Resevoir Dogs” than in any of his other movies.