I did not think he was a great actor until I saw him in Kalifornia
I can’t remember where I read this but someone once described Brad Pitt as a leading man who wishes he was a character actor. I agree with this assessment. Pitt is at his best in quirky roles in movies like 12 Monkeys, Fight Club, True Romance and Snatch. However, when he’s a straight-forward leading man, he’s dull as dishwater.
I agree with Kalifornia as being one of his better roles too. He’s genuinely scary in that movie. I also agree that he’s better when he plays character roles, or roles with quirks he can sink his teeth into. I think he seems bored when he plays conventional leading man roles, but give him something like his character in Snatch, and he knocks it out of the park.
He’s fair to middlin with a handful of real groaners on his resume. His best performance was in True Romance.
“Batshit crazy” is what my wife believes men really want in a woman. Saying whether or not I’m married to the perfect woman is a minefield I don’t care to cross.
But Brad Pitt the actor? He can be really good and even when he isn’t still owns the screen. Like Paul Newman and Eastwood.
I agree that he was very good in** The Assassination…** but I also agree that he didn’t work well in Inglorious Basterds. Maybe another actor could have gotten away with being that over the top, but I just thought he was awful, and his performance took away from what could have been an excellent movie. However, whatever his shortcomings as an actor, he is nice to look at. Rawr.
To those people who don’t think he is a great actor: can you name more than a handful of people who have done as much work who are better?
Kalifornia was what convinced me that he’s a good actor. I wouldn’t say he’s great, but he’s very, very good.
I also thought that he might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he appeared on Larry King one night talking about the foundation he was setting up to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and I was pretty impressed with grasp of the facts and figures and how he presented them. He seemed like a pretty sharp guy to me.
12 Monkeys first time I ever noticed him too. I thought both he and Willis were terrific in that movie. Haven’t paid much attention to him since, although I did enjoy him in Burn After Reading.
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Is he the best? Probably not, but a Brad movie is usually a pretty good ride. For some reason the public had this image of him for years as this All American Golden Boy, but jeez, look at the twisted roles the man has chosen. He is anything but that, and that is why I enjoy his work.
ITA, Kalifornia is just about my favorite Brad movie. I actually forgot it was Brad Pitt. That is truly an overlooked performance. 12 Monkeys runs a close second for me. I have that movie on DVD just to watch his scenes. “Get out of my chair!”
I love that he is a beautiful man that is so willing to ugly himself up, and as a matter of fact, he is sexier when he uglys himself up. He is divine in Fight Club.
Interview With the Vampire is another person favorite. That scene between him and Antonio Banderas where they practically kiss practically made me vibrate off the sofa, and I am about as straight a female as you can ever find. 
While the dialogue in Troy was indeed awful, Brad has since said he was not very happy at that time in his life, and that affected his performance.
His worst roles IMHO are Joe Black and Benjamin Button.
Inglorious Bastererds was a fun emsemble cast, and I think Brad was excellent in it, especially his character’s attempt at Italian. He was an interesting part of the story without overshadowing anyone else. I enjoyed it.
And I realize some people here don’t cotton to Angelina, but I think she and Brad are smokin’ hot, so of course I like Mr. and Mrs. Smith quite a lot…it is a very sexy movie, especially when they are beatin’ the hell out of each other! 
I want to make out with them both (I promise I am straight, lol!)!
So yeah, I like my Brad best when served up with a little kink on the side.
That is the dividing line. Referring to another thread I admire Meryl Streep but I am always reminded what a great acting job she is doing. Actors who manage to not come across as actors portraying a role are my favorites. Matt Damon can do it, though the extremely low bar I originally set for him can probably be jumped by anyone to the right (on the scale) of Ben Affleck.
Yes, I get your point. I also relish movies much more on those rare times the actor disappears into the role. For me, the Brits/Welsh/Irish actors do it best. People like Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, and Emily Watson are particularly good at it.
Another Brad movie I forgot to mention that he diappeared into the role was Legends of the Fall…Ah, Tristan. Brad inhabited Tristan, nd he was so beautiful it hurt. Except for ONE moment that snatched me right out of the story. It is the scene where his wife is shot on the road and Tristan is beaten up. While he is writhing in pain on the ground you can clearly see Brad’s amalgam fillings in his back teeth. I don’t think they had those in 1910.
Brad’s a fine actor in my opinion. Maybe not a stratospheric great, like Daniel Day Lewis, but pretty darned good, and eclectic. I first noticed him as his nightmare-inducing character in Kalifornia, yes, very scary indeed, so I considered him as an excellent actor from the beginning. All the roles people have mentioned as his being good in, I agree, except that I haven’t seen Legends of the Fall or True Romance yet. I loved him in Inglorious Basterds. Except for the fact that it’s an already perfect movie, the only thing keeping it from being 110% perfect is that I wanted more Aldo Ray.
No, you don’t, but you felt obliged to state that she was batshit crazy anyway, as if it were irrefutable fact, didn’t you?
I assume Brad knows. 
He’s much, much better than I originally expected him to be. I’d only ever seen hype and tabloid stories of him to start with, so I put him in the pretty-but-vapid camp. Then I watched Ocean’s Eleven, Fight Club, and Burn After Reading. Perhaps it’s just because my expectations were low, but I was completely impressed with how fun he was to watch. Not because he’s a prettyboy, but because his acting style is, as said above, quirky and a little goofy. He comes across as much smarter than I originally believed. I’ve got Inglourious Basterds in my Netflix queue and I’m looking forward to it.
I thought he was mediocre at best, even though I like most of his movies, until Babel. Since then he has been alternately convincing or very funny in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Burn After Reading, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Inglourious Basterds. I have been meaning to revisit some of his earlier work to see if he really was as bad as I thought or whether he was just too subtle for me. My prior opinion was pretty much what Charley posted plus a belief that he would have done better in silent movies as he could make Shakespeare sound like gibberish.
Another vote for The Assassination of Jesse James.
In the scene where he is sitting at the table (“Did you hurt your leg?”) there is a close-up of his face when he suddenly realizes that he is being lied to. The subtle but striking change that washes over his face is absolutely amazing. I rewound it and watched it about four times.
In that movie he was mesmerizing throughout.
That is a great scene Shamozzle.
Oh no kidding. This scene on its own doesn’t have the emotional resonance without having seen what came before and led up to it, but for those who’ve seen the movie, it’s so intense. James knows the minute he walks in the room that he’s a dead man, and his stopping to look at his daughter is heartbreaking. This is the eyes thing you were talking about, right? One of the moments anyway.
Starving Artist, thanks for the laugh. I love Snatch! For those who haven’t seen the movie, here’s more of Brad Pitt’s characterwhere you can see some of the context. He’s not just a funny cameo, it’s an actual character. (as an aside, that’s a great song at the end of the fight scene)
I’ve been having fun finding Brad Pitt scenes on YouTube. Here are a few more.
Some, but by no means all, of his best moments in Burn After Reading.
A montage set to music of his JD in Thelma and Louise. I did see that before Kalifornia and was impressed, but I didn’t know who it was. After Kalifornia I looked up the actor and was shocked to see that they were the same guy. (as an aside, here’s a nice behind-the-scenes look at the casting)
Here’s the trailer for 12 Monkeys.
The trailer for Fight Club.
Of course, Aldo RAINE (sheesh, can’t believe I screwed up his name earlier).
I hesitate to include any scenes from Kalifornia, because out of context, it does just look like Brad Pitt trying to be a redneck, but as most people who’ve watched the movie know, in context, Early Grace is one freaking frightening guy. Here’s one anyway, just to show how different he looks from most of his other characters.
I could keep going but I’ll stop.
As someone else said he’s no Daniel Day Lewis, but IMO DDL is the Highlander of actors. There can be only one. For mere mortals, I would probably classify Brad Pitt as great or maybe just shy of great. Great if the people I’m talking to think he sucks, but probably just shy of great if I’m honest about it.
On an unrelated note, he is possibly the best script reader in Hollywood. The man knows how to pick a project.