First impressions are important as they say. Gimme some examples of the first time you saw a particular actor/actress and if that impression has changed over the years.
Movie:Blade Runner Actor: Rutger Hauer Impression: This is one of my favorite movies (warts and all). Harrison Ford is NOT the reason to watch this move. It’s Rutger Hauer. He absolutely blew me away with his performance as Roy Batty. Over the years, unfortunately, his choice of roles were questionable at best. A shame.
Movie:The World According to Garp Actors: Glenn Close & John Lithgow Impression: When I heard that one of my favorite books was to become a movie, I was in a state of dread. The movie turned out okay. I feel they captured most of the essence of the book (which, if completely filmed, would have to have been 3-4 hours, easily). I never liked the character of Jenny Fields. Glenn Close did such a good job that I ended up projecting that dislike onto her. No, it doesn’t make any sense.
John Lithgow was amazing as the transexual football star, Roberta Muldoon. Not long after, I saw him in Buckaroo Bonzai. He’s now one of my favorite actors.
When I first saw **Sandra Bullock ** in Demolition Man, I thought, “This girl has something.” Not necessarily great acting ability, but a great appeal. Beautiful, of course, but also warm and approachable. The ‘girl-next-door’ kind of appeal in a girl that is way hotter than any girl next door. I was sure we’d be seeing more of her.
Then came Speed and she was suddenly America’s sweetheart. I was overjoyed! She was everywhere and I couldn’t get enough of her. While You Were Sleeping was a very enjoyable romantic comedy. **The Net ** wasn’t very good, but I watched it several times just to see her. I even shelled out money to see Speed 2 in the theater, knowing it would likely be very, very bad. I bought Love Potion #9 and The Thing Called Love on VHS (and discovered I like both movies–Sandra or no Sandra) and practically wore the tapes out.
The thing is, she’s been in a heck of a lot of bad and mediocre movies and not many good ones.
In addition to the movies I mentioned above, her IMDB filmography also includes:
Two Weeks Notice (2002) [not bad, but not that good]
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) [didn’t see it]
Murder by Numbers (2002) [didn’t see it–heard it was bad]
Miss Congeniality (2000) [pretty silly–but displays her natural comedic talents well]
28 Days (2000) [good, I thought, but not very original]
Forces of Nature (1999) [awful]
Practical Magic (1998) [awful]
Hope Floats (1998) [not my cup of tea, but ‘chicks’ seem to like it]
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) [very bad]
Time to Kill, A (1996) [decent movie of my favorite Grisham novel, but her role was pretty small]
Two If by Sea (1996) [truly awful]
I still think she’s quite charming–she just has terrible taste in scripts. All that charm is going to waste. YMMV, but I’m going to buy Love Potion #9 on DVD and try to forget about her last decade’s worth of work.
Real Genius: Val Kilmer - I loved his character and was so impressed by him that I couldn’t watch Top Gun without rooting for the “Ice Man”
And speaking of Tom Cruise: The first time I saw him in Risky Business was the last time I thought he did a good job. After that I enjoyed the movies he starred in despite being distracted by his wooden performances.
Ben Stiller: I liked him on TV but came to eventually realize that he is an overactor, not an actor.
But Sandra’s character was the worst part of the movie.