39 replies to this topic

[Overstreet]

Oh, I love Alfred Molina.

And, occasionally, I love Dustin Hoffman.

I'm with you on Caruso, Bortz.

TexasWill ... have you seen Out of Sight? Directed well, Lopez is really quite good. But when she's bad, she's horrid.

Matt Page, have you seen The Quiet American? Caine's excellent there. But he too has made some real stinkers.

And [Kilmer's] only passable in Heat.

Oooh, them's fightin' words. When I think of the word "cool," I think of Val Kilmer in that film.

Jennifer Jason Leigh was brilliant ... BRILLIANT ... in The Hudsucker Proxy. I also liked her in eXistenZ and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

I like Cruise, but only when he's playing a jerk or a villain. He acts those roles like he knows the territory. In the other films, he's playing a jerk or a villain too, but the storyteller mistakes him for the hero. His best performances are Collateral, Magnolia, and ... until the redemption at the end ... Jerry Maguire. I just don't buy the redemption, but I buy the shallowness.

I agree with the mark against Matthew McConaughey. Name one good performance of his. Okay, besides Lone Star (and that role didn't ask much of him). Okay, and besides Reign of Fire, where he was rather wonderfully insane, in an over-the-top, Dennis-Hopper-in-Waterworld sorta way.

Bill Pullman is great when he's got a good director. He's perfect in Lost Highway. He's well-cast in Spaceballs. And he's perfect in The Last Seduction. He's not bad in Wenders' The End of Violence either.



Here's one I don't get: Jason Schwartzman. He annoys the heck out of me in Rushmore with his obstinance. (He's the ONLY thing in that film I don't like ... but, well, he's a pretty whopping big piece of the puzzle.)

And since then, he just looks like a guy that a lot of Hollywood people enjoy because he's a Coppola, but having friends put you in movies doesn't make you a good actor, and I haven't seen much evidence of range or talent yet. If someone else had played his part in Huckabees, I might have like the film a whole lot more.

I'm tempted to say Ashley Judd, but then I remember Ruby in Paradise and Smoke, two films which put her at the top of my Most Exciting New Talents list. And then what happened? Who killed the Ashley I loved and replaced her with this redundant, one-note imposter? WHO DID IT?!!

I reserve the right to change my mind about anyone. I wondered why anybody would cast Amanda Peet until I saw Changing Lanes and she pulled off the best scene in the film.

[Darrel Manson]

DiCaprio usually does nothing for me. So my appreciation of his role in The Aviator means he must have really done well. That's not to say he hasn't done some stuff I like, but before Aviator (with a passable grade for Gangs of NY) I have to go back to Romeo+Juliette, and Basketball Diaries.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Jeffrey Overstreet wrote:
: I agree with the mark against Matthew McConaughey. Name one good
: performance of his. Okay, besides Lone Star (and that role didn't ask much of
: him). Okay, and besides Reign of Fire, where he was rather wonderfully insane,
: in an over-the-top, Dennis-Hopper-in-Waterworld sorta way.

Easy. The stoner he plays in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused.

[MattPage]

Colin Farrell (and that was before I saw Alexander, as well as after)

Matt

[Clint M]

but I think I'm the only person in America who didn't think _Some Like It Hot_ was anything other than boring...

You aren't. I fell asleep twice trying to get through Some Like It Hot. Speaking of which, I nominate Ms. Monroe for this list. I realize that her looks were the selling point, but how many times can you play an overrated sex kitten well?

I think Brad Pitt was a better actor before he became BRAD PITT. And I still think he's got his best performance in him, if he can get around his BRAD PITT persona.

Richard Gere - I have never understood what people see in his performances. He's one of the most wooden actors I have ever watched on screen.

[Alvy]

Ken, I felt exactly the same about Bill Murray, until I saw him in Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, and was converted.

[Husker4theSpurs]

DiCaprio usually does nothing for me.  So my appreciation of his role in The Aviator means he must have really done well.  That's not to say he hasn't done some stuff I like, but before Aviator (with a passable grade for Gangs of NY) I have to go back to Romeo+Juliette, and Basketball Diaries.

How about in WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE Darrel?

[Jazzaloha]

I'm not a big fan of

Some Like It Hot

, too, although there are some great lines in it. I don't find the men-in-drag very funny, and I was not really interested in the relationship between Curtis and Monroe.

But, Ken, you're killing me with putting Jack Lemmon in there.

Re: Jason Schwartzman

I really loved his performance and the character he played in Rushmore. Yes, he was annoying, but that was one of the most original characters I had seen (especially in a comedy) in a long time. But how many films has this guy been in, and is he really "respected?" Have we defined what we mean by "respected actor." Some of the actors listed are not ones that I would say are widely acclaimed or respected.

[The Baptist Death Ray]

I always thought the Three Stooges were overrated. Never held a candle to the Marx Brothers. But then, who could?

[gigi]

I think the distinction you might want to draw between "respected" and "critically aclaimed" might be better represented by saying "stars" and "actors" (emphasis on the "o" in a English lovie drawl).

Eg.
Stars mentioned:
Julia Roberts
Colin Farrell
Leonardo DiCaprio
Tom Cruise
Richard Gere
Kevin Costner

Actohrs mentioned:
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Cate Blanchett
Nicole Kidman

People who tread the fine line:
Dustin Hoffman
Jack Lemmon
Katherine Hepburn

I think for me the difference is that stars never seem to be able to deliver different performances. The roles they pick tend to be relatively flat and the role shapes itself to them rather than vice versa as is the case with actors. For those that I said walk the line - I think it depends entirely on the type of film they choose. For example, Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate is a different matter entirely to him in... uhm... Hook.

I'm not sure about the validity of this argument. I'm aware that the idea of some actors as "proper" actors is just another facet of their star status. Still, though, there is a difference.

I have to say that as much as I love the guy (he is single handedly responsible for introducing me to film, no exageration) I sometimes feel very distant from Robert de Niro, although I also like this about him, makes him a curiousity you'll never quite grasp. Similarly I appreciate Nicole Kidman but there's an edge to her that I can't quite get past (the Others & To Die For were exceptions).

[JennyLynne]

Cameron Diaz. Her roles makes me want to shoot myself
in the foot. Harsh, I know, but somehow also true.
Why? Perhaps it is from the (first, didn't see the second)
Charlie's Angels movie, but any character she plays
immediately becomes dumb and shallow in my mind.

I really like Vanilla Sky, and I ALWAYS react like Cruise
does when she appears.

[Husker4theSpurs]

Cameron Diaz. Her roles makes me want to shoot myself
in the foot. Harsh, I know, but somehow also true.
Why? Perhaps it is from the (first, didn't see the second)
Charlie's Angels movie, but any character she plays
immediately becomes dumb and shallow in my mind.

I really like Vanilla Sky, and I ALWAYS react like Cruise
does when she appears.

Yeah I agree with you ... can't think of too many times when I actually liked her in a role ... maybe just BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.

[gigi]

I'm not so sure that it's solely a Christian film reviewer tendency. I think it's pretty much across the board. Perhaps not as much in reviews as in analyses. Reviews always touch on acting to a degree.

I for one have always been somewhat blase about actors. Possibly because I've worked with them. I need to work on my patience, but I've said it before and I'll say it again I'm from the Laurence Olivier school of acting who, when asked by Dustin Hoffman after filming the umpteenth take of the torture scene "how do you do it, just like that, on cue" replied "try acting dear boy."

Having said that, I know reaaallly (grudingly) that it's hard work and it does sometimes need a little push from someone else. There's an interview with Emma Thompson re. Sense and Sensibility where she discusses Ang Lee's subtle directing techniques. In the final scene where Hugh Grant proposes, there's a long shot (MCU) of her in profile as she sits in her chair hearing this news she's waited years to hear and that will change her life. Apparently all Lee said to her was "I don't want you to turn your head past this point until the end" - and it works beautifully! She keeps almost turning but stopping at the point, it works as if she can't quite let herself believe this news and she's holding back on all this pent up emotion. It's really a genius moment of acting and directing (the camera is perfectly positioned too) working in sync.

[DanBuck]

The story of Olivier and Hoffman is a bit more intetresting than the one you mention. Hoffman subscribes to method acting - experiencing the emotions you are trying to portray as fully as possible. This is a dangerous and haphazzard way to act, although, it sure works for Hoffman.

Anyway, the story is that Hoffman's character in Marathon Man is supposed to have been awake for days, so Hoffman didn't sleep before filming that scene. When he came in that morning Olivier said, "Good God man you look like hell."

Hoffman replied "Yeah, I stayed up all night long to prepare for this scene."

To which Olivier quipped, "You should try acting. It's much easier."

[gigi]

heh I love how movie anecdotes change. The version I told was the one that Dustin Hoffman recounted on a late night chat show in the UK. Although, yours sounds a whole lot more credible (and Olivier sounds funny as opposed to just mean).

[DanBuck]

I'll have to check my sources. Mine just has more detail. That doesn't mean its more accurate.

But its more fun.

[DanBuck]

Various versions:

One day on the set of Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman showed up looking like s***. Totally exhausted and practically delirious. Asked what the problem was, Hoffman said that at this point in the movie, his character will have been awake for 24 hours, so he wanted to make sure that he had been too. Laurence Olivier shook his head and said, “Oh, Dusty, why don’t you just try acting?”

http://www.antipopper.com/blog/archives/20...17_1608hrs.html

Acting: Theory and Practice
Dateline: 29th July, 2001

There's an old story - probably apocryphal - about Sir Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman during the making of the film Marathon Man. I'm not even sure that I've got the details right, as I've heard more than one version of the story, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong! It's the punchline that's important anyway.

According to the story, just before filming a scene in which he was supposed to be exhausted from running, Hoffman did exactly that: he ran until he was really pretty shattered. Olivier had watched this, and the subsequent conversation went something like this:

Olivier
What on earth are you exhausting yourself like that for?

Hoffman
I've got to get the right feeling for the scene. What else could I do?

Olivier
Try acting, dear boy.

http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/articles/290701.htm


And finally from the imdb - perhaps most accurate

A story circulated for a long time that Dustin Hoffman (being a "method actor") stayed up all night to play a character who has stayed up all night. Arriving on the set, Laurence Olivier asked him why he looked they way he did. Hoffman told him, to which Olivier replied in jest: "Why not try acting? It's much easier." Dustin Hoffman repeatedly denied the story, and finally cleared up the story in 2004. The torture scene was filmed early in the morning, Hoffman was going through a divorce from his first wife and was depressed, and had spend the previous two nights partying hard. Hoffman told Olivier this and his comment related to his lifestyle and not his "method" style of acting.

[DanBuck]

In the end, I just want to know if Olivier really referred to Hoffman as "Dusty."

[Aaron]

Al Pichno the guy is just too much of a hamm bone actor he just goes on and on.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Wow, people complain to moderators about other people's spelling...?

I hope they said something about punctuation and the need to break paragraphs down into sentences, too.