Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 11:37:00 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Actors oo aint good

Started by The Duck Man, October 25, 2010, 10:28:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

The Duck Man

Following the discussion in one of the other threads about Marlon Brando being shit (I wouldn't know, I've never seen him in anything. Take that cinema!) I want to know which actors you think aren't much cop.

Admitedly I've jumped into making this thread without really thinking it through, so bit of a crap example first off (and a TV one to boot). ...I found it surprising when I heard Andrew Lincoln had been cast in the lead in The Walking Dead, which is, of course, a big US TV show. Whenever I've seen him in anything - apart from Teachers, where he's alright - he's been a bit wooden and crap.

So, who else?

Ewan McGregor is generally dreadful especially when he's doing an English accent.
Brad Pitt, or is he too obvious?

I've seldom seen Vince Vaugn be good.

El Unicornio, mang

I like Kevin Spacey, but he's a pretty shit actor, since he just plays the same dry, monotone character in every film. I rate Brad Pitt pretty highly myself, great turns in Fight Club, Seven and Snatch.

gmoney

Quote from: Maybe Im Doing It Wrong on October 25, 2010, 10:43:19 PM
Brad Pitt, or is he too obvious?

I wouldn't agree at all. He does good to excellent turns in Kalifornia, Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, Interview With A Vampire and Sleepers.

Yes you're right about Spacey. He's a dull actor.

I think Ian McKellen is often shit.

Also Bill Nighy, who gave up acting some years ago and now just does Bill Nighy.

I don't think there's a single Pitt performance that couldn't havebeen done better by someone else.

Bingo Fury

Clive Owen. Watching him play scenes opposite Ioan Gruffud in Arthur was embarassing, like actors from two different worlds colliding - Gruffud coming from the world where you're supposed to know your craft before you start swanning about in front of cameras.

Ben Affleck - just unbearable, although his George Reeves is said to be good.

Jack Davenport. Is that his name? The guy from Coupling who was in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. I'm mystified whenever he gets good reviews for anything. To me, he just suggests a big block of animated wood (not in a sexy way, unfortunately).

But Brad Pitt gave a blinder of a performance in Fight Club, and if he wasn't quite as good in Seven I still wouldn't change a frame of that film

Icehaven

Michael Caine. He's completely rubbish, not least because he's used a total of one tone of voice since the 1960s.
Tom Cruise is obviously too obvious, so on a theme I'll say Nicole Kidman is also bloody awful.



Harpo Speaks

Quote from: gmoney on October 25, 2010, 10:59:35 PM
I wouldn't agree at all. He does good to excellent turns in Kalifornia, Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, Interview With A Vampire and Sleepers.

Good in Benjamin Button too, even though the film wasn't one of Fincher's best.

rjd2

Quote from: Harpo Speaks on October 25, 2010, 11:37:16 PM
Good in Benjamin Button too, even though the film wasn't one of Fincher's best.

I thought he was great in 12 Monkeys and  he was wonderfully menacing in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford also. Denzel for me always leave me cold, very limited actor who doesn't bring much to any film no matter how good it is. Seriously what was so good about his performance in Training Day?

Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman are bloody awful as well, good to see them getting named and shamed in this thread as well.


Edit...Forgot about Sam Worthington and Shia LaBeouf who apart from a reasonably solid turn in the superb A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is really fucking wooden in everything else I have seen him in.

Serge

I still think Clive Owen stole 'Closer' (though, given the competition in that movie...)

And Brad Pitt is very good. I did get the feeling that he lost interest for a while after 'Fight Club' because it meant so much to him that any other movie seemed lame, but having said that, I did enjoy his turn in 'Snatch'.

And Spacey does play something other than his usual self in 'Telstar'.

Quote from: icehaven on October 25, 2010, 11:30:23 PMMichael Caine. He's completely rubbish, not least because he's used a total of one tone of voice since the 1960s.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
When he gives a shit, Caine is fucking brilliant. He coasted through the eighties and much of the nineties, but at some point he got his fire back - check out 'Blood And Wine' and 'Little Voice' for evidence. He has turned in lazy work since, or at least work that could have been anybody, but for stuff like 'Children Of Men' and 'Last Orders', he was great.

As I've mentioned on here before, Jack Nicholson seems to have largely got by on the 'Crazy Jack' persona since sometime in the late seventies. When the work is relatively slight, it doesn't matter - he's entertaining in 'Mars Attacks!', for example - but I found him almost completely unwatchable in 'The Departed'. I would like to write Di Caprio off after that movie too, but he was pretty good in 'Inception'.

Harpo Speaks

Yeah, I really don't agree with Pitt.

I haven't really seen enough Clive Owen films to give an informed judgement, though he's fine in Inside Man and Children of Men (the latter being one of my favourite films).

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Haha. I knew this thread would be like a legend's graveyard. Honestly, some of you seem to be reeeeally ardent about this.

Even actors I really can't stand like Nic Cage and Richard Gere have their moments. Nearly all hollywood actors at some point prove why someone out there thought it'd be a good idea for them to play a character in a film. Even the awful ones.

My least favourite actors are comfy unadventurous ones like Hugh Grant.

I find Brad Pitt quite a tremendous actor. Whether his confidence is an act or the real thing is irrelevant. Apart from his money making phone-in stuff like The Mexican and Oceans Elevent, you can fucking feel his performance. Without him and Cate Blanchett, Benjamin Button would've been dangerously shite. Without him, Fight Club may as well not exist. Despite the fact I hate the ramped up cultdom of Fight Club, possibly the most overrated modern film, the only good bits are provided by him almost sadistic assertion. That's what he does best. He's like a salesman, he sells you the character, he wins, you go with it.

rjd2

Quote from: Serge on October 26, 2010, 12:20:37 AM


As I've mentioned on here before, Jack Nicholson seems to have largely got by on the 'Crazy Jack' persona since sometime in the late seventies. When the work is relatively slight, it doesn't matter - he's entertaining in 'Mars Attacks!', for example - but I found him almost completely unwatchable in 'The Departed'. I would like to write Di Caprio off after that movie too, but he was pretty good in 'Inception'.

He is excellent in the Pledge and The Crossing Guard, he most certainly did not phone in it in either of those Sean Penn films. However I admit looking at his CV in the last few decades apart from those two films, he didn't exactly stretch himself did he?

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: icehaven on October 25, 2010, 11:30:23 PM

Tom Cruise is obviously too obvious, so on a theme I'll say Nicole Kidman is also bloody awful.

I actually rate Cruise pretty highly.

re: Michael Caine. He was absolutely on fire in Harry Brown.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: Recurring Villain on October 26, 2010, 01:55:52 AM
re: Michael Caine. He was absolutely on fire in Harry Brown.

No way? Those chav cunts!

EddyWhore

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on October 26, 2010, 01:53:57 AM
I actually rate Cruise pretty highly.
I'm inclined to agree-as much as I try and hate Cruise, a film like Magnolia always brings me back on side. He's even good in Minority Report, another film I desperately tried to hate.
For real shit acting, you have to turn to Julian Sands, Saffron Burrows (convinced they're the same person, Code Veronica style) and Keanu Reeves.

Yes! Clive Owen! He is good in Closer, but only because he's playing the sort of bloke who behaves like a bad actor.

EddyWhore

Just want to jump to the defence of Clive Owen and Ian McKellen (who have both, coincidentally, played the lead character in a stageplay called Bent). The former because he occasionally pulls a decent performance out of the bag, when he's nit just paying his mortgage and the latter because he's one of the new school of classically trained stage actors who dabbled in method (even applying it to Shakespeare, which is just as much of a ballache as you could imagine). Like most stage actors he thrives in front of a live audience and has been remarkable when I've seen him, most recently being at the Godot revival. On film, though, he always seems a little to pronounced, too large for the subtlety required on camera. I think it's a crossover problem mire than anything.

kidsick5000

More Pitt love here. The guy really deserves credit for not falling into prettyboy romcom comfort. He took a risk to do more than that and has been working at it. He is great in Jesse James.

Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Tom Cruise, Clive Owen just need to be pushed into bringing good stuff.

Good point about Kevin Spacey and his variable degrees of dry, sardonic.

Big question is: Why do film makers think Ewan McGregor can do accents? I'm not that convinced of his acting skills but he is utterly shit at accents. Especially American. Or Irish. Or English. He's so bad I'm doubtful of his Scottish too

non capisco

Quote from: kidsick5000 on October 26, 2010, 05:23:32 AM
Big question is: Why do film makers think Ewan McGregor can do accents? I'm not that convinced of his acting skills but he is utterly shit at accents. Especially American. Or Irish. Or English. He's so bad I'm doubtful of his Scottish too

This has really started to bother me too. He sounds like Frank Spencer in 'The Ghost'. And in 'The Men Who Stare At Ghosts', what the fuck was that, getting a Scottish actor to do an appalling American accent playing a character loosely based on an English journalist? At the very least just make the character Scottish, or cast someone else. He sounds like an 8 year old boy in the school playground pretending to be Indiana Jones or something.

Bit baffled by all the Pitt love. I think, like a lot of Pretty boy actors ( Cruise springs to mind) he gets far too much credit for perfectly ordinary things that any actor should be able to do.
I guess he deserves credit for stretching himself, but to be honest I think he should have stuck with the sort of "young Robert Redford" roles he did early in his career.
I don't think he's terrible, I just think he ain't really got it.

Pitt is usually very entertaining, but I don't feel that he ever really acts. He's never believable as anything, but is a lot of fun to watch.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Serge on October 26, 2010, 12:20:37 AMAs I've mentioned on here before, Jack Nicholson seems to have largely got by on the 'Crazy Jack' persona since sometime in the late seventies. When the work is relatively slight, it doesn't matter - he's entertaining in 'Mars Attacks!', for example - but I found him almost completely unwatchable in 'The Departed'.
Quote from: rjd2 on October 26, 2010, 12:27:02 AMHe is excellent in the Pledge and The Crossing Guard, he most certainly did not phone in it in either of those Sean Penn films. However I admit looking at his CV in the last few decades apart from those two films, he didn't exactly stretch himself did he?

I haven't seen The Departed (or The Pledge & The Crossing Guard), but I was very fond of his 1997 turn in As Good As It Gets.  I suppose it starts off a bit "Crazy Jack", but later on in the film he gets to show a broader range and is all the better for it.

As far as I'm concerned, one of the worst sins for an actor is to be exactly the same in everything, including the publicity interviews.

Caine is obviously guilty of this, but I'd agree that sometimes he bothers so his performances can go either way. It was Little Voice that made me realise he can be excellent (and confirmed that Jim Broadbent is one of the all-time greats). Ewan McGregor - who is also in Little Voice - is atrocious, though, in everything I've seen him in. He varies the voice, but the style is so wooden. As someone once said of Joey Tribbiani, 'he's not convincing as a human being'.

I have to stand up for the gorgeous Ian McKellen, who was fantastic on stage in Waiting for Godot. He also completely stole Coronation Street from the regulars during his brief stint. He showed me the difference between an actor and a 'soapstar.' For a start, unlike most of them, he wasn't playing just himself. Oh, and he was very memorable as Mr Creakle in the BBC David Copperfield. He has such an expressive face and I think is hugely gifted at subtly altering his expressions, his voice, his whole bearing to embody a character in such a way that you don't think of Ian McKellan, or any of his other roles, when you watch him. Well, I don't anyway.


Chutney

Quote from: Serge on October 26, 2010, 12:20:37 AM
No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
When he gives a shit, Caine is fucking brilliant. He coasted through the eighties and much of the nineties, but at some point he got his fire back - check out 'Blood And Wine' and 'Little Voice' for evidence. He has turned in lazy work since, or at least work that could have been anybody, but for stuff like 'Children Of Men' and 'Last Orders', he was great.

And when he doesn't, he gets out acted by Ossie Ardiles.

Can I add the Seans Bean and Connery to this?

Bean for his relentless comfort in portraying any role, regardless of class, era or context as though he were trying to get a bet on in the Barnsley branch of Corals.

Connery for the insistence that the persona of "cynical, wise cracking old timer who's seen it all before" will do for any role,  whether it be cop, criminal, King of England, Franciscan Monk etc etc etc.  Apart from in  "The Offence", I'll give you that one.

Cerys

Andie MacFUCKINGDowell.  She can't even convincingly play herself.

boxofslice

Quote from: EddyWhore on October 26, 2010, 02:07:00 AM
and Keanu Reeves.

I'm always amazed that he's still cast in anything as he so obviously bad even to anyone who's never seen acting before.  I can understand the limited appeal he had early on with the teen market but that passed some time ago.  Baffling.

Quote from: Lookalike Mark Chapman on October 26, 2010, 09:19:25 AM
As far as I'm concerned, one of the worst sins for an actor is to be exactly the same in everything, including the publicity interviews.

Samuel L Jackson.