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Movie Stars That Are Not Good Actors

sheeeit

By sheeeit
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Armybrat

Armybrat 40878

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22 minutes ago, RPM said:

I'm not Robert Osborne, but I watched him on TCM.

A friend (no pics, but a nice rack) belongs to the TMC fan club and has attended their “conventions” in Hollywood for years.
She met Osborne (“lovely gentleman”), Tippi Hedren (“genuinely friendly”), Robert Wagner (“would”), and Mickey Rooney (“cranky asshole”) multiple times. She also appeared with some other fans in TMC promo ads.

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ajax

ajax 2620

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4 hours ago, Frank The Tank said:

I nominate Michael B. Jordan. The guy is becoming a pretty big movie star and he just can’t act. He was ok as a kid in The Wire, but in any other role I’ve seen him attempt...he always just seems to be himself. Nothing more. 

I agree. I actually thought he was okay in Chronicle but all the praise he got for Killmonger in Black Panther was mystifying. He was cringey bad.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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41 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

A friend (no pics, but a nice rack) belongs to the TMC fan club and has attended their “conventions” in Hollywood for years.
She met Osborne (“lovely gentleman”), Tippi Hedren (“genuinely friendly”), Robert Wagner (“would”), and Mickey Rooney (“cranky asshole”) multiple times. She also appeared with some other fans in TMC promo ads.

So ya got a little thing for Robert Wagner do ya ??

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RPM

RPM 26341

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5 hours ago, Frank The Tank said:

I nominate Michael B. Jordan. The guy is becoming a pretty big movie star and he just can’t act. He was ok as a kid in The Wire, but in any other role I’ve seen him attempt...he always just seems to be himself. Nothing more. 

Hell to the yes. He's been cringey and pushed on the screen since FNL. He is not a good actor and has to have kompromat on somebody in Hollywood. It's the only explanation for his career.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54384

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Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, MoJames said:

Ok who is your pick for great actor with a narrow range?

Basically all the ones who have been criticized for having a narrow range -- Cruise, DeNiro, Scarlett, Liam, etc.  I believe someone even said Brad Pitt, which I completely don't get.

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UncleSonny

UncleSonny 6573

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19 minutes ago, MoJames said:

Ok who is your pick for great actor with a narrow range?

I think you could argue somebody like Denzel doesn't really have a huge range but he's obviously an amazing actor. His force of personality kind of makes every character he plays a Denzel-type placed in whatever genre the movie is. 

Also I think the "range" discussion for real movie stars kind of misses the point of what movie stars are. Or at least what they used to be. In older Hollywood during the studio heyday the biggest stars were cast in the same type of part over and over again because audiences wanted to show up and see them do the thing they loved. Range was for character actors that aren't in the center of the frame and aren't responsible for the box office returns.    

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Underdog

Underdog 28767

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49 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Nope, read closer.

Those quotes are from the lady friend with the nice rack who is still “active”, and single. And a lawyer.

 

Well, if she wants to bang Bobby Wagner, I'd suggest a life jacket possibly a couple of floaties(you mentioned Rack) just in case.   Her would could turn into Wood. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40878

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6 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Well, if she wants to bang Bobby Wagner, I'd suggest a life jacket possibly a couple of floaties(you mentioned Rack) just in case.   Her would could turn into Wood. 

She actually is a good swimmer, and fills out a suit better than Natalie did. Not bad for her early 60s.

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UncleSonny

UncleSonny 6573

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17 minutes ago, mchookem said:

 

 

s4IzUjo.gif

Ha, well you conveniently cut off the part where I said he is an amazing actor. I was just speaking to his range and how it's not necessary to being great. 

Think of your top 3 or 5 favorite Denzel performances. No matter what you choose I bet you can describe the character he plays using adjectives like "intense, confidant, charming, determined, hypercompetent...". He kind of does what he does and he's literally the best at it.

You can't really do the same exercise with someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman. He has way more range than Denzel but that doesn't necessarily make him a better actor, it's just different. Any list of the best actors in the last 30 years would have to include them both.

 

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Shaddie

Shaddie 1651

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21 hours ago, mchookem said:

hmm... with this criteria, i offer...Clint Eastwood. comedy, romance, drama, action, western, heist, war ...he's pretty much done everything. and it's all pretty much one-note Clint.

his movies are great, and he's definitely a movie star... but he's not winning any acting awards. 

literally. i looked it up 😄

I agree he is one note actor but damn if he doesn’t direct some good movies. And my favorite western Unforgiven. It just seemed very realistic in how life and death was in the west. 

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mchookem

mchookem 16368

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11 minutes ago, UncleSonny said:

Ha, well you conveniently cut off the part where I said he is an amazing actor. I was just speaking to his range and how it's not necessary to being great. 

Think of your top 3 or 5 favorite Denzel performances. No matter what you choose I bet you can describe the character he plays using adjectives like "intense, confidant, charming, determined, hypercompetent...". He kind of does what he does and he's literally the best at it.

You can't really do the same exercise with someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman. He has way more range than Denzel but that doesn't necessarily make him a better actor, it's just different. Any list of the best actors in the last 30 years would have to include them both.

 

ahhh...ok, so i think maybe what you're really getting at is the difference between a leading man and a character actor. 

Denzel is a leading man, no doubt. as are Pitt and Cruise (also mentioned in this thread).

PSH was a character actor (pretty much one of the best ever if you ask me). Gary Oldman is a character actor. Leo is character actor. 

hell, i'd argue Pacino is a leading man v. DeNiro as a character actor.

my point is, just bc you can never 'forget' you are watching one of those leading men on screen, i wouldn't describe them as having limited range. 

hell, Jack Nicholson is never NOT 'Jack Nicholson' and he's got 3 well-deserved Oscars 😁

 

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Nicole44

Nicole44 22072

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Gary oldman is brilliant character actor. From Hannibal to The Dark Knight to Dracula to Harry Potter to immortal Beloved to True Romance to Romeo is Bleeding...I know that this post is not the point of the thread though. 
 

I know she gets a lot of accolades but in most (not all) but most Patricia Arquette seems to be the same person over and over. It’s not necessarily bad but I guess I just don’t see it. I like her because I have a few of her movies but mostly think she is like the same person over and over.

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sheeeit

sheeeit 129

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3 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Go fuck yourself.  I get why showing range is evidence of talent.  I don't get why not showing range is a demerit.

Tom Brady would definitely be a better football player if he could return punts and play defense, but Tom Brady not returning punts does not change his status as one of the greatest football players ever. 

I will apologize for the snarky comment but based on your latest post it really is clear that you are not understanding the discussion here.  

Your Tom Brady analogy is silly and actually kind of proves the point that I am making.Brady is one of the all-time great football players because he is arguably the greatest quarterback. We compare what he does to his peers, other quarterbacks, not positions that he doesn’t play.  But as a quarterback he has amazing “range“in that he has a good arm strength great accuracy, great reading defenses, great at preparation, great at inspiring his teammates to work hard, mentally tough etc. He has all of the tools required to be a great quarterback.

The actors we are talking about here, like Mark Wahlberg or Stallone, Have very specific roles that they can play and they play those roles well. If Stallone had never acted in another movie after Rocky then we might all think he is a very good actor. He was really good in that role. But he did make other movies and in those movies where he had to play a different type of role it was obvious that he wasn’t very good at it. You put Stallone and Wahlberg in movies where there is heavy dialogue and they are quickly out of their depth.
 

An actors range is really what we use to distinguish them from their peers. The whole point of this topic is that there are huge movie stars that are not great actors just like there are great actors that are not movie stars. There are also movie stars that are great actors. All we are doing is picking apart the movie stars that we actually do not think are very good actors But that we fully admit are movie stars and we enjoy some of the films that they have been in.
 

 

 

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sheeeit

sheeeit 129

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1 hour ago, UncleSonny said:

Ha, well you conveniently cut off the part where I said he is an amazing actor. I was just speaking to his range and how it's not necessary to being great. 

Think of your top 3 or 5 favorite Denzel performances. No matter what you choose I bet you can describe the character he plays using adjectives like "intense, confidant, charming, determined, hypercompetent...". He kind of does what he does and he's literally the best at it.

You can't really do the same exercise with someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman. He has way more range than Denzel but that doesn't necessarily make him a better actor, it's just different. Any list of the best actors in the last 30 years would have to include them both.

 

A better way to look at this is to ask yourself if you have ever seen Denzel in a movie and thought boy his acting was really not up to par for that role. I would say that I have never seen him in some thing where I thought his acting was poor. He has been in some movies that I thought were clunkers but it certainly wasn’t because of his performance. I never cringed when watching him on screen because he just can’t handle what is required of the role.

Plus, as I have mentioned about many of the other actors we are talking about, Denzel has actually played a lot of different types of roles and played them all very well. Movies ike Fences or Philadelphia or even the Great Debaters showed tremendous range.   You put Stallone or Wahlberg in any of those roles and it would be comical. But you could put Gary Oldman or Cruise or Hanks or any number of great actors in them and they would do a fantastic job. And we know that because all of those other actors have actually been in similar type movies and similar type roles and done well.

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pyrohornIII

pyrohornIII 4817

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On 4/21/2021 at 12:45 PM, mchookem said:

the most underrated Coen bros flick imo and one of my favorite Pitt roles. Pitt's range is huge.

Cruise may be coasting at this point but he has acted his ass off many, many times. 

DeNiro is like top 3 best actors ever. 

the above opinions are just wrong lol 😋

also...agree on Wahlberg's range in general, but he deserved an Oscar nod for Boogie Nights. 

i submit...Johnny Depp. he excels at over-the-top caricature/cartoonish and period pieces...but i can't really recall any other dramatic roles...Donnie Brasco i guess, but he was pretty dull next to Pacino and Madsen. i don't do chick-flicks tho, i guess he also has a bunch of those, he is pretty to look at. i suppose he has a niche that i just don't 'get'.

Depp had a good role in Benny & Joon.   I watched it because I really like Mary Stuart Masterson.   He played a passable troubled youth in it.     I also agree he seems to find the more fantastical roles to his liking.  Somehow they might light his fire more than others.   Any one that can carry all those roles is alright by me.

6 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Already addressed The Searchers, the others were ok.... about like In Harm’s Way.

His early B pictures were terrible. The 1960s flicks with Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Fabian, were entertaining, but pedestrian.

Wayne was always lucky to have some pretty great co stars to help him out, like Martin and O'Hara.  Roscoe Lee Brown as Jebediah Nightlinger.  

2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Gary Oldman is a great actor IMO, He plays very quirky characters. He's a bit like Sam Rockwell.. A personal favorite.

I fully agree.  To me when the actor like Oldman and Depp can make you forget who they are and see them only as the character, then they have some serious talent.    As much as I love Robert Duvall, I also see him so much more than I see his character.  Maybe it's because I am more interested in his spin on the character, than the character itself.   A lot the same for Eastwood and Wayne.  

 

To me Chris Elliott has always made me cringe when I had to sit through a scene he was in.  Even in Schitt's Creek, which was all about over the top, just seemed he was too far over the top.  

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mchookem

mchookem 16368

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... and i would submit Roman J. Israel is nothing like Alonzo Harris who is nothing like Whip Whitaker.

i have one...Bruce Willis.

definite movie star, many good movies, more than a few clunkers...but he has basically one facial expression lol. and i can't even recall...has he ever played an emotionally heavy role? he basically does 'serious hero guy' and i guess he can also do 'frazzled/put upon serious hero guy'... but i always think his acting is pretty close to how he is irl haha. discuss! 😋

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Underdog

Underdog 28767

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1 hour ago, Nicole44 said:

Gary oldman is brilliant character actor. From Hannibal to The Dark Knight to Dracula to Harry Potter to immortal Beloved to True Romance to Romeo is Bleeding...I know that this post is not the point of the thread though. 
 

I know she gets a lot of accolades but in most (not all) but most Patricia Arquette seems to be the same person over and over. It’s not necessarily bad but I guess I just don’t see it. I like her because I have a few of her movies but mostly think she is like the same person over and over.

 

24 minutes ago, mr. sunshine said:

to Sid and Nancy

And this classic... 

everyone.gif.b657b8cdcd759693cc9fd340ec0046a0.gif

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Underdog

Underdog 28767

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22 minutes ago, mchookem said:

... and i would submit Roman J. Israel is nothing like Alonzo Harris who is nothing like Whip Whitaker.

i have one...Bruce Willis.

definite movie star, many good movies, more than a few clunkers...but he has basically one facial expression lol. and i can't even recall...has he ever played an emotionally heavy role? he basically does 'serious hero guy' and i guess he can also do 'frazzled/put upon serious hero guy'... but i always think his acting is pretty close to how he is irl haha. discuss! 😋

As a courtroom spectator in The Verdict? 

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Bateshorn

Bateshorn 9929

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3 hours ago, Shaddie said:

I agree he is one note actor but damn if he doesn’t direct some good movies. And my favorite western Unforgiven. It just seemed very realistic in how life and death was in the west. 

Clint is the epitome of this thread.  i fucking love Clint.  I’ve seen all of his movies, including Bridges of Madison County. I can quote Unforgiven word for word.  But Clint’s range is tiny.  He can play a medium variety of Clint,sometimes mean, sometimes kind, sometimes charming, but it’s always Clint.  He’s no Philip Seymour Hoffman. And that’s okay. 

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RPM

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8 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

To me Chris Elliott has always made me cringe when I had to sit through a scene he was in.  Even in Schitt's Creek, which was all about over the top, just seemed he was too far over the top. 

He reminds me of Tom Green.

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15085

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17 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Basically all the ones who have been criticized for having a narrow range -- Cruise, DeNiro, Scarlett, Liam, etc.  I believe someone even said Brad Pitt, which I completely don't get.

Brad Pitt can’t be on the list after being in Burn After Reading. I crack up every time I think about him in that movie. “Is this Osborne Cox?”

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Carl Spackler

Carl Spackler 3496

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15 hours ago, Shaddie said:

I agree he is one note actor but damn if he doesn’t direct some good movies. And my favorite western Unforgiven. It just seemed very realistic in how life and death was in the west. 

Clint Eastwood might be my favorite actor, and I'm the first to agree that he's not a great actor by any stretch.  I'm a fan for other reasons -- the types of movies he produces and directs, the persona that he projects, etc. 

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