The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Eric's favorite star, Mel Gibson

They are the best of actors, they are the worst of actors.  We all have them.  Those actors whom whenever they appear in a movie, you must see it because you know they will add something extra, enough to make it worth the price of admission anyway.  And on the flip-side, we all have an actor, whom we can't stand.  We avoid their movies like the plague.  The kind of actor that leaves you scratching your head going, "How the hell did they become a star?"

Here then, for your consideration, are the Three Movie Buffs picks for best and worst actors that are working today.

Eric's Favorite Actor
My favorite movie star is Mel Gibson. He has often been sighted for his looks, but he is a very good actor. However, In my opinion his best asset is his uncanny ability to choose roles.

His first notable role was in Tim. A movie that would set him up for sex symbol status. He played a mentally challenged young man who falls in love with an older woman he is doing yard work for. A typical scene in this movie is Mel wearing only his cut off jeans as Piper Lori leers at him as he sweats in her back yard. Think low grade The Graduate. This is by far his worst movie. Of course he was just starting out and probably took whatever role he could.

In the next couple of years things changed dramatically for him. He hit stardom with the cult classic Mad Max and its two sequels. He would reach superstardom with the Lethal Weapon movies. Early on though, Mel was working in some very good dramatic roles. He did The Year Of Living Dangerously and Gallipoli. They never got the attention of his action movies but they did demonstrate that he could do more than drive a car and shoot guns.

From Mad Max to Hamlet is quite a leap, but he pulled it off brilliantly.

His talent even expanded to directing. The Man with no Face and then the Oscar winning Braveheart showed he is as capable behind the camera as he is in front of it. He is not just someone who appears in movies, he is someone who creates them.

For being a man so often noted for his looks he has rarely played in love stories. This is probably good because the ones he has done are not very good. Tequila Sunrise with Michelle Pfeifer, Bird On A Wire with Goldie Hawn and Conspiracy Theory with Julia Roberts are all mediocre at best. I get the feeling these movies only got made because of the thrill of having such a big name play opposite him.

His best romantic comedy is What Women Want with Helen Hunt. Again, this is not a 4 star movie but he shows some range and plays a father. A role he has done allot of lately and to good affect. His charm is at its best here and he even does a Gene Kelly type soft shoe.

My favorite role of his is The Patriot. Here he is both the dramatic actor and an action hero. Also his comic charm gets to shine in a couple of scenes. He plays a father again and does so with a comfortable aplomb.

Mel Gibson always seem to play characters he is very comfortable with. From a comedic cowboy in Maverick to a distraught father in Ransom, Mel Gibson can fit many roles and do so with ease that few actors can match.

Eric's Least Favorite Actor
My worst actor pick is Matt Damon. Okay he may not actually be the worst actor in the world but he pales when considering all of the fame and "Hollywood" power he wields.

He first got noticed in Courage Under Fire with Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington. In it he plays a drug using, nervous sailor who went through a difficult military mission. He fit this character as the sailor he plays lies and is almost always scared. So a lousy actor could walk through this role as that is what the character is.

Someone once said that acting isn't so much acting as it is reacting. By this definition Matt Damon sucks as an actor. In Saving Private Ryan he looks so uncomfortable. It is the little scenes like when he walks up to another soldier and asks for a cigarette. It looked so staged. When Tom Hank's character tells him what he is there for Matt Damon's reaction is pathetic. He walks away from the camera. Probably Spielberg's best direction for him.

In Good Will Hunting he has a star making role. Too bad it got wasted on him. In the hands of an effective actor this part should have been Oscar nominated. Witness the scene where Minnie Driver is laying her heart on the table and Damon just stands there posing with his shirt off. What is his character thinking? Damon's face is blank. For all I know he is thinking about how all that time spent with his personal trainer is paying off in this scene.

In The Legend of Bagger Vance he supposedly is the war weary, has been. Battle scarred and broken down by life. Well that is how the movie plays. You sure don't get any of that from Damon's bland performance.

He never seems comfortable. He always appears to be acting. The only movie I felt he did a good job in was The Talented Mr. Ripley. In this movie he plays a character who puts himself in uncomfortable situations. So Damon is actually playing a part that suits his extremely limited acting abilities. He is playing someone who is acting like someone else, and is not very successful at it.

Damon is just another actor in Hollywood who got where he is due to a photogenic face and a lot of luck.

Scott's Favorite Actor
This was actually a tough choice for me.  I mulled over many of the actors I admire.  Should it be someone from the Monty Python troupe, whom I love so dearly?  But on their own, the individuals have made some real clunkers.  Should it be Harrison Ford?  Not anymore, I had and still have no urge to see K-19: The Widowmaker.  I tried to think of someone that immediately I find out they are making a movie and I know beyond any shadow of a doubt I will go to see, irregardless of the subject matter.  Someone whose every movie I own on video or DVD.  And the name I came up with was Mike Myers.

His pantheon of movies is quite small.  He started as so many Saturday Night Live Alumni did, with a movie based on a character taken from that show.  The original Wayne's World and its sequel were both smash hits and are incredibly funny.  Which isn't always a sure thing when a sketch character is turned into a movie.  Does anyone remember It's Pat, or The Ladies Man?

He then made the smaller, lesser known and poorly titled, So I Married an Axe Murderer.  Despite its lame name, this movie too is hilarious, and contains his first big screen Scottish character, and begins his habit of playing more than one role.

And of course there are the enormously popular and successful Austin Powers movies.  These movies, as I have indicated in my reviews of them, are some of my all time favorites.  Both a loving tribute and comic send-up of the Bond films, they have become an industry unto themselves.

Mike does have a dramatic side, as he proved with his appearance as the owner of Studio 54, in the aptly named 54.  He all but disappears into this coke snorting, homo-sexual character in a way that will surprise you.  Sadly, since the movie was such a flop, it may be a while before we see him stretch his dramatic muscles again.

Scott's Least Favorite Actor
My pick for least favorite actor was the easiest choice I've ever had to make.  And it has no rational basis.  This person is just someone who rubs me the wrong way and drives me nuts.  He's a poor actor, and just generally leaves me thinking he's an idiot.  Just writing about him, brings out feelings of loathing and disgust.  I'm talking about Mark Wahlberg, or Markie Mark, as I like to call him.

I can't give you the details of his career, because I have deliberately not followed it.  I can tell you he's made some movies with George Clooney.  I can tell you he wore a fake penis in that one movie, whose name I think I'm deliberately blocking.

Most of all I can tell you that his face in a preview is enough to make me cringe in my seat.  His very presence in a movie makes me question the entire value system of Hollywood, and the very fabric of our society that this irritating moron should have managed to become successful.

Have I seen any of his movies?  Yes, I saw the one where he kidnaps Avery Brooks daughter, and I saw the re-make of The Planet of the Apes.  Oh, I also watched the first fifteen minutes of The Perfect Storm (not even the knowledge that he died at the end of it could convince me to watch the rest of it), and I once saw bits of The Three Kings.

I think I would even go so far as to say that I actually hate Markie Mark.  That's right, I used the word Hate.  I told you it wasn't rational.  Maybe it's chemical.  All I know is that my idea of Hell would be to be trapped in a Movie Theater that shows nothing but his movies.

Patrick's Favorite Actor
My favorite actor happens to be the greatest living cinema star. A man gifted with such explosive natural talent that he changed the dominant paradigm in screen acting that had reigned since the dawn of talkies. The list of those he has influenced includes such names as James Dean, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro. In terms of Twentieth Century artistic influence he ranks with Picasso, Chaplin, and Armstrong. I am, of course, referring to the Godfather himself, Marlon Brando.

Before A Streetcar Named Desire hit the screen in 1951 movie acting was theatrical, stagy and highly romanticized (a style that I happen to love but that's another article). When Brando, as Stanley Kowalski, strutted brutishly across the screen in a dirty, ripped wife-beater barking orders at Stella and Blanche, he was not so much 'acting', as he was 'being', and in the process he was giving birth to a new movie era and heralding the death of the old.

Yes, the man is in the twilight of his years now and no longer contains the raw energy that made him such an icon. Still if I read that he has taken a small part in a movie it always brings a smile to my face. I never miss one. 

Patrick's Least Favorite Actor
My least favorite actor is Eric's favorite. I have never liked Mel Gibson. Sure I think he's beautiful to look at and all, although he is definitely going the natural aging route 'ala Robert Redford, still, his acting leaves me cold most of the time. Something in his eyes makes him seem emotionally distant to me.

I have never been able to make it through Braveheart although I will admit that I don't think I've ever met someone who doesn't like that movie. It's possible that his acting has improved in recent years and I am just letting my natural aversion to him blind me to it, but I remember seeing the Mad Max movies back in the day and thinking he was pretty awful. I have never seen one of his movies that made me want to watch it again.