Opinions matter. (in Off-topic)

Okay I am curious who do you consider the best and worst actor/actress.

Hoping to have a debate thread about something not so serious or game oriented.

My Best Al Pacino (popular and considered excellent by many)
My worst Colin Farrel (Sucks really bad and Is extremely overrated)

Best: Adam Sandler, Will Smith and Seth Rogen
Worse: Can't think of any at the moment.

Best: Edward Norton
Worst: Michael Cera.

Best: Robert De Niro.
Worst: Nicolas Cage.

What a great thread... Shows me what I had thought potentially true...

It depends on the role.

Nicolas Cage, worst? Um, "Raising Arizona" and "Leaving Las Vegas". And I hated LLV. But the actor/role was superb.

Pacino? Yeah. I can't think of where I don't like him. But then, I think Kurt Russell is a god unto man as well. Seriously, it depends on the role.

Not to hijack, and only do it if the original poster is OK, but shouldn't we be stating best player/role and worst player/role?

Cage just strikes me as a very boring character in every movie I've ever seen him in. Maybe I've not seen any of his good ones, but I've sure seen enough bad ones to not want to watch any more.

Slayer I have to agree about 10-15 years ago Cage would have been my worst but Farrel became famous and outdid him on bad acting.(I also

And no Sut I am asking in a general opinion.
If I was asking in a player/role I think my answer would be the same.

So you've seen Raising Arizona, and thing Cage ranks as the worst of the worst?

Yikes.

What must you think of Keanu Reeves, then. Why isn't he the worst?

Best: Tommy Lee Jones
Worst: Pauly Shore

Best:

Pacino, De Niro, D. Washington, M Freeman, S.L. Jackson.


and, of course, Anthony Hopkins!!!



Worse!!!!!!: Hayden Christensen

I really can't decide on a single one in any of those categories, even less if you don't set some time-frame (at least in decades)...

Few of the best still (somewhat) active in the present (and relatively recent past) :

Al Pacino
Anthony Hopkins
Harrison Ford
Sean Connery
Jack Nicholson
Cristopher Walken
Robert DeNiro


Few of the worst recently "top billed" actors (with the expressive emotional range being mostly in between "stroke victim" and "wooden plank") :

Shia LaBeouf
Heyden Christiansen
Keanu Reeves
Mark Wahlberg
Ashton Kutcher
Steven Seagal
Nicolas Cage


You will notice all of these are male.
I don't even WANT to go into the female category, there the list of "bad" is pretty much endless.

P.S. Plus, the spellchecker doesn't recognize their names (you'd think the spellchecker would at least ignore capitalized names when spellchecking, assuming they're proper names, even if they're not character names)... so I had to explain to you guys all of this just so I could, you know, post this post :)

Nick Cage, like Connery for instance, tends to do Nick Cage in every movie he's in. But that's fine for me, because I think he's good. I can see why people wouldn't though.

My favourite actor of all time is Stanley Tucci. One of the first things I saw him in was tv series Murder One years ago, but it was a performance I've never forgotten.

Sut I have seen Raising Arizona but it's been a hellishly long time since I have seen it last so The very next movie I rent will be that one to reevaluate him. That being said, otherwise we disagree for many different reasons I am sure.

Best: Bruce Willis. Sure, most of his movies (maybe all) are just action flicks. But he sure draws you in and makes you root for him. Even silly movies like the 5th Element become outstanding because of him.

Worst: tough one, first that comes to mind is perhaps Keanu Reeves. I love so many of his movies. However, looking back, his acting in them just seems wooden and stiff. Maybe that's the characters he's portraying, but it just seems to get kind of old. This really worries me too, I hope he takes things up a notch when he plays Spike Speagal in the new Cowboy Bebop movie they're going to make. I am so looking forward to it!

Best Actor: Johnny Depp or Yul Brynner. Matt Damon and Edward Norton get an honorable mention for sure.
Worst Actor: Keano Reeves. At least "Bill" had the good sense to fade into obscurity.

Best Actress: Emma Thompson or Diane Keaton.
Worst Actress: Tara Reid.

Reading through the thread:

Keanu Reeves is terrabad, I was so sad when I heard he was playing spike :(.

Edward Norton is one of my favorites

Shia LaBeouf ??? Sickone?? How can you possibly say that with any integrity? First off, an actors skill in my mind is determined by how entertaining they are on film, combined with dedication to the roll and execution of the director/producer's image of the character portrayed... Do you know ANYTHING about Shia? Read any interviews? Google his Playboy Interview, I give Shia mad props... To even suggest him as a potential for a "worst" anything is fail in my eyes... almost as bad as....

Mark Wahlberg?? Are you kidding me? Marky Mark is GOLD! I might be biased here being an avid fan of Entourage since Season 1, but even so, there are so many worse actors.... Look at Paris Hilton... *shudder*

Johnny Depp is one of my favorites, and has been since Fear and Loathing(GENIOUS)... His relationship with Hunter S. Thompson only makes me respect him more... Although I'm not really looking forward to Pirates 4... (Although I know it will be a huge success) I'm completely ecstatic about The Rum Diaries!!!!!

My other acting hero is Bill Murray. When he was younger it was the sarcastic wired comedy, but as he's gotten older that whole tired but still with the sparkle in his eye thing he does works for me.

Bad? I dunno about that, it kind of depends on the film, the dialogue, the direction they're receiving. Keanu might be wooden, but as far as cinema is concerned he's watchable for the most part. And that's the trick for cinema: look at some of the big names, I mentioned Connery, Nick Cage, Clint Eastwood, Arnie. They're all good at what they do, and depending on the film make for very watchable cinema. You don't need to be amazing on the big screen, you need to have presence. Presence can carry a film through to the end and leave you thinking you've seen genius.

The good actors are the ones that you don't always remember, because they're playing some ordinary faceless person, or a supporting 'character'. Those are the real greats, the ones who keep working but are never the lead, never get the props. And unfortunately, because they don't necessarily have the 'presence' you don't remember them. Shame, but it's true.

Best: I can't really say. There are a lot of brilliant actors out there. Morgan Freeman, for instance. I loved Pierce Brosnan as Bond, but he got given some terrible Bond films. Although she's not really that good, and gets given pretty mediocre films, Milla Jovovich is up there in my favourites.

Worst: Will Ferrell. I hate his "acting". The only thing worse is his "Humour". I quite seriously check to see if his name is on something and if it is, I will put it down and not watch it.

favorite actors are far to many to list them all heres a few i really like.

1. Al Pacino
2. Clint Eastwood
3. John Wayne (love the Duke)
4. Tim Curry
5. Brad Pit

and as for not like, there aren't many, for most it's the roles they're in but here are 2 that i usually just avoid watching it if they're in it.

1. Jim Carrey
2. Sandra Bullock

Best: Vinnie Jones

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/225c3c41dd/attack-cardio-with-vinnie-jones

"Shia LaBeouf ??? Sickone?? How can you possibly say that with any integrity? [...] Do you know ANYTHING about Shia? Read any interviews? [...] Mark Wahlberg?? Are you kidding me? Marky Mark is GOLD! I might be biased here [...] but even so, there are so many worse actors".

My point was that I was naming "big ticket" actors that, in my OPINION, out of what I have personally seen, can't really act that good, or at least nowhere close enough to what they're supposed to be able to do.
So it's not really a "worst of the worst", more like "the mediocre of the best". Oh, and "personalities" like Paris Hilton don't even register as a blip worthy of being perceived as actor, it's pretty much a given they'd suck.

Granted, my personal opinion of Shia might be biased, because the only two movies I've seen him (as "big name", so to speak) were the Transformers movies, and the second one was not just very recent, but also so bad and full of plotholes, I might have judged the main human character's actor a bit too harshly. So, no, I don't know much about Shia except those two movies, so you might as well be right my inclusion of him into "worst of best" might not be justified.

But... let's take a look at what Marky Mark has been in so far, in (aproximate) reverse chronological order (out of what I have seen him in, that is)...
"Max Payne" ? Bleh. The "Keanu Reeves school of facial mimic" at its best. Actually, I think I've seen KR with more expressive looks on his face occasionally. Granted, the character is supposed to be a really tough guy who's just been through some really nasty stuff recently, so let's use the same excuse as above and call it "what's what he was supposed to be playing", for now.
"The Happening" ? Pretty lousy movie considering the high expectations, so let's use the same kind of excuse again.
"Shooter" ? Hey, can you say "typecasting" ? Probably that's his problem lately, I don't know.
"The Italian Job" ? Well... let's call that halfway decent, but then again he wasn't exactly the main attraction.
"Planet of the Apes" ? Terrible movie overall (for a remake), and pretty lousy acting by Mark over here too. I dare you to deny that (the second part, that is). Unless we're using the same old excuse again, of "but that's supposed to be what he should have played"...
"Three Kings" ? Seriously, again the tough guy routine... argh...
"Boogie Nights" ? Ok, you got me here. Here he actually had some moments where he was genuinely good... but that was 12 darned years ago, and instead of getting better... well, you get the idea.
P.S. I haven't seen a single episode of "Entourage" yet.

I really liked Wahlberg in The Three Kings, and he's really good in The Departed, which is excellent all round.

I also quite like Christian Bale, especially in The Prestige. I won't give anything away if you haven't seen it, but the acting is particularly subtle given the plot and it's finale. So subtle in fact that it only really works once you've seen the whole thing and get a chance to look back over it.

If you haven't seen it watch it now. It's one of my favourite films of the past few years.

And then there's the Brits. Ray Winstone, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Judi Dench, The entire cast of Shameless, Chris Eccleston, Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine, Michael Gambon, Christopher Lee, Terence Stamp, Julie Walters.

Best: Kurt Russell, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale
Worst: Denise Richards. Carmen Electra.

Best - Steve Buscemi, William H Macy

Buscemi is not the "best" actor by any means, but he's always entertaining. Macy is good, though. And I don't want to pick a worst... 'cause there are so many.

"Honeymoon in Vegas" is also a wonderful Nicolas Cage flick. Love him in that.

(Note: I do NOT think Nick Cage is a "best"...just saying he is far from the worst! Though, he really does need to start reading scripts again and stop making every piece of crap that floats through his transom.)

i really like marcia gay harden, of course i am biased as i work for her aunt & uncle and they tell me all about her. this did get me noticing her roles though and she is an amazing actor.