Way off topic: Greatest Living Actor

[Bitterwhiteguy]

Originally Posted by CalHorn

I don't disagree, but that's a big reason why marquee actors who are willing and able to venture outside those roles and accept more challenging parts tend to stand out.

BTW, with Washington, it's not simply the roles he accepts -- it's the feeling of "sameness" in his performances that, IMO, keeps him from being a truly great actor. It seems to me that he tends to play the roles with the same style. I'd like to see him mix it up more.

They all act the same to you, racist!




Denzel to me is sorta like Ichiro; almost every year he's going to bat above .300, get 200+ hits, and beat out about a billion double play throws. He's remarkably good at what he does...and his machine-like productivity is kinda boring after a decade of it. It doesn't make him anything short of a great player, you're just used to it. He'll never be a transcendent player(at least stateside) like, say, Josh Hamilton is, but his remarkable consistency still qualifies as great. That's Denzel to me; always great, always powerful, and never takes a movie off(that I've seen). He's typecast, but he's typecast as pretty awesome.

[texhorns98]

This discussion is completely inane as Ron Jeremy has not been mentioned even once!

[editionshield]

Originally Posted by mdhorn

Philadelphia, Big, Road to Perdition, Charlie Wilson's War, the Green Mile, Saving Private Ryan -- pretty versatile. My favs aren't this deep in comparison.

Indeed. And that's without even mentioning Forrest Gump (which he won a Best Actor Oscar for), Cast Away (which he carried as a solo performance for about three-quarters of the film), The Terminal (in which he's barely able to speak English for much of the movie), and The Ladykillers (in which he's absolutely hilarious in a very twisted way).


True that he's done a lot of the romantic-comedy lead roles (Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Joe Vs. the Volcano, Splash) because he's quite good at that kind of thing too -- but over the course of three decades, there is actually a LOT of range in what he's done.


(All of those films mentioned above and we didn't even bring up Apollo 13. Or, for that matter, his essential voice-acting in animated stuff like the Toy Story movies and The Polar Express.)


Now, you CAN certainly make a case for the still-living legends from the previous generation such as Nicholson and DeNiro and Duvall and such.

If we're talking the last quarter-century, though, I don't think anyone's really even close to Hanks.

[Bitterwhiteguy]

Originally Posted by texhorns98

This discussion is completely inane as Ron Jeremy has not been mentioned even once!

Every woman that had to act like he's attractive should be listed in this thread, because that's a f*cking impressive feat.

[SAhornfan]

Originally Posted by editionshield

Indeed. And that's without even mentioning Forrest Gump (which he won a Best Actor Oscar for), Cast Away (which he carried as a solo performance for about three-quarters of the film), The Terminal (in which he's barely able to speak English for much of the movie), and The Ladykillers (in which he's absolutely hilarious in a very twisted way).


True that he's done a lot of the romantic-comedy lead roles (Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Joe Vs. the Volcano, Splash) because he's quite good at that kind of thing too -- but over the course of three decades, there is actually a LOT of range in what he's done.


(All of those films mentioned above and we didn't even bring up Apollo 13. Or, for that matter, his essential voice-acting in animated stuff like the Toy Story movies and The Polar Express.)


Now, you CAN certainly make a case for the still-living legends from the previous generation such as Nicholson and DeNiro and Duvall and such.

If we're talking the last quarter-century, though, I don't think anyone's really even close to Hanks.

All that without even mentioning his drag performance in Bosom Buddies.

[CalHorn]

Originally Posted by editionshield

Indeed. And that's without even mentioning Forrest Gump (which he won a Best Actor Oscar for), Cast Away (which he carried as a solo performance for about three-quarters of the film), The Terminal (in which he's barely able to speak English for much of the movie), and The Ladykillers (in which he's absolutely hilarious in a very twisted way).


True that he's done a lot of the romantic-comedy lead roles (Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Joe Vs. the Volcano, Splash) because he's quite good at that kind of thing too -- but over the course of three decades, there is actually a LOT of range in what he's done.


(All of those films mentioned above and we didn't even bring up Apollo 13. Or, for that matter, his essential voice-acting in animated stuff like the Toy Story movies and The Polar Express.)


Now, you CAN certainly make a case for the still-living legends from the previous generation such as Nicholson and DeNiro and Duvall and such.

If we're talking the last quarter-century, though, I don't think anyone's really even close to Hanks.

I put Hanks in the same category as Washington -- very good (with occasional brushes with greatness such as in Philadelphia, Forrest Gump and perhaps Cast Away) and very reliable, but probably not up with the elites. For example, I can't see Hanks (even a younger Hanks) ever doing what Bale did in The Fighter. But there are a lot of good Hanks performances over the years.

[PFD]

Originally Posted by editionshield

Indeed. And that's without even mentioning Forrest Gump (which he won a Best Actor Oscar for), Cast Away (which he carried as a solo performance for about three-quarters of the film), The Terminal (in which he's barely able to speak English for much of the movie), and The Ladykillers (in which he's absolutely hilarious in a very twisted way).


True that he's done a lot of the romantic-comedy lead roles (Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Joe Vs. the Volcano, Splash) because he's quite good at that kind of thing too -- but over the course of three decades, there is actually a LOT of range in what he's done.


(All of those films mentioned above and we didn't even bring up Apollo 13. Or, for that matter, his essential voice-acting in animated stuff like the Toy Story movies and The Polar Express.)


Now, you CAN certainly make a case for the still-living legends from the previous generation such as Nicholson and DeNiro and Duvall and such.

If we're talking the last quarter-century, though, I don't think anyone's really even close to Hanks.

Another entertaining Hanks performance: A League Of Their Own.