The greatest "inconsistent" actors of all time...

[Guest Downhome]

I was just researching a few DVD's that I plan on buying soon, and I got to thinking about something. One of the DVD's that I plan on picking up this week is Pulp Fiction: Collector's Edition, and the other one that I really want to pick up is Dances With Wolves: Special Edition.

 

Now, both of these films are without a doubt classics, with great performances by two of the main stars, John Travolta and Kevin Costner. Both of these guys have stared in a number of great classic films, which leaves me to wonder just why in the world so many of their films bomb, or their performances just stink. That leads to this question...

 

...who do you feel is the greatest "inconsistent" actor/actress of all time? Not just in terms of the film's success which they are a part of, but also how well their films do as a whole.

 

Sincerely,

...Downhome...

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Eddie Murphy comes right to mind.

 

Michael Douglas...not my favorite, but he falls into this.

[Guest El Satanico]

I give a vote to Val Kilmer

[Guest razazteca]

Cuba Gooding Jr. has done some good drama films but always seems to make very bad comedies.

 

Samuel Jackson does well in some action movies but at drama he has had some films put on the shelf.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Marlon Brando. He is one of, if not the greatest actor of all time, yet when he gets in stuff that he doesn't like (Superman, for example) he will phone it in like nobody else.

 

As for actors who are actually trying and still are widely inconsistant, I have to go with Brendan Fraser. Get him in stuff like the Quiet American or Gods & Monsters and he can be fantastic. Just hope you don't get Monkey Bone or Dudley Do-Right showing up. He is very hit or miss, depending on how he is directed.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Emilio Esteves...I really like half of his stuff and really don't like the other half.

[Guest razazteca]

Marky Mark Walberg has done well in Boogie Nights and Rock Star but makes a boring action star. Hell Hong Kong action directors could not make Mark a credible 2 gun slinging star.

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

Nicholas Cage. For every Adaptation and Leaving Las Vegas there's a Gone in Sixty Seconds and Captain Correllis Mandolin.

[Guest IDrinkRatsMilk]

I second Eddie Murphy.

 

Jim Carrey is pretty inconsistent as well.

[Guest godthedog]

Nicholas Cage. For every Adaptation and Leaving Las Vegas there's a Gone in Sixty Seconds and Captain Correllis Mandolin.

but 'leaving las vegas' was horrible.

 

kevin costner was always a wooden actor. he could fool people into thinking he was a good actor by picking choice roles in good movies (field of dreams, jfk). his roles have just gradually come to match the quality of his acting.

 

i'm torn between kahran's assertion of brando, and al pacino. brando's career is mind-bogglingly inconsistent. you've got 'on the waterfront', one of the greatest performances ever in a motion picture; then you've got 'the island of dr moreau', when he refused to even learn his lines and had to be fed them via an earpiece.

 

everybody knows how great pacino was, but he can be pretty god damn bad. brando phoned it in by not acting at all, but pacino phones it in by OVERACTING! WAY! TOO! MUCH! and by SHOUTING! ALL! HIS! LINES! AT! THE! EXACT! SAME! PITCH! it's gotten almost embarrassing to watch him chew up the scenery the way he's prone to do now. it's like he copied his "i want! dick! tracy! dead! i want him dead!" speech and pasted it on to half his roles. 'any given sunday' is a nice example of this.

 

anyway, i guess it's a toss-up.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I don't think Costner is inconsistent...I just think he's bad.

 

And I'm a Costner fan.

 

I think his best work was in A Perfect World...and he was still wooden...but it just fit better somehow.

[Guest starvenger]

Jim Carrey is pretty inconsistent as well.

Honestly, I think that he just tries too hard when he does drama...

 

Robert DeNiro has seemed pretty inconsistent, but I think it's like Brando - when he's not into a film he just phones it in.

 

Marky Mark Walberg has done well in Boogie Nights and Rock Star but makes a boring action star. Hell Hong Kong action directors could not make Mark a credible 2 gun slinging star.

I guess we'll see if "The Italian Job" can do what John Woo proteges, Tim Burton and the Chow Yun-Fat rub couldn't. I'd bet that it won't...

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Brando was in Superman?!

 

And I'd go with George Clooney. Only recently has he gotten good roles.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Brando was Jor-El. He did it for an obscene amount of money, which he asked for because he didn't really want to do it and he didn't think they'd give it to him. When they did, he said 'what the hell,' but didn't really care.

 

I'd have to say John Wayne who has given fantastic and moving performances when he's been with the right directors, primarily Howard Hawks and John Ford (I point you to The Searchers and Red River as two of the best male lead performances ever on film). Without the proper person to kick him in the BUTT, he fell back on playing the John Wayne character, kind of like how Al Pacino falls back on that overacting screaming as the "Al Pacino" character.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Brando got $1 million for his small role in Superman

[Guest HHH123007]

Affleck.

 

He's my boy.....but his role choices aren't the best. J-Lo is bad news though...

 

DON'T STAY WITH HER BEN!

[Rendclaw 0]

my thing with Carrey is that he should stick to what he is good at, which is MAKING PEOPLE LAUGH. Robin Williams and Tom Hanks did the same damned thing and Hanks was the only one well rounded enough to pull it off... now there isn't a thing he can do wrong in Hollywood, the town is that much on his jock.

 

I actually liked the trailers for Bruce Almighty, just because Carrey is being FUNNY again. There was no other actor who could have taken Ace Ventura and made it funny, nor made The Mask as funny as it was.

 

I seriously DESPISE comedian-actors who feel that they have to "be taken seriously". In the realm of movies, making people laugh until they hurt is so much more important than playing the ultra-serious roles.

[Guest Downhome]

I much prefer Carey and Williams in dramatic type roles.

[Rendclaw 0]

Wow.

[Guest HollywoodSpikeJenkins]

Adam Sandler, I suppose.

[Guest Downhome]

Wow.

What? They've both proved that when given the right material, they can truly "act", instead of just acting like fuckers. Sure, I enjoy their comedy also (most anyhow), but after seeing them in more mature roles and the such, I've grown to love them in said roles.

[Guest Nanks]

I prefer Robin Williams in serious roles also, and while I agree that Jim Carrey's been good in his serious roles, I really like The Majestic, I WAY prefer him in comedy. I haven't seen any previews for Bruce Almighty, but I'm just looking forward to having him make me laugh again

[Guest raptor]

I agree with the Pacino mention.

 

Recently, I watched Godfather I & II, followed by Heat. It was one of the weirdest movie experiences I've ever had.

 

In Godfather, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Pacino delivered a mind-blowingly good performance.

 

Conversley, in Heat, Pacino makes a mckery of himself. It's a great movie, but it made me hate Pacino just for the "GIMME WHATCHA GOT!!" scene.

[Guest notJames]

Adam Sandler, I suppose.

I disagree. Sandler is consistently one-dimensional. He always plays the loud, obnoxious, violent man-child. That got old on SNL, and I have yet to understand how he got so popular on the silver screen. Even in his "breakthrough" dramatic stint in Punch Drunk Love, it's the same role, albeit toned down a bit.

 

I would put Christian Slater in there somewhere. He had the makings of a Johnny Depp, with his left-of-center movie choices and above-average delivery, but fell short of the bar once Hollywood got in his veins and his run-ins with the law became a hindrance. Making sappy crap like Untamed Heart and Bed of Roses probably didn't help his cause either.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Bruce Willas...love the Die Hards, but then he did shit like The Story of Us and the rancid Last Man Standing.

[Guest hardyz1]

I thought Robin Williams was very good in Insomnia and One Hour Photo.

[Guest notJames]

Bruce Willas...love the Die Hards, but then he did shit like The Story of Us and the rancid Last Man Standing.

I see you took the high road and made no mention of his god-awful albatross Hudson Hawke.

 

I'm sure Bruce thanks you for that.

 

I thought Robin Williams was very good in Insomnia and One Hour Photo.

 

I always thought his best work was in The World According to Garp and Dead Poets Society. When he reigns in his frenetic, coke-induced stand-up routine, he's actually a pretty decent actor.

[Guest starvenger]

I thought Robin Williams was very good in Insomnia and One Hour Photo.

Same here. I think that Williams has finally found his dramatic niche as a villain.

 

btw Lil Naitch, that FHM spread of Allyson Hannigan (esp the cover) made her look like a crack whore. She deserves much better...

[Guest JangoFett4Hire]

Can anyone pinpoint when Pacino went from Serpico/Corleone "subdued" Pacino to "SHE'S GOT A GREAT ASS!" Pacino...? I'm leaning towards the hoooah in Scent, but wondering if signs of his over the top-ness appeared previous to this?

[Guest Ripper]

I don't know...it sounds like most of the people you have named and examples point to incosistant movies. Yeah they have so crap on the resume and some gems but for the most part most of the guys you named are pretty consistant in their performances..Brando and Pacino excluded of course.