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

[Guest El Satanico]

Val Kilmer is NOT consistent...not even close.

 

He goes from great performances(The Doors, Tombstone) to lazy phoned in performances(Red Planet).

[Guest godthedog]

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?

Recruit, The (2003) .... Walter Burke

People I Know (2002) .... Eli Wurman

S1m0ne (2002) .... Viktor Taransky

Insomnia (2002) .... Will Dormer

Ultimate Fights from the Movies (2002) (V) (archive footage) .... Tony Montana (Scarface)

Chinese Coffee (2000) .... Harry Levine

 

 

Any Given Sunday (1999) .... Tony D'Amato

Insider, The (1999) .... Lowell Bergman

Devil's Advocate, The (1997) .... John Milton

Donnie Brasco (1997) .... Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggerio

City Hall (1996) .... Mayor John Pappas

Heat (1995) .... Lt. Vincent Hanna

Two Bits (1995) .... Gitano Sabatoni

... aka Day to Remember, A (1995)

Carlito's Way (1993) .... Carlito Brigante

Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980, The (1992) (V) .... Don Michael Corleone

... aka Godfather Saga, The (1992) (V) (USA)

... aka Godfather Trilogy, The (1992) (V)

Scent of a Woman (1992) .... Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) .... Richard 'Ricky' Roma

Frankie and Johnny (1991) .... Johnny

Godfather: Part III, The (1990) .... Don Michael 'Mike' Corleone

... aka Mario Puzo's The Godfather: Part III (1990) (USA: complete title)

Dick Tracy (1990) .... Big Boy Caprice

 

 

Local Stigmatic, The (1989)

Sea of Love (1989) .... Det. Frank Keller

Revolution (1985) .... Tom Dobb

Scarface (1983) .... Antonio 'Tony' Montana

Author! Author! (1982) .... Ivan Travalian

Cruising (1980) .... Steve Burns

 

 

...And Justice for All (1979) .... Arthur Kirkland

Bobby Deerfield (1977) .... Bobby Deerfield

... aka Heaven Has No Favorites (1977) (Australia)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) .... Sonny

Godfather: Part II, The (1974) .... Don Michael 'Mike' Corleone

... aka Mario Puzo's The Godfather: Part II (1974) (USA: complete title)

Serpico (1973) .... Frank Serpico

Scarecrow (1973) .... Francis, a.k.a. 'Lion'

Godfather, The (1972) .... Michael 'Mike' Corleone

... aka Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1972) (USA: complete title)

Panic in Needle Park, The (1971) .... Bobby

 

i know a lot of people have a hard on for 'scarface', but let's face it: the exaggerated facial expressions (especially that sneer), the weird accent, the inappropriate pauses...pacino isn't acting. he's just trying to act cool and chewing up the scenery. there's nothing really believable or plausible about his performance.

 

and i think that works great for 'scarface' as a movie, which is really exaggerated & stylized anyway...it doesn't pretend to be realistic. pacino is fun to watch, in a movie that's supposed to be fun to watch (just like his acting works toward that in 'dick tracy'). but it doesn't look like he ever went back from that experience, giving subtle performances again. he just gets more and more mannered. and by the time he gets to 'godfather III', he can't remember how to do it anymore. the style is worlds apart from the previous 2 movies, where he played the exact same character.

 

that said, i think pacino can still act really really well on occasion. he was awesome in 'glengarry glenn ross', and he seemed to build a real character out of all the yelling & the mannerisms. 'donnie brasco' i think is the best thing he's done since the 70s, getting more human & subtle (in his own way).

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Pacino went from underplaying to overplaying excessively. I think that starts with Scarface as godthedog said, was poked fun at and parodied in Dick Tracy and then reinforced in Scent of a Woman. You can trace some lines back to Serpico with Carlito's Way, but with Heat he pretty much devolves into the Pacino character much as John Wayne reverted to the Wayne character in his later films once his legend was made and there was little more for him to strive for. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are pretty similar.

[Guest Urine Sane]

Christian Slater always sounds like he's doing a really bad Jack Nicholson impression.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

Michael Caine could be brilliant, but he knew when he was working for a paycheck and his performances show it too.

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

dude thats Alyson Hannigan? I totally thought she was like...some crack whore.

 

Affleck is my choice. I cant satnd some of his movies, but others it amazes me how badly he's doing

[Guest Harry Hood]

howsabout Kevin Spacey?

 

He can be absolutely brilliant like in Se7en and Usual Suspects, I've yet to see American Beauty but i've heard it's good.

 

But then there's stuff like K-Pax and Pay it Forward

[PsychoDriver 0]

I'd say Classic Horror star, Bela Lugosi. His films are even classics or crap.

[Guest Banky]

I've yet to see American Beauty but i've heard it's good.

What the fuck are you doing on the inernet? Go rent it, NOW!

[Guest Youth N Asia]

K-Pax was decient. Too many people poop on that one, I liked it.

[Guest El Satanico]

howsabout Kevin Spacey?

 

He can be absolutely brilliant like in Se7en and Usual Suspects, I've yet to see American Beauty but i've heard it's good.

 

But then there's stuff like K-Pax and Pay it Forward

Well this is based on personal performances not on movies they are in.

 

I haven't seen Pay it Forward or K-Pax, but were his performances bad or are you basing it on not liking the movies?

[Guest Downhome]

howsabout Kevin Spacey?

 

He can be absolutely brilliant like in Se7en and Usual Suspects, I've yet to see American Beauty but i've heard it's good.

 

But then there's stuff like K-Pax and Pay it Forward

Well this is based on personal performances not on movies they are in.

 

I haven't seen Pay it Forward or K-Pax, but were his performances bad or are you basing it on not liking the movies?

I can't think of a single thing that I didn't like Spacey in, however I have not seen Shipping News or Life of David Gale yet.

 

I loved K-Pax (and can't wait for the sequel) and Pay It Forward, both of which I felt Spacey did as great a job as anyone could have done in the roles he portrayed.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Tom Cruise.

 

I think he's done a couple things brilliantly (Jerry McGuire, Interview with the Vampire) and then a lot of things are just Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I loved K-Pax (and can't wait for the sequel)

Where did you hear this?

[Guest El Satanico]

Tom Cruise is streaky.

 

He gets on streaks of mediocre performances

He gets on streaks of good performances

[Guest godthedog]

cruise, kinda like costner, rises & falls with the material he's working with. every tom cruise movie is him playing tom cruise. that's not to say he's really bad, cause he can be very very good at doing what he does; his range is just limited.

[Guest Downhome]

I loved K-Pax (and can't wait for the sequel)

Where did you hear this?

K-Pax is a series of books, two or three or so, and the studio that brought us the first one bought the rights to the sequels. I even read a news article in a film magazine about this back when the first K-Pax came out, but I don't remember what it was in. I'll try to find it for you if you want.

[Guest razazteca]

All roads lead to Kevin Bacon.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Cruise's best performance of just being Tom Cruise was in Color of Money and, of course, he had Paul Newman to carry him to a good performance like Flair with a broomstick.

 

I've seen about half of Pay it Forward and it made me pray for the deaths of all involved. I had never been more disgusted and completely stupified by the shittiness of a film like that since Mouline Rouge.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

To an extent, Fred Ward. You could tell he had a great time with Tremors, Remo Williams, and Cast A Deadly Spell...but he just phoned it in for Tremors 2 and The Crow: Salvation.

[Guest HHH123007]

Kudos to the other person who mentioned Affleck.....you rule...

[Guest Harry Hood]

No I really didn't think he was that good in Pay it Forward and K-Pax was just not good for him in my book. Even the movie wasn't that bad, I just feel Spacey felt out of place in it.