Alfred Hitchcock was once quoted as saying that actors are like cattle, and when you take time to think about it, it is hard to disagree. The actor is given his scope of work with a script, and must perform his role as per the director’s interpretation of said script. After all of his work is done, the film is thoroughly edited for public consumption. How well an actor’s performance is received greatly depends on all of these factors. Of course, there is no substitute for a terrific Will Ferrell improvisation or Daniel Day Lewis’ energy, but it is interesting just how much a cast weighs into our decision making process when we are selecting which movies we want to spend some of our time on. A great cast can give us Ocean’s Eleven, or it can give us Ocean’s Twelve.
Few actors are actually going to draw me to a movie purely because of their involvement, and similarly few actors make me skeptical. A great actor like Al Pacino can give us, well, just about everything he has given us in the last fifteen years. A lesser actor like Keanu Reeves can give us The Matrix and My Own Private Idaho. Ultimately, it comes down to decision making. This isn’t Inside the Actors Studio, and I’m hardly an acting talent scout. That said, the following list is a summation of the best and worst decision makers out there. These are those few big name guys that’ll pique my interest, or kill it instantly:
Good: Leonardo DiCaprio
DiCaprio’s career was relatively quiet during the post-Titanic phase, and the man who came back is one of our best bets for a solid time at the movies. 2002 revitalized his career, when he starred in both Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. From this point, it was obvious that DiCaprio had grown up, and his subsequent movies have not disappointed. He would go on to collaborate twice more with Scorsese, including playing the lead in the film which finally saw Scorsese win an Oscar. They have two more collaborations on the horizon, Shutter Island and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Count me in.
Bad: Ben Affleck
Kevin Smith always has nothing but the best things to say about Ben Affleck’s talent, and frankly I am sold. The guy is a good actor. That said, his decision making over the years has been poor. I can’t really say anything about Pearl Harbor that wasn’t said in the Team America: World Police song. 2003 saw Affleck star in Daredevil, Gigli, and Paycheck. Ouch.
Good: Daniel Day Lewis
Lewis doesn’t work as often as most of these actors, so when he does decide to take on a script, I am interested. Always manages to be clearly the best thing about any project he is a part of, even when working with excellent directors like Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and PT Anderson.
Bad: Will Smith
Fun game. Get a piece of paper and make three categories. Label the first “CGI Clusterfucks”. Label the second “Subpar Oscar Bait”. Label the third “Other”. I think he has given some terrific performances, but many have been wasted on movies that are otherwise weak.
Good: Christian Bale
Since landing the lead in Nolan’s Batman franchise reboot, Bale has been nothing short of amazing. I love his big budget “fun” movies and I’ve loved the smaller stuff he has done between the mainstream fare. Fans of Bale should check out the highly underrated Rescue Dawn, where he plays a fighter pilot struggling to survive during the Vietnam War.
Bad: Nicolas Cage
I don’t know if its fair to call him a bad decision maker, because it seems like he simply takes every single role offered to him instead of actually leaving anything up to the selective process. His Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas was well deserved, and his performances in other works, such as Adaptation and Bringing Out the Dead, are top-notch. Ghost Rider, Next, The Wicker Man and Bangkok Dangerous, however, paint a less pretty picture. But look what’s on the horizon! Currently in development, we have G-Force, Kick Ass, Astro Boy, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Season of the Witch, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Ghost Rider 2.
