Actors who are always in good films

This is an issue I touched on in another thread earlier today that I thought deserved a thread of its own: which actors do you think manage to consistently make good films?

If you'd like, you can choose actors that may be involved in many great films, but have had roles in many terrible ones, as well. The kind I have in mind, though, are those who don't just end up in strong films, but consistently avoid the bad ones.

The best example of this, for me, would be Tom Hanks. Here's how his last 15 major roles break down for me:

Great to Very Good

• Catch Me If You Can (2002)
• Road to Perdition (2002)
• Cast Away (2000)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• That Thing You Do! (1996)
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Forrest Gump (1994)

Some of these have significant flaws, to be sure, but some of them are borderline masterpieces, and all of them are worth going out of your way to see. Also of note is the intense concentration of quality; of these 10 films, 6 of them came in just a 4-year period (1998-2002), and all of them within an 8-year span.

Pretty Good to Decent

• The Terminal (2004)
• The Ladykillers (2004)
• You've Got Mail (1998)

I have serious issues with both The Terminal and The Ladykillers, but both had parts I liked a great deal, and I didn't regret seeing either, so they slide by under "Decent." And while I don't expect many MoFos to concur, I actually enjoyed You've Got Mail very much. Stop snickering.

Haven't Seen

• The Da Vinci Code (2006)
• The Polar Express (2004)

Haven't seen either, but I'm sure the former will be mildly entertaining at worst, and the latter seems to have been very well-received.

The ratio doesn't lose much going back further, as this list still leaves out some of his most heralded roles; Philadelphia, Sleepless in Seattle, Big, and A League of Their Own, most notably.

Earlier, the ratio drops significantly, but you've got to go back over 15 years to find Hanks going through more than a few roles without adding a fantastic film to his resume. He's seen a bit of a dropoff lately; I'd say his last great film was 2002's Catch Me If You Can, but his pace before that was remarkable (and probably unsustainable), and most of his efforts have been above-average since. He also looks poised to star in some potentially fantastic films over the next few years, as well. Among them is Charlie Wilson's War, based on the real covert actions of a Texas Congressman who, as it would happen, was a classmate of my Grandpa Bob's at the Naval Academy.

So, what other actors do you think consistently find their way in the best films, while avoiding the critical flops?

Whilst racking my brains to think of anyone, I saw a trailer on tv for another new Nicholas Cage film and I thought that if there is someone who is the exact opposite of what you are looking for, it's him...

I always see Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt usually do good in all the films they're in.

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"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything..."

Anthony Hopkins!


Yeah, there have been some bad movies with him in, Alexander, for one. But even when the movie is not so good, he is often the best performance in the movie.

EDIT: Whoops. I responded to the wrong thread.

Anyway, Sean Penn, who I mentioned in the other thread is in consistently decent (if not alway great) films.

Brad Pitt is really noteable in this topic though. He's a good actor but I wouldn't say one of the best. But if anything that (and the fact that at first he just seemed like he would be another pretty celebrity) just makes it even more surprising and impressive how well he's avoided being pigeonholed and stuck to interesting films and film-makers.

I think George Clooney is in this camp as well. Apparently starting with his partnership with Soderbergh.

For actresses I'd say Sarah Polley.

Tom Hanks is an obvious choice for me, all his films seem to do well even his mediocre roles are quite good.

just looking down the filmography and Robert Deniro seems to pop up often in good and popular movies,

John Cazale only appeared in 5 films (all great!)

The Godfather (1972)
The Conversation (1974)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
The Deerhunter (1978)

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"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."- Groucho Marx

How about Jim carrey?

The only name that comes to my mind is Robin Williams. I may not like every film I've seen him in (and I haven't seen ALL of his), but I can't say there wasn't something appealing or thought provoking about them. He's done some really interesting work.

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Bleacheddecay

You've got to be joking.


I also agree that John Cazale starred in nothing but great movies and he was going to be my choice as soon as I saw the thread title. Apart from him, I don't think there are any actors who starred in nothing but good movies.

Johnny Depp: Almost all his movies are great. He picks movies that are non-convential and gets into the charactor so imensely that the charactor is known for him having potrayed it so well, instead of the other way around. i think he rocks and hes not bad to look at iether. check him out........

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J. Dsilva

Dakota Fanning

That girl has always freaked me out for some reason.

I recently saw Edward Scissorhands again. In that movie at least he looked clean. I don't like it when he looks dirty. It is such a good little film!

I agree that he does pick good projects with unusual characters. The bolded above statement that you made is absolutely true IMO.

So, let me get this straight. You didn't like anything about Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven but think the fella who's career choices include RV, Patch Adams, Jack, Flubber, Toys, Man of the Year, Death to Smoochy, The Big White, Father's Day, Jakob the Liar, The House of D, The Night Listener, What Dreams May Come, Jumanji and Hook among other disappointments and/or travesties can really do no wrong?!?

'Kay.



"Deserve's got nuthin' to do with it."...OBVIOUSLY.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

You've got the right of it though I obviously don't consider most of his work travesties or disappointments. I also haven't seen ALL of his work. Did you see The Final Cut (2004) btw?

However, I'm more curious about what others think is so incredible and wonderful about Unforgiven. I'm honestly interested. I'm not trying to start anything. I simply didn't see what was so good about it. I certainly wish I had.

I'd love to hear from others what they did love about it.

I used to dismiss Hanks as just another silly young 20-something type doing light, silly films like Joe and the Volcano. Just never took him serious from his "Bosom Buddies" beginning. Then I saw him play a fat, middle-age drunk in League of Their Own and realized, hey, this boy can act! Philladelphia and Forrest Gump really convinced me. I won't say that everything he touches turns to gold, but I'm usually willing to risk the price of a ticket on him. On the other hand, I've found out that virtually the only time I can stand Robin Williams is when he's voicing a Disney cartoon--with the one exception of when he played half of a homosexual couple in the US version of that French movie with the title I can't pronounce, much less spell! He was great in that because he toned it all down! Otherwise, you gotta hide behind a cartoon character before I can stay in the same room with him.

Dustin Hoffman is always interesting to watch, but even he has been in some stinkers! Can't think of anyone who is always enjoyable, although Cagney was about as close as one can get.

Whoops, just thought of one guy who really was about near perfect on screen--Paul Muni! Someone in this group was citing Johnny Depp for his unusual roles and I agree he's very good. But if you want to see someone who would really disappear into a role, check out Muni as a gangster in the original Scarface, as the President of Mexico in Juarez, or a denizen out of hell in Angel on my Shoulder. He even played a Chinese man who you would have thought was right off the boat from China--can't think of the film, The Good Earth? Most of you youngsters probably don't remember Muni at all, but man could he act! You ought to look up his old films.

Robert De Niro?

- Raging Bull
- The Deer Hunter
- Godfather Trilogy
- Meet the Parents
- Mean Streets
- Taxi Driver
- Once Upon a Time in America
- A Bronx Tale
- The King of Comedy
- Brazil
- Cape Fear
- Ronin

I love De Niro, and he's been in a number of fantastic films, but he's made some very bad ones, too, such as Godsend, Showtime, 15 Minutes, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Analyze That. And that's just this decade.

The last two I find kind of interesting, actually. They make me wonder, alongside better films like Meet the Parents, whether or not De Niro is trying to pull off some kind of Walkenesque transition to comedy, or even self-parody. Whatever the intention, the dude never seems to stop filming, and I think it occasionally shows in the quality of his filmography.

Robert DeNiro 1973-1997 or so? Yeah, maybe. At the very least you can make a case for it. While there were a few noble failures in that run (The Last Tycoon, True Confessions, New York, New York), some very average affairs (Falling in Love, Stanley & Iris, Backdraft) and a couple flat-out stinkers (The Fan, Frankenstein, We're No Angels), there are so many good to great films and more than his fair share of bonafide modern classics that those years are difficult to fault his choices much.

But his career has been in freefall since the late '90s. For my money CopLand, Wag the Dog and Jackie Brown were that last three movies even approaching great he was in, and those were all released in 1997. I'll give you the first installments of Meet the Parents and Analyze This. I think they're very safe, easy, barely above-average comedies that didn't even try to be anything spectacular. However both sequels are damn near unwatchable. But they are masterpieces compared to the sh!tty-*****-***** he's been cranking out with regularity: Showtime, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Shark Tale, 15 Minutes, Flawless, Godsend, Great Expectations, City by the Sea, Men of Honor, The Score, Hide & Seek...these are some truly bad movies. And there's lots of them. They'd be bad career choices for a third or fourth tier actor, but for one of the best and most influential thespians of his generation it's downright shameful.



And such a continued run of horrible, horrible flicks means even though he has a Hell of a career on balance, you can no longer make any kind of realistic argument that Bobby De Niro is "always in good films". I dare you to watch Showtime, 15 Minutes and Hide & Seek back-to-back-to-back some evening and come out the other side singing DeNiro's praises.

I really liked The Good Shepherd a lot and hope he directs more (A Bronx Tale was very good, too). There's always hope he can pull his career out of the toilet, reputation wise (because certainly he's getting paid a lot of moolah to appear in those stink-fests). Some of the upcoming projects he's attached to have promise. On paper, anyway. But this period of 1998-2005 takes him off the unerring list.

I think.


***END RANT NOW***

Have you all forgot Kevin Spacey and Leonardo Dicaprio
i dont recall a roll that they havent done incredible in
American Beauty , Usual Suspects , Blood Diamond , Basketball Diaries EtC