Is brad pitt one of the greatest actors of the last 25 years or not ??

Good actor definitely, very versatile and often brings something interesting to his roles. But still wouldnt say one of the best. And to be honest, its also about personal preference to be honest...

I wouldn't say one of the greatest, but I would say that he is usually at least somewhat great. His roles in 12 Monkeys, the Ocean's movies, Inglorious Basterds, and to a lesser extent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, are all great, but there are better.

wow, behind tom cruise???
in all of 3 minutes brad pitt maqnaged to steal the entire show in true romance...

and just taking one of his films, like say Kalifornia, is so much more than I have ever seen cruise give in a performance.

He's a mixed bag like many actors...

I agree with Deadite... sometimes he's great, sometimes he stinks.

The Devil's Own he was awful... yet some films like Se7en, Kalifornia and Twelve Monkeys, even The Mexican for that matter he makes a good impression.

My fave role is Achilles in Troy. He's perfect as the ultimate warrior even though the film wasn't great... and you can see he worked physically hard to make his performance work.

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Pitt was great in Snatch too, but as the lunatic in 12 Monkees, the psycho hick in Kalifornia, or the baffling gypsy in Snatch all the roles had a gimmick. Great actors say this is the easiest way to entertain. Gandolfini stole the show in The Mexican not because his personality was so much greater than Pitts & Julia Roberts. He could just act them under the table.

Leading man? The best job Ive ever seen Pitt do as a leading man was in Moneyball. There was no makeup and romanticized buildup to his character unlike Legends Of The Fall. He didnt overact, and sold it beautifully. Tom Cruise has a deeper set of credentials, but lately Tom Cruises' movies are ALOT worse, ALOT worse than what Pitt has come out with.

next you're going to say that jack sparrow was just a "gimmic" for johnny depp?

have you stopped to consider that maybe you just prefer action movies? brad pitt is an actor, he is not an action star. even doing the chase scene in se7en he sliced open his tendon and had to wear a cast for the rest of the film..

cruise on the other hand is an action star.. he can show a range of emotion, yes, and he's definitely not bad. but what characters does he have? when does he ever sound different or look different? he always sounds and looks like ethan hunt doing his action thing and thats great for what it is. he's an awesome action star

Cruise is actually quite a talented actor... he just doesn't do much acting these days.

Ever seen his earlier stuff and his 90s films? Ok a lot of his "acting" roles are chick flicks, but he can hold the screen when needed.


And Rain Man was the bomb.

I've seen every tom cruise movie since legend.. so yes i am a little weak on his early roles. Risky business, taps, all the right moves.

but it seems you agree with my point.. he does no real acting. He's an action star and he seeks out action roles. Not saying he can't do acting... but i'm just trying to clarify their roles.. cruise is an action star, pitt is a dramatic star. brad is the one seeking out roles, creating characters, changing his voice and appearance.

that anyone could say cruise is the better actor baffles me for that reason... like batman says, it's not who you are inside, but what you do that defines you. and brad pitt has done a lot more acting with greater depth.

The "few" I watched are well over a dozen movies.

Yes, Brad Pit always has the same general type of performance. He is not like, for instance, Russel Crowe, who is completely different in Gladiator and in Beautiful Mind. Brad Pit always feels like the same person in each movie he has made.

Anyway, it is rather obvious that his looks were far more important for the success of his career than his acting skills. The same applies for most actors and specially actresses.

There are two possible logical options:

1 - He has a single character that he developed and uses in every one of his movies.

2 - He doesn't act at all.

If he had the skills to pull off 1 he would obviously have the skills to perform distinctively in many different roles, therefore option 2 is the only realistic option. Hence I can claim that he doesn't act even though I never meet him.

I don't think it's fair to say he's a bad actor just because he portrays a certain archetype in most of his movies.

Take John Wayne; he wasn't exactly diverse as an actor, but he played his characters like no one else. You could even say the same about Cary Grant and James Stewart.

Maybe there are more options. #1 isn't true, but whatever.

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Obviously his characters in 12 Monkeys, Ocean's Eleven, and Inglorious Basterds were all the exact same, and he wasn't even doing any real acting in them.

Those are good examples. When did Cary Grant play anyone but Cary Grant?

Pitt is a movie star - not a character actor. As an actor he has developed to be very good but there is always an element of him in the roles - as there should be. Even with the great actors, it's always been this way. You would be hard pressed to find a de Niro role that didn't have part of him in the role.

Pitt has played some different roles as time has gone on. You can't look at Tree of Life or Moneyball and say he's playing the same character as in 12 Monkeys - but he's done all of those well.

I wouldn't call him great yet but he is very good.

sorry master yoda....I am not yet a jedi....I am new to this.

Snatch was really the first one where I was really impressed with him, he was so funny as well.. He really was the best bit of that already amazing film.

Wouldn't say he's one of the greatest, but he's good.

Spot On

He is a very potent actor. Very good at what he does. The best maybe not. Top 5, yes.

On the contrary, Di Caprio, i would say would be the best of this generation. From the time i saw him do Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, i said to myself, this guy is going nowhere, he will be one of those mushy actors who does small budget comedies (like Juno) and would never be big. But oh my, look at what he has turned into now.

Same thing i say about Ryan Gosling. But he is just starting off, lets see what he does.

I think that it's a safe-bet that Brad Pitt is at least one of the greatest actors of the last twenty-five years, maybe not top-ten, but certainly somewhere in the top-twenty seems reasonable in my opinion. Fight Club and Seven alone are almost enough to throw him into the mix.