individuals who have been BIG MOVIE STARS without having been in any particularly GREAT movies

Perhaps more arguable than the other thread.

I always have trouble thinking of any good Angelina Jolie movies.

for reference: individuals who have at some point been the biggest movie star

Will Smith
Julia Roberts

Vince Vaughn

oh pls. you're just saying julia to get my goat.

Vin Diesel

Is Diane Lane a BIG MOVIE STAR?

Adam Sandler

no, surm, but any GREAT films of hers you could name would just make me laff.

Gary Cooper

pretty much anyone from the last 30 years w/ maybe 5 exceptions

Pride of the Yankees!

that movie is LUDICROUS. Gehrig was a streetsmart Columbia guy, not some cornfed dope!

Maybe in real life, but it's The Movies!

(it reminds me of the Zelig biopic within Woody's Zelig) xp

"Is it three strikes, Doc?" I'd like to see it in a theater just so I could laugh out loud.

pretty much anyone from the last 30 years w/ maybe 5 exceptions

that's a pretty easy statement to make if you think very few movies made in the last 30 years were particularly great.

Quite a few were, made w/out movie stars.

I mean, Hanks and Cruise have come close once each: Saving Pvt Ryan & Eyes Wide Shut.

next thread: People who were in GREAT (or massively-loved) movies who failed/declined to become writ-big MOVIE STARS

Quite a few were, made w/out movie stars.

agreed.

no that thread's really not nec, xp

I thought Gary Cooper was quite good in Beau Geste. I might call the movie very good instead of great though. Close to greatness, maybe?

Costner

But Costner was in Silverado! I haven't seen it since I was twelve, but I thought it was great.

Demi Moore

burt reynolds

EZ, I'm guessing it was your first western

xpost: deliverence, bro

& boogie nights

respectively 1) overrated and 2) fatally pretentious

& this

http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/images_5/InTheNameOfTheKingMoviePoster.jpg

Ben Stiller

respectively 1) overrated and 2) fatally pretentious

Nah. Boogie Nights was great. But if your criticism is directed toward Mark Walberg, I totally understand. He was okay, but the film was powerful and memorable with or without him.

sorry morbs but My Best Friend's Wedding ft julia is a GREAT movie -- laugh away! doesn't have to be OH SO SERIOUS to be GREAT

also steel magnolias

I'll say Tom Cruise, but I suppose I'll be the only one (or one of just a few) with that opinion.

I agree w/you Daniel - but then I'm of the opinion that any movie with Tom Cruise in it would be 100x better if Cruise was replaced with a midget in a rat costume.

Judi Dench?

Maybe not big, but far more famous than most of her films.

^^ I thought Notes on a Scandal was pretty great, actually.

The Cruiser is a good choice.

My law partner insists that Cruise's performance in the frogs-reining-down-on-Earth movie (directed by the fellow that did Boogie Nights) was compelling. From the few seconds I saw of Cruise in that movie (I couldn't sit through much of it), he was shamelessly hammy.

the frogs were the best part of that movie.

I remember a storyline about a woman who thought her father molested her, but he hadn't, or something like that. Like I said, I couldn't sit thru it.

Dear Carl Froch

Please punch tthat bloke in the face real hard else you lose

love
Noodle

I thought Magnolia was pretty good, and Cruise is at his best in it (hackneyed explanation: he's playing himself - damaged, self-absorbed, egotist - it's the role he was born for). But a particularly great movie? I don't know about that.

I think he was born to play the role of Worldwide Scientology Spokesman.

probably the movie I was least annoyed by Cruise in was "Lions for Lambs" where he played the asshole Republican politician.

Honestly, I think Top Gun qualifies as a fucking great movie, if only for the Kenny Loggins theme song and the Nintendo game featuring said song on repeat FOREVER.

Tom Cruise-as-Tom Cruise-as-Asshole was much more entertaining in Tropic Thunder imo (not that that was a "great" movie or anything.

Will Smith

will smith has been in at least three great movies: independence day, men in black and bad boys

make that four: bad boys 2

(a) those were not great movies (well-made and entertaining with some snappy dialogue and nice action scenes/special effects, I'll grant you) and (b) Will Smith isn't what's making those movies good.

Name the directors to reconsider "great." bye thread

i don't understand either of the last two posts

Adam Sandler

― kshighway1, Saturday, October 17, 2009 8:17 PM (2 hours ago

nah

You mean my post? It's probably incoherent; I'm also pouring over deposition transcripts for a trial next week. To restate more straightforwardly: I didn't think those Will Smith movies were great.

i'm not sure how much more you could ask for in a movie other than well-made and entertaining with some snappy dialogue. and i'll say that will smith's definitely the most watchable part of both independence day and men in black if not bad boys i and ii. but the thread titles not asking for that, is it?

A lot of films shoot for more than being good eye-candy. Not that there's anything wrong with good eye-candy, but it's hard to compare, say, Bad Boys 2 with, say, The Sweet Hereafter or Paranoid Park.

(FWIW, I like a lot of just-entertaining films, e.g., the new Batman movies; the Star Wars films.)

Sandra Bullock

Yeah! How about: Matthew Mcconaughey.

you mean Movies That Make You Think

lol. Yeah. To the extent I'm capable of thinking, yes.

(Dazed & Confused is great, actually. But MM was just playing himself, I think.)

Daniel - do you have favorite movies about your profession?

Yeah; The Sweet Hereafter. It makes me so sad -- more as a father than as a lawyer -- that I can almost never watch it.

Also: The Verdict.

EZ, I'm guessing it was your first western

Most definitely my first one in a theater. Used to watch them on tv with my grandfather all the time. Big screen really helps bug vistas.

x-post to oblivion

well, FWIW i like serious movies too, i just demand that they be well-made entertaining eye-candy with snappy dialogue.

the four will smith films i cited above are GREAT at hoovering up money from audiences while simultaneously being madly entertaining; they may not be Movies That Make You Think, but it's not hard to understand why will smith is a famous actor on the basis of those four movies. which i thought was the point of the thread: actors who you can't really figure out why they're famous.

Honestly, I think Top Gun qualifies as a fucking great movie, if only for the Kenny Loggins theme song and the Nintendo game featuring said song on repeat FOREVER.

great argument here for Meryl Streep:

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/name_one_masterpiece_of_cinema

Adam Sandler

― kshighway1, Saturday, October 17, 2009 8:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

punch drunk love

otm

tehresa, don't go & make me post a YT of the "Playing w/ the Boys" volleyball scene.

Nah. Boogie Nights was great. But if your criticism is directed toward Mark Walberg, I totally understand. He was okay, but the film was powerful and memorable with or without him.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, October 17, 2009 8:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is just so insane - its a great movie that revolves around a great performance - really ludicrous to even try to separate the two

i will always love top gun. no apologies.

when we got our first vcr, we rented top gun and heidi for our first 2 movies. when i was a kid i wasn't allowed to watch the goose death scene.

my dad would make us go in the other room during that part but i peeked once and was like 'what is all that green stuff?'

we also had the soundtrack.

it is a movie for the ages.

re: boogie nights - firecracker/"Sister Christian" scene is srsly one of most brilliant things ever.

top gun soundtrack WAS my childhood

for better or worse

bodies working overtime

srs top gun strk + phil collins no jacket required were the JAMZ at my house

this is just so insane - its a great movie that revolves around a great performance - really ludicrous to even try to separate the two

I didn't think Walberg was bad at all. I just thought the movie rose to greatness with it's supporting cast (and because of the script), e.g., Julianne Moore; Burt Reynolds; Robert Rigely; Don Cheadle; Philip Seymour Hoffman; William Macy (despite a very small role).

re: boogie nights - firecracker/"Sister Christian" scene is srsly one of most brilliant things ever.

― fiend for doritos (Pillbox), Sunday, October 18, 2009 4:12 AM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes! one of the most memorable scenes in any movie ever, imo

Yeah, that Sister Christian scene was TENSE.

i barely remember anything from boogie nights :(

x-post

totally! awesome scene.

Wow. I think Boogie Nights has as many memorable individual scenes as any movie I remember.

(xp)

I can't stand the Macy stuff in BN.

Erin Brockovich is a great movie and have no problem admitting it -- better than most of Soderbergh's others too.

Yeah, that Sister Christian scene was TENSE. - in terms of verisimilitude, it is perfect. If you've never had a bad coke experience but are interested in what it is like, watching that scene will pretty much clue you in on exactly what it is like.

erin brockovich was ok but not bc of julia roberts imo

JR chews so much scenery in EB that I refuse to believe that the film could be assessed excepting her performance.

just sayin

I can't stand the Macy stuff in BN

Why not?

erin brockovich was ok but not bc of julia roberts imo

Well, ok, her acting and push-up bra helped.

Daniel, Macy's scenes run on too long and get repeated (OK we GET IT, your wife is fucking another man).

i really loved her in that movie. (duh)

ben afflek

i thought ppl liked that "good will hunting" (wasn't he in it? maybe not i don't remember. i just remember matt damon going "how bout dem apples")

thank u for bringing me joy

oh yeah that was not for this thread

mmhmm

Ben Affleck can't be the answer because he was in State of Play and Hollywoodland, surely (even though he wasn't the star of either).

I sort of want to say Kate Beckinsale, but she's turned up in a couple of OK films.

Brendan Fraser (I love the Mummy films, but there's no way they are great)

Gods and Monsters is close on great tho. Fraser ought to have done much more stellar work tho, agreed.

Fraser is a good actor, despite his penchant for goofy projects.

BTW, Fraser was supposedly very good in The Silent Gentleman (I think that's the name of the film).

He even makes that gross defilement of Bedazzled kinda fun.

Fraser has Encino Man and Cruise has Days of Thunder.

State of Gay

I cannot freakin STAND julia reoberts. That is all.

Daniel, Esq, that's The Quiet American you're thinking of, no? I like Fraser a lot, I'm just not convinced he's been in a good film (as opposed to him being the best thing about a bad or mediocre film).

I quite like Julia Roberts, there was a time when she was very very good at what she does, but My Best Friend's Wedding is a serious candidate for Most Horrible Film Ever Made.

I am also not fond of talking about the quality of movies as if they can be plotted along a single x axis, without considering y and z.

Ailsa: Yes, that's the film I meant.

Fraser is a good actor, despite his penchant for goofy projects.

Yeah, it was weird seeing the same guy first in The Passion of Darkly Noon (the first film I ever saw him in!) and Gods and Monsters and then in George of the Jungle and Bedazzled. He definitely seems to have a Nic Cage type of thing going on.

Tom Cruise & Angelina Jolie are the names that come most quickly to mind.

Collateral and Risky Business and Eyes Wide Shut are pretty great movies, in my opinion.

I just want to repost this picture so we can all laugh at Burt's facial expression again :

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movie-gallery/albums/userpics//InTheNameOfTheKingPoster.jpg

As regards the question, was Sonja Henie ever in any really GREAT movies?

Yeah, Collateral was great. And y'know, the first Mission Impossible film was a lot of fun.

peoples, saying "ya the movie was great but not because of movie star X" is nonsense and does not invalidate the answer!!

next thread: Which okay movies could be made great if the lead role had been played by Ray Liotta?

Inn of the Sixth Happiness

GOLDIE MUTHERFUCKIN HAWN

My law partner insists that Cruise's performance in the frogs-reining-down-on-Earth movie (directed by the fellow that did Boogie Nights) was compelling. From the few seconds I saw of Cruise in that movie (I couldn't sit through much of it), he was shamelessly hammy.

Daniel, Esq., does your law partner have the first name Alan?

Maybe someone could kindly define the terms here? What is "big movie star" and what is "great movie" bcz apparenly Morbs things great movies are non existent since 1935.

no, I just know Collateral and other showy bullshit with lousy dialogue are not them

Daniel, Esq., does your law partner have the first name Alan?

No Alans among them.

Vin Diesel

Iron Giant!

seriously tho morbs with your criteria isn't the answer to the thread question something like "nobody since van johnson"?

i mean "everbody since van johnson"

JACK FUCKING BLACK

school of rocks is awesome!

Gah! No no no no no no no no!

you must hate fun.
and rocking.

cell-o, you've got a bass!

Mmm, I think "not particulalry great" is too wide a net - to my way of thinking, it doesn't preclude movies that are merely "pretty good", of which there are many.

Should change the thread title to "individuals who have been BIG MOVIE STARS without having been in any wildly entertaining movies" so we can stop getting sidetracked by the lawyers and the curmudgeons.

sidetracked by the lawyers and the curmudgeons.

In every ILX thread ever.

yeah like wildly entertaining can't be defined 300000 ways

or like the concept of "being entertained" won't get shat on from a great height by said curmudgeons.

Will Smith
Julia Roberts

― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius),

Morbz OTM

I would also say Tom Cruise unless someone's already cited him...

TOP FUCKNG GUN

Coppola's The Outsiders and Rumble Fish validate all sorts of actorish fules

cameron diaz? demi moore? i don't know, drew barrymore?

Top Gun is terrible but it does have a closted lesbo "falling in love" with a closeted homo as its central plot so that's worth some lolz

Drew Barrymore's in Donnie Darko. not in an important role or anything, but that's a great movie.

Steve McQueen (definition of particularly GREAT is probably key here)

So is E.T., for pete's sake.

xp

Steve MCQueen?! Have you seen The Great Escape?

whip it, ffs

I have no idea why people put Shia LaBeouf big budget summer movies. Is he somebody's nephew or something?

Also, Angelina Jolie

Cameron Diaz excluded for being in Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich is not great, but There's Something About Mary is.

Am waiting for surm to jump in citing My Best Friend's Wedding :-)

Also, she's a voice in Shrek, so that's OK by me, if having a voice counts as acting.

Now that Jordan posted, let me reiterate - Demi Moore

Demi Moore was in A Few Good Men (I'd excuse Cruise for that as well, tbh)

Julia Roberts is also in STEPMOM

Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie sound like the best candidates so far. Though Moore was in Deconstructing Harry, which I thought was quite good.

seriously though - Ben Stiller

No way! There's Something About Mary, Flirting With Disaster and Zoolander are all great.

Your Friends and Neighbors is good too.

He's barely in it, but I like "Empire of the Sun".

Oh, and "Royal Tennenbaums", but I guess that movie is fairly divisive.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Dodgeball, that's an awesome movie too!

Are there any Finnish comedies you like, Tuomas? This is a serious question because I also lovelike Dodgeball and Something Abt Mary and Zoolander and am looking to expand my comedy horizons beyond Hollywood.

Cruise was in Born on the Fourth of July, which is a really good movie that you watch ONCE. Ever.

Jolie is a great nominee. Demi Moore was in St. Elmo's Fire, and One Crazy Summer. Both great.

Ben Stiller I could totally support.

McConahagle was in "A Time to Kill," which is another good movie you watch exactly once, except for Samuel Jackson's "And I hope they burn in HAY-ELL!"

Fuck. Zoolander is a GREAT movie. Stiller, out.

Vince Vaughan, though... Swingers? Wedding Crashers?

No-one liked Girl Interrupted, huh?

re VV: he was actually pretty good in the remake of Psycho.

Are there any Finnish comedies you like, Tuomas? This is a serious question because I also lovelike Dodgeball and Something Abt Mary and Zoolander and am looking to expand my comedy horizons beyond Hollywood.

There's not really any good Finnish comedies in the tradition of Dodgeball or Zoolander, but one recent film I liked was "Saippuaprinssi" (i.e. "Soap Prince"):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460557/

It's about a young woman who becomes a writer for a soap opera, then falls for the main star, and starts to write scripts that reflect her infatuation... Except that the chief writer, an older woman, also fancies the star, and she can't handle that situation, so she also starts to write her feelings into the script, and all sorts of hilarity ensues. The older woman is played by Kati Outinen (known for her work with Aki Kaurismäki), and she's awesome in this movie!

i fucking loved Girl Interrupted and you know i did

Sorry, I meant Outi Mäenpää, not Kati Outinen.

also angelina jolie was in GIA

Vaughn was pretty good in Into the Wild.

Vince Vaughn was also in Dodgeball.

Whew, for a second there I was like "Kati Outinen is SO not known for her work with Aki Kaurismaki, wtf Tuomas?"

Actually, Kati Outinen has been in several Kaurismäki films too. But Mäenpää is more famous outside Finland.

No, sorry, I'm wrong! It's Kati Outinen who's better known outside Finland, and better known for her work with Kauriamäki too. For some reason I'm always mixing up those two.

"Steve MCQueen?! Have you seen The Great Escape?"

Have great in the title /= the moving being GREAT, Tuomass.

teh great escape is amazing!!

Yeah!

It's a very fun movie I'll give you that. It's pretty light-weight for a "great" movie though.

Angelina Jolie is in Gone in 60 Seconds!

it's okay for a great movie to be lightweight!

Has anyone mentioned Patrick Swayze? He seemed pretty ubiquitous in the post Dirty Dancing days, but I wouldn't call anything he was in particularly great; memorable, even silly fun, but not great.