the 2000s: most consistent actor/actor with the best choice in projects

tom cruise? matt damon? george clooney?

wahlberg

Ruff? Or did he do some horrible romcoms on the side?

Americans only, as usual, right?

chris cooper

may as well just send the trophy straight to...

NIC CAGE

Nic really brings out the huge difference btw "consistent" and "best choice in projects"

isabelle huppert

cruise starring roles:

Mission: Impossible II - dud
Vanilla Sky - dud
Minority Report - classic
The Last Samurai - eh
Collateral - classic
War of the Worlds - classic
Mission: Impossible III - classic
Lions for Lambs - didnt see but i assume dud
Valkyrie - eh

chris cooper was in jarhead, syriana, where the wild things are, capote, me myself & irene, bourne supremacy, bourne identity and adaptation. not bad

the oprah winfery show - classic

dancing on bet - classic
bullying matt lauer - classic

leaked scientology video - classic

Laura Linney makes pretty sound choices

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0332709/

clooney starring roles:

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - classic (?)
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) - didnt see, heard its classic/eh
Up in the Air (2009/I) - dud
Burn After Reading (2008) - dud
Leatherheads (2008) - dud
Michael Clayton (2007) - classic
Ocean's Thirteen (2007) - eh
The Good German (2006) - classic/eh
Syriana (2005) - classic
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - classic
Ocean's Twelve (2004) - eh
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) - eh
Solaris (2002) - didnt see, i think eh
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) - eh
Ocean's Eleven (2001) - classic
The Perfect Storm (2000) - dud iirc
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) classic

cruise is 4 for 9, clooney is 5 for 17

Intolerable Cruelty (2003) - eh
Solaris (2002) - didnt see, i think eh

these are both at least classic/eh

alun armstrong

clooney is starting to get typecast into a heroic moustachioed roustabout though (nearly forgot it was brad pitt and not him who led the cast of Inglourious)

Ocean's 11 is a powdered donut, not a movie

was gonna say tony leung or mathieu amalric but both dudes have been in a bunch of things i havent seen

so my vote is for paul rudd

oceans 11 is a terrific powdered donut

would eat

Paul Rudd: most atrocious career for a talented, employable actor

brad pitt?!?

Juliette Binoche.

Matthew McConaughey: most consistently appearing in movies I have no intention of ever watching. You've got to admit he plays to his strengths. I can't think of another major star that I've seen in so few movies (just Dazed and Confused and Tropic Thunder), unless it's Kate Hudson (just Almost Famous).

# Green Zone (2010) - obv will be classic
# Invictus (2009) - dud but tempted to say classic for accent
# The Informant! (2009) - didnt see
# The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - classic
# Ocean's Thirteen (2007) - eh
# The Good Shepherd (2006) - used to say eh but this might be classic
# The Departed (2006) - classic
# Syriana (2005) - classic
# The Brothers Grimm (2005) - dud
# Ocean's Twelve (2004) - eh
# The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - classic
# The Bourne Identity (2002) - classic
# Gerry (2002) - didnt see
# Ocean's Eleven (2001) - classic powdered donut
# All the Pretty Horses (2000) - didnt see but im sure dud
# The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) - lol at this movies entire existence

damon: 8 for 15

boy oh boy, McConaughey has gone WAY down from where he was in the 90s to where he is now -- he's almost like the Nicolas Cage that no-one cares about.

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) - lol at this movies entire existence

Cannot be said enough.

Mathieu Amalric

The Informant! merits classic for Damon's performance alone - to go from Bourne to that is quite something

xpost - The actor who sounds like he should be a medieval saint from 800 AD

Some real duds early on but Josh Brolin's been in some interesting stuff recently, even if some of it hasn't worked.

Michael Caine, when he's good he's really good, when he's bad...

harsh review of clooney's movies up there imo- him, damon or maybe depp?

although depp meh now that i think of it.

Meryl Streep.

javier bardem's had a pretty dece run

I dunno, probably someone like Chloe Sevigny.

jason statham?!?

when clooneys in a good movie hes GREAT, i love him, but he has terrible taste in projects imo

Tilda Swinton is good in just about everything she's in, but some of those movies were baaaaad.

i'm actually serious about Statham, BTW.

Has Clooney ever been "great"? He's a nice, charming, intelligent man, and he chooses "serious" projects that affirm his charming Hollywood-lib reputation. I certainly like him, but why the fuss?

i know what you mean, Alfred -- even to this day, i think of Clooney more for "Batman & Robin" than for "Michael Clayton" or "Syriana."

People like Brolin and Ruffalo suffer from the reality of not being a marquee name - for every classic there's some forgettable piece of shit you have to take on to keep working. Only people on or above the Clooney/Damon level really get a genuine choice of projects, so it seems like an unfair comparison.

Like Tilda Swinton, Laura Linney and Catherine Keener tend to be v good even in bad movies.

which, of course, is NOT how Mr. Clooney would want himself to be remembered ...

Gen Y Cops - um
The Great Gatsby - classic
Wet Hot American Summer - classic
Reaching Normal - hav no idea
The Château - french houses p classic
The Shape of Things - ????
Two Days - um
House Hunting - lol this sounds terrible
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - ultraclassic
P.S. - what
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie - dvd extra
The Baxter - i just
The 40-Year-Old Virgin - classic
Tennis, Anyone...? - he plays "Lance Rockwood" so classic. + i like tennis
The Oh in Ohio - they made a movie abt a xiu xiu song?
Diggers - okay
Night at the Museum - p sure this is a dud
Reno 911: Miami - idk
I Could Never Be Your Woman - wow okay
The Ex Leon - idk
Knocked Up - classic
The Ten - classic
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - dud
Over Her Dead Body - cant believe this dude is still doing these movies
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - classic
Role Models - classic
I Love You, Man - this was enh/dud
Monsters vs. Aliens - lol
Year One - dud

okay so paul rudd is less "consistent" than "employed"

we're throwing the word "classic" around too much.

Has Clooney ever been "great"? He's a nice, charming, intelligent man, and he chooses "serious" projects that affirm his charming Hollywood-lib reputation. I certainly like him, but why the fuss?

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 12, 2010 11:23 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

just being consistently charming and good to watch on screen is pretty "great" imo

why?

he makes it look easy

Just say he's "good" and leave it at that.

i don't mean great as in, royal shakespeare company great, but great as in, a truly great movie star. which is something.

no, i think it's different. good actor, great movie star.

bale:

Shaft - classic
American Psycho - classic
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - dud
Equilibrium - dud
Reign of Fire - eh
Laurel Canyon - ??
The Machinist - classic
Batman Begins - classic/eh
The New World - classic
The Prestige - classic/eh
Harsh Times - dud
Rescue Dawn - dud
I'm Not There - classic
3:10 to Yuma - classic
The Dark Knight - classic
Terminator Salvation - dud
Public Enemies - classic

clooney knows and plays to this strengths as well as anyone out there imo, and his strengths aren't that bad that he should be dismissed off-hand

or what slocki said xxxxp

i just assumed max was using "classic" to mean "good"

there arent many other ppl on the planet who can be as charming as clooney! if that doesnt make him great i dunno what does

Then a better question is: what movie star picks the best projects? And even that is a dead-end street since stars will pick projects that contribute to the formation of their personae.

i was using "classic" to mean, "this movie is classic, as opposed to dud"

how equilibrium and reign of fire could be eh or dud but 3:10 to yuma classic is blowin my mind j0rdan!

"classic" = ILE version of watchable.

someone do one for colin ferrel

Then a better question is: what movie star picks the best projects? And even that is a dead-end street since stars will pick projects that contribute to the formation of their personae.

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 12, 2010 11:28 AM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

why is that a dead-end street?

al there are two choices: classic or dud, or eh

and shaft i mean come on

I can watch Michael Clayton any time it's on, but it's very far from classic.

al is it a dud

is it eh

or is it classic

OK I'm being a pedant, and I forgot my granola bar. Move on.

Half of Nic Cage's classics are horrible choices for any other actor.

al there are two choices: classic or dud, or eh

― max, Friday, February 12, 2010 11:30 AM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

there's also "didn't see it but looks awful" and "it's just a movie about X, what's the big deal"

"classic" means brought the lolz w/ dick jokes, Alfred.

jason statham?!? is Armond White's choice iirc.

laurel canyon is garbage, frances mcdormand is pretty good tho.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

looool I'd forgotten this movie existed

how you guys feel about Koji Yakusho

brought the lolz with dick jokes iirc

statham:

Snatch -- classic
Ghosts of Mars -- dud
The One -- dud
The Transporter -- classic
The Italian Job -- very good
Cellular -- classic
Transporter 2 -- classic
Revolver -- crap, but perversely entertaining
London -- classic
Chaos -- classic
The Pink Panther -- crap
Crank -- crap
War -- good
The Bank Job -- very good
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale -- lol Uwe Boll
Death Race -- good
Transporter 3 -- very good
Crank: High Voltage -- high-octane, entertaining crap
The Expendables -- should be classic

i dunno morbs, how do you feel about Koji Yakusho?

Never seen a single Statham movie; didn't even know who he was until recently.

Wait, "Crank" was crap but "Death Race" was good?

I had totally talked myself out of seeing "Death Race", does anyone else agree that it's better than "Crank"? Because it looks amazingly stupid.

wait a minute, i was wrong about Crank -- that one IS classic. my mistake!!

what about tadanobu asano? taste of tea, ichi the killer, survive style 5+, mongol, zatoichi, bunch of movies i didn't see plus this is the picture on his wikipedia page:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Tadanobu.jpg/220px-Tadanobu.jpg

and "death race" is better than i thought it would be -- which isn't to say that it's all that good outside of statham.

death race is really actually p amazing but its nowhere near crank's level

no public sex w/ amy smart huh

someone can fill in the blanks but

clive owen:

The Driver
Gosford Park - classic
The Bourne Identity - classic
Beyond Borders
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Closer
King Arthur
Derailed
Sin City - classic
Children of Men - classic
Inside Man - classic
The Pink Panther - dud
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Shoot 'Em Up - classic
The International - classic
Duplicity - classic/eh
The Boys Are Back

<3 Asano, perhaps sexiest actor of last dozen years. Missed the Genghis Khan movie tho.

elizabeth too - deepest dud

Beyond Borders
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Closer
King Arthur
Derailed

this is a p terrible run. was croupier 90s?

<3 Asano, perhaps sexiest actor of last dozen years. Missed the Genghis Khan movie tho.

― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 12, 2010 11:38 AM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

morbs, see it. it's a real old-fashioned wide-canvas adventure story. i loved it.

i'm also warming up more and more to "revolver" -- not just b/c of Statham, but also b/c of its sheer audacious WTF-edness (b/w Ray Liotta as an Oompa-Loompa tan guido crime boss, dre and Big Pussy as Statham's mentors, and all of its kabbalah horseshit).

what IMPORTANT films have your faves done? ie, Burt Lancaster 1955-1980 shits all over them.

ew

burt lancaster over 25 years beats jason statham over 10 that's true

makes you think

a 25-year-run by one of the great movie stars of all time does shit on a 10-year-run by many of today's stars.

haha

i'm happy to be consistently entertained by a film star's movies -- if any of said star's films are "important" according to film geeks, that's at best an added bonus.

travolta

# Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride (2011) .... classic
# From Paris with Love (2010) .... classic
# Old Dogs (2009/I) .... classic
# The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) .... classic
# Hairspray (2007) .... classic
# Wild Hogs (2007) .... classic
# Ladder 49 (2004) .... classic
# A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) .... classic
# The Punisher (2004) .... classic
# Domestic Disturbance (2001) .... classic
# Swordfish (2001) .... classic
# Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) .... classic
# The General's Daughter (1999) .... classic
# A Civil Action (1998) .... classic
# Mad City (1997) .... classic
# Michael (1996) .... classic
# Phenomenon (1996) .... classic
# Look Who's Talking Now (1993) .... classic
# Look Who's Talking Too (1990) .... classic
# Look Who's Talking (1989) .... classic

huge ackman?

travolta's career is pretty breathtaking.

cuba gooding jr.

de niro's 00's work easily beats any other decade

really liked that diving movie huh

can't believe no one's nominated ROBERT DOWNEY JR. yet

the main problem with this premise is that the majority of films that are made with big-name stars (ie, people with the opportunity to choose their projects) are utter shit.

meet the fockers vs any of his scorsese stuff = no contest.

# Sherlock Holmes (2009)
# The Soloist (2009) HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
# Tropic Thunder (2008) .... Kirk Lazarus - Hot LZ
# Iron Man (2008) (VG) (voice) .... Tony Stark
# Charlie Bartlett (2007) .... Principal Nathan Gardner
# Lucky You (2007) .... Telephone Jack
# Zodiac (2007/I) .... Paul Avery
# Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) .... Lionel Sweeney
# A Scanner Darkly (2006) .... James Barris
# The Shaggy Dog (2006) .... Dr. Kozak
# A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) .... Dito
# Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
# Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) .... Harry Lockhart
# Game 6 (2005) .... Steven Schwimmer
# Gothika (2003) .... Pete Graham
# The Singing Detective (2003) .... Dan Dark
# Whatever We Do (2003) .... Bobby
# Lethargy (2002) .... Animal Therapist
# Auto Motives (2000) .... Rob
# Wonder Boys (2000) .... Terry Crabtree

viggo mortensen

almost a srs answer: natalie portman -- at least w/r/t choosing interesting projects (mike leigh, wkw, wes anderson) ~ too bad they r not great movies

o & even milos foreman too!

V4Vendetta was one of the worst big budget movies ever.

almost a srs answer: natalie portman -- at least w/r/t choosing interesting projects (mike leigh, wkw, wes anderson) ~ too bad they r not great movies

This makes me think of Samantha Morton and Michelle Williams, too.

I dunno, probably someone like Chloe Sevigny.

― queen frostine (Eric H.), Friday, February 12, 2010 4:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^ & binoche pretty otm.
there's good range to people like willem dafoe, but they pop up in schlocky action flicks every two years to pay the bills.

then there are kind of less expansive solid choices - tony leung, bill murray &c

Johnny Depp

Public Enemies (2009)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Corpse Bride (2005) (voice)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Libertine (2004)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Secret Window (2004)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
From Hell (2001)
Blow (2001)
Chocolat (2000)
Before Night Falls (2000)
The Man Who Cried (2000)

Depp was better/chose better movies in the 90s, by a pretty wide margin I would say

Bill Murray had a pretty good decade (why does imdb exclude Zombieland from his cv? weird)

Binoche:

Copie conforme (2009) - Kiarostami, anticipating
Summer Hours (2008) - good
Paris (2008) - ?
Dan in Real Life (2007) - omg
Disengagement (2007) - ?
Le voyage du ballon rouge (2007) - she really irritated me
Breaking and Entering (2006) - ?
A Few Days in September (2006) - ?
Paris, je t'aime (2006) - trash it
Mary (2005) - yuck
Bee Season (2005) - ?
Caché (2005) - grrrrrr
Country of My Skull / In My Country (2004) - ?
Jet Lag (2002) - ?
Chocolat (2000) - r u kidding
Unknown (2000) - real good
La veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000) - okay

because it's an uncredited cameo that they didn't want to spoil xp

unfortunately, they had him on the zombieland imdb page when i scanned it before the press screening :(

brolin had a good run here (even the shitty movies here contained pretty dope work by him, det. trupo was the best character in american gangster by a long shot)

# Milk (2008/I) .... Dan White
# W. (2008/I) .... George W. Bush
# American Gangster (2007) .... Detective Trupo
# In the Valley of Elah (2007) .... Chief Buchwald
# Planet Terror (2007) .... Dr. William Block
# No Country for Old Men (2007) .... Llewelyn Moss
# Grindhouse (2007) .... Dr. William Block

that's Code Unknown

xxxp

i like statham a lot but tbh most of his movies are shit

xxxpost yeah, Depp's 90s run was def. more classic, but then it was Burton+indie rather than Burton+blockbuster

Brolin was really funny as W, he has been on a roll lately

No Philip Seymour Hoffman? I think he's the best actor working today! And I can only think of one outright dud this decade, MI:3. I'm not listing all his movies, just the one's I've seen:

Almost Famous
Punch-Drunk Love
Red Dragon (ok, this was "eh")
25th Hour
Cold Mountain
Capote
The Savages
Charlie Wilson's War
Synecdoche, New York (my favorite movie evah!)
Doubt

Brolin's strange to me. It seems he went from Goonies to No Country for Old Men, lol.

^ both classics, obv.

kinda been a brolin fan for awhile even during his drought of b-movies and underseen non-classics during the '90s and early '00s, the dude has epic screen presence

MI3 is great

it is!! i loved that movie

who said it wasnt

one of cruises classic 00s flixx

M:I is one of the few movie trilogies I can think of that improves with each movie

that is a true statement if you never saw MI2 and MI1 came after MI3

the only good things about mi2 were dougray scott and richard roxburgh, pretty solid villains kinda lost in the bullshit

I really hated M:I1, like to unreasonable depths. I only watched M:I2 to gawk at Thandie Newton.

hating MI1 is v. unreasonable. one of the raddest action movies of the 90s.

otm

M:I1 is autopilot Cruise being a massive charisma vacuum with a bunch of stupid stunts that are supposed to be impressive but don't work mixed in with maybe the most pointless double-cross ever filmed.

perceptions: blown wide open

M:I2 is also kind of stupid but the stunts work better, Cruise turns his charisma back on even if he hasn't quite yet manifested a personality, and Thandie Newton is hotttttt.

M:I3 is actually a good movie.

http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/mission-impossible.jpg

dont know what doesnt work about rad cruise-suspended in computer lab stunt

(actually the opening to M:I1 is great, but then the rest of the movie meandered off into nonsense I couldn't possibly care less about, with the exception of Ving Rhames)

xp: the exact thing that didn't work about Tom Cruise hopping up and down on a chair while flapping his arms in "Vanilla Sky"; it looked mannered and stupid and I really just wanted him hit the floor and die by that point anyway

was that vanilla sky? thought that was oprah

hahaha

in fairnes, the VS scene might have been on a table; I was too busy mentally screaming "JUST DIE ALREADY" by that point of the movie (unfortunate since the scene is near the beginning)

I will admit that Cameron Diaz was kind of rad in it, tho

u mean the "oh i'm sorry i thought you were talking about a FUCKING MASK" part? that's the only watchable part of that goddam movie

in fairnes, the VS scene might have been on a table; I was too busy mentally screaming "JUST DIE ALREADY" by that point of the movie (unfortunate since the scene is near the beginning)

that could ruin any movie, i suggest you watch it again when you're not doing that

# Sherlock Holmes (2009) .... Irene Adler
# The Time Traveler's Wife
# State of Play
# The Lucky Ones
# Married Life
# The Family Stone
# Red Eye
# Wedding Crashers
# "Slings and Arrows"
# The Notebook
# Mean Girls
# The Hot Chick

wld fuck w/almost alla these tbh~~

just bh

The argument in the car and the crash is pretty watchable, too; unfortunately after that you have to endure Jason Lee and Penelope Cruz looking uncomfortably at Tom Cruise while he acts like a tool

xp: liked "Red Eye" a lot

posting johnny depp's credits was like a list of reasons why he shouldn't qualify.