gosh..wht do i say? watched the sporian production, `i am stupid' first...and then immediately after that `the good shepherd'. the first was entertaining and actually funny. will be watching `i am stupid too' tomorrow.
the good shepherd?
confusing. one wonders if de niro wanted it this jumbled or did this thing naturally come out this way?...he actually had this project going for 9 yrs...jeez!
seemed to drag a little but then, it really depends on perspectives.
too long n too slow but then to think de niro took this from real life situations of the CIA, relating the first 15 or so years, their plots n plans, one has to say this was a good film. a little difficult for the masses to understand but hey when did i ever belong there? i mean, sorry but i think they over rate the audience's intelligence with such films...n in turn reward those truly alert...hehehe like me.
the film begins with edward wilson commuting n ends with him being the head of the ciu (counter-intelligence unit) of the cia (central intelligence agency). the things we expect dont really happen and that which we dont sort of reveal themselves. great!
i think decaprio would have been a better choice than damon, but then if edward's performance was supposed to have been lifeless then damon did a good job of it :-)
de niro decided to appear in the film too...i mean how could he not? hmm, good that he kept it at the bare minimum...the appearance i mean.
all in all...great film. enjoyed it.
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Thoughts on DeCaprio vs. Damon -- a year ago, I'd have said that this was a no-brainer, but having seen The Departed and Blood Diamond, I'm slowly swinging DeCaprio's way. Chocolate Boy is finally growing up!
DeNiro's best performance on film is a no-brainer, though.... Raging Bull.
i beg to differ with the erudite gentleman on the chocolate boy growing up...i believe an actor is only as good as his last director...my fav example being john travolta who once was the mithun of hollywood...and now thanks to good direction over the years the man has grown...an actor to a director is what clay is to a potter...
Monsieur Cyriaco (de Bergerac?), I understand where you're coming from, but there are actors and there are actors. There are those who are Director's Actors (examples being Amitabh Bachchan, Humphrey Bogart, Max Von Sydow, Al Pacino). They are the claymen - their performances are directly dependent on their directors. Over time, some of them can break out of the mould (to continue with your analogy) created by their directors. AB belongs to this category. John Travolta also maybe - as you rightly point out, he has grown as an actor thanks to his working with quality directors such as Tarantino. Director's actors will never shine in a mediocre film, nor will they have the ability to carry a mediocre product on their shoulders.
Another subset of this group are those actors who consistently play THEMSELVES in just about every film they do. Prime examples - Jack Nicholson, Samuel Jackson, Tom Hanks, Charlton Heston.
And then there are those actors who deliver a consistent performance no matter who the director is. Their body of work may see dips, but those are more of an aberration, rather than the rule. And every time they play a role, it is the role they play, not the actor. Prime examples of this tribe being Marlon Brando, Sir Alec Guinness, Gerard Depardieu, Toshiro Mifune, Henry Fonda). They have the ability to shine in even mediocre films.
Coming back to ChocoBoy - in my humble opinion, he's undergone an apprenticeship lasting three consecutive films with a master film maker. And he's slowly starting to break out of the mould (just as JT did after PulpFiction). Blood Diamond was a mediocre film made good by an excellent performance by ChocoBoy.
Ultimately however, every actor is slave to the script. And every opinion is subjective. :-)
Reading through the last post, it seems to be rather sexist in the sense that I haven't mentioned any ACTRESSES in the lists.
To make amends, here are those actresses that can be considered "Clay" (they need to be moulded) - Faye Dunaway, Audrey Hepburn, Liz Taylor, Giulietta Masina, Winona Ryder.
And as "Water" Actresses (those that are fluid enough to take the shape of the container - in this instance the character being portrayed) - Katherine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman, Gong Li, Catherine Deneuve, Jaya Bhaduri.
And of course, there the one hit wonders and those who's standout performances are so strong, they're forever associated with that one role. A prime example of the latter is Audrey Tatou in/as Amelie. No matter what else she does in her career, it will be so damn tough for a lot of us to imagine us as anything/anyone other than Amelie.
OK. Forgive me for raving and ranting for so long. Its three thirty in the morning and I watched "300" earlier today. That alone should be an apt excuse for any deviation from sanity and reason.
first off, i love your style of writing and your supreme command over the english language, but what i liked most was the fact that you mentioned marlon brando, though maybe unwittingly, among the actors who deliver a consistent performance no matter who the director is. marlon brando occupies the first two places among my favorite actors, loved him in "the missouri breaks" in which he played bounty hunter to jack nicholson's (who incidentally is third on that list, but yes agreed he always plays himself) rustler, i "hated" (read loved) marlon brando as the cruel villain. the film did not make waves, but i loved it especially seeing my two all-time favorite actors together in one film. you mentioned sir alec guiness, but not david niven. tom hanks but not harrison ford. loved tim robbins, he was andy dufresne as much as nobody else could be sherlock holmes except jeremy brett, and sean connery james bond. tim robbins i like more so especially since he was a director himself (dead man walking) and yet was willing to work under frank darabont, but yes there are actors and there are actors and we forgot (?) to mention sean penn. in my humble opinion all great actors have this tendency to overact, prime example being robert de niro. glad you mentioned meryl streep who once was regarded as america's finest actress, but disappointed you left out helen hunt who is supremely gifted as an actress, i love her. sadly winona ryder faded. coming back to chocoboy, he didn't do too badly in martin scorsese's gangs of new york either. i haven't yet heard of a brainy boxer which probably explains robert de niro's performance as jake lamotta in raging bull. the other worthy was cyrano de bergerac, i am plain cyriaco :) happy easter.
actually i first loved decaprio's acting when i saw the man in the iron mask.
Thank you for your kind words, kind sire.... And I do regret missing out on Messers Robbins and Penn. In my humble opinion, they gave one of the the best performances of their lives in Eastwood's Mystic River.
Don't think much of Helen Hunt - have always tended to regard her as the poor man's Meryl Streep (there are some facial resemblances too, which don't help matters). However, post your recommendation, will try and view her body of work once again with an unbiased mind's eye.
Any other omissions/transgressions can continue to be blamed on "300".
And oh yes... Jeremy Brett IS Sherlock Holmes!!!!!
thenk yew kind sire for accepting praise with so much panache and grace, very becoming of your style, but then i recognized your blood having the right shade of blue for royalty as the name suggests..:)......mystic river was quite easily the most depressing movie that i saw in recent times, sterling performances by one and all........haven't seen much of helen hunt's body of work though i saw her in a movie called "kiss of death"..whatever snatches i saw of her, she was good, very good, a consummate actress, and then we can hardly compare an actor with another unless one of them can hardly act......we forgot (?) to mention sir laurence olivier, richard burton....thespians in their own right, much like our own balraj sahni......as far as forest whitaker is concerned, all i can say is that the black man more than holds his own in hollywood....he don't need no helpin' hand no mo'......he is there on his own steam......loved nicolas cage in "leaving las vegas"....had heard rave reviews about that film and it was all that i expected from it and more......old nick is francis ford coppola's nephew......loved stanley kubrick as a director, awesome full metal jacket........sam mendes among the present generation only superlatives to be added to his name, loved tom hanks in the road to perdition....what is your take on comedy? do you think anybody can even come within sniffing distance of bob hope? you're so scared to laugh because you might miss his next joke.....but that is a topic for another day.........it is late, past 2 in the night.......take care and good night.....
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