Performances in movies

[Loppan Torkel]

What's the best performance you've seen acted in a movie?

Who are the all-time and who are the current best actor and actress in cinema? If too difficult - Who are your favorites?

What year will a animated/computer generated character win an Oscar for best performance, if ever?


I have to think this through a bit...

[nonconformist]

Pretty much Gregory Peck in anything.

David Strathiairn in Good Night and Good Luck was incredible though.

[warpus]

I haven't thought about this much, but Kevin Spacey in the Usual Suspects was incredible.

[PeteAtoms]

What year will a animated/computer generated character win an Oscar for best performance, if ever?

Why not give a Ms. America title to Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop? This will never happen, an animated character can't 'act,' or 'perform.'

[Loppan Torkel]

Originally Posted by PeteAtoms

Why not give a Ms. America title to Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop? This will never happen, an animated character can't 'act,' or 'perform.'

Didn't Jessica Rabbit won some "hottest lady award" though?!

I'm not so sure it won't happen, but more likely they'll make a separate award for it since it's the crew behind that stands for the performance. Either way it's going to take a number of decades before real actors could be outperformed.

[warpus]

Originally Posted by PeteAtoms

Why not give a Ms. America title to Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop? This will never happen, an animated character can't 'act,' or 'perform.'

Not yet, anyway..

[azzaman333]

Adam Sandler is excellent in any movie where his character is mentally retarded.

I wonder if there's something more to that...

[Hakim]

Sean Penn is pretty good, he's got a large range of facial expressions in his tool box.

I'll probably get flogged for this, but I think Kirsten Dunst is a good actor as well. She can drop from sunny to sad like noone else. Or perhaps I just have a soft spot for her ...

Sometimes actors make a great performance in one film (perhaps only in one scene) and is mediocre in all other.

[Loppan Torkel]

Originally Posted by Hakim

Sean Penn is pretty good, he's got a large range of facial expressions in his tool box.

I'll probably get flogged for this, but I think Kirsten Dunst is a good actor as well. She can drop from sunny to sad like noone else. Or perhaps I just have a soft spot for her ...

Sometimes actors make a great performance in one film (perhaps only in one scene) and is mediocre in all other.

I agree, I thought of Penn, he was excellent in Mystic River, but there are too many good male actors to find the best... I'd say there are less female excellent actresses, but it's impossible to be objective when it comes to those. I think Nicole Kidman has done some good roles, but there are probably better actresses out there. Best smile goes to Rachel McAdams

[PeteAtoms]

I like Al Pacino, Daniel Day-Lewis, Will Smith and Ed Harris, and Julia Roberts.

[Dumanios]

I like Harrison Ford.

[Samez]

ATM it's Sam Rockwell with his performance in Moon.

Spoiler:

Esp in the scene where he brings the first clone back to the crashed vehicle joking about their love.. His facial expression the moment he realizes that the first clone is no more listening is just epic.

Also liked George Clooney for the last scene of Michael Clayton when everything is over and he is just sitting in the taxi...

Of course there are plenty of other actors I like and admire for their performance but these were the ones coming to my mind first.

[Disgustipated]

Originally Posted by Hakim

Sean Penn is pretty good, he's got a large range of facial expressions in his tool box.

I'll probably get flogged for this, but I think Kirsten Dunst is a good actor as well. She can drop from sunny to sad like noone else. Or perhaps I just have a soft spot for her ...

Sometimes actors make a great performance in one film (perhaps only in one scene) and is mediocre in all other.

interesting about Sean Penn. But I can't think I've ever seen him "happy". He always seems to play troubled men. So I'm not convinced of his range. But I haven't seen all his films, perhaps I missed one.

[Hakim]

That's true. Perhaps in "Milk" he had such a role, at least he looks happy on the poster.

The guy in your avatar is quite good as well, and he's been playing both happy and romantic I think.

[Camikaze]

I find it hard to go past Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump.

[Cutlass]

Sharon Stone's performance in Basic Instinct I always thought was the performance of a lifetime.

[LightSpectra]

The sign of good acting is when you genuinely feel like the character is a real person with depth. So I am of the opinion that Glen Hansard in Once and Jim Carey in the Truman Show are epitomes of great acting.

[Quackers]

Leonardo Di Caprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond is an exceptional performance.

[NKVD]

Jacques Villeret in Le dinner de con (The diner's game)

Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall)

Audrey Tautou in Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie)

[Lord Baal]

Originally Posted by Loppan Torkel

What's the best performance you've seen acted in a movie?

There's a tonne of great ones. Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Al Pacino in Scarface, The Godfather (Part One and Part Two), and Dog Day Afternoon, as well as many others I'm probably forgetting. My personal favourite portrayal, however, would have to be that of Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time in the West. For a quintessential 'good guy' actor to play such a villainous scumbag could not have been easy, yet Fonda does an incredible job.

Originally Posted by Loppan Torkel

Who are the all-time and who are the current best actor and actress in cinema? If too difficult - Who are your favorites?

Impossible to say. My personal favourites include Michael Caine - though he's perfectly capable of phoning in a performance at any time - Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey. For actresses you simply can't overlook Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep. Cate Blanchett is pretty fantastic as well, as is Sigourney Weaver (when motivated).

Originally Posted by Loppan Torkel

What year will a animated/computer generated character win an Oscar for best performance, if ever?

Never.

Originally Posted by warpus

I haven't thought about this much, but Kevin Spacey in the Usual Suspects was incredible.

Easily his best role.

Originally Posted by PeteAtoms

Why not give a Ms. America title to Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop? This will never happen, an animated character can't 'act,' or 'perform.'

Exactly. They are, by definition, 'animated' by some outside force. Therefore, they can't 'act.' There's a reason they call it "voice acting." It's because the only sort of 'acting' an 'actor' in an animated film can do is with their voice. Everything else - the gestures, facial expressions, stances, etc., - is done by the animators.

Now, I could potentially see one exception for this, and that would be if live-action animation became so good that it was essentially the exact same as if it were just live-action film. But then, what would the point be, other than to test the technology? I don't see anything longer than a short-film ever made under such circumstances; since actors in short-films are not eligible for awards for acting this would have no bearing on on the major acting or performance awards criteria anyway.

Originally Posted by Hakim

I'll probably get flogged for this, but I think Kirsten Dunst is a good actor as well. She can drop from sunny to sad like noone else. Or perhaps I just have a soft spot for her ...

I've personally always found her to be more than adequate. Not great by any means, but I don't believe I've ever seen a bad performance from her. She's like Queen Latifa in a way; a perfectly good actress who only ever appears in crap. Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon seem to have a thing for that as well.

Originally Posted by Hakim

Sometimes actors make a great performance in one film (perhaps only in one scene) and is mediocre in all other.

Samuel Jackson immediately springs to mind. He was absolutely brilliant in Pulp Fiction - and to a lesser extent in A Time To Kill - but largely self-parodying in most of his roles since.

Originally Posted by LightSpectra

The sign of good acting is when you genuinely feel like the character is a real person with depth. So I am of the opinion that Glen Hansard in Once and Jim Carey in the Truman Show are epitomes of great acting.

Agreed with the sentiment, though I haven't watched either film in so long I can't say anything one way or the other about the performances cited.

Originally Posted by Quackers

Leonardo Di Caprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond is an exceptional performance.

Hell yes. I never thought I'd say this, but DiCaprio has become an outstanding actor. Not only that, but a tough-guy actor. He's the closest thing Hollywood has to a modern-day Charles Bronson these days. That's kind of scary, considering his roots as a pain-in-the-arse prettyboy.