Biggest Gulf Between A Major Actor's Best and Worst Films

[Amor de Cosmos]

Jeff Bridges has been in some woeful shit since he won his Oscar, which in theory should give an actor more control over the quality of their projects, and his performances in R.I.P.D. and Seventh Son are extremely grating.

He was extremely good in Hell or High Water.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Michael Caine for the same film. Excellent in the original Get Carter and wtf in the remake.

[3 Colours Red]

Michael Caine for the same film. Excellent in the original Get Carter and wtf in the remake.

That's got me thinking that Stallone might be a decent shout here - the original Rocky to Oscar is a vast yawning chasm.

[diggedy derek]

Gene Hackman. Close the thread.

[WOM]

Gene Hackman. Close the thread.

What's the low water mark for Gene?

[diggedy derek]

From, say, The Conversation all the way down to Superman IV.

[Snake Plissken]

Looking at IMDB, I'd guess Superman IV. But I don't think that he can be blamed for that.

Then again, there is a lot of mediocrity in his career.

[diggedy derek]

Yes, he made a lot of films, a high proportion mediocre down to terrible

[nmrfox]

Javier Bardem. Ultimate badass killer in No Country for Old Men to something with tentacles in the latest Disney cash cow in the Pirates of the Caribbean spin-off.

[Sits]

That's got me thinking that Stallone might be a decent shout here - the original Rocky to Oscar is a vast yawning chasm.

Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot surely?

[Sits]

Robert Duvall:

Apocalypse Now, The Godfather...

Kicking & Screaming, Four Christmases

[Satchmo Distel]

Peter Lorre - Casablanca to this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Beach_Party

Peter Sellers - Dr Strangelove to this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_..._Dr._Fu_Manchu

[Amor de Cosmos]

Poor old Peter Lorre had serious morphine addiction due to gall-bladder cancer. Muscle Beach Party was his penultimate film, he died the same year (1964.) His last films were essentially cameo appearances, as he couldn't handle a long shoot.

As it goes, it's a pretty decent film — of its sub-genre. It's probably the best visual record of Dick Dale and the Deltones, who do several Brian Wilson scored tunes, and it ends with Stevie Wonder singing Happy Street. T'aint so bad!

[3 Colours Red]

Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot surely?

It's every bit as bad as Oscar but I wanted to go with something a little less obvious.

[pebblethefish]

Over The Top?

[3 Colours Red]

Over The Top?

Not even close to being in the conversation - proper guilty pleasure, that one.

[Tramp The Dirt Down]

Surely there is no descent as steep as that of Robert de Niro, from the Olymp of any of his masterpieces you'd care to name to the depth of the devil's anus that was the "Meet The Fockers" series.

You could say the same for Hoffman & Streisand

[Tramp The Dirt Down]

Peter O'Toole - Numerous great performances - Caligula

Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man/My Favourite Year - King Ralph

[Stumpy Pepys]

You could say the same for Hoffman & Streisand

I'm not going to claim Meet the Fockers was a great film, but Hoffman and Streisand were the best thing in it.

[Lang Spoon]

De Niro post Goodfellas for me (and he seems to be sleepwalking his way through that. Barely seems awake on set in most films now - not sure if that’s worse than Pacino’s Hoo-Yah! nonsense since the 90s).

He was good at playing a bad comic, but I don’t think I can remember any other actor so lacking in comic chops who still gets the parts like it ain’t no thing. I remember the horror at seeing the trailer for Analyse This, but I doubt that’s even in the top ten of shitty films he’s made in the last 20 years.

[Gawpus]

De Niro was in Dirty Grandpa a couple of years ago - a comedy consisting of roughly 90 minutes of him leering at 20-something girls and calling Zac Efron gay. That's got to be right up there as his worst.

Similarly, Pacino was in an Adam Sandler film (Jack & Jill) where the main laughs come from Sandler playing a woman.

[Lang Spoon]

I know De Niro has/had the excuse of being broke and bankrolling his Tribeca festival through appearing in mince (and now appears to be involved in some dodgy property stuff in Barbuda) but does Pacino have any excuse? Scent of a Woman was on lately, jaysus what awful OTT Oscar-bait. Maybe he just lost all restraint or lacked directors with the balls to force him to turn it down a bit.

Christ, the controlled restraint of Michael in the first two Godfathers was something else, when he did explode it was fairly terrifying. Not all he does is the exploding. Devil’s Advocate, I don’t know if he was taking the piss in it or not but it’s even worse than fucking Angel Heart with De Niro’s “Louis Cipher” (has there ever been a “serious” director with so much unsubtle shit and not much else on his cv as Alan Parker? Like Ridley Scott without the good early stuff).

[Felicity, I guess so]

Agree with Gawpus that Dirty Grandpa sits WAY below Parents/Fockers as a De Niro nadir(o)

[Lang Spoon]

Never heard of it till here. It sounds like a parody trailer on a Seth McFarlane level of shite.

[Gawpus]

Jesus, looking at De Niro's IMDB it's been about 20 years since he was in a film that was any better than passable (Jackie Brown, 1997, by my reckoning).

As for Pacino, don't know if he's had any money issues LS, but I reckon at some point he just decided to say 'fuck it' and take the easy route - just rocking up and giving a 'greatest hits' style performance in whatever he was offered - shouting, scenery chewing, "HOO-HA" etc. You can't hardly blame him either, it's probably a fuck of a lot easier than giving a thought out performance, and he looks like he's at least having fun in trash like the Devil's Advocate .