Is Leonardo DiCaprio the Best Actor of this Generation?

[Buzzman]

It's not like he's plays a bad ass in every movie. He has just been playing very "deep" and serious roles as of late.

I'm going to throw this out there because I have to. Christian Bale is the most overrated actor today, in my opinion. And I loved American Psycho as much as anyone. I memorized that movie line for line and read the book. Outside of that, he has been a plug. Now I'm going to wait for somebody to bring up the Machinist. Starving yourself and losing 50 lbs. doesn't make you a great actor. To his credit, he plays a pretty good serious/crazy/uptight asshole character. Other than that, he can't do shit.

IDK man, he was pretty awesome in Equilibrium, The Prestige, 3:10 To Yuma, and the rarely seen Rescue Dawn. The case that shows your right though is despite being good, he always gets upstaged by another character in the movie.

Public Enemies - Depp was better
Terminator - Worthington was better
3:10 to Yuma: Ben Foster was better
The Prestige: Jackman was better
Rescue Dawn: Zahn was better
Dark Knight: Ledger was better

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

No doubt, but I'm sure there are a number of other male leads who could have done the same.

Somewhere out there, Edward Furlong, James Vander Beek, and Wil Wheaton are seething with what might have been, while waving a backwards fist...

 

[dave]

Somewhere out there, Edward Furlong, James Vander Beek, and Wil Wheaton are seething with what might have been, while waving a backwards fist...

James Vander Beek. LOL.

I watched Varsity Blues tonight. I love that movie.

 

[Tailback U]

What's really interesting to think about is how we haven't even seen the best of DiCaprio yet. As Dave said, he still has that young boyish look to him that somewhat limits the perception of his character in certain roles. I think he's only going to get better as he gets older, as long as he keeps his acting fresh.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

IDK man, he was pretty awesome in Equilibrium, The Prestige, 3:10 To Yuma, and the rarely seen Rescue Dawn. The case that shows your right though is despite being good, he always gets upstaged by another character in the movie.

Public Enemies - Depp was better
Terminator - Worthington was better
3:10 to Yuma: Ben Foster was better
The Prestige: Jackman was better
Rescue Dawn: Zahn was better
Dark Knight: Ledger was better

Disagree, strongly.

 

[Tailback U]

IDK man, he was pretty awesome in Equilibrium, The Prestige, 3:10 To Yuma, and the rarely seen Rescue Dawn. The case that shows your right though is despite being good, he always gets upstaged by another character in the movie.

Public Enemies - Depp was better
Terminator - Worthington was better
3:10 to Yuma: Ben Foster was better
The Prestige: Jackman was better
Rescue Dawn: Zahn was better
Dark Knight: Ledger was better

We've done this dance before but I'll partake again since I brought it up.

Public Enemies - I haven't seen it, heard it sucked.
Terminator - He played the same typical role that he always does - aka Angry Yelling Man.
3:10 To Yuma - Loved this movie and he did a good job in this. But again, ultra serious role with no range.
The Prestige - Loved the movie but yet again, same character different costume.
Rescue Dawn - I fell asleep. I thought it was awfully boring and shitty.
Dark Knight - I thought he was awful. Ledger not only stole the movie, but made it.

 

[dave]

"I don't want........................yer life!"

I agree Vander Beek sucks, but the movie is good.

 

[Palooza]

I like Rules of Attraction :shifty:

 

[j.hen]

Really wish Heath was still around to shit on all these mfers...

 

[Tailback U]

One of my favorite scenes in The Departed:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaq5II7xw68&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Psychiatric Evaluation -The Departed[/ame]

Don't really know, probably because of it's simplicity, but it stood out to me the first time I saw it and I still watch it from time to time.

 

[dave]

The movie was ok. Jon Voight not having a single assistant coach was a load of shit.

I always assumed the dude in the cap who kept giving Fast and Furious guy and the black guy needles was an assistant coach.
I guess he was just the trainer.

It was nice to see Paul Walker recover in time to race cars really fast.

 

[JeremyHight]

Comparing Leo's performance to Lewis' in Gangs of New York and to Depp's in What's Eating Gilbert Grape is downright silly because of their roles.

DiCaprio has unbelievable range but has limited himself by choice because he wants to be seen as a more serious actor. He purposely shed the dreamy DiCaprio label he got from Titanic because he didn't want to go down that road. If you read some of his interviews, he talks about how he didn't even want to make movies after Titanic because of all the fame and love he was getting. He actually had somewhat of a rough childhood.

The last "non-serious" character he played was in Catch Me If You Can, which was 8 years ago. He obviously hand picks his films very specifically. But if you can't see the difference in his roles in Blood Diamond and The Aviator then I don't know what to tell you.

Were there slight differences? Sure, he even took accents. Again, I fully admit that in acting ability, he is among the best of the best. But I still haven't seen the range from him as I've seen in other actors this generation.

Lewis has acted just as well as Leo, but with a FAR bigger range. I get that DiCaprio selects serious roles and selects them very carefully, but all he has done in the last few years is put himself into a box that he hasn't been able to break out of. He is very good at the roles he picks, but when you compare him to other actors who do everything from serious to musicals, then you are seeing just how limited his roles have been.

 

[Palooza]

I always assumed the dude in the cap who kept giving Fast and Furious guy and the black guy needles was an assistant coach.
I guess he was just the trainer.

It was nice to see Paul Walker recover in time to race cars really fast.

Nobody likes the tuna here.

 

[MvP]

Speaking of Paul Walker, Running Scared was a very entertaining movie.

 

[Palooza]

When I first posted this thread I never expected Paul Walker or James Van Der Beek to be spoken of.

 

[Rush]

When I first posted this thread I never expected Paul Walker or James Van Der Beek to be spoken of.

Van Der Beek is doing lifetime movies now. John Mox has fallen off hard

 

[Mit]

I'd take George Clooney over Leo.

 

[MVP1991]

Nick Cage

Me and my friends put on Nick Cage movies after we smoke so we can just laugh at how awful he is.

Con Air is great comedy.

 

[Tailback U]

If you think Con Air is funny, you should watch Knowing. One of my favorite comedies that year.

 

[Senser81]

Tard bias. Whenever someone plays a tard, people overreact, like when Penn did the I Am Sam gimmick, and the Givanni Ribisi/Juliette Lewis tardfest, which had to be easy for Lewis, since i'm convinced she is an actual tard. Anyone can do tard.

Agree 100%. I blame Dustin Hoffman. He was kind of the original tard gimmick with Rain Man. I don't understand why people felt the need to revisit tards...Hoffman already covered that ground.

Juliette Lewis is a tard. If I had to fuck a tard, I would choose her, though.

If anyone was carried by the script in The Departed, it was Wahlberg, who was given a bunch of funny tough guy lines and ran with it. His character had no depth, he was just basically doing RosettaStoned.

LOL at comparing Wahlberg's character in The Departed to RosettaStoned. I guess I missed the "Director's Cut" version, where Wahlberg plays a raging internet hardass who is completely unfunny and a tad bit repetitive.