My Favorite Actors
December 17, 2007 - Movies - Actors
I've written before about character actors that I appreciate, but how about the starring actors? Here are five of my absolute favorite actors.
My favorite actor that I can think of right now is Ed Norton. He's just been phenomenal in every movie I've seen him in. And while Fight Club is my hands-down favorite, he also did a great job in The Illusionist. I also thought he made a tremendous bad guy in The Italian Job. He was such an unbelievable dick in that movie!
Ed Norton was also excellent in the movie Primal Fear, where he really showed off his acting chops. I enjoyed Red Dragon and American History X too. In the future, Ed Norton is supposed to be playing the new Bruce Banner in another Hulk remake. It's probably the only thing that could make me watch the movie after the horrible Eric Bana version.
I also really like Alan Rickman. I think my favorite performance of his was in Die Hard as Hans Gruber, but he makes a fairly good Severus Snape too. And I'm thinking that I'd like to go back and rewatch Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves despite Kevin Costner so that I can see Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham again.
His portrayal of Metatron in Dogma was pretty good, and I also liked him in Perfume. At this point, I'd just really like to see him in a good villain role again.
Next up, Robert Duvall. I'm not going to list out movies for him, since he's been acting since 1960, but I really like him in everything he's been in.
Seth Green is another favorite of mine. I liked him in his short-lived TV series Greg the Bunny, which detailed the lives of a bunch of puppets in a TV kid's show who were actually alive, and struggling with real-life issues. The dog puppet was getting a divorce, and another puppet had a drug problem.
While his most popular role was probably Scott Evil in Austin Powers, I really liked him in The Italian Job and in Without a Paddle. I look forward to The Brazilian Job. Hopefully it's a worthy sequel.
Lastly, Tim Curry. The movie Legend was on TV recently, and I realized that I needed to add Tim Curry to this list. In that movie, he played the heavily-made-up devil. Likewise, he played Pennywise the clown in the television version of Stephen King's It.
He's probably best known for his role as the butler in the fantastic movie Clue and for his role in Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I've never really liked. He also had a great part in The Hunt for Red October.
Seth Green is a funny guy, but he gets old after a while. He never plays a character, he really just play himself over and over. Which I supposed is great work if you can get it.
Another actor I'd add to this list would be Bill Paxton (Aliens, True Lies, Frailty, A Simple Plan). He has such a casual way of making you believe in every character he protrays.
As for the Hulk, Ang Lee did some creative things with the direction and the smashing scenes were well done. I could have done without the gamma dogs and Nick Nolte though. I'm hoping Ed Norton can pull off Bruce Banner without looking like his eyeballs are about to explode.