Kevin's Watch

I have a few that come to mind right away. See if you agree:

F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus: I still think it is the best single performance on film ever. He does it all in this. The range is incredible and all the time he is a real character, not a cut-out of some notion of a character. There is one scene in particular that captures the magic of his acting in this: the part where Motzart's wife visits Salieri in secret to show him her husband's work and flashes back to the older Salieri telling the story.... remember that one. Amazing.

Jessica Lang - Rob Roy: few female roles have affected me as much as this powerful and (again) real portrayal of this strong woman. Fantastic acting.

Gotta give it up for Ed Harris in The Abyss and The Right Stuff.

Adam Baldwin in My Bodyguard. An underrated actor who unfortunately has taken too many crap roles.

Peter Weller in Buckaroo Banzai. Plays it absolutely straight in one of the most bizarre films ever made.

Val Kilmer in Tombstone. Highway robbery he didn't win Best Supporting Actor for this fine performance.

Max Von Sydow in Needful Things

(thanx for reminding me with Ed Harris, Cail. He doesn't qualify in that movie tho, anyone can play a small town sheriff fighting Satan, heh )

Cail wrote:Gotta give it up for Ed Harris in The Abyss and The Right Stuff.

Adam Baldwin in My Bodyguard. An underrated actor who unfortunately has taken too many crap roles.

Peter Weller in Buckaroo Banzai. Plays it absolutely straight in one of the most bizarre films ever made.

Val Kilmer in Tombstone. Highway robbery he didn't win Best Supporting Actor for this fine performance.

I though Ed Harris was terrific in Apollo 13. IMHO.

I forgot Apollo 13. Harris was excellent in that.

Ed Harris was very good in Apollo 13, in a supporting role. (And while we're at it, check out his sinister part in A History of Violence.) For the main lead, I vote The Abyss. I think Harris is one of those actors who is incapable of a bad performance (and if he has sucked in some movie, I don't know about it.)

The Esmer mentioned Max von Sydow. To me and to many others, he'll always be best remembered as the soul-searching knight from The Seventh Seal. His game of chess versus the Grim Reaper has to be one of the most imitated and parodied filmic images.

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens. (And Lance Henriksen in a supporting role.)

Tilda Swinton in Orlando. I think I was one of maybe just 10 other people in the theatre when I saw it back in '92, but I was glad I went. Her performance has stuck in my mind. She takes on different characters from different eras of history throughout the course of the film. It's a fun and challenging exercise that few actresses or actors have the chance to tackle - in a single movie - and Swinton did it well.

Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Jack IS Jack Torrance. He owns the role. (And Shelley Duvall IS Wendy Torrance, for that matter, heh.)

Lance Henriksen's best work was in Millennium, but there again, I think he's a tremendously talented actor who for some reason continues to make horrible movies.

William Hurt in Body Heat. Great retelling of a great story, and Hurt absolutely nails the part.

Matrixman wrote:Ed Harris was very good in Apollo 13, in a supporting role. (And while we're at it, check out his sinister part in A History of Violence.) For the main lead, I vote The Abyss. I think Harris is one of those actors who is incapable of a bad performance (and if he has sucked in some movie, I don't know about it.)

two of my favorite Harris roles...The Hours and Sweet Dreams

Matrixman wrote:The Esmer mentioned Max von Sydow. To me and to many others, he'll always be best remembered as the soul-searching knight from The Seventh Seal. His game of chess versus the Grim Reaper has to be one of the most imitated and parodied filmic images.

i always remember him as Jesus.

Matrixman wrote:Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Jack IS Jack Torrance. He owns the role. (And Shelley Duvall IS Wendy Torrance, for that matter, heh.)

no they're not. i disagree. the characters Nicholson and Duvall created were ok...but they were not the characters King wrote. especially that whining, simpering WENDY. blech.

I agree about The Shining. A good movie, but nothing like the book.

I have no opinion about the book, as I've never read it. I appreciate The Shining simply as a Kubrick movie. When I say Nicholson is Jack Torrance, I mean that I can't imagine any other actor doing that role now. Which is one reason among others why I ignored the later TV miniseries with the generic actor.

it was a book before it was a movie.

My favortive Jack role will always be McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--sorry, but nothing will ever top that for me.

I always think of Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets.....

Christopher Lee as Dracula (and Saruman the White )

danlo wrote:Christopher Lee as Dracula (and Saruman the White )

yeah, good one danlo.


bogart as sam spade and mitchum as phillip marlowe.

Russell Crowe: LA Confidential. first movie I saw him in. he was a force of nature.

Adam Sandler: Punch Drunk Love. a role about supression, done perfectly. Adam running away stays with me.

Kate Winslet: Eternal Sunshine. she was beautiful, someone i could imagine loving and mourning for. she had depth, the scene on the ice...

For all the cycle riders out there: Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront (no scooters, it's just one of the best films ever made...) and The Wild One. Mickey Rourke in Rumblefish and Wild Orchid. Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider

Am I going to sound cheesy if I say Ian Macellan as Gandalf?

not in the least, drew. i agree. at first i wanted to see ian and richard harris trade places. wanted ian for dumbledore and richard harris for gandalf, but after having seen both of them in the roles, i think mckellan was perfect as gandalf!

Luci, what are your avatars from? They look so familiar, but I can't place them.