We are moving away from rants for a little bit to post our personal list of favorite [insert topic here]. This week I'm going to list my top ten modern actors. Of course, this is all opinionated and feel free to leave comments and critique. The requirements for this list will be: 1) Had to have made at least three movies in the 1990s or 2000s with some box office success. 2) Must be younger than 50 years old. This list will be going bottom to top, so without further ado, here's number 10.
Number Ten: Shia LaBeouf
Best Movies: Transformers, Disturbia, Eagle Eye
I really wasn't sold on Shia LaBeouf, but Xyle swore to me he was a pretty good actor. After seeing Eagle Eye, I'm pretty convinced he deserves a spot on this list. You might know him from Even Stevens, but I personally remember him from the movie Holes, a good movie based on probably one of the first books I didn't absolutely hate. He's actually pretty good, and if you don't believe me, watch Eagle Eye. It has the Remy Seal of Approval, after all.
Number Nine: Tobey Maguire
Best Movies: The Spiderman Series, Seabiscuit
Wow. That was the first thought I had when watching the first Spider-Man movie. Not only did it have Willem DaFoe (an actor much too old to be on this list, but he kicked ass in Platoon and The Boondock Saints), it had a young actor who was probably unknown to many at the time by the name of Tobey Maguire. He probably wasn't the best actor for the role of Peter Parker, but he played the role well. Unfortunately for him, he will probably be typecasted for the rest of his life. Tobey deserves a spot on this list because Spider-Man was one of the few super hero movies to not suck this decade. And come on ladies, tell me you didn't think that upside-down kiss wasn't the hottest thing you had ever seen.
Number Eight: Johnny Depp
Best Movies: The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd
Johnny Depp would have been higher on the list if Tim Burton fangirls weren't all over his nuts like a mother on menopause who can't get her chocolate fix. In great truth, Depp is a good actor. But ask anyone, and his role as Captain Jack Sparrow was just him being Keith Richards without the drugs, and his role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory paled in comparison to the original done by Gene Wilder. Regardless, if anyone had a knack for playing any role created in the creepy mind of Tim Burton, it would be Depp. And that right there deserves props.
Number Seven: Mark Wahlberg
Best Movies: Invincible, The Departed, Shooter
Mark Wahlberg started his career as the rapper and namesake of the group "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch". I hated the Funky Bunch and Marky Mark as a musician, but when he moved onto acting, I began to respect the guy. Wahlberg is pretty versatile, even if Invincible didn't quite live up to the hype. Still, The Departed was a GREAT movie and I loved Shooter. Even the Max Payne movie about to come up looks pretty good. I expect more great things from Wahlberg in the future.
Number Six: Sean Penn
Best Movies: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown, I Am Sam
Sean Penn is another good actor, but he's not top five worthy. I like a lot of his movies, and he certainly deserves to be on this list. I just don't know, a lot of his movies are either really good, or just really bad. The ones I mentioned, especially Fast Times, are classics that I will make my kids watch. Because Lord knows, the stuff in the theater and on television nowadays just suck.
Number Five: Jack Black
Best Movies: Saving Silverman, School of Rock, Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny
Jack Black is my favorite fat actor. All of his movies I mentioned are great comedies and certainly deserve a place in anyone's collection. School of Rock opened up many kids to the sounds of classic rock, while Saving Silverman proved that sometimes when your friend is with a bitch, it takes a bit of sweet revenge to get him back on the right track. Not only can Jack Black be crude and funny for us teenagers and adults, he can also be good with children, one of the rare people I have seen to pull it off. Hats off to J.B. for kicking ass.
Number Four: Ben Stiller
Best Movies: A Night at the Museum, There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, The Royal Tenenbaums
Ben Stiller is named by Maddox as one of the most funniest guys ever. And it's true, he has a pretty good track record of being in comedies. Stiller has always been a favorite of everyone who watches movies, even my grandmother likes him. There's Something About Mary always stuck in my mind as a kid, mainly because of the infamous "hair gel" scene. The "Meet The..." trilogy was also pretty good, too. Even if it did spawn a whole bunch of stupid parody movies. But if Ben Stiller is such a good actor, who could possibly top him? Well, onto number three.
Number Three: Luke Wilson
Best Movies: Bottle Rocket, Bongwater, The Royal Tenenbaums, Old School, My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Luke Wilson is my favorite member of the Frat Pack. Not only is he just as funny as Ben Stiller, he has the look of someone who just wants to kick your ass. While most of the actors on this list do comedy films, I have never laughed harder than any of the films I've seen him play in. Old School is my all-time favorite college movie ever, and Wilson fit the part of the lead character perfectly. Also, you might remember him playing the role of Casey Kelso on That '70s Show, arguably my favorite television show of all-time (Along with House, M.D. and Dirty Sexy Money). This concludes the comedic actors, as the top two actors are certainly deserving of their spots.
Number Two: Nicolas Cage
Best Movies: Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, City of Angels, Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Family Man, Honeymoon in Vegas, National Treasure 1+2, Ghost Rider
Nicolas Cage is number two on this list. He beat out all the actors except for the top one, which might seem a little controversial when you read who it is. Cage has quite the resume, not only did he star in great movies, as you can see, every movie he has starred in has been different. Although he mainly does action movies, he did do some drama (City of Angels, Leaving Las Vegas), and some comedies (The Family Man, Honeymoon in Vegas), along the rest of his action type movies. Like Tobey Maguire, he too has starred in a pretty good superhero movie (Ghost Rider, don't listen to Rotten Tomatoes, whose highest ranked movie is Toy Story 2), but unlike Maguire, he will never be typecasted. Nicolas Cage, in my opinion, could have been the best actor of this generation, had it not been for...
Number One: Tom Cruise
Best Movies: Risky Business, Top Gun, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, The Mission Impossible series, Jerry Maguire, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds
Tom Cruise is the number one actor on this list. He's also the second oldest, after Johnny Depp. But why is Tom Cruise number one? The man can do it all, comedy, drama, action, sci-fi, you name it, he can PERFECT it. His religion aside, Tom Cruise is, as stated by Economist Edward Jay Epstein, "Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar movie franchise. Cruise is also one of the few actors on this list to make a splash impact in THREE decades ('80s, '90s, and '00s). He has quite the resume, and the acting skills to back it up. Whether he will be reknowned as famous or reviled in infamy, no one has had such an effect on modern movies as Cruise has. Period.
That's all for the top ten actors, but I'll list the few who just barely missed it:
Topher Grace
Will Ferrell
John Travolta (Too old, by four years)
Adam Sandler
Steve Carell
Owen Wilson
Vince Vaughn
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment