I think the most obvious actor I can think of would be Hugh Grant. Such a foppish guy doing foppish performances. Then About a Boy made me realise he could do other stuff. It wasn't the greatest performance in the world but he was likable. Now more recently he's unveiled he's actually an incredibly good actor with amazing performances in A Very English Scandal and The Gentlemen. Interestingly he said in an interview not long ago that he put on that foppish voice in interviews when he was younger because he thought people liked it. But that's not how he actually talks. And he hates himself for doing it.

On the Ruffalo front I recommend you check out miniseries I Know This Much is True for an amazing Rufformance. And a pretty awesome show. He plays twins, one of whom is schizophrenic. It's only six episodes so no long term commitment. Best I've ever seen him. It's directed by Derek Cianfrance, the dude who did Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines.

@JustinJackFlash said:

I think the most obvious actor I can think of would be Hugh Grant. Such a foppish guy doing foppish performances. Then About a Boy made me realise he could do other stuff. It wasn't the greatest performance in the world but he was likable. Now more recently he's unveiled he's actually an incredibly good actor with amazing performances in A Very English Scandal and The Gentlemen. Interestingly he said in an interview not long ago that he put on that foppish voice in interviews when he was younger because he thought people liked it. But that's not how he actually talks. And he hates himself for doing it.

On the Ruffalo front I recommend you check out miniseries I Know This Much is True for an amazing Rufformance. And a pretty awesome show. He plays twins, one of whom is schizophrenic. It's only six episodes so no long term commitment. Best I've ever seen him. It's directed by Derek Cianfrance, the dude who did Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines.

Thanks mate, haven't seen any of those...but I will! I've also added a couple of them to my list :-)

Cool concept for a list! I'll be checking out the Jesse Eisenberg entry.

Another great one for Mark Ruffalo is Sympathy for Delicious which he directed and acted as a priest who becomes conflicted when an angry, faithless man develops miraculous powers.

I don't outright hate too many actors but I absolutely despised Adam Sandler until I saw Punch Drunk Love. I hear he's really good in Uncut Gems too.

Now if someone can just name a Nicolas Cage role that doesn't suck.....

First off, love your handle - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one of my all-time faves!

Ooh, Adam Sandler. That's a challenge for me, I can't stand him.

Nicolas Cage...I haven't sorted through what makes people not like him, but I think he did good work in Face/Off as well as The Family Man. I also enjoyed him in The Rock and Con Air. And, I suspect 8mm was engaging although I haven't brought myself to watch it (yet). Nor have I gotten to Bringing Out the Dead yet.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

First off, love your handle - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one of my all-time faves!

OooooooooooklahomaOklahomaOklahomaOklahoma!!

Ooh, Adam Sandler. That's a challenge for me, I can't stand him.

Definitely give Punch Drunk Love a whirl, I think that was when he grew up and got away from those irritating babytalk roles.

Nicolas Cage...I haven't sorted through what makes people not like him, but I think he did good work in Face/Off as well as The Family Man. I also enjoyed him in The Rock and Con Air. And, I suspect 8mm was engaging although I haven't brought myself to watch it (yet). Nor have I gotten to Bringing Out the Dead yet.

Yea in all fairness, I've never seen him act bad. I think it's just that he takes so many roles in bad movies, and he always plays the same character. But I did enjoy The Rock & Con Air.

@rooprect said:

Now if someone can just name a Nicolas Cage role that doesn't suck.....

As I was a huge Cage fan in my teens I am pretty familiar with his work. At least until he started his shitty, accept any script phase. I can see why someone would find him not to their taste. But if you haven't seen it his best performance has to be Leaving Las Vegas when he won the old Oscar. Definitely deserved and he's not doing his usual over the top thing.

But also I'd say Raising Arizona and Adaptation are worthy contenders for the 'not sucking' segment of the Cage portfolio. More recently he's having a kind of mild comeback and of his recent stuff, Mandy is an outstanding film. It is Cage doing his usual thing but the film is really suited to that. He's well cast in it. It's kind of like David Lynch crossed with an 80s metal album cover. Mental film. A very acquired taste admittedly.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@rooprect said:

Now if someone can just name a Nicolas Cage role that doesn't suck.....

As I was a huge Cage fan in my teens I am pretty familiar with his work. At least until he started his shitty, accept any script phase. I can see why someone would find him not to their taste. But if you haven't seen it his best performance has to be Leaving Las Vegas when he won the old Oscar. Definitely deserved and he's not doing his usual over the top thing.

But also I'd say Raising Arizona and Adaptation are worthy contenders for the 'not sucking' segment of the Cage portfolio. More recently he's having a kind of mild comeback and of his recent stuff, Mandy is an outstanding film. It is Cage doing his usual thing but the film is really suited to that. He's well cast in it. It's kind of like David Lynch crossed with an 80s metal album cover. Mental film. A very acquired taste admittedly.

You just named the 3 Cage flicks I loved (and blocked out of my memory til now). Yup, he was amazing in Leaving Las Vegas and totally deserved that Oscar. No hammy theatrics, as I recall he played the whole movie pretty lowkey which is what made it so powerful.

One thing's for sure though, he's fully aware of his stereotype and seems to have a great sense of humor about it. This SNL skit kills me... SNL: Nicolas Cage & Nicolas Cage

@rooprect said:

You just named the 3 Cage flicks I loved (and blocked out of my memory til now). Yup, he was amazing in Leaving Las Vegas and totally deserved that Oscar. No hammy theatrics, as I recall he played the whole movie pretty lowkey which is what made it so powerful.

One thing's for sure though, he's fully aware of his stereotype and seems to have a great sense of humor about it. This SNL skit kills me... SNL: Nicolas Cage & Nicolas Cage

"Although until now I've only managed to muster a measly 90%", lol. Interestingly, I found this video a while back arguing that Cage is the only actor today who actually pushes the craft forward. It brings to light some of the guy's very unique influences from German Expressionism to a Japanese performance art called Kabuki.

It also reminded me of another awesome Cage film that few seem aware of. Very early in his career he did an Alan Parker film called Birdy about shell shock.

One thing I will say about actors who "accept any script" (Bruce Willis may be the patron saint, as has been discussed elsewhere on TMDb!), is that it's not easy being an actor; for each big hit, they've got to slog through a lot of crap to keep the bills paid. (I know, cry me a river, right? But, seriously).

Actors, especially A-listers, never know if or when they'll get that next project, and whether that next project will be a hit or miss. Staying good means staying busy, so that really does mean taking what you can get. I mean, how many people actually recognized that Samuel L. Jackson had a role in Kill Bill? Why would an actor of his repute even bother with such a role?

They also never know when their time in the limelight will end. They've got a finite window of sunshine in which they must make as much hay as they can.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

One thing I will say about actors who "accept any script" (Bruce Willis may be the patron saint, as has been discussed elsewhere on TMDb!), is that it's not easy being an actor; for each big hit, they've got to slog through a lot of crap to keep the bills paid. (I know, cry me a river, right? But, seriously).

Actors, especially A-listers, never know if or when they'll get that next project, and whether that next project will be a hit or miss. Staying good means staying busy, so that really does mean taking what you can get. I mean, how many people actually recognized that Samuel L. Jackson had a role in Kill Bill? Why would an actor of his repute even bother with such a role?

They also never know when their time in the limelight will end. They've got a finite window of sunshine in which they must make as much hay as they can.

Jackson would have appeared in Kill Bill because he is close buddies with Tarantino. I'd be surprised if he even got paid for it. Who was he in it again?

Thing is taking any script like that tarnishes your reputation so you don't get offered the great roles with the big pay days so much.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

One thing I will say about actors who "accept any script" (Bruce Willis may be the patron saint, as has been discussed elsewhere on TMDb!), is that it's not easy being an actor; for each big hit, they've got to slog through a lot of crap to keep the bills paid. (I know, cry me a river, right? But, seriously).

Actors, especially A-listers, never know if or when they'll get that next project, and whether that next project will be a hit or miss. Staying good means staying busy, so that really does mean taking what you can get. I mean, how many people actually recognized that Samuel L. Jackson had a role in Kill Bill? Why would an actor of his repute even bother with such a role?

They also never know when their time in the limelight will end. They've got a finite window of sunshine in which they must make as much hay as they can.

Jackson would have appeared in Kill Bill because he is close buddies with Tarantino. I'd be surprised if he even got paid for it. Who was he in it again?

He was the musician in the church (!)

Thing is taking any script like that tarnishes your reputation so you don't get offered the great roles with the big pay days so much.

But many of them do it. I wonder how much it does tarnish their reputation. I mean, I've heard a lot of people criticize Robert De Niro for some of the sillier roles he's taken (I never even bothered to watch Dirty Grandpa, for example). But, would that stop anyone from tuning in next time he's headlining?

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

One thing I will say about actors who "accept any script" (Bruce Willis may be the patron saint, as has been discussed elsewhere on TMDb!), is that it's not easy being an actor; for each big hit, they've got to slog through a lot of crap to keep the bills paid. (I know, cry me a river, right? But, seriously).

Actors, especially A-listers, never know if or when they'll get that next project, and whether that next project will be a hit or miss. Staying good means staying busy, so that really does mean taking what you can get. I mean, how many people actually recognized that Samuel L. Jackson had a role in Kill Bill? Why would an actor of his repute even bother with such a role?

They also never know when their time in the limelight will end. They've got a finite window of sunshine in which they must make as much hay as they can.

Jackson would have appeared in Kill Bill because he is close buddies with Tarantino. I'd be surprised if he even got paid for it. Who was he in it again?

He was the musician in the church (!)

Thing is taking any script like that tarnishes your reputation so you don't get offered the great roles with the big pay days so much.

But many of them do it. I wonder how much it does tarnish their reputation. I mean, I've heard a lot of people criticize Robert De Niro for some of the sillier roles he's taken (I never even bothered to watch Dirty Grandpa, for example). But, would that stop anyone from tuning in next time he's headlining?

I think it's more of a hit to their industry cred, meaning they'll get passed over for bigger opportunities if they get associated with cheese. I recently read an interview with Neill Blomkamp (writer/director of District 9) who said he was slated to direct the next Alien film. Then he directed Chappie :/ Based on that disaster they dumped him from the Alien project.

If it happens with directors I'm sure it's even more of a risk for actors because of the buzz a bad role generates. I can't be sure but I get the feeling that most Oscar winning actors try to avoid weak roles as much as possible, without going more than a year or 2 between films because that can be a death knell too.

For some reason this reminds me of the scene in Leaving Las Vegas when he's having dinner with a couple of B-movie actresses and one of them says something like "We're working on a serious film. They let us use real guns." lol

@DRDMovieMusings said:

He was the musician in the church (!)

Of course, I remember now.

But many of them do it. I wonder how much it does tarnish their reputation. I mean, I've heard a lot of people criticize Robert De Niro for some of the sillier roles he's taken (I never even bothered to watch Dirty Grandpa, for example). But, would that stop anyone from tuning in next time he's headlining?

Yeah, they do seem to get away with it a lot more these days than they used to. But I think if you really are very well established like De Niro and Pacino you can get away with it. They're seen as the greatest actors ever and that label isn't going away no matter what they do. But Willis does very little in the way of proper cinematic releases these days. He did the Death Wish remake but I imagine that wasn't his ideal choice. He did Glass, Red 2, and A Good Day to Die Hard but they were reprisals of earlier roles that needed specifically him. I can't remember if he was in Sin City 2 much. And apart from Glass they were all quite a while ago.

Cage on the other hand does take roles occasionally since his bargain bin phase began that do prove he hasn't been forgotten by Hollywood or the respectable indie side of things. Bad as they were, the Ghost Rider films were big budget superhero films that he headlined while Drive Angry also played in cinemas. And he rocked in Kick Ass. Werner Herzog still cast him in his crazy version of Bad Lieutenant, while there's also Color out of Space, Joe, Mandy and more recently Pig. It seems no matter what he does people still seem to like him. He's not doing huge crowdpleasers like The Rock or Face/Off any more but his career does seem unkillable.

John Travolta never pokes his head above the cinemtatic gutter but Samuel L Jackson will seesaw between bottom shelf nonsense and Avengers films. Back in the 90s if you were straight to video you were straight to video. That was it. But now it's more random, there's more leeway. It does seem quite different today.