Which of today's actors would you classify as brilliant?
 

Just rewatched Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote and Scent of a Woman. This guy is one of the greatest actors of our time, right there with Daniel Day Lewis.

Stephen Seagal. I now know what heaven is like after watching Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Pauly Shore

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was awesome in Almost Famous.

I thought Tom Green was brilliant in "Freddy Got Fingered"

John C. Reilly is pretty good, though he's tarnished himself some with lame comedies.

Paul Giamatti
Chris Cooper

Richard Greco

Thread Ovah!!!

Depends...

I think if you take into account decisions on what they will be in, as well as acting skill, you'd have to put Hanks at the top of the list.

But you'd also have to add Clooney, Pitt and Damon, simpy because every movie they are in (IMO) is pretty damn good. They don't simply play "themselves" in every movie, either.

AFAIC, Tom Hanks does play himself in every movie.

Johnny Depp has to make the list. And while he makes some strange choices, I've always been a big fan of Morgan Freeman. George Clooney's really solid, too.

Strange as it is to say, Will Smith is really developing into something.

That sounds about right to me. I've always thought that, if the term "overrated" fit anybody, it was him. At least as an actor. As much as I'm not a fan of seeing him, I think he's used his influence to bring some good things to the screen (big and little).

Was it in Chicago that he sang that song IIRC "Mr. Cellophane"? Guy has pipes in the 9's.

Andrew Beckett
Forrest Gump
Michael Sullivan
Chuck Noland
John H Miller...


To me these were all very divergent characters, which Hanks played completely differently. Did he still come through in all of them to an extent? Yeah, he did. But he certainly wasn't plaing himself in all those, IMO.

I guess I was thinking more in terms of Apollo 13, Cast Away, Saving Private Ryan, etc. Some of those that you listed make a decent argument the other way, though.