He’s had some great performances in my opinion. He was great in 12 Monkeys, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, True Romance, Fight Club, Snatch and Burn After Reading. He takes a lot of roles where he’s utterly unimpressive but I think every few years he finds a role that really does him well.
Actor > Movie Star
Pitt’s had some great moments, but I don’t think Brando’s too worried.
1. Floyd
2. Jeffery
3. Louis
Eh, Pitt’s fine. He lapses into histrionics when he tries to act too hard (like 12 Monkeys or Snatch or Inglorious Basterds based on the preview) but he’s a fine traditional leading man (especially now that he’s not so pretty).
Is Brad Pitt a good actor?! Have you not seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith?! Mr. Smith is so… woops, I mean, Mr. Pitt is so great in it. I totally believed he was Mr. Smith and that he was married to Mrs. Smith played by the wonderful Angelina Jolie. Terrific!
umm…hell yeah he’s a good actor…i mean, he acts like i give a crap…
An absurd and meaningless question… like asking if Jiffy-Pop is good popcorn.
“The Assassination of Jesse James” and “Babel” shows that he’s a pretty great actor when he wants to be. Can’t wait for Inglourious Basterds
He’s a movie star, he doesn’t have to be a good actor.
The only time I’ve ever been impressed with Pitt is in 12 Monkeys (and True Romance but that was such a tiny role) and that’s just because it was different from anything I’d ever seem him in before. I applaud his interest in working with interesting directors (Gilliam, Inarritu, Malick, Soderbergh, Jordan, Dominik) and he’s a step above Cruise for sure. But he’s still a movie star not a fancy thespian.
jiffy pop rules…it is both fun and tasty
He certainly doesnt take obvious roles. His films are rarely campy and Id say that he has the potential to be a master, but only time will tell. Right now he is just a money maker.
To me Brad Pitt has great potential which could be seen in “Babel”. The problem with his acting as is same with his wife Jolie, due to their over-publicized private life, is that it’s extremely hard to imagine him as anything other than Brad Pitt on the big screen. Matt Damon for example isn’t any better an actor than Pitt, but is smarter because he’s not overexposed and so is believable as an actor.
Yeah, I’d say he is. I just finished watching THE MEXICAN (in which Julia Roberts was completely miscast and annoyed the fuck outta me) and he was hysterical, like in BURN AFTER READING. I think he’s got a great future as the Robert Redford or Cary Grant of his generation. In addition to the films listed above, especially BABEL and THE ASSASSINATION…, doesn’t anyone remember either his scene stealing in THELMA & LOUISE or the part he played in A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT. Great stuff. He really a natural.
I say yay
I think Brad Pitt has become a quite good physical actor, but has significant limitations with his voice and vocal range. Up through, roughly, Meet Joe Black, I found him to be a pretty buy who looked uncomfortable when asked to stretch beyond his innate charms associated his his natural good looks and carriage. I thought he was not very successful in Twelve Monkeys, but he did take some chances that I think helped him to become more comfortable in different roles later on.
I would say the combination of The Mexican and, especially, Snatch is where he really found his comfort zone, where he stopped trying to act like his idea of what an actor is supposed to due and just accepted that people liked him on screen and that he belonged there without being Robert DeNiro or whoever his idea of a good actor is. I think the physicalness of Snatch loosened him up in some ways as well. He has a very expressive way of moving and carrying himself, it seems as if he pictures his roles through the way the characters would physically respond to the world, granted, with his looks there is a limited amount of roles he will be given to play anyway, but within that limited range of characters I think he has differentiated himself nicely. His Tyler Durden was aggressive and physically tense, a cocky sort of movement that itched for a fight, whereas his Rusty Ryan in the Ocean’s films is comfortable in his body but laid back, more reliant on the confidence that he can get things done through charm and perceptiveness. But it was Troy that really helped convince me that he was improving enormously. Watching his Achilles move and fight is the best thing about that film. He, and presumably a fight choreographer, developed a fighting style that looked both unique and effective within the bounds of the film. His Achilles moved and acted as someone almost animal like, neither brute strength or raw intelligence or skill, like is the normal case in these sorts of films, would describe him well, he managed to convey an instinctual fighter, a mythological figure without calling to mind either Hong Kong or Sylvester Stallone and his like. I was impressed.
I think his work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Mr. and Mrs Smith and Burn After Reading as been as much as anyone could ask for from those roles and shows he knows how to choose his projects wisely which is as much a key as anything to being seen as a good actor.
He can act when he’s working with the right director. He did a fine job in Seven, Troy, Ben Button, & 12 Monkeys.
He has a strong presence on screen and natural comic timing. So, yeah.
It has been downhill for Pitt since THELMA AND LOUISE, still his best performance. There’s just no excuse for his appalling work in TROY, where his big scene with Peter O’Toole is one of the most embarassing things in cinema history, or in BENJAMIN BUTTON. He is marginally better than the Reeves creature, in that Pitt can appear in a film without utterly disgracing himself.
good?no…bad?not really…forgettable..yeah,i’d go with that…
Assassination of Jesse James….perfection.
He’s a character actor who’s basically been forced into being a leading man because of his looks and status in Hollywood. He works better in small roles where he has the freedom to take risks with his performance (Burn After Reading, 12 Monkeys, Kalifornia, Fight Club etc.). He’s very dull in the leading roles although his best performance to date is probably in TAOJJBTCRF. I thought he was having a great decade and was improving greatly until last year and after seeing the Inglourious Basterds trailers it looks as if he’s digressing. Interesting actor to follow, but for someone who will never be able to drop his star persona, he needs to improve his ability.
Sadly I have yet to see The Assassination of Jesse James but regardless I think he is a very capable but sometimes misguided actor. I think if he weren’t so marketably handsome he could have a more successful career as a character actor. Instead he’s crammed into leading man roles while trying to tease out a role here or there that will give him a chance to shine.
Let’s not forget that he’s in Malick’s Tree of Life. The last few years he’s realized that he needs to take on more quality projects. I think he’s slowly but surely cementing his spot in film history with the directors he’s been choosing to work with lately.
“Jesse James” may have been a decent film, but I just have a hard time seeing Pitt as anything other than a model trying to play an outlaw. I agree with some of the above posters his most memorable roles were his smallest ones, as in “True Romance” and “Thelma and Louise.” At least there was a hint of authenticity in those roles. As far as 12 Monkeys, well, I don’t see playing a crazy person as much of a stretch in any sense of the word.
Justin – “An absurd and meaningless question… like asking if Jiffy-Pop is good popcorn” I think that’s an absurd and meaningless statement.
He’s funny as hell in “Burn After Reading”. In fact, he may have been the best part of that movie.
Is string long?
He’s not just pretty, he is a good actor. If everybody is talking about his performance in a movie with John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Richard Jenkins, it means something. Just watch his scene in the car with Malkovich.
Sorry, I can’t watch Coen brothers comedies. Gave up on them after “Intolerable Cruelty.” They’re pretentious pieces of crap, imo.
There are two Pitts…the movie star (Oceans 11, 12, 13, Mr & Mrs Smith, Meet Joe Black) and then the actor (Fight Club, 12 Monkeys, Burn After Reading).
Just like there are two Steve Martin … bland romantic leading man (LA Story, Housesitter, Father of the Bride) and then brilliant comic mind (The Jerk, The Man with Two Brains, Bowfinger)
And there are two Ben Stillers …. crowd pleasing dullard (Night at the Museum v1 & 2) and edgy comic hipster (Royal Tennenbaums, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander)
and two Nic Cages…. bland action star (National Treasure, Gone in 60 Seconds, Ghost Rider) and risk-taking actor (Peggy Sue Got Married, Moonstruck, Leaving Las Vegas, Vampire’s Kiss, Adaptation)
My friend from Belfast said Pitt’s accent in Devil’s Own was spot on.
Lester Burnham
I say he’s a pretty boy. I haven’t seen one film he’s been in to be convinced otherwise. He’s one step above Keanau Reeves, imo