Movies Modern actors don't know how to act, they are actors playing actors not characters

[PBAC]

You pulled that one out of your ass dude. She shows way more emotion than robot Arnold.

I wasn't talking bout Anold.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

“No actual preforming character since Nicholson in one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”

First off that is a terrible sentence. It’s hard to know wtf you even mean so it’s hard to really argue against, but you seem to be saying there have been no good performances since young Nicholson. Even Nicholson himself had a lot of great roles since then.

You’re saying Walter White and Tony Soprano weren’t “characters”? Omar from The Wire?

 

[Plissken]

Lack of personality, charisma, and life experience lead to a lot of this. With Oppenheimer you're referencing characters that are supposed to be physicists and others that are probably socially retarded in the first place so them being a bit stilted should be normal as they may have a bit of the 'tism, but outside of such an example there's definitely a problem both with how films are made and the actors themselves. When you think about the great actors that came before many had pretty full lives, many before becoming actors. Charles Bronson worked in a coal mine as a child, lived through The Great Depression, and fought in WW2; Lance Henricksen didn't become an actor until his 30's; Charles S. Dutton served a prison sentence then reformed himself and then became an actor, etc. Though that's not really an excuse when child actors like Ron Howard, Jody Foster, Kurt Russell, Jason Bateman, and Corey Feldman all did great as kids and teens (and the former four as adults, though Russell got to live life outside of acting for a while).

Films right now are by and large a paint by numbers product made from the corporate level down to be just another product to keep people on a streaming platform or to waste money on product loyalty. The corporate types have no idea how to make a good movie and the people that should be on the creative end (writers, directors, cinematographers, scorers) are just there to pump out the product to specification. I mean it's so bad now. You can look at a lot of sequels from yesteryear (especially the slasher films) and yeah they were there to just take advantage of the series' name and they weren't great compared to the films that created the series', but they had personality and were fun to watch. Now you watch the tenth Conjuring or Insidious spinoff and it feels like you've watched the same movie by the same director with the same actors, jumpscares, shots, and music before. People quite literally cannot even remember shit about them later the same night after watching the films.
All the "woke" aspects that people complain about is just another part of the paint by numbers product aspect of production, you have to have this and that and the other thing in every movie so they all feel the same everything feels forcefully inserted and not naturally developed. There's no imagination, no creativity, no way for a movie and its' characters to develop naturally.
I think a big problem with streaming helping to make sure there's more product than ever is that all the actors that would have never made (or at least made it outside of d-level work) it now have jobs.

 

[Pliny Pete]

I blame Keanu Reeves

 

[HenryFlower]

 

[Other]

I agree
I've moved on to B movies on Tubi and Pluto, it's freeing. I don't have to be up to date on all the crap that's being pumped out. AND it's afforded me the opportunity to find some real gems. Like this one...

 

[Jack Reacheround]

How dare you refer to Die Hard with a Vengeance as a B movie. That shit is A tier.

But most actors are just playing themselves the whole time. They’re acting. It’s just that they’re acting like they are in whatever situation their character is in.

Basically, there are three types of acting - terrible acting, great acting, and everything in between.

 

[GSP_37]

I have a greater appreciation for actresses who can deliver lines while buck naked in good lighting like Matilda De Angelis in the MAX drama with Nicole Kidman where she's in the locker room buck naked conversing with Nicole who's fully clothed.

 

[some random guy]

Compare the reaction to the first intro to the Predator to Prey. A hardened veteran displays more fear after glimpsing the Predator than some random native American chick does seeing the fully exposed Predator body slamming a bear.

It's because people were far tougher back in the 1700s and true warriors, not like the youngins of the 1980s.

 

[gspieler]

It's mostly the movies themselves that are mediocre, IMO. Formulaic and sometimes lazy writing, questionable casting decisions, too many franchises/reboots, over reliance on CGI, fear of being non-PC, etc. Plenty of great actors still exist.

 

[shockaholic12]

Plenty of modern actors know how to act. Your nitpicking, especially with the Oscar bait movies.

But I will agree, too many movies the actors are too clean, hair and makeup too well done. Not every movie, but more than should be.

Too many actors today have fake perfect teeth. It’s become rare to see a normal mouth. It’s become a thing in casting because it’s impacting who can be cast in period pieces.

 

[shockaholic12]

Compare the reaction to the first intro to the Predator to Prey. A hardened veteran displays more fear after glimpsing the Predator than some random native American chick does seeing the fully exposed Predator body slamming a bear.

Which scene in Prey is she cracking jokes about it being an ugly motherfucker as it’s inches away from eating her face?

 

[moreorless87]

How dare you refer to Die Hard with a Vengeance as a B movie. That shit is A tier.

But most actors are just playing themselves the whole time. They’re acting. It’s just that they’re acting like they are in whatever situation their character is in.

Basically, there are three types of acting - terrible acting, great acting, and everything in between.

...and I don't think theres anything inherently wrong with that. Someone like Jack I think played a similar persona in most of his roles but he obviously had very strong dramatic range doing it and the ability to deliver everything from very subtle to very larger than life performances.

I do tend to have more of a problem with "Oscar Acting" as pointed out in the OP, I think that's really a style which emerged at some point during the 80's/90's but I think often ends up as just being over the top self importance that's actually lacking in charisma. Not that it makes up all of the kinds of roles/films which get awards but I think it does often end up as the "base style".

The word "Pretentious" gets thrown around at anything with ambition but I would argue its often most true of Oscar bait, films which look to call attention to their own self importance(often dramatizing an important historical event or characters to do so) but are ultimately quite shallow shmaltzy film making with very little to say and not much in the way of interesting style either.

You look beyond that though and there is obviously a lot of very good acting in the modern arthouse scene.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

...and I don't think theres anything inherently wrong with that. Someone like Jack I think played a similar persona in most of his roles but he obviously had very strong dramatic range doing it and the ability to deliver everything from very subtle to very larger than life performances.

I do tend to have more of a problem with "Oscar Acting" as pointed out in the OP, I think that's really a style which emerged at some point during the 80's/90's but I think often ends up as just being over the top self importance that's actually lacking in charisma. Not that it makes up all of the kinds of roles/films which get awards but I think it does often end up as the "base style".

The word "Pretentious" gets thrown around at anything with ambition but I would argue its often most true of Oscar bait, films which look to call attention to their own self importance(often dramatizing an important historical event or characters to do so) but are ultimately quite shallow shmaltzy film making with very little to say and not much in the way of interesting style either.

You look beyond that though and there is obviously a lot of very good acting in the modern arthouse scene.

I don’t disagree with this. But it was just an observation of mine that most “great actors” are not so much playing characters but are characters themselves.

Except for DDL. He plays characters for sure.

 

[THEfightsAREfixed]

it has so much to do with whether or not they have natural teeth now that I have been exposed to this concept I cant help but iterate it again ITT

 

[jimbob27]

I don’t disagree with this. But it was just an observation of mine that most “great actors” are not so much playing characters but are characters themselves.

Except for DDL. He plays characters for sure.

You know whose films you need to watch more of?

 

[PBAC]

You show oppenheimer which by all accounts was a great movie and performances by all around then say there hasnt been good acting since the 70's. Then you call Die hard 3 a B-movie. Your opinion is lousy and you should feel shame for making this thread. Go look at DiCaprio in anything hes done the last 15 years, dude can act as good or better than almost anyone.

If you made a more grounded argument that CGI has ruined the response a real human would have, I would agree with you. There are plenty of well acted movies coming out all the time, they just arent blockbusters anymore.

can't tell if it's cgi. If I thought so I'd have referenced the Phantom Menace etc. I think it is a combination with over saturation bleeding with perfectionism. I guess sort of like how when people can't just spontaneously take a photo they have to brush their hair and look their best. The girl in Prey being hunted by the a bear and a predator looks like she's posing for an Instagram post. I think acting has just come full circle from the hammy acting of the 1950s-70s. Only now they don't seem to be aware that it's hammy.

 

[roman510]

Hell no.

There is plenty of great acting and talented actors. Oppenheimer is not a good example because portraying a bunch of introverted scientists is not challenging for good actors.

Go watch Godzilla minus one if you wanna see some terrible, terrible acting and be happy of what you have.

 

[Slobodan]

@lsa told me he disagrees, he cites Timothy Chalamet as an example of a good actor.

You know whose films you need to watch more of?

Oh man I will always get behind this. Nic Cage is the best.

 

[PBAC]

Which scene in Prey is she cracking jokes about it being an ugly motherfucker as it’s inches away from eating her face?

that scene was a tension breaker