homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Jennifer Lawrence is an awful actress! (contains SPOILERS)

Is Nicholas Cage a good actor or a bad actor?

I've seen him turn in bad performances, and on the other hand, I liked him in Raising Arizona (by the Coen Brothers), and I thought he was excellent in Adaptation- particularly because he plays two roles, twin brothers. The characters look exactly the same, but have two different personalities. They both are probably considered unattractive physically, they have the exact same appearance, but one brother is too dense to realize it and hasn't the same problems with dating and self confidence in his appearance, the other is neurotic and completely self defeating and self conscious. The characters in that film were bizarre and quirky, and I liked the whole picture overall by Spike Jonze, who has a good handle on psychology.

Nic just shouldn't be an action movie star. He's a good actor for comedy or drama. Don't know how or why he got dropped into action movies.
A lot of good stuff from back in the day. Wild At Heart was a perfect Nic Cage role.

Some contemporaries have really stood out. Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey

Disagree on your point about the action films. I thought Cage was very good in several action films like "The Rock", "National Treasure" and "Con Air". What screwed him up was owing Uncle Sam several million dollars in back taxes which forced him to take any and every acting offer available which invariably included many crappy projects.

Lately it seems Nic (and Liam Neeson) been typecasts in the same roles.

The big success of "Taken" literally changed Neeson's career for better or worse depending on what you are looking at.

Didn't like any of those, but at least they were better than Face Off. Loved Gone in 60 Seconds, but due to the humor and car porn.
Travolta is another that's gone screwey. Pulp Fiction was great, but he just doesn't play the bad guy well. Like Battlefield Earth kind of bad. In Face Off, he was ok until he played the bad guy side. LOL
I can watch Swordfish just about any time, but he wasn't believable in there either. He's always the same smug bad guy, I don't get it.

How about The Taking of Pelham 123? I wasn't impressed with his character, because he just showed up in his bad guy suit. In Pulp Fiction you got to see him doing other things besides killing people, and a lot of us could identify with at least some of what he went through. He was a kind of likable F-up. But in Pelham he might as well have been introduced as the mustache-twirling bad guy in the act of tying the young woman to the train tracks. Who cares about that guy?

Re Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, I thought she played the role well enough, but again there really wasn't any character development. She ended the movie the same way as she started, a teenage hillbilly responsible for her younger siblings. Minus some teeth and her father, yeah, but neither of those seemed to affect her very much. When all was said & done she went back to their home and continued doing the same things she always had. I don't think you can make a movie based just on a character's strife, there has to be some kind of growing or coming of age involved.

Angelina Jolie was a nice touch too....

Most actors have done something good enough to keep them around. If it's not their looks, it has to be their talent. Of course, there are also the talented actors who have trouble getting work due to their relationship with others on the set/off set poisoning their careers.

You'd think if you had a job that consisted of pretending to be someone else in front of a camera for a couple of months and in return you get paid millions of dollars that you'd be happy, humble, and thank every day for it and do nothing to screw it up. Instead, some seem to fall into the "if I get paid that much I must be a better/more important person" and blow it for no reason.



The Jedi Master

To clarify, I worded that poorly. He was awesome in Pulp Fiction, kind of the exception to the rule. I guess that's why he kept on with the bad guy role. In Pulp, although he was a druggie, enforcer guy, he had a redeeming side within his own world. Like NH2112 said, that character was properly developed as a likable criminal.
Unless you're Marvin, I doubt he likes him much.

She was a little scuzzy, but not bad as a blonde. They had to add a hottie to a movie like that to make it a proper guy movie. Although they did have Eleanor, and the silly silhouette scene, it was good to throw in the love interest.
But the least threatening bad guy ever: The Carpenter. LOL

Absolutely and you just inspired me with an idea for a new thread.

It doesn't take much, does it PM? LOL

Then you have Clint Eastwood as the exception to the rule. One of the most famous and successful actors/directors of all time, and an absolutely down to earth likable guy according to what I've read & heard. Crews love working for him because he looks out for them. There's an anecdote I read about a film in whic he starred that was shooting near or on the top of a skyscraper. When the scene was wrapped, he said. "Nobody goes down without taking some equipment." Some of the other stars may not have been very enthused, but the crew appreciated it.

I think another reason his career changed so much was because he threw himself into as many roles as he could to keep his mind off the recent death of his wife, Miranda Richardson.

Now if I could only understand why Samuel L Jackson is in almost every recent movie made.


...as far a Jennifer Lawrence? I liked her in Silver Linings Playbook. Was it OSCAR worthy? I didn't think so, but it was a good job. I haven't seen much else of her other than X-Men. Wasn't impressed, but I don't go to see that kind of movie to be impressed by someone's acting. I go for the adventure.

I think Nicholas Cage has almost tied him...

Late last year Jennifer Lawrence was a guest on Colbert, and I was pleasantly surprised at how funny, entertaining and likable she was.

"You took my son/daughter. Sometime soon, I will come and I will find you."

No kidding. What are they on the third Taken movie now? And not to mention the same role in other movies not in the Taken franchise. He even does TV commercials which self parodies the turn his career has made, at least he's cognizant of it.

And laughing all the way to the bank...