Favorite Actor Square Offs

rlm7189 said:
You kidding me? I always wondered about that scene. For one, they were never captured in the same shot. And it always felt a little artificial. I even remember saying to my brother that I wouldn't be surprised if they filmed each actor separately. Well, I'll be damned.....
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well according to SuperTrooper's picture they did shoot it at the same time... the editing really does throw you off though.
 
ravinesedge said:
well according to SuperTrooper's picture they did shoot it at the same time... the editing really does throw you off though.
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This from IMDb:

"Many viewers claim that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino never (or hardly ever) actually share screen time during the film, despite the hype surrounding the films release as showcasing their first screen appearance. In most Pan and Scan versions of the film, and TV broadcasts, it does appear that during the "diner scene" the two never actually share the screen, but viewing the film in correct letterbox format, as the director intended, clearly shows the two actors sitting at the table, though only in wide shots."
 
I came up with a couple of others:

Brad Pitt & Morgan Freeman & Kevin Spacey in Se7en
Morgan Freeman & Tim Robbins in Shawhank Redemption
Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets
Kevin Costner & James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams *Go back to the sixties!*
Emilio Estevez & Charlie Sheen in Young Guns (high point of their careers)
Harrison Ford & James Cromwell in Clear & Present Danger
Jodie Foster & Kelli McGillis *what happened to her?* in The Accused
Jodie Foster & Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs
Samuel L Jackson & John Travolta in Pulp Fiction
Steve Buschemi & Harvey Keitel in Resevoir Dogs

I also came up with a couple that I didn't think really worked at all:

Gandolfini & Redford in The Last Castle - Gandolfini plays his role down so much that you never get that massive build up and it seems like Redford is just running him over.

Robert Redford & Brad Pitt in Spy Games - Redford this time completely plays down his character and Pitt is abscent from anything going on

Gandolfini & Pitt & Roberts in The Mexican - Did anyone take an acting class before they took this film? We could have had Tristen from Legends of the Fall against Brokovich against Tony Soprano... What did we get instead? Whiny celebrity bitches

Ben Affleck & Giovani Ribisi in Boiler Room - Mamet didn't write it, and Affleck is no Baldwin and doesn't even do a good impersonation.



Just a couple that came to mind.

-Jeremy
 
TC said:
Good one!
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Thanks. I'm really struggling to come up with things where the performance is elevated because of who they are playing off of.

I was watching a 'Behind the Actors Studio' thing and Morgan Freeman says that he doesn't know how to act, only react. That stuck with me for some reason and you can see it in his performance, he is a follower not a leader. I think that makes other people step up to the plate and he is able to go under the radar (how many cliches can I use in a sentence?).

-Jeremy
 
How about Keitel and Madsen in Reservoir Dog's ?

'You gonna bark all day, little dogg? Or are you gonna bite?'

'What was that? I'm sorry, I didn't catch it. Would you repeat it?'
 
John_Hudson said:
Brad Pitt ?

WTF ?
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He was good in Se7en, Legends of the Fall, Fight Club.

John_Hudson said:
How about Keitel and Madsen in Reservoir Dog's ?

'You gonna bark all day, little dogg? Or are you gonna bite?'

'What was that? I'm sorry, I didn't catch it. Would you repeat it?'
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That is a good square off and literally a square off.

What about Ben Affleck and Michael Clark Duncan in Daredevil?

-Jeremy
 
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He has some competent moments but in the realm of the heavywieghts; how can he be mentioned alongside the legends. He aint a legend, he's a rock star.
 
John_Hudson said:
He has some competent moments but in the realm of the heavywieghts; how can he be mentioned alongside the legends. He aint a legend, he's a rock star.
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Is Madsen a legend?

I'm sure this is a discussion for another thread, but what makes someone a legend when it comes to film? I'm sure that there 90% of the actors who HEADLINE films today won't be considered legends in the overall scheme of things.

-Jeremy
 
Good point on Madsen.

I'd say his take on Mr. Blonde in Dog's and as Budd in Kill Bill did it for me; but yeah probably not a legend at the end of the day.

With Pitt being called a legend though; I just cringe with his spins in Oceans 12, Mr and Mrs Smith, Spy Game ...

I find him to be one of the more overrated actors in Howood history
 
There have been quite a few mentioned in this thread that I wouldn't consider legend, I did it with Rutger Hauer, in fact.
 
Well technically the title is 'Favorite'.

I list Brad Pitt as a favorite for:

Fight Club
Seven Years in Tibet
The Devil's Own
Sleepers
Twelve Monkeys
Se7en
Legends of the Fall
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
True Romance
Kalifornia
A River Runs Through It
Thelma & Louise

C'mon, he may not be a legend by any measure, but this guy has really played some great parts and the weird thing is, at least during his early career, he was always unique in his roles. Lately he is just Pitt, but originally he really was one of the most unique actors working and took a lot of risks with his career.

-Jeremy
 
TheYankee said:
Well technically the title is 'Favorite'.
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Fair enough, I just read too much into the DeNiro/Pachino thing and the phrase:
TheYankee said:
There are very few films where you get to see truly great actors square off head to head.
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and
TheYankee said:
more and more in films today we get one super star matched with a talented actor
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Didn't mean to change your criterion. :beer:
 
Please my Yankster!

He is famous for having the ABS in Thelma and Louise. He is a good looking dude with competent acting chops. His range is pretty much Nil.

I liked his take in 12 Monkey's and True ROmance as funny when he did the Keanu impression but come on. He's bland.

-

IMO of course

-

Ill take Rutger Hauer anydays purely for Blade Runner and The Osterman Weekend !
 
Yank...

I think I misread your original post. I thought you were looking for the (rare) films that have two "A-list" actors matched up against each other in protagonist/antagonist roles (like the Pacino/De Niro example you gave.) This doesn't happen very often for many reasons - normally you have a superstar in either the antagonist spot or the protagonist one...rarely both.

If you are looking for just good solid film matchups/rivalries between the good guy and the bad guy (with just the right balance of animosity and chemistry)...then I'll come up with another list, my man.
 
John_Hudson said:
Ill take Rutger Hauer anydays purely for Blade Runner and The Osterman Weekend !
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And his frightening portrayal of a psychotic sociopath in The Hitcher.:Drogar-Evil(DBG):
 
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