The Overrated

Overrated performances of the year. A touchy subject. For someone’s Roberto Benigni is someone else’s Daniel Day Lewis. But this year I want to comment on the years most overly praised works (IMHO). In no particular order.

Forest Whitaker – Yes, really. Don’t get me wrong, I felt it was very good, but it was not the second coming the critics said it was. For starters he was playing a well known subject. There must be hours of footage on Idi Amin for Forest to sit down and copy from. However, unless it can transcend mimicry to become less about the actor showcasing talent in impressions and more about the subjects psyche then why should I care? I mean why should I praise his work over that of James McAvoy in the same film? Is it just because I have a reference to compare to? That is just lazy appreciation. I do a pretty mean Bunsen Honeydew impression……where is my Oscar?

Daniel Craig - So there is a new Bond, and so they got a respected actor to play him. Ladies and Gentlemen wake up!!! This is James Bond, just without gadgets and women with silly names. It is not the second coming either!! Sexy though

Jack Nicholson – Why oh why are people falling over themselves for this performance? This is not acting, this is rehashing old characters with new dialogue. If you combine The Joker from Batman and Daryl Van Horne from The Witches of Eastwick and you get Frank Costello from The Departed. The common denominator is they are all played by Jack Nicholson. Please man….give us something new instead of all this repeating. You have 3 Oscars, all for variations on a theme, get a fourth for somthing new.

Cate Blanchette - Nineteen films in six years…….talk about saturating the market. As much as I admire this very talented actress and am of the opinion that she is one of the better actresses currently working, I can’t help but see she was woefully miscast in Notes on a Scandal. The character is naïve and foolish, Cate Blanchette is neither, and boy does it ever show. I spent the whole film saying “Cate ,you should know better”. Had she succeeded in her performance, the thought should have never crossed my mind.

Brad Pitt - Oh Brad Brad Brad. Not topping up on Just for Men and forgetting to moisturize for a month does not a performance make. Sure you cry, run, shout, sweat and cry some more, but that alone does not make a performance. I did all of that yesterday.