Film Leonardo DiCaprio - Greatest Actor of All Time?

De Niro and Pacino used to be great but that was a long time ago. Di Caprio is decent in some things and meh in others and should be nowhere near the top of any list. Daniel Day Lewis again used to be great but I haven't enjoyed his performances much after the 90's.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good in most things he did. Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes and I'm sure there are lots of others.
 
Wibble said:
De Niro and Pacino used to be great but that was a long time ago. Di Caprio is decent in some things and meh in others and should be nowhere near the top of any list. Daniel Day Lewis again used to be great but I haven't enjoyed his performances much after the 90's.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good in most things he did. Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes and I'm sure there are lots of others.
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Philip Seymour Hoffman ahead of Di Caprio? I've seen it all now.
 
Amar__ said:
Philip Seymour Hoffman ahead of Di Caprio? I've seen it all now.
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Di Caprio is quite likable but not much of an actor. Like many Hollywood actors you see Di Caprio reading the lines and not the character he is playing. A bit like Denzil Washington in that respect.
 
Wibble said:
De Niro and Pacino used to be great but that was a long time ago. Di Caprio is decent in some things and meh in others and should be nowhere near the top of any list. Daniel Day Lewis again used to be great but I haven't enjoyed his performances much after the 90's.
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De Niro and Pacino both suffered the same pigeon hole trap as each other and both eventually wandered into pastiche. I find both of them very dull to watch now.
Wibble said:
Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good in most things he did. Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes and I'm sure there are lots of others.
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Nice, so glad someone has included Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins especially is a fantastic actor. I love him in a few films but The Worlds Fastest Indian is one of my favourite feel good movies, he's fantastic in that even if his accent is a little skew whiff in it.
 
Can't stand Daniel Day Lewis.. dull as ditchwater.
 
Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor, surprised people don’t like him.

Vince Cassel is a phenomenal actor, maybe the best one around now that DDL is retired.
 
I know he was young when he made this film but I watched the film Total Eclipse with Leo playing the young Arthur Rimbaud and David Thewlis playing the drunken Verlaine and Thewlis just absolutely dominated the film. I just don't think DiCaprio is as brilliant as some make out.
 
The Corinthian said:
Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor, surprised people don’t like him.

Vince Cassel is a phenomenal actor, maybe the best one around now that DDL is retired.
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For me I would have to say Stephen Graham is one of the best actors alive. He'll never get the accolades he deserves because he's not designed to be a real lead actor but his work in This is England is amongst the best I've seen, same for The Virtues. His CV is amazing.
 
Maron Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Daniel De Lewis or even someone like Denzel Washington or Dustin Hoffman are all better actors than him. He was outclassed by De Lewis in Gangs Of New York too.
 
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I don't think there is a "best" actor of all time. There are tons of great acting performances that I don't think are objectively better than others. Personally, I'd pick Daniel Day Lewis as my number 1 but there are many across the years that can be said to be equivalent in that top tier.

I do think that Di Caprio and Brad Pitt are slightly underrated in an all-time sense and when it's all said and done those two are definitely on par with De Niro and Pacino with their full body of work.
 
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Wibble said:
Daniel Day Lewis again used to be great but I haven't enjoyed his performances much after the 90's.
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His major credits post 90s are some of the best acting of all time…

Gangs of New York - 2002 - BAFTA Best Actor winner, Oscars Best Actor nominee

There Will Be Blood - 2007 - Best Actor winner at Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA, SAG, NYFCC, and IFTA

Lincoln - 2012 - Best Actor winner at Oscars and Golden Globes

Phantom Thread - 2017 - Oscars Best Actor nominee
 
This thread made me realize that compared to music and literature, acting doesn't have big and historic personalities. Actors are really the b side of Art.
 
I think Tom Cruise is very good actor but he just keeps doing action movies.
 
Carolina Red said:
His major credits post 90s are some of the best acting of all time…

Gangs of New York - 2002 - BAFTA Best Actor winner, Oscars Best Actor nominee

There Will Be Blood - 2007 - Best Actor winner at Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA, SAG, NYFCC, and IFTA

Lincoln - 2012 - Best Actor winner at Oscars and Golden Globes

Phantom Thread - 2017 - Oscars Best Actor nominee
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I haven't seen the last two but didn't like the other two.or his performances at all.
 
Dislike Glengarry Glen Ross? That Baldwin scene is iconic ffs!
 
calodo2003 said:
That's kinda the point of the play / movie, the acting is what needs to carry it.

But I get what you are saying.
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I was watching the actors as themselves acting and not their characters, whose names I instantly forgot. It was a mistake to film it more or less scene for scene from the play and not really adapt it for the screen. IMO of course.
 
RedBanker said:
Jack Nicholson?
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For all we know he has the same 25 cut off as Leo.

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Wibble said:
Massive overacting spoils films for me. Like late era Nicholson. More like watching an acting class. Same reason I dislike Glen Gary Glenn Ross.
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You must dislike all the early classics up until the 1960s then.
 
horsechoker said:
I bet he hasn't shagged more than Genghis Khan.
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I always wondered if Genghis Khan numbers were exaggerated or if historically accurate. Usually men of that status don't have time for that unless off course women were just brought to him. However what is fun in having sex with a woman you didn't seduce yourself first ?
 
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