Top 10 Favorite Movie Actors
It’s my Birthday week! All this week I’m going to be sharing some of the big “favorites” list. Yesterday I shared my 10 favorite actresses, today we are talking about my 10 favorite actors. Let’s get started!
10. Chris Pratt: I think it’s safe to say, that this man is one of the biggest movie stars in the world right now. And he’s a guy, whether he’s in a good or not so good movie, he’s always a lot of fun in movies. And he’s somebody that I feel like gave people a lot of motivation. Meaning he went from being this overweight guy on Parks and Rec, and he got the role of Star-Lord and lost weight and gained a lot of muscle. The movie that really made him the A-lister that he is today, was Guardians of the Galaxy and I think it’s a role that is so good for him, he can play the character of Peter Quill so well. And he’s somebody that has great chemistry with everybody inside of the MCU. Jurassic World is another solid franchise for him and while it’s not as good as the MCU, it’s still fun to see him teaming up with velociraptors and other dinosaurs. And earlier this year, he starred in The Tomorrow War which might be his best performance yet. He still had all of the jokes that you expect from him, but he can also be very heartfelt. And very curious to hear me play Mario in Illumination’s movie in December 2022.
9. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: I’ve heard people describe him as a modern day Arnold Schwnegger, and I think that’s a good way to put him. He’s a guy that puts out blockbuster after blockbuster. And similar to Chris Pratt, whether the movies are good or bad he’s always to be seen on screen. If you know me or my blog, you know that I love The Fast and Furious franchise, and he’s such a great addition to those movies. He’s rivalry/friendship with Jason Statham in those movies is really fun to see. But he’s starred in some incredibly entertaining blockbusters over the years such as Jumanji, Rampage, and Jungle Cruise. Two of those movies involved the jungle. He’s great as Maui in Moana and he’s just so likable as a person. If you follow him on social media, he just seems like such a nice guy. A guy that you would enjoy sharing a meal with. Of all of the actors on this list, he’s not a great actor. But he’s a guy that knows his fan base and creates such fun blockbusters. And excited to see his next movie, The Red Notice in November on Netflix.
8. Jack Nicholson: One of the greatest actors to ever walk the Earth, and he is truly an acting legend. He’s been acting since the 1970s, and always delivers on great performance after great performance. My introduction to him was as The Joker in Batman, and he just plays such a fun version of The Joker, one with so much personality about him. And I wish we got to see more of him in that role. But two movies that my dad showed me in 2020 had Jack Nicholson in them, which were The Departed and A Few Good Men which are so different from Batman or from each other. But it still shows that he is a world class talent that commits to his role. Both of those roles are antagonistic roles, but both of them are great. With his character in A Few Good Men he gets one of the greatest and most iconic movie lines of all time. Another deeper cut of his that I’ve seen is Mars Attacks! a Tim Burton comedy from the 80s, and there he’s funny and shows his comedic side.
7. Brad Pitt: An actor that has had some controversy over the years, but he’s always been an actor that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. What I first remember seeing him in was Ocean’s Eleven as this super cool guy that just has so much swagger about him. And he just fits the vibe of that movie so well, a movie with so much energy to it. He brings energy to that role. His two David Fincher movies that I’ve seen, Se7en and Fight Club are classics, and great. And I might even say that his performance in Fight Club was his best performance. Because it is Brad Pitt doing his thing, it’s him doing his cool guy swagger stuff, but it’s a much darker version of that. And he just plays that role so well, it’s one of his most iconic roles to date. But one of my favorite things that he has ever done is his appearance on Friends. I mean that is one of the best episodes of the show, and makes me laugh out loud every time I watch those episodes. Even his two 2019 movies with Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Ad Astra I wasn’t the biggest fan of those movies, but he was great in both of them. I even thought the Oscar was well deserved as Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. He has a number of some of my all time favorites, so he does make it on this list.
6. Tom Cruise: Maybe the biggest movie star of all time, he’s an actor that has been in the A-list for a long time. Longer than most people, Risky Business in 1983 was really the movie that made him a household name. And obviously he’s known for doing action movies (and running in his movies), because he’s great in Mission Impossible and Edge of Tomorrow. You buy him as the action hero in those movies, and in Edge of Tomorrow he’s playing against type. In that movie he’s not a hero, he’s a coward and it works for me. Mission Impossible is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time, and I’m excited for Mission Impossible 7 next September. But my favorite of his is A Few Good Men. That's his best performance, where he has that charming side of him. But he also is dramatic and heartfelt and he felt like a person that you might know, that is when you have a great character and performance. Also, he had a lot of fun in Jerry Maguire which I watched earlier this year for the first time with my mom. And I’m just excited to see him in Top Gun: Maverick later this year...oh wait a minute.
5. Jim Carrey: For me, I think that Mr. Carrey is the greatest comedy star of all time. He’s the funniest to me and he’s the one that I enjoy his shtick the most. Adam Sandler has made some solid movies, but when he’s in his 50s and still doing fart jokes and Grown Ups 2, it doesn’t work as well for me. But when Jim Carrey does Jim Carrey, it’s great stuff. One of my all time favorite movies is, The Mask. It’s a truly great and funny Jim Carrey movie. It's a movie that just lets Jim Carrey do his thing and it works. It’s so hard to imagine anybody else besides Jim Carrey being that character. Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty are two other great Jim Carrey movies. And once again, that is a role designed for Jim Carrey. Nobody is like Jim Carrey, and it’s always a lot of fun to see him on screen. And he has done some dramatic work with The Truman Show which I thought was good, but I didn’t love it. But he was great, and showed that he can also act. He’s not just goofy Jim Carrey, when he needs to act he can do that.
4. Will Smith: Another mega super star that has been in the A-list for 25 years now. And it looks like it’s not stopping anytime soon. He’s a guy that has made a handful of mediocre to bad movies, but he’s not never bad in a movie...except for maybe After Earth, which is a BAD movie. I mean he is a guy that brings it, he has so much movie star charm about him, that in every movie he plays is so high energy. Men in Black being the most fun Will Smith, of his big blockbuster movies that would be my favorite of his, where he’s perfectly paired with Tommy Lee Jones, who is also one of his best movies. I dug the Aladdin remake from 2019, I think that’s a very good movie. And he was probably the best part about that movie, he’s great with the singing and dancing but in a totally different way from Robin Williams. I think The Pursuit of Happiness is his best film, maybe not my favorite of his movies. But it’s the one where it’s so heartbreaking watching that movie unfold and Mr. Smith gives his best performance that I’ve ever seen from him. When I was putting this list together, I knew he was going to be up there.
3. Chris Evans: Yes, Captain America himself. Captain America inside of the MCU is my favorite character, he’s given a great arc and great moments in every movie that he’s in. AND Chris Evans is just great as the character, he can play the man out of time character really well, he can deliver these one liners that work, especially in Infinity War and Endgame. He just nails playing Captain America, and Captain America probably is my favorite movie character of all time. Also, Knives Out is one of my favorite movies of all time. One day, I was just scrolling through YouTube and the teaser trailer for the movie showed up, with a picture of Evans. I watched it and was immediately sold on this movie. And the introduction scene for his character is fantastic, for me that is one of the best character introductions of all time. Because it’s Chris Evans playing a douchebag, and he’s great at that. The two Fantastic Four movies that he appeared in are questionable but he was fun in them. But all together, this guy is such an important part of my life.
2. Matt Damon: Another actor that has made so many of my favorite movies. Right off the bat, I love The Martian. I think it’s one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, it’s thrilling, exciting, and just entertaining. It’s all of those, and he’s great at it. You can buy him as this guy that is stuck on Mars and is trying to get back to Earth. Jason Bourne is another great character for him, and that character in a lot of ways changed the direction of his career. Because prior to that, he was just doing more Oscar type movies, here it showed that he can do action movies, and do them well. The Departed is a great role for him, because he’s a villain in that movie. Normally, he’s the hero or a protagonist of the movie. In that movie he’s a villain, an antagonist towards Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. And maybe the biggest compliment I can give him is that whenever I watch The Bourne Identity I don’t think to myself that’s the guy from Ocean's 11. When I watch Ford v Ferrari, I don’t think to myself that’s Jason Bourne. He’s so good at everything that he does that I don’t think that he’s playing another character. He’s an actor that I’ve always been a fan of, and I think I will continue to be a big fan of him as an actor.
1. Tom Hanks: Now, I haven’t really covered Tom Hanks’ career a lot on my blog. But that doesn’t change the fact that I love him as an actor. One summer my dad showed me 5-10 of his movies, and all of them I thoroughly enjoyed. Big is just a fantastic comedy that is so him, and is a movie that was such an important piece in his career. But prior to that movie, he had been acting in Splash and was very prominent on television, but Big came out and launched him to the A-list. Of the comedies that he’s been in, it’s not just Big that he’s great in or his only great comedy. But A League of Their Own and Turner and Turner and Hooch are just such great movies from the late 80s or early 90s. And even a super underappreciated movie is The Terminal for 2004, that is just such a great heartwarming adventure, that if you haven’t seen that movie go check it out. Of course, Forrest Gump is one of his most iconic and most well known movies of all time. Where it’s maybe his best performance because he just embodies Forrest Gump so well, like nobody will ever be able to top Tom Hanks as that character. His other dramas like Cast Away, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and Apollo 13 he shines in those movies. So he’s an actor that is successful at both comedy and drama, and has made some great movies. He’s my number 1!
There you have it, my 10 favorite movie actors of all time. What is your favorite actor of all time? Thanks for reading!
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