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INCEPTION |OT| Movie of the Forever

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Dicaprio has a wide emotional range, but his character range - i.e. his ability to convincingly sink into the role of a character, to make the audience forget that they are looking at the actor - is far less. Bale does chew the scenery sometimes, but even in his minor performances, such as Terminator Salvation, I see him playing a character that is differentiated from the other ones in his filmography and can articulate what he's doing differently. Leo, on the other hand, is pretty much the same from film to film, and I say that having seen a number of his movies. Leo can emote, but his actorly bag of tricks outside of that goes about as far as, "Does he have an accent this time, or doesn't he?" Sometimes, that works (see my positive comments about his selling of
Mal's suicide
in Inception, but sometimes, it does not. He did something a bit different in The Aviator, for which I grant him kudos, but I would still take Bale in American Psycho or The Machinist or Rescue Dawn pretty much any day of the week.

Is Bale THE BEST actor? No, of course not. Is he better than Dicaprio, who has relatively little range in terms of creating a character other than himself? Of course. He also takes way more risks, which makes him feel much fresher from film to film.

By the by - I saw no scenery chewing in the trailer for The Fighter. If anything, it helps to prove my point that Bale really puts himself into a character, much more so than Leo. It may look like a generic film, but it is an example of an actor willing to get down and dirty and in the text, something that I don't see Dicaprio doing nearly as much or as well.
 
Just got back from buying the combo pack @ Target. I Bought one for my brother for Christmas too.

Can't wait to watch it.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
By the by - I saw no scenery chewing in the trailer for The Fighter. If anything, it helps to prove my point that Bale really puts himself into a character, much more so than Leo. It may look like a generic film, but it is an example of an actor willing to get down and dirty and in the text, something that I don't see Dicaprio doing nearly as much or as well.
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Bale has to resort to parlor tricks like drastic weight loss to cover his lack of chops. Leo doesn't have to change his appearance to be completely convincing in a role.

De Niro did similar things as Bale, but the big difference is that he had the acting chops too.
 
Solo said:
Bale has to resort to parlour tricks like drastic weight loss to cover his lack of chops. Leo doesn't have to change his appearance to be completely convincing in a role.

De Niro did similar things as Bale, but the big difference is that he had the acting chops too.
Click to expand...

I would argue that none of Leo's roles have ever called for a major change of appearance. He looks pretty much the same in every film, kinda like George Clooney. Bale's playing a crackhead in The Fighter, the weight loss is completely justifiable.

EDIT: Just to clarify I like Dicaprio better than Bale (<3 The Aviator) but I would never say Bale is a mediocre or bad actor. He's quite good, and takes a lot of risks which I don't think many working Hollywood actors today would.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Dicaprio has a wide emotional range, but his character range - i.e. his ability to convincingly sink into the role of a character, to make the audience forget that they are looking at the actor - is far less. Bale does chew the scenery sometimes, but even in his minor performances, such as Terminator Salvation, I see him playing a character that is differentiated from the other ones in his filmography and can articulate what he's doing differently. Leo, on the other hand, is pretty much the same from film to film, and I say that having seen a number of his movies. Leo can emote, but his actorly bag of tricks outside of that goes about as far as, "Does he have an accent this time, or doesn't he?" Sometimes, that works (see my positive comments about his selling of
Mal's suicide
in Inception, but sometimes, it does not. He did something a bit different in The Aviator, for which I grant him kudos, but I would still take Bale in American Psycho or The Machinist or Rescue Dawn pretty much any day of the week.

Is Bale THE BEST actor? No, of course not. Is he better than Dicaprio, who has relatively little range in terms of creating a character other than himself? Of course. He also takes way more risks, which makes him feel much fresher from film to film.

By the by - I saw no scenery chewing in the trailer for The Fighter. If anything, it helps to prove my point that Bale really puts himself into a character, much more so than Leo. It may look like a generic film, but it is an example of an actor willing to get down and dirty and in the text, something that I don't see Dicaprio doing nearly as much or as well.
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you should watch the basketball diaries. it was when dicaprio was MUCH younger and his acting is incredible. dicrapio is in another league compared to bale. he just keeps getting similar roles in the past while so it seems like he has no range. i think he would nail a batman villain.
 
And Snowy, you are basically calling Leo one-note, which is something I would say is true of Bale. Outside of American Psycho (of which Im convinced Bale's performance is great because the man is fucking nuts), he pretty much exists in brooding-mode for everything else.
 
Zeliard said:
I really enjoyed Bale's performance in Harsh Times in spite of the scenery-chewing (or perhaps because of).
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Definitely has to be the latter, mang. That performance is so over the top that it establishes a new top.
 
Solo said:
Definitely has to be the latter, mang. That performance is so over the top that it establishes a new top.
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sq731k.jpg
 
Solo said:
And Snowy, you are basically calling Leo one-note, which is something I would say is true of Bale. Outside of American Psycho (of which Im convinced Bale's performance is great because the man is fucking nuts), he pretty much exists in brooding-mode for everything else.
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Yeah, this...which is why I'm hoping his performance in The Fighter is good.
 
Damn, Bale haters are gonna eat a lot of crow once Fighter hits. Supposedly it's different than anything he's ever done and is being compared to Ledger's impact as Joker in Dark Knight. Nothing but praise so far for his performance, even in the not so great reviews of the film.

Dude's gonna get an oscar before DiCaprio, not that it means much but still something to tip your hat on. Especially cause he's taking away the oscar from Geoffrey Rush, who was awesome in King's Speech.
 
Solo said:
And Snowy, you are basically calling Leo one-note, which is something I would say is true of Bale. Outside of American Psycho (of which Im convinced Bale's performance is great because the man is fucking nuts), he pretty much exists in brooding-mode for everything else.
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3.jpg


Still the best film he's been in.
 
Solo said:
Bale has to resort to parlor tricks like drastic weight loss to cover his lack of chops. Leo doesn't have to change his appearance to be completely convincing in a role.

De Niro did similar things as Bale, but the big difference is that he had the acting chops too.
Click to expand...

No parlor tricks anywhere. His role in The Machinist isn't great because of the weight loss, it's great because his acting was top-notch; I honestly can't think of a single Leo performance that I think tops it. Same with Rescue Dawn, really; I would take Bale in that movie over pretty much any Leo role that I've seen, including The Aviator and The Departed (the folks who say that Zahn gives the best performance are nuts, though he is very good).

Bale is simply more convincing. He more fully integrates himself into the roles that he plays, not just in terms of how much weight he has but in the physicality that he adopts and the tweaks to his voice that he makes. Leo has a wide emotional range, but like many stars, he really just sticks to the same sorts of roles and never takes many artistic risks (again, one of the reasons that I would agree that The Aviator is his best role). Bale may end up chewing the scenery sometimes, but his 'hits' will always be much higher because he doesn't just stay in a comfort zone; he really gives himself over to the demands of the text.

Bale also has a more natural screen presence, but I'll admit that that's a bit more subjective.
 
Speaking as someone who has actually SEEN The Fighter, I can confirm that Bale is indeed amazing in it (one of his best performances ever) and Solo is full of shit.

BUT WHAT ELSE IS NEW
 
Scullibundo said:
3.jpg


Still the best film he's been in.
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Best acting he's done too.

Rescue Dawn? WTF? Davies and Zahn stole that film. American Psycho was fun but going forward a few years to that rant of his and you start to come to the conclusion that Bale is just fucking nuts, it wasn't performance art. He was just thinking about some guy fucking with his lights.

I'm sure he'll be a great crackhead though. But trailers don't make his performance seem as amazing as we're being lead on. Gonna have to take a wait and see approach.

Leo's face annoys me moreso than any other, but I think he's the better actor when it comes down to it. Both are just overexposed though. I see them in everything.

May have to see Rescue Dawn again to see what's so good about him in it.
 
Bale was awesome in Rescue Dawn; Zahn was very good, Davies I don't really remember well enough, but Bale was great from start to end. It wasn't a very showy part, but in terms of building a credible human being about whom we care and who we want to succeed, Bale did phenomenally; his sneaking back to be with his army buddies at the end is a truly satisfying ending, and part of that is because Bale manages to create a truly sympathetic character. Considering how often protagonists end up being the weak point of a story, with supporting characters 'stealing the show,' I'd say that's quite the achievement.

As for American Psycho: I think you'd have to be crazy not to see how awesome he was in that movie. It's not the yelling that's effective; it's the cold gaze, the calculated way that he talks about music that he likes, the physicality of it. In terms of really embodying a character, it's far beyond anything that Leo has done. Between that and The Machinist - no contest.
 
Just bought Inception from BB. I was looking for the Best Buy exclusive one (comes with a shooting script) but apparantly it was sold out. :(
 
Assholes at Amazon said my Inception BD would be delivered today and they were full of shit. The shipping status still says "Billing Information Received" for fuck's sake!
 
polyh3dron said:
Assholes at Amazon said my Inception BD would be delivered today and they were full of shit. The shipping status still says "Billing Information Received" for fuck's sake!
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I feel your pain :( :(
 
Blader5489 said:
Speaking as someone who has actually SEEN The Fighter, I can confirm that Bale is indeed amazing in it (one of his best performances ever) and Solo is full of shit.

BUT WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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His first Oscar nod? It shall be dubbed The Giamatti.
 
Zeliard said:
His first Oscar nod? It shall be dubbed The Giamatti.
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Nomination is a lock, a win is extremely possible.

Seriously, he gives an amazing performance. Accusations of him chewing the scenery are total bullshit, he is 100% genuinely Dickie Ecklund, with so many nuances to the character that go beyond just acting goofy.
 
Rahxephon91 said:
Picked mine up from Target today for $17.99, but Targets copies have a horrible holographic cover on them.
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Well, it is just a slipcase that you can get rid of.

Just finished watching it. My player had issues at the points where it would normally jump to the Extraction Mode featurette. It would drop sound and move at a slightly faster speed, then go back to normal. At least for the last half of the movie it did this.
 
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