Many people don’t like his warm and fuzzy, middle of the road style boring mediocrity.

FTFY

Here’s a contentious one:

Samuel L Jackson, WITH the following caveats.

1) He’s in a supporting role, NOT the Star.
2) Unless it’s a Tarantino film.

He’s made more films than any other well known Actor I know, I just can’t think of any really shit ones he was supporting in.

For me it’s Ben Mendelsohn

Got to be Tom Cruise, for sheer volume of decent films over so many decades. Even his worst are still watchable. He comes across as very professional, seems like he always commits 100% to a part rather than sleepwalking through some just to pick up a paycheque as plenty of other big-name actors do!

Would’ve loved to pick Samuel L as a backup but DAMN he’s been in some bad movies 😃

Stephen Graham

+1

Actually, Green Mile was even worse than The Terminal. Tom Hanks has done some real shit, with his best stuff being mediocre.

Erm, what P-Jay said.

It’s easier if you look for the best actors with the least turkeys.

I would go for :-

The two Kates

Blanchett and Winslet

Brad Pitt

Sam Rockwell

Yir wee man Tom Cruise

Elisabeth Moss

and the best James Bond

Another vote for Jake Gyllenhaal. And yes, Source Code was pretty good.

Joaquin Phoenix?

Good shout on Joaquin! 🙂

Actually, Green Mile was even worse than The Terminal. Tom Hanks has done some real shit, with his best stuff being mediocre.

Bachelor Party sucked.
The Money Pit sucked.
Bonfire of the Vanities sucked.
Forrest Gump sucked.

Get in the sea – Green Mile’s a good film, The Terminal’s an interesting premise that’s overlong and with a bad accent. The Money Pit is top-class mid-eighties slapstick and Forrest Gump would have been great if it hadn’t been so quotable.

Can I tentatively add Cate Blanchett and James McAvoy with the caveat of “in films that I’ve seen”?

It’s easier if you look for the best actors with the least turkeys.

Logical way to do it is to calculate log-odds. Take the number of good movies by the actor and divide it by the number of shit movies. For example, someone who has made 50 good movies and 50 poor ones would be 50/50 = 1.00. Someone who has made 90 good movies and 10 poor ones would be 90/10 = 9.00.

Then take the natural log of that number. The natural log of 1.00 = 0.00. The natural log of 9.00 = 2.20. An actor with log odds of 0.00 means that it’s purely a coin toss whether a random movie will be good or bad. That’s Tom Hanks. He gets a D grade.

An actor with log odds of 1.00 will have about 73% good movies versus 27% poor ones, so a random movie will probably be ok, but there will be plenty of rubbish ones in there too. That’s Tom Cruise. He gets a C grade.

An actor with log odds of 2.00 will have about 88% good movies versus 12% bad ones. That’s probably someone like Dustin Hoffman – very solid, but occasionally has a misfire. He gets a B grade.

When you get to log odds of 3, then you are talking about 95% being good. That’s someone like Daniel Day-Lewis, who is as close to a sure bet as you’ll get. He gets an A grade.

Green Mile’s a good film

Maybe there were two films with the same name. The one I saw had Tom Hanks and was long, turgid, overwrought nonsense.

That’s someone like Daniel Day-Lewis, who is as close to a sure bet as you’ll get.

he’s a great actor, and has starred in many excellent films (although relatively few for someone who’s been acting so long – he’s obviously very picky – and now retired IIRC) and I’ve enjoyed all those I’ve seen – I’ve never got the urge to rewatch any of his movies, and doubt I ever will! Whereas I’m into double figures now with Top Gun alone 😂

I’m into double figures now with Top Gun alone

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage

Try watching Sonny (you only have to try, it’s not necessary to finish it), which he directed and also appeared in. Nic Cage’s best movies are awesome. His bad ones are heinous. He doesn’t seem to do anything in between those extremes.

Con Air sucked too, but not as much as Sonny.

Logical way to do it is to calculate log-odds. Take the number of good movies by the actor and divide it by the number of shit movies.

Nice one hols2 ,as long as it didn’t turn in to a <span class=”st”> ‘mutant‘ algorithm</span>’ 🙂

Con Air sucked too, but not as much as Sonny.

I liked Con Air. And The Rock. 🙂

Jeff Bridges?

Blimey, reading through this list it depends entirely on your standard of a “good” film. Some I’d consider utter shite have been mentioned multiple times! Tom Cruise 😆

I think
Gary Oldman – some I’ve not seen, but maybe Dracula the nearest to crap. but then I wouldn’t think “Oh Gary Oldman’s in that, I must watch it”
who would I think that about..? Erm… Christopher Walken? According to IMDB – 138 films!
Impossible

Nic Cage’s best movies are awesome.

a handful of decent films. One true great. But SO MUCH DROSS. A crazy amount. Like, how can one man make so many bad films? An Oscar winner at that?

That said, I agree with @hols2 that The Rock & Con Air are awesome. 😉 Not great, but definitely awesome 😃 Probably seen Con Air almost as many times as I’ve seen Top Gun 🤣🤣🤣

Probably seen Con Air almost as many times as I’ve seen Top Gun

Probably seen Con Air almost as many times as I’ve seen Top Gun

Me too: Once for each was more than enough.

I like hols’ approach

There aren’t any actors with a decent filmography who haven’t been in shit film.

IMDB have a list of actors who have appeared the most times in a “IMDB Top 250” film

Linky

No 1 is pretty surprising.

Although this doesn’t give a ratio of hits to misses just the number of top rated film an actor has appeared in

Benicio Del Toro has a good list

The human word jumble of Chiwetel Ejiofor. Awesome in everything – including Firefly/Serenity.

Gary Oldman & Micheal Keaton

Pete Postlethwaite. Nope scratch that, he did Jurrassic Park the lost world.

Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Ellen Paige.
Michael Cera.

Agree with Jake Gylenhall, Prince of Persia was sublime.

Argh I knew it, it was inevitable…Tom Cruise!!!

GET IN THE SEA

Groot.

No mention for Michael Caine?🤣

I agree with hols.

This is why my list is strong.

Name a bad film edward furlong or robert patrick are in.

Awesome in everything

Dr Strange? and I believe; the live action Lion King remake…However if anything, what threads like his show us that the definition of a good film is a movable feast.

Name a bad film edward furlong or robert patrick are in.

Well, I do believe that Ed Furlong starred in a “Straight to TV” vehicle named Aracno-quake…The “plot” is that an earthquake has awakened a hive/horde/interpretive dance collective of mutant fire breathing spiders….Wait…Ins’t Robert Patick the baddie in Term 2 and Ed Furlong is Connor in Term 2…

Terminator 2 is a shit film, dude…

Negatory. Terminator 2 is awesome.

Where the cut off for a film counting?

Because George Clooneys early work will automatically disqualify him.

Surely been in general release?

Joaquin Phoenix – no chance, ruined the Phantom franchise with that woeful film adaptation.

Charles Bronson and Gary Oldman for me.

Danny Trejo

Negatory. Terminator 2 is awesome

uh-huh, I bet you prefer Aliens as well, right?

Danny Trejo

He’s got nearly 400 acting credits in IMDB

Pretty sure he will have been in plenty of utter bobbins

I probably wouldn’t say that to his face though