He's decent, but not good. Lots of his dramatic scenes look very unnatural and overdone....even all the way back to Braveheart.
Great director though. Apocalypto was awesome.
The daughter in this movie was pretty bad.
LOl, funniest post yet. Saying Mel isn't a good actor..I'm dying laughing.
Erin was perfect, like her character in the book.
"Guys like you don't die on toilets." Mel Gibson-Riggs, Lethal Weapon
firechicken....I respectfully disagree.
Not that good of an actor? Gibson's acting talent and range surpasses 99% of the "actors" out there making millions currently (Zac EFfron? Channing Tatum? Jonah Hill?) Mel can do it all. Comedy: What Women Want, Lethal Weapon, Bird on a Wire.... Action: Lethal Weapon, Blood Father, The Road Warrior.... Period Pieces: Braveheart, The Bounty, The Patriot.... Shakespeare: Hamlet.... Romance: Forever Young, Tequila Sunrise... Drama: The Man Without a Face, The River.... Western: Maverick.... War Films: Galipoli, We Were Soldiers.... Dark/Noir: Payback, Million Dollar Hotel....
This is just a small sample size. And Mel ALWAYS delivers. Few actors bring the goods at such a high level Every....Time...Out. (Tom Cruise is one of the few who are on Mel's level in that regard). Before Hollywood turned on him, he was box office gold, because if Mel was in it, you knew it was going to be fantastic. He has a charm and a screen presence that really has no equal. It harkens back to old school Hollywood icons. And an intensity and dedication to roles that only a few could come close to (De Niro, Bale,)
You mention Braveheart as your benchmark for Mel's acting chops. Sure....he was great in that. (In fact, his performance in that was better than anything I can think of from even the likes of Pacino, De Niro, Redford....and ECLIPSES anything ever done by Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, etc....). But that is far from his best work. Watch a movie called The Patriot, when his son is killed in front of him. The acting in that scene....is so gut-wrenching, you can feel his pain in your very bones. Watch the scene in The Bounty....when Mel's character (Fletcher Christian) has no choice but to cast his mentor out to sea, and certain death. ("I AM IN HELL!") It will floor you. Watch how menacing he can be in Payback.....sexy he can be in Tequila Sunrise....vulnerable he can be in Conspiracy Theory.....funny he can be in What Women Want....likable he can be in Maverick, etc, etc....
Mel can act circles around just about anyone in any room of Hollywood stars in any awards ceremony. And he NEVER mails it in. I won't even get into his directing talents, because that would require 5-6 more paragraphs.
You make some good points. I was a big fan of Mel, just not that much in his later roles. And after re-watching some of his movies was when I started thinking that he wasn't as good as I always thought.
Although I do agree that many of his dramatic and comedic roles are very good. Like "What Women Want", that was good. Patriot and Forever Young, were excellent. Braveheart was probably his best movie, but he had some weird acting quirks in it that bothered me...kind of overacting in too many scenes.
Now Tom Cruise, his acting is always exceptional. Even if the Mission Impossible series were seriously drawn out. It's hard to find any slips in Cruise's acting but you can with Mel's, that's all I'm saying.
This movie, Blood Father, was just mediocre and the daughter sucks ass at acting.
Yes but the problem with Tom Cruise is he IS a horrible person...dragging people into the hell of scientology...Mel on the other hand...I'd go for a pint with Mel.
shareHe has two modes, crazy and angry. Usually the crazy has some aspects of humor and the angry part is usually revenge motivated.
shareOnly two modes? Crazy and angry? Have you seen Hamlet, Signs, What Women Want or The Beaver?? The man's range is all over the place.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin.
Troll post...I won't even dignify it with a proper response.
Mel is God.
I have to respectfully disagree on your thoughts about Mel as an actor. I fully believe him to be one of the best actors of all time and quite possibly the most versatile of all. He has pulled off successful performances in every single genre (if you count Signs as horror, which I do)
Perhaps most astonishingly, I don't believe Mel has ever delivered anything less than a very good performance in his entire career. There is not one film where he ever gave the appearance of slumming or phoning it in. Even some of cinema's most acclaimed actors have faltered on occasion, but I never felt that from Mel, even as most of his contemporaries seem to have given up challenging themselves or putting forth any effort these days (i.e. Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis, John Cusack).
That's true, Signs was excellent. Maybe I should have said he's not a great actor, but a good one, instead. That's better. I was a huge Mel fan, but lost it since his last, consecutive movies. I know he's blacklisted and such, so that would have affected the budget of his productions significantly. This current movie was just not very good. And the El Gringo whatever, was just as predictable. He's turning into a Nick Cage, just with much less number of movies.
shareHe just doesn't have a lot of range.
shareI think that's it.
shareGibson's acting talent and range surpasses 99% of the "actors" out there making millions currently (Zac EFfron? Channing Tatum? Jonah Hill?) Mel can do it all. Comedy: What Women Want, Lethal Weapon, Bird on a Wire.... Action: Lethal Weapon, Blood Father, The Road Warrior.... Period Pieces: Braveheart, The Bounty, The Patriot.... Shakespeare: Hamlet.... Romance: Forever Young, Tequila Sunrise... Drama: The Man Without a Face, The River.... Western: Maverick.... War Films: Galipoli, We Were Soldiers, Air America, The Year of Living Dangerously.....Dark/Noir: Payback, Million Dollar Hotel....Disney: Pocahontas....The Chicken Run......
This is just a small sample size, and it shows INCREDIBLE range. And Mel ALWAYS delivers. Few actors bring the goods at such a high level Every....Time...Out. (Tom Cruise is one of the few who are on Mel's level in that regard). Before Hollywood turned on him, he was box office gold, because if Mel was in it, you knew it was going to be fantastic. He has a charm and a screen presence that really has no equal. It harkens back to old school Hollywood icons. And an intensity and dedication to roles that only a few could come close to (De Niro, Bale,)
Watch a movie called The Patriot, when his son is killed in front of him. The acting in that scene....is so gut-wrenching, you can feel his pain in your very bones. Watch the scene in The Bounty....when Mel's character (Fletcher Christian) has no choice but to cast his mentor out to sea, and certain death. ("I AM IN HELL!") It will floor you. Watch how menacing he can be in Payback.....sexy he can be in Tequila Sunrise....vulnerable he can be in Conspiracy Theory, or Tim.....funny he can be in What Women Want....likable he can be in Maverick, etc, etc....
Mel can act circles around just about anyone in any room of Hollywood stars in any awards ceremony. And he NEVER mails it in. Guys like Pacino, DeNiro and Nicholson...yes, they have limited range. Guys like Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Bradley Cooper....yes, they have limited range.
But Mel...has done it all, every genre...and done them all quite well. He can do more just with his face, his eyes....the subtle little nuances....than most actors can do with a page of dialogue. Range? Good luck finding an actor, past or present....with MORE range than Mel Gibson. To dismiss his work as either "angry" or "crazy" is just showing an ignorant and limited knowledge of his body of work.
Gibson's acting talent and range surpasses 99% of the "actors" out there making millions currently (Zac EFfron? Channing Tatum? Jonah Hill?) Mel can do it all. Comedy: What Women Want, Lethal Weapon, Bird on a Wire.... Action: Lethal Weapon, Blood Father, The Road Warrior.... Period Pieces: Braveheart, The Bounty, The Patriot.... Shakespeare: Hamlet.... Romance: Forever Young, Tequila Sunrise... Drama: The Man Without a Face, The River.... Western: Maverick.... War Films: Galipoli, We Were Soldiers, Air America, The Year of Living Dangerously.....Dark/Noir: Payback, Million Dollar Hotel....Disney: Pocahontas....The Chicken Run......
This is just a small sample size, and it shows INCREDIBLE range. And Mel ALWAYS delivers. Few actors bring the goods at such a high level Every....Time...Out. (Tom Cruise is one of the few who are on Mel's level in that regard). Before Hollywood turned on him, he was box office gold, because if Mel was in it, you knew it was going to be fantastic. He has a charm and a screen presence that really has no equal. It harkens back to old school Hollywood icons. And an intensity and dedication to roles that only a few could come close to (De Niro, Bale,)
Watch a movie called The Patriot, when his son is killed in front of him. The acting in that scene....is so gut-wrenching, you can feel his pain in your very bones. Watch the scene in The Bounty....when Mel's character (Fletcher Christian) has no choice but to cast his mentor out to sea, and certain death. ("I AM IN HELL!") It will floor you. Watch how menacing he can be in Payback.....sexy he can be in Tequila Sunrise....vulnerable he can be in Conspiracy Theory, or Tim.....funny he can be in What Women Want....likable he can be in Maverick, etc, etc....
Mel can act circles around just about anyone in any room of Hollywood stars in any awards ceremony. And he NEVER mails it in. Guys like Pacino, DeNiro and Nicholson...yes, they have limited range. Guys like Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Bradley Cooper....yes, they have limited range.
But Mel...has done it all, every genre...and done them all quite well. He can do more just with his face, his eyes....the subtle little nuances....than most actors can do with a page of dialogue. Range? Good luck finding an actor, past or present....with MORE range than Mel Gibson. To dismiss his work as either "angry" or "crazy" is just showing an ignorant and limited knowledge of his body of work.
He does Crazy and angry. That's it. You can dress it up and put lipstick on it but that's him. Imagine him in the roles Jared Leto plays, that's range. Greg Kinnear has more range. Gary Oldman has more range. Can you see him in The Candelabra in Mike Douglas's role? Playing Phil Spector or Kevorkian or LBJ?. As for Bradley Cooper, we're only starting to see his potential. He stole every scene he was in for War Dogs. Range means being able to play someone you're not.
He does Crazy and angry. That's it. You can dress it up and put lipstick on it but that's him. Imagine him in the roles Jared Leto plays, that's range. Greg Kinnear has more range. Gary Oldman has more range. Can you see him in The Candelabra in Mike Douglas's role? Playing Phil Spector or Kevorkian or LBJ?. As for Bradley Cooper, we're only starting to see his potential. He stole every scene he was in for War Dogs. Range means being able to play someone you're not.
My age? I'm probably old enough to be your dad. Or grandad. You've pointed out roles where Mel acts normal or comedic, like he does when he's in crazy mode, and pronounce him the second coming of Lawrence Olivier. Those roles weren't anything special. The Bever? Really? List the roles where he acts, normal, like that is some huge unobtainable feat of acting. And the academy obviously knows, he hasn't won any Oscars for acting in 40 years. He wins popularity awards because he plays in big blockbusters, or did. I've yet to see a movie where he was so out of character I was shocked.
shareMy age? I'm probably old enough to be your dad. Or grandad. You've pointed out roles where Mel acts normal or comedic, like he does when he's in crazy mode, and pronounce him the second coming of Lawrence Olivier. Those roles weren't anything special. The Bever? Really? List the roles where he acts, normal, like that is some huge unobtainable feat of acting. And the academy obviously knows, he hasn't won any Oscars for acting in 40 years. He wins popularity awards because he plays in big blockbusters, or did. I've yet to see a movie where he was so out of character I was shocked.
I completely agree with your opinion on Mel. I have no problem calling Mel one of the most versatile actors ever, having successfully pulled off roles in a greater variety of genres than any other actor I can think of.
He's also one of the few actors out there who can convey and express so much emotion and depth through body language. Every time I watch The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome, I am absolutely astonished by how much he dominated these movies even though he had probably fewer than 100 lines of dialogue in both films combined. Watching Tom Hardy fumble badly through the role only served as a reminder how difficult it is to do so much when you're given so little to say, and it only makes me even more impressed how incredible Mel was in the role.
He's not a good actor. He's a terrific one.
shareWOW, just wow. You can respect Mel Gibson as a director but not as an actor?? Wow. As it's been pointed out by several posters here, I can't help but laugh at how little credibility that statement has. The range that Mel Gibson is capable of while also being an incredible powerhouse in screen presence makes him not only one of the best actor in film history but also one of the greatest stars.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin.
Who are these "several posters", your gods or something?
share