Kupek wrote:Geronimo, Courage Under Fire, The Rainmaker, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Rounders, Dogma (overall I don't like this movie, but the scenes with him and Ben Affleck are good), Ocean's Eleven, All of the Bourne movies, Syriana, The Departed, The Good Shepard.
By the way, he's gotten Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG acting nominations.
Nominations don't mean jack shit anymore. Hally Barry is hot as hell but she ain't no Oscar winner
Hey now, Dogma was Smith's best film. But that's another argument.
I've seen all those filims except for Syriana (only parts of it) and Geronimo. At no point in any of those films did I say "damn, Damon is just MAKING this role". He hasn't been Asston-horrible or anything (to me, Kutcher single-handedly destroyed The Butterfly Effect; he's that bad) but he certainly did not take the role and make it spectacular in any of the flicks. He's been a serviceable actor in every role I've seen him in. You could easily replace him in any of those flicks with another decent actor (I'd say Keanu but he comes with too many pre-conceived notions and other baggage) and the movie would lose nothing at all.
He's also had a great deal of help along the way. When you're working with Pitt (he's a FAAAAAARRR better actor than people give him credit for), Norton Jr., Nicholson, De Niro, Williams, Hanks, Cheadle, and other great actors, you don't have to do much. Just don't fuck up. And he's been smart enough to recognize that, I give him credit. Same with the director's he's worked with such as Speilberg or Soderburg (Speilberg may be in a decade-long slump, but he's still a great director as a movie from a couple of years showed). Often times, actors will look far better than they really are depending on the story, director, and co-stars they have. That's why I keep saying selection is half of a performance. Even De Niro, who has as much talent as basically anyone, can make a bad selection and just look OK in a film, as you pointed out.
At the end of the day, people with the talent level of Damon, Reeves, Affleck, DiCaprio, and Willis need to be the Trent Dilfer or Tom Brady of their movies: don't fuck up and let your supporting cast do all the work for you. For the most part, these actors have been extremely successful doing just that. Whenever they try to step outside these boundries (as Willis tends to do moreso than the others) is when disaster strikes (hello, Hudson Hawk or Mercury Rising).
