Everyone knows who Ben Affleck is. If you didn't know who he was before Jennifer Lopez, you knew who he was afterwards. There's probably a lot of people out there who, after all that publicity, were more familiar with Ben's romantic life than they...
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Everyone knows who Ben Affleck is. If you didn't know who he was before Jennifer Lopez, you knew who he was afterwards. There's probably a lot of people out there who, after all that publicity, were more familiar with Ben's romantic life than they were their own.

The downside of Ben Affleck is that he's constantly being cast in the same role in his bigger movies, and carries the same personality from film to film. Strangely, one of the best performances Affleck has given in recent years was in Surviving Christmas, a film that seems to have been almost universally panned. Affleck's portrayal of the desperate, neurotic and incredibly annoying Drew Latham rings true.

An actor reaches his pinnacle when he can make the viewer feel for the character, be it extreme love, extreme hate, or even pity. Drew Latham was a character to be pitied, because by the end, viewers could actually see his side of things. This is as opposed to almost every other Affleck film, where there is so little personality for Affleck's characters that, in most cases, his character could disappear altogether and viewers would neither know nor care.

That said, there is part of the film world that Ben has basically avoided up until this point -- playing the bad guy. He's been a bit of a jerk in a couple of the Kevin Smith films, but he's never started bad and ended bad -- real, real bad -- in any major film. He's always misunderstood, misdirected, or what-have-you. Affleck's success in playing the jerk indicates that he may be able to play a bad guy to perfection. Look at John Travolta -- when he's good, he's very very good, but when he's bad, he's so much better.

Perhaps that can be the next great thing we'll see from Mr. Affleck -- him playing the ultimate villain. Until then, unfortunately, he'll always be a mediocre player in the Hollywood world -- one who isn't given the meaty roles, and one who the public will never really know if he can handle them.

Vin Diesel is the 'it' boy in Hollywood right now it seems. In the last couple of years alone, fans have flocked to the theater for The Pacifier and The Chronicles of Riddick, but so far, the actor hasn't had much chance to sink his teeth into...
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Vin Diesel is the 'it' boy in Hollywood right now it seems. In the last couple of years alone, fans have flocked to the theater for The Pacifier and The Chronicles of Riddick, but so far, the actor hasn't had much chance to sink his teeth into anything.

The truth is, Vin Diesel is this generation's answer to Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwartzenegger and, to a lesser degree, Bruce Willis. An actor who will end up getting pigeon-holed into the role of 'action star' because that's all he's given. This was never more obvious than while watching The Pacifier. It was the modern day Kindergarten Cop -- die-hard man in an authority position (Navy S.E.A.L. / undercover cop) is suddenly in charge of a passel of wild kids (four half-orphaned children / classroom of five-year-olds) but manages to turn from hardened and crusty bachelor type into family man in less time than it takes to open the bag of microwave popcorn.

The problem? Diesel seemed as miscast in that role as Schwartzenegger seemed in Kindergarten Cop. The film was good, and Diesel was okay, but the two didn't mesh -- in part because it seemed like the role of Shane Wolfe was written for three different people and squashed together at the last moment with little/no harmony.

All things being equal, Diesel has the ability to play the roles. His performance in Knockaround Guys made him one of the more likeable characters in what would have, if not for Diesel and co-star Barry Pepper, been your typical mob flick. He's managed to get further with the 'non-enforcer' roles in a shorter period of time than his two aforementioned predecessors, but there is such a thing as too far, too fast. Diesel has the potential to become a big name, in part being spurred on by his interest in directing and producing, but in order to become known for acting talent rather than relying on his admittedly impressive physique, Diesel needs to make more careful choices in his films. xXx may have been a competant action film, but a brain buster it wasn't.