Even as I write down this one, there are already 47 reviews looming large in this category, but Hollywood has enough for everyone to pick from. isn't it?
So, if you can't clap for the winners in this review, don't despair, pen down your own ones or wait till I watch your favorites on screen and modify my list:p
Kidding. You are free to agree with my chioce(:-p).
Over to the stage and mike: Let me take this opportunity(Ash style huh:) to thank all those movie producers, directors, cameramen, music directors, lyricists, secretaries, sweepers, electricians, drivers, cars, roads, gutters blah blah . who helped these ordinary mortals rise out of hoi polloi into the dhinchak world of hollywood.
Much as I scavenge my grey cells for good actors, why do I always have to invariably zero in upon some of the best looking hunks hollywood ever produced. Guess, that's how my brain works - to each one his own.
My extra sensitive brain cells need a killer combination of, both - drop dead good looks with an elusive appeal about the man . what? women too need to be included? NO pleeezze, that will be too much to squeeze into famous 5(stress is on 5 not famous). Blame it on MS to keep the count to 5, how can a poor soul include women too just for the heck of gender equality? I have my personal favorites amongst actresses who deserve full fledged review on their own and not a shoddy treatment by inclusion in an all male marathon.
So, with much trepidation and deliberation, I open the box of top 5 out of my favorites
Hey but wait.
Is it possible to do(Clint Eastwood) x 5 and end right here?
No:(
Then, you got it - Clint Eastwood tops my list and I consider him way above everyone else.
Not because no one has acting prowess to equal him, but because there is an unparalleled enigmatic feel about him, in every thing he does. Remember his original way of speech, part in and part out? Original to the core.
He is the original cowboy and has been fantastic in Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, "Where Eagles Dare", "Dirty Harry series", "Escape from Alcatraz", "Outlaw Josey Wales" to name a few. He's also been a successful director in giving some awesome movies like "Million Dollar baby", "Mystic River", "Unforgiven" and his latest back to back gem "Flags of Our Fathers, and "Letters from Iwo Jima".
His movies have graced Oscar nomination lists countless times.
Liam Neeson(who Liam did you say? I can pardon you for that. Poor guy never could market himself well to cross the Oscar nominated to Oscar winner category). He has the original Irish charm(Pierce Brosnan comes later) and is a wonderful actor though lesser known in common(Indian) public. Very graceful, authentic and charismatic in whatever he does, be it as Qui-Gon Jinn in "Star Wars" or as Dr .Kinsey in "Kinsey" or as "Oskar Schinder" in Schindler's List or as a revolutionary patriot in "Michael Collins".
Superb actor with a great voice and diction to match his tall persona.
Ralph Fiennes for those limpid eyes and unique slurred speech.
On to his acting.
He's acted in some of the finest movies of our times. Varied roles, each challenging in it's own right. More challenging since these movies are adapted from some of the bestselling books of all times.
Lends deadly charm or an uncanny appeal to the character he plays, be it in "Wuthering Heights", "English Patient", "Schindler's List", "Avengers" or in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"(that's a tricky one huh? Bet you weren't aware of that one:D)
Denzel Washington - The only black actor(Morgan Freeman and Samuel Jackson are way above me) who has oodles of sex appeal in his brooding manners. One of the most respected actors. Critically acclaimed for "Malcolm X", "Philadelphia", "Hurricane" and my favorite "Bone Collector" amongst many others. I can't list down all here:)
Tom Hanks: Unarguably, one of the best actors alive today. He lives the role rather than act. Dunno why, but somehow ever since he played Forrest Gump, that's the only image of him, that comes to my mind. Terrific in Casteway, Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan to name some.
As a side note, while I was compiling my list above, I realied that a silent factor and one that probably I wasn't aware myself, has been the way these guys have mostly dealt with women on screen. Not a generalisation but an impression they have all created upon me through their movies. Not leching after any and every woman on street, they don't generally play womanisers or charmers on screen and somehow haven't played the sort of playboy roles that denigrate women on screen.
Perhaps this is why some of the actors, I know are otherwise excellent performers, don't find a place in my list. It's the way they(onscreen they) held their women, that excluded actors like Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Redford, Bruce Willis . from my list. Prude me pphhhbbttt:)
Brickbats/Accolades welcome
