Sunday, August 14, 2011

august MOVIE MEME, day 14: an actor I'm ashamed to love

Now that we've got the vile sci-fi entry out of the way, let's go back to shame-based blogging.  Now, perhaps shame is sort of a strong word in this case.  See, I openly adore this actress, so I clearly have no problem advertising it.  Perhaps it's more along the lines of "actor I should be ashamed to love."

I know that people are still miffed about her Blind Side Oscar win, but I'm here to defend Sandra Bullock.  It's really a shame, first of all, that it took so long for her to get any kind of recognition - after 20 years in the business.  She's a wonderful actress, in my opinion, and it certainly doesn't help that she seems like possibly the nicest actress working.  Some find her one-dimensional, and I would direct them to some of her best performances that got overlooked.  As far as her slew of romantic comedies go, my favorites are While You Were Sleeping and Miss Congeniality (though the latter is really more of a girl-power movie than a true romantic comedy).  And it turns out she's done some great drama work as well.  Even though Crash was highly overrated come Oscar night, Bullock delivered an out-of-type and complicated performance.  And I think that critics and audiences really downplayed her work in 28 Days as well.  So how do you feel about Ms. Bullock?  Are you willing to concede, along with me, that there's more to her than a girl-next-door romantic lead or are you still one of those stubborn fuddy-duddies still filled with bile over Blind Side?

2 comments:

Robert said...

Good for you for sticking up for Sandra! I'll admit that even though I detested "Blind Side" (and didn't really agree with her win) she was the best thing about it and I actually really liked her in the otherwise kind of horrible "Premonition". She's such a sweetheart and I'm really excited to see what she does with "Gravity".

TomS said...

I hated "Blind Side" with a passion, but it had nothing to do with Bullock specifically. I think she's a pleasant comedienne and a good, light dramatic actress. I wouldn't see a movie simply because she was in the cast (like I would a Meryl Streep film).

This is a hard category; I can never feel ashamed of people I love!

I suppose for the sake of argument, it is sort of unfashionable to think of Ben Affleck as a good actor...But I really do enjoy his screen presence, and he has always managed to be convincing in any role I've seen him play. Yeah, I kind of love him as an actor!