Here is a list of the top 10
1. Al Pacino 2. Robert De Niro 3. Tom Hanks 4. Kevin Spacey 5. Harrison Ford 6. Jack Nicholson 7. Anthony Hopkins 8. Sean Connery 9. Ewan McGregor 10. Cary Grant.

My comments on these poll results :

Al Pacino performance in SCENT OF A WOMAN was IMHO the best I have ever seen .

Robert De niro would have been not too far behind . His performance in AWAKENINGS was nothing but a an act of a genious . His portrayal of the American mid-west Vietnam war Hero in THE DEER HUNTER is simply unforgetable .

Tom Hanks , in third place , I can hardly subscribe to, BUT he would definitely be remembered for many years with his stellar portrayal of an Americal anti hero as FORREST GUMP .

Jack Nicholson , in 6th place , deserves the rating with his act of a genious performance in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST ( Ravi ! that was 5 years before your production ) . An unforgetable performance .

Anthony Hopkins ? I wouldn't include him in top 10 . Better Shakespearian British actors such as Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton were around and missed the placing .

I like the ULTIMATE MALE , the most famous scottsman , MR 007 . So being bias , i will subscribe to his inclusion .He is so charismatic he'll have to deserve the honour.

The other five actors ? Not my cup of tea and definitely do not deserve a top ten listing .

Who would I include instead of ?

Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON .Arguably the best western ever filmed .He was my childhood hero . So again I am pretty biased here .

Richard Burton in LOOK BACK IN ANGER was phenomenol , And his role in BECKET as Thomas Becket with Peter O'toole and John Gilgood was one of the best ever performances to date .

Marlon Brando's portrayal of Don Corleone in the GODFATHER , a once in lifetime action , as well as his unforgetable role as Stan Kowalski in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE .

Dustin Hoffman , TOOTSIE , as an unemployed actor , who had to take a female role and became a star , would have to be in the topten .

Spencer Tracy in Hemingway's classic , OLD MAN AND THE SEA . He was well before my time , but that role was simply hillarious .

Humphrey Bogart in CASABLANCA . He was my father's hero as well as the ultimate male lover in the movies ( so they say . I'm too young for that generation ) .

Would be interesting to topten the female actresses ?
In # 1 Meryl Streep would have no rivals . Who would follow her in the next 9 places ? cheers eG

Nice little distraction from shares and financial matters, egilmore. Let's further the discussion and invite opinions about top ten films of all time.

My own list would include .....
The Usual Suspects
Moulin Rouge (yeah, I know, people either love it or hate it)
Casablanca
The Big Chill
Pulp Fiction

I'll think about it some more. I've seen 4 movies (at the movies, not on video or DVD) this week, and it's still only Thursday!!
The Magdalene Sisters is a gem of a flick!

Judy

hey jude
Try a fifth one : RUSSIAN ARK . Dont worry about the plot . It is a 2 hours of incredible free of charge tour of one of the most beatiful palaces/museums in the world : The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg / Russia . cheers eG

Well, what the hell..! Warning: eclectic

Male Actors: Larry Olivier, John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce. Yardstick- craft and professionalism

Movies: Godfather 1 and 2, Apocalypse Now, Citizen Kane, Easy Rider.
Yardstick - you couldn't take your eyes off them, and they changed the world in some small way.

Reviewing these, I notice I have chosen all UK actors, all US movies. A coalition of the entertaining...

I still remember seeing The Deer Hunter, yes it was a worthy one. I'm thinking about the female actors category.

Thanks for the tip about 'Russian Ark', egilmore - it's on my list of 'must-see movies'.

Kathy Bates would have to be on my list of top 10 actresses, together with Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. I know the last name might cause a raised eyebrow or 2, but anyone who can make the transition from Satine to Virginia Woolfe deserves to be up there, I reckon.

Here's my favourite non-financial website for any movie buffs out there ...

The Internet Movie Database

http://us.imdb.com/

Now, how about directors?
Rolf de Heer, most definitely.

Jude

Right. Saturday pm, this is my last bit of trivial fun before getting back to work next week. Can’t disagree with any nominees so far.

Actresses, or to be PC, female actors.

Nicole Kidman does better accents than Meryl.
Babs (Streisand) for X-dressing, the other way, in Yentl.
Dame Dench, not my cup of tea, but neither is Dame Edna.
Judy Davis, but not for her political views.
Katherine Hepburn
Ruth Cracknell
Susan Sarandon
Emma Thompson
Vanessa Redgrave
Julia Roberts for Brockovich as well as being one very pretty woman.
Woopie Goldberg, maybe?, and have we seen the last from re-inventive Madonna?
Swedish actresses Greta Garbo & Ingrid Bergman defined the quintessential 20th century mould.

Best of the best, is not even close, in my book. The most perfect performance ever recorded by any actor, male or female, would be JODIE FOSTER as Nell.

So, it can’t be the scripts.

1. Invariably lists ignore crafted performances on the small screen and live stage in favour of Hollywood $$$s.

2. I rate actors in a small cast who can carry a production and comedians who require impeccable timing to be funny, no matter how many takes, are taken.

3. English wouldn’t know good acting because hamming it up, is part of their everyday life, and a preoccupation with cross dressers like Dame Edna, etc.

Judy, would Peter Weir rank in your director list?

When you think about drama, all of these actors are professional liars in an escapist industry. Maybe we should nominate Skase, Adler and Batchelor.

Actors in no particular order of merit.

Gene Hackman, lots of ‘B’ grade and lots of good acting. Gerard Depardeau and LEON of course.

Australasian Sam Neill, has played roles truer to Ian Fleming’s James Bond than any Casino Royale 007. Fleming’s books have become a product placement film franchise. So much so, Mike Myers and Mr. Bean have difficulty positioning their farcical humour.
Guy Pearce & the priscilla gang enjoyed making the film, perhaps a little too much.

American born Patriot, Mad Max, Rob Roy, Mel Gibson, has more chance of following in Ronald Reagan’s footsteps than Arnie the Austrian or Clint Eastwood.
Robert Redford, a quite whispering type, says it with his eyes, (my wife says).
Michael Douglas, was born & breed to Hollywood.

Sidney Poitier, for a Patch of Blue
Denzil Washington, for the Hurricane, etc
Morgan Freeman, various; and
Samuel L Jackson have also done their afro-American brothers proud.

Alan Alda & Danny Divito are funny people, though Robin Williams has also been a Mrs. Doubtful. (Theatre loves X-dressing.)

Heat with De Niro + Pacino would rate as high as the Godfather trilogy. Small screen Gandolfini (Sopranos) is more mafia than the mafia. He is a true family man, like Homer Simpson.
Those midnight cowboys, Voigt & Hoffman, not for New York City but for Runaway Train & Rainman, respectively.

Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise’s dreams. Hugh Grant and Bryan Brown aren’t actors but actually play themselves in front of a lens. Matthew Lloyd, what an actor! though he has been well rehearsed by Sheedy.

Keenan Wynn carried a one-man live show of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Superb acting. Charlton Heston carried a film with apes and became bigger than Ben Hur.

Mr. Bourne, that fight club, math genius, MATT DAMON, is streets ahead of any other contemporary male actors.

Personally, I like quirky Australian flicks. Though they lack a certain memorable quality of global box office succe$$. Can hardly name any but fondly remember most. Best of the rest would be.

Nell
Havana
The Big Chill
The Usual Suspects.... KAISER SOZAY arghhh
The Fall Guy, with Emma & the lanky yank.
Apocalypse Now
Saving Private Ryan
The Godfather trilogy
Goodfellas
Heat, for Al & Robert
Midnight Cowboy, for Voigt & Hoffman though Runaway Train & Rainman are better films.
The Magnificent Seven
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The Conversation
Dr. Zivago
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars
Any Le Carre book in a movie script
Pulp Fiction
Bagdad Cafe
The Professional (aka LEON); and yes even
Mad Max on water, gulp, Waterworld, (aka Kevin Costner’s wet-dream flop).

Maybe we could start a list of movie flops.

Our latest movies:
-1. The Recruit, more De Niro spook stuff.
-2. About Schmidt, only for Jack’s fans. WE HATED IT.
-3. The Nugget.

Our next flick to see: Russian Ark. Better still, if you ever get the opportunity visit St. Petersburg. It has so much more than le Hermitage, Pushkin, Catherine, St Peter & St. Paul’s. It oozes a thousand years of raw humanity & tragedy.

not big on movies,except as an excuse for beer and pizza,but clint eastwoods 'kelly's heroes' is the definitive war flick,ry cooders 'crossroads ' is the definitive road flick[did you hear that ry cooder got bill clinton to grant him permission to get to cuba to do the 'beuno vista social club' only after donating to hilaries fund raising?]blues brothers is IT. romper stomper,chopper,malcom,mad max 1[good aussie stuff] bros rage[me as 10 seconds of screen time] and on the small screen buffy the vampire slayer as a distilation of popular culture ,band of brothers for impact,west wing for use of language[not the wooden martin sheen]

Love this discussion! Thanks for getting us started, egilmore.

Mutt, I would put Peter Weir in my directors list, and also Phil Noyce. Darn, that's 3 Aussies already, with the previously-mentioned Rolf de Heer, and I haven't even thought about overseas directors. The Coen Brothers, Mr Tarantino, Spike Jonze, Orson Welles, Roman Polanski,
Baz Luhrmann ... oops that's another Aussie.

I felt the same way about 'As Good As It Gets' as you did about 'About Schmidt', Mutt. Could have walked out of that movie halfway through, it had so little appeal.

I also love Aussie films - seen Alexandra's Project? That's one to get you thinking.

How about documentaries?
One Day in September
When We Were Kings (excellent, and I hate boxing!)
The Year of the Dogs (likewise, and I can't stand football)
Bowling For Columbine

Recent flops

The Nugget - saw it on DVD, glad I didn't pay to see it on the big screen


Judy

eGilmore, I saw this amazing film today - you were right about the plot, but it was an incredible piece of film-making, using a wonderful part of Russian history as the set, and filmed in one take.
Unfortunately the cinema where I saw it was full of incredibly ignorant people who talked the whole way through the movie. I've decided that when I die, I'm going to haunt noisy cinema-goers and scare them into keeping quiet.
(Sorry about that outburst, but I'm glad I got it off my chest)

Judy

Hi Judy
Russian Ark .
Actually I might re visit it again . Unlike your experience , the Sydney theatre , is sort of a cinemateque venue , and the audience was pretty civilized . I like visiting old palaces . I don't think I'll ever travel to St Petersburg ( ex Leningrad ... ) and this museum/palace ia a gem .
The movie was filmed in one take which lasted 2 hours . There was no editing . It is apparantely the first time in the history of movie making that editing did not take place .
if you ever see a good movie please let me know ...cheers eG