True – I did waver a little with Dogma. Though mainly because I’d always wanted to see Matt Damon in chainmail.

Affleck stopped endearing himself to me after a particularly noxious speaking engagement at Oxford during the time he was filming Shakespeare In Love. Gwyneth Paltrow was there too, and she was a proper stroppy cow as well. So, when I see Affleck’s ‘arrogant bastard’ schtick on screen, I realise that it’s not that much of an act.

And yes, Matt Damon is to acting what concrete boots are to buoyancy.

The Boiler Room?

I agree with Jack’s (what I take to be a) suggestion: his small role in _Boiler Room_ was terrific. Of course, he’s playing a smarmy a-hole, so maybe this is, ah, not inconsistent with the general line of argument being developed here….

(Vin Diesel was surprisingly good in that movie, too.)

Guess I’m the excpetion here, but I really liked Dogma, largely in spite of Affleck. I do think he was the worst part of Dazed and Confused, playing the sadistic, pathetic guy who intentionally fails to graduate so he can paddle and abuse freshmen two years in a row. It’s actually not a bad role for him, playing someone who is “kind of a joke.”

I seem to remember getting into a rather bitter argument about whether Affleck’s little turn in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ was deliberately and intentionally wooden (I think he was playing a thesp), or that simply being the way he ‘acts’.

I’m guessing (hoping?) the “Casablanca” rumor is just smoke. It seems to have faded from public discussions, and there’s no reference to it on IMDB (usually a good barometer for these things).

I think the problem comes because Affleck has been defined as a ‘star’ so he only gets the ‘rather straight, square-jawed, leading man roles’ when he’s actually better playing losers and bad guys – his best bits in Dogma are at the end, when he’s gone mad and he’s also quite good as the bad guy in Mallrats, so perhaps it’s a Kevin Smith thing.

He was good in Changing Lanes as well, but again I think that’s because he’s playing up the most annoying parts of the preppy persona.

And to completely lower the tone, his ‘appearance’ in South Park was rather good.

Ben Affleck always was and always will be a terrible, horrible actor. I remember when I saw Chasing Amy and thought, too bad they didn’t have a big enough budget to attract a decent actor. I was amazed when I found out he was getting other parts after that movie. The best you can say about his acting is that he is good in certain, limited roles like the one he played in Boiler Room. But an angry, agressive, macho guy is quite simply the easiest role for a male actor to play. Beginning acting classes actually have exercises designed to help men play other types of roles.
So anyway, I went and saw Gigli last night. Truly a misguided film. Parts had great camp value, but parts were just tedious. Ben Affleck was required to hold several minutes of screen time all by himself and several minutes acting opposite a “retard” character who has some unspecified “brain damage” and acts alternately like an Tourette’s victim, an autistic, a la Rain main, and a schizophrenic when he is not just a plot device or rapping “old school.” It’s painful to watch Affleck. He is just simply not up to the task. I suppose the intention of the scene was suppossed to have some comedic charm, but it’s not there on the screen. My girlfriend asked me, “Do you think any actor could have done something with this script?” Probably not, the script’s pretty bad, but it almost seemed designed to show off Affleck’s weakness. Of course by the end of the movie the lesbian hitwoman has fallen for him.

Okay turn in Boiler Room. I thought he was not too bad in Reindeer Games, but you’d have to check with the other eight people who actually saw that film in order to be sure.