It's Leonardo DiCaprio's Birthday!
Leonardo DiCaprio is hands down one of the best actors of our generation. 40 years from now, people are going to be talking about Leo the same way we talk about Clint Eastwood, Robert DuVall and Paul Newman. He's already a classic. It took me awhile to warm up to DiCaprio. I didn't fall into the "he's so dreamy!" group when he was a teen actor. While everyone else was drooling over his performances in Titanic and Romeo and Juliet I was impressed with his work in Basketball Diaries and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. His acting caught my attention before his looks did.
Now here's my rundown. I had to incorporate "runner ups" because I realized I just like way too much of his stuff. Someone give this guy an Oscar already!
My Favorite Film: The Departed It's really, REALLY hard to pick a favorite Leo film. I love Gangs of New York, but that's mostly because of Daniel Day-Lewis. I love Blood Diamond, but that's mostly for Djimon Hounsou. I went with The Departed because that film was the whole package to me. I hate heist/mob films. While Departed was much more than that the team of DiCaprio and Scorcese made me love something that I didn't expect to love. He was fantastic in it, and what happens to his character at the end of the film still blows my mind. Runner up: The Aviator
My Least Favorite Film: The Beach This film was boring as hell, plain and simple. I like to pretend Leo and Danny Boyle never made this. Runner Up: The Man in the Iron Mask
Most Bizarre/Fun/Random: Inception It's almost like this category was designed for the mind f**k that is Inception. I sill love this film for everything it is. It's also my only A+ review so far this year. Great performance from Leo, and pretty much my dream cast and director. You can't go wrong. Runner Up: Shutter Island
Most Underrated: What's Eating Gilbert Grape When people talk about all the great things Leo's done, most cases start with The Basketball Diaries and move forward. Or they'll go with his stint on Growing Pains. Sure Grape is mostly about Johnny Depp, but DiCaprio owned every scene he was in. I remember watching this and thinking "Ok, this guy is so much more than the hot guy from Titanic." I'm actually glad I saw some of his other films first before I caught this one. It's what drew me in when I originally had doubts. Runner Up: This Boy's Life
Film To See: Body of Lies? It didn't get the best reviews, but going through his list it's the only film of his that I haven't seen. I suppose I haven't seen The Quick and The Dead yet either. Opinions?
definitely agree that he is one of the best in his generation. my favorite is probbably The Departed too, followed by Blood Diamond. I too really didn't like him for many years and never thought he was that attractive. but over the pas several years he's definitely proved himself. he's due for an oscar.
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