[Blarg]

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The standard answer will be Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and either Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, or Tom Hanks.

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Dustin Hoffman and especially Tom Hanks aren't worth spit compared to Jack Nicholson. And I'm a guy who likes Hoffman. Hanks isn't even on the radar.

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I don't really understand the Hanks thing. I don't even like any movies he is in.

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I think he's likeable, and American movies will always plenty of room for a likeable everyman, like Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, or Tom Hanks. But an easy, down to earth persona doesn't make Hanks a particularly interesting actor to me, just a character type that's good for many standard American movie roles.

I can't imagine ever watching him be particularly compelling or interesting. No DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Pacino, Hoffman, etc. momemts seem ever likely to come out of him. Nothing that's going to blow you away -- or anyway blow me away. I can't seem him deciding to play a character with dangerous quirks or much evil, or even conflict, in his heart. Nobody interesting, in other words. He's there like an amorphous blob easy enough for anybody at all to identify with, because he's so reliably flat and plain, in stories that will never really stretch his range.

Maybe someone will think that's unfair, because Hanks is so easy to like. He's just not a particularly interesting screen presence to me, and I don't expect any surprises from him for the rest of his career.