Ben Affleck strikes me as the kind of actor that catches a lot of heat when he does something that people construe as wrong in a role and not enough credit when he actually performs well. For some reason people love to rag on the guy for the parts that he likely should have never taken and then say ‘meh’ when he’s proven to be the perfect guy for the role he’s in. Right now a lot of folks are either up in arms or breathing sighs of relief considering that he’s no longer DC’s answer to their Batman issue, but whoever comes after him is going to have a lot of damage control to take care of since quite honestly the Batman name has been kind of raked through the muck and then some in the past several years. You can’t really blame Affleck though, he got there at a point when Batman was trying to make a comeback but didn’t have the strength to keep climbing after Nolan was done with him.
Here are a few movies that Affleck did pretty well in.
5. Boiler Room
He hasn’t always had the biggest roles in some movies but that seems to suit him at times since he comes in, has his say, and then leaves eventually. Plus when he’s able to get to the point and then just make his way out it gives him that much more of a presence, as though you’re waiting for him to come back but he’s not going to just on demand. Affleck is someone that should have been kept as a character actor for a lot longer and then allowed to slowly and gradually make his way into a lead role. As a supporting actor he’s great, but as a lead he kind of lacks a few things that others have in spades.
4. Smokin’ Aces
It seems as though a lot of people expected him to last longer in this movie when in reality he was never slated for more than the minor role he received. Yes, it was kind of surprising when his character was gunned down and left for dead at such a point in the movie but at the same time it doesn’t feel like his small group would have matched up all that well against the other assassins that were making their way towards Buddy Israel. After all the caliber of killers that were going after the guy were experts at infiltration and mayhem and he was a bail bondsman with two ex-cops on his crew. Not a lot of faith for that trio.
3. Dazed and Confused
It actually seems fitting to see him as a bully when he was younger since he does have that capacity to overact and to seem overly aggressive when it’s not called for in life. Of course he does get his payback eventually and it is pretty funny to see his bully act turned into the petulant whining of someone that expects to wail on people and never be dealt anything close to an evenhanded blow himself. That’s not how life always works, is it? The bullies in life do eventually get their comeuppance, though sometimes we have to wait for a while until karma decides to get around to it and make things right.
2. The Accountant
There’s something about Affleck and action movies that doesn’t always go together but in this one he actually did a good job since his character didn’t call for any real overacting. Instead he had to be calm, poised, and ready to spring at a moment’s notice but more importantly he didn’t get to let that famous personality out as much. Maybe that’s the trick, he can play a stone-cold killer so long as he doesn’t get the chance to let his otherwise friendly nature out and thereby ruin the effect. But in all honesty he did do a pretty good job here and the fighting scenes were even impressive to watch.
1. Good Will Hunting
When your best friend can be 100 percent honest and tell you that if you’re still around in 20 years that he’ll kill you there’s a message to be had there and it has nothing to do with hate. It typically means that they want something that much better for you and won’t accept it if you don’t take that brass ring and run with it. Chucky might not have been the wisest guy in the world but he knew what he wanted for Will and he knew that no matter how good of a friend he would always be, Will wasn’t meant for the life of a rough and tumble worker. It wasn’t just that he was super-intelligent, it was that he could have pretty much anything he wanted if he just applied himself. People that let that slip are insulting everyone around them without even knowing it.
So yes, Affleck does overact a bit sometimes, but he does have some great roles out there.
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