BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) ARMEGEDDON
Bruce Willis runs an oil drilling company with his cast of misfit workers. One of his workers, Ben Affleck falls in love with Bruce’s daughter (Liv Tyler) much to his dismay. Then all hell breaks loose when a metor shower sends a huge asteroid towards Earth. If they don’t stop it, the entire human race may become extinct. So... they send the oil drillers to space to blow it up… for some reason. You’re reading this, so obviously they did their job. It’s hard to believe this came out in 1998. I don’t really like the movie all that much, but Ben was cool in it. His job was to play a dude good enough for Bruce Willis to die over so he could live happily with his daughter.
(THREE) DOGMA
In what on the surface seems like a silly and vulgar performance, Ben Affleck’s “Bartleby” was awesome. He and Matt Damon(as “Loki”) are banished angels. They are exiled to Wisconsin for all of eternity and they’ve grown mean and bitter. When a church declares that entered their doors clears you of sin, they decide to travel to New Jersey to be able to go “home”. It comes to find out that if they do this, it goes against God’s word and will end all of everything. We come to find out that this doesn’t matter as Ben so emotively reveals that he’d rather not exist than carry on in pain. In the midst of all the laughs, you can start to feel the pain of Affleck as he’s desperate to end his situation at all costs. The stuff at the end when his wings are shot off is good stuff.
(TWO) HOLLYWOODLAND
He’s not the main lead in this 2006 movie, but the death of his character George Reeves is the main focus. The movie is about stuff that really went down. Ben plays George Reeves, the man famous for playing Superman at the time. I remember seeing this and being amazed by how much Ben transformed himself. Kevin Smith has said about a billion times that he’d cast Ben as anything, including the shark from JAWS. This performance makes me believe Smith’s love fest. I thought his work in this movie should have merited him much more attention and praise.
(ONE) CHASING AMY
I still consider this 1997 romantic comedy the movie Ben Affleck shines the most. On a “Top Kevin Smith Movie” list, Chasing Amy would be in the same spot. Ben Affleck plays “Holden McNeil” character perfectly. In this movie we capture a moment in time that it’s pretty safe to say everyone can relate to. He wants, he gets, and then he can’t handle what he’s got. The plot, as great as it is, isn’t the reason Ben rocks it. To me, this is the most “everyday person” Ben has ever played. He’s not solving the world’s problems, shooting guns, or being overly silly. He’s a human with tons of emotion… and range… on display. His monologue towards the end is still his single best display of acting. That’s not saying his other work isn’t great, but that performance is just his greatest.
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