Did you see "The Aviator"?? "Gangs of New York"?? "Catch Me If You Can"?? "The Departed"?? "Revolutionary Road"??
I admit that a lot of his early stuff was teenage fluff. You guys seem to be discounting him entirely because of that, which seems rather unfair of you to me.
I'm really looking forward to see him in the lead role of the upcoming "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" movie.
TR is my all time American Hero.
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I've seen every movie he's been in...you missed "body of lies" which was a good grown up role for him...and I keep hoping he gets better...in every movie there is just one moment where it appears as though he might have actually achieved "actor status", usually when he's interacting with a better actor...then a couple of scenes later pffffttt!!!
He will never be on par with Eastwood, Wayne, Nicholson, Pacino, DeNiro or even Crowe...might get on the same level as Ledger was...hell even Sandler has more talent right now.
Think of it this way...John Wayne was always John Wayne, no deviation in his character from role to role...still he was so good at it that people loved his movies. With a few exceptions Eastwood was the same way. DiCaprio doesn't have the talent or personality to achieve the same levels any more than Matt Damon...but we still watch their movies just to see what happens. It's entertaining regardless of the level of acting from the male lead.
Now if we were talking about Christian Bale, I'd tell you to go jump in the toilet and take him with you...I think Macauley Culkin could have done as good a job in the last 2 Batman movies...
