Brad Pitt

I have a non-sexual crush on Brad Pitt. He has been my favorite actor for a long time and I just think he's a pretty cool dude. I always loved the roles he would take and the fact that for being a huge Hollywood superstar, he seems pretty down to earth and likable. Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that 'Legends of the Fall' is my 7th favorite movie (if you still don't know what 1-6 are by this point, well . . . then I just don't know what to say). And Brad's performance as Tristan is a huge part of that. For me, he is an actor who can really deliver and perfectly embody the role he is playing. When I watch my favorite movies of his, I don't see Brad Pitt. I see Tristan and Mickey and Tyler Durden.

But unfortunately I have been pretty disappointed with him of late. And by of late I mean the past few years. It started about four years ago with the debacle over 'The Fountain'. When I first heard about this project I was really excited cuz I was going to get to see my favorite actor work with my favorite director of the moment. And from everything I had heard this was supposed to be the best sci-fi film since Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' (for the record I think this is a terrible movie; I'm just using the term "the best" since this is how the critics feel I guess). But then him and Arofonosky couldn't get along and he left to do 'Troy'. Ughhhh. 'Ocean's 11' came out shortly thereafter. I liked that movie for what it was, but I wasn't really expecting the following mainstream, commercial stuff that came in its wake.

I have not been too impressed with 'Troy', 'Ocean's 12', and 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'. I was actually quite intrigued with the latter when I saw the original teaser poster of the pair of them just standing there dressed in black (this was before they added the guns to the photo). I was still tolerating Angelina Jolie back then and I remember saying to myself, "This could be interesting." Well, it was but in a different sort of way. Of course we all know the media fracas that this became. I was pretty disappointed in Brad for cheating on his wife and the tabloid circus never really helped. I'm pretty sick and tired of hearing about Brangelina and Maddox and Shiloh Nouvel the Namibian Wonder-Baby and second secretive pregnancies and fights between ex-wives and girlfriends and all of that. I want to get back to movies.

I've lost my crush status with Brad Pitt. Now I am more interested in other actors and their projects. Actors like Edward Norton, Matt Damon, and Paul Giamatti. But I'm still holding out hope. I hope that he gets back to making good films and playing off-beat roles instead of simple star vehicles. I miss the days of 'Se7en', 'Fight Club', '12 Monkeys', 'True Romance', and 'Snatch'. I miss the period epics. I miss 'Legends' and 'Seven Years in Tibet'. So hopefully this new Jesse James flick he stars in will make the grade. And the tabloid hubbub has to die down eventually. So I guess we'll just see then.