Top 5: Angelina Jolie Goes To Acting School

I'm in the mood to post again today but my house is cold like an ice box and i can't concentrate on telling you how good Down Terrace is right now so I thought i'd back down on my original statement that i wouldn't write lists of movies, Top 5 films starring Dustin Hoffman that doesn't feature an excellent performance from a toothbrush type stuff. Is there even one?

We've been discussing Will Smith recently and sat through Independence Day for the first time in forever last night and the conversation drifted around to just why some people become stars. Will Smith was still making The Fresh Prince when he was cast in Bad Boys and Independence Day but in these films he owns every scene he is in, to the point where you really can't comprehend that he wasn't already the biggest movie star in the world at that point. But why is Angelina Jolie a star?

So here is my list. Top 5 Angelina Jolie movies and an attempt to discover why she is famous.

1. Hackers (1995)

A movie made so well that you can switch it on half way through without realising and still know everything there is to know about the film. Whilst the 'star' was Johnny Lee Miller for me Angelina made me pay most attention, the hacker who liked to wear the oddest clothes imaginable incluing a neon blue tight fitting cycling top that pre-empted Tomb Raider by a long way.

2. Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

She's only the love interest of Nic Cage in a supremely enjoyable yet silly car chase movie yet when you think about the flick you remember that she had won an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted that same year and wonder why she felt the need to look like an albino rastafarian. You never even think of the stellar ensemble cast which included Araki favourite James Duvall and post Scream 2 pre Deadwood/Hitman/Die Hard 4/Justified megastar Timothy Olyphant.

3. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

This movie was shot entirely in front of a blue screen, it's remarkably similar in theme to an Indiana Jones movie and Angelina was fresh off of the 'success' of the Tomb raider Movies. Paired with Jude Law this movie won my vote for must miss film of the year based on that casting alone but as a forerunner to the current trend for steampunk literature it was ctually quite enjoyable.

4. Playing God (1997)

A David Duchovny vehicle? If it was it didn't take him further than straight to the VHS bargain bin. He was still doing The X Files when this movie was being ignored by everybody. His character feels like the basis for Hank in Californication at times, there's some fun dialogue, some cheesey British accents and Ms. Jolie plays the refreshingly ordinarily named Clare, a gangsters wife who is a half assed version of the femme fatale. Made the same year as Gia in which she gets naked. I know which film of 1997 helped push her towards stardom.

5. Changeling (2008)

Clint Eastwood is getting better and better it seems. In one year he made the superb, yet simple Gran Torino and this fine melodrama. Ange shows she can actually act, for the first time since Girl, Interrupted in 1999 perhaps, and the costumes are really pretty.




So this proves what? A talented actress can get famous by taking her clothes off and putting in one decent performance every 10 years? That being born in to a Hollywood family and taking your clothes off equals mega money? Hollywood is so devoid of ideas that putting a masculine woman into action films instead of a man means they can make more money and Juliet Lewis and Hillary Swank have no interest in taking the roles so every single terrible idea for a female centred action movie gets offered to the female half of Brangelina? I dunno. But I really struggled to pick 5 and keep myself away from being overly sarcastic.