Top 5 Actors That Are More Fun to Watch in Dumb Roles

I was listening to Filmspotting, my favorite movie podcast, on my way up to Portland today, and they made a passing remark about some actor being more fun to watch when they are in dumb roles. By that I mean playing unintelligent characters. Most of the time this shows up in comedic roles, but not always.

So I was thinking about that on my ride, and came up with 5 big actors that have been in a lot of movies and a lot of different roles, but that I have more fun watching in dumb roles. So without further ado, here are my top 5 actors that are more fun to watch in dumb roles.

#5: Billy Bob Thornton
(Slingblade vs. Armageddon)
Remember the dealer from the saloon in Tombstone that Kurt Russel slaps? That's my favorite Billy Bob Thornton role. He plays this local simpleton that gets an attitude check from Wyatt Earp himself, and it's awesome. But if you look at Slingblade, a great movie that he is amazing in, versus the character he plays in Armageddon. He's the head of NASA, and he's boring. He plays the role in the most cookie-cutter way, and it's boring. Or the guy in The Astronaut Farmer. It's a decent movie, but he's nothing special. When Billy Bob is at his best is when he's playing a dumb characters.

#4: John Travolta
(Pulp Fiction vs. Phenomenon)
I chose to use Phenomenon instead of Battlefield Earth, because that just wouldn't be fair. What a shitbox of a movie that was. Anyways, take movies like Phenomenon or Swordfish, and look at Travolta's acting. It's boring. Take Face/Off and Basic. He plays the same character. And while I personally like those last 2 movies, he's not the reason why. But then look at Pulp Fiction. He is awesome as this idiot hitman, borderline iconic. This was a great role, and he was a lot of fun to watch. He got his start as Vinnie Barbarino, the class dullard, so it's no surprise that he's better in those kinds of roles.

#3: Tim Robbins
(Mystic River vs. The Shawshank Redemption)
Tim Robbins has lately made his career out of cameos in which he plays hilarious dumb guys. The ones I can think of are the public news anchor from Anchorman and the crazy, one-legged guy in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. He's hilarious in those movies, and I like watching him even in those than I do in roles like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank. Now don't get me wrong, I like that movie a lot, and think the character of Andy Dufresne is a good one, but I don't really buy him in that role. He just didn't pull off the silent mastermind for me. His role of Dave Boyle in Mystic River is much better in my opinion. It's a similar role, just dumbed down, and with no insults intended, he pulled it off.

#2: Dustin Hoffman
(Rain Man vs. All The President's Men)
First off, I'm not saying All The President's Men is bad, because it's not. In fact, I think it won an Oscar for Best Picture, or at least was nominated. However, if you look at Dustin Hoffman in it, relative to his other roles, he's not as good or fun to watch. He was amazing in Rain Man, and it might be unfair to call this (and Slingblade for that matter) a "dumb" role, but I think it applies. I imagine it was a much bigger stretch to play Raymond Babbitt than it was to play Carl Bernstein. Also, look at him in I Heart Huckabees and Stranger Than Fiction, playing that wacko character with frizzy hair and less-than-conventional philosophies. I love those roles, and they're a lot of fun to watch.

#1: Christopher Walken
(Pulp Fiction vs. Catch Me If You Can)
This is, hands down, an actor that is way more fun to watch in those dumb roles. He plays a lot of wacky roles, but the dumb ones specifically are great. To preface, anything Christopher Walken does is gold, and my favorite role he played was in True Romance. That exchange between him and Dennis Hopper is amazing. However, in general, I like watching his other roles more. The perfect example was that small role he had in Pulp Fiction when he tells that story about how he kept that soldier's pocketwatch in his ass. He delivers it with such seriousness, but I can only imagine how hard it would be to be in that room when they're filming this scene and not explode laughing. I also like him in the dissappointment that was Envy, when he plays this crazy guy that befriends Ben Stiller's character and eventually gets shot with an arrow. These roles kind of ruin his serious roles because, whenever he's on screen, I'm just waiting for something funny to come out of his mouth. So his roles in Catch Me If You Can, The Deer Hunter, and Suicide Kings pale in comparison because he is so funny in so many movies. And as good as they are, they just kind of sit there.

So, there you go, there's my list. I would also like to give honorable mention to Ben Affleck and would use Dazed & Confused vs. Hollywoodland as my example. But what do you guys think? Any that I missed? Anything I am totally off-base on? Let me know in the comments.