Movies What is your opinion of Mark Wahlberg as an actor?

[HereticBD]

He's good at what he does, but you will only see slight variations of himself on screen. Not a big knock, as plenty of actors are fine just playing slightly different versions of themselves, but I doubt you'll ever see him in a big breakout performance that's totally off the wall for him, like you do with a Christian Bale, or Gary Oldman. "Boogie Nights" is about as close as you'll get to seeing Wahlberg step a little outside of his comfort zone.

 

[MichiganMMA1978]

He's a peacock, you just gotta let him spread his wings and fly.

 

[bigkick]

I still have a hard time getting over the fact that Wahlberg has been charged multiple times for racist hate crimes when he was younger and he paid for his crimes by becoming a rich and successful celebrity.

In 1986, a then 15-year-old Wahlberg and three friends were charged for chasing three black children and pelting them with rocks while yelling: “Kill the n*****s” until an ambulance driver intervened.

The next day, Wahlberg harrassed another group of mostly black children (around the age of nine or 10) at the beach, gathering other white men to join in racially abusing and throwing rocks at them.

He called one man, Thanh Lam, a “Vietnam f***ing s***” and knocked him unconscious with a five-foot wooden stick, while punching another man, army veteran Johnny Trinh, in the eye later in the same day. Officers reported that Wahlberg used racist slurs to describe both men.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...story-george-floyd-blm-protests-a9554191.html

A friend of mine grew up down the street from him, in Braintree I think. Said Walhberg was juiced up and had a Napoleon complex from a young age. The criminal stuff sounds pretty typical for Massholes, esp around that time. Guy really lucked out. Listening to him talk about meditation, etc., these days make me cringe…

 

[MicroBrew]

I still have a hard time getting over the fact that Wahlberg has been charged multiple times for racist hate crimes when he was younger and he paid for his crimes by becoming a rich and successful celebrity.

In 1986, a then 15-year-old Wahlberg and three friends were charged for chasing three black children and pelting them with rocks while yelling: “Kill the n*****s” until an ambulance driver intervened.

The next day, Wahlberg harrassed another group of mostly black children (around the age of nine or 10) at the beach, gathering other white men to join in racially abusing and throwing rocks at them.

He called one man, Thanh Lam, a “Vietnam f***ing s***” and knocked him unconscious with a five-foot wooden stick, while punching another man, army veteran Johnny Trinh, in the eye later in the same day. Officers reported that Wahlberg used racist slurs to describe both men.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...story-george-floyd-blm-protests-a9554191.html

I was aware of his racist assault on the Vietnamese American but didn't know of the racist stuff against the Black kids. Amazing isn't it, that he can get away with all that in today's 'woke' / 'cancel culture' world. Dude is super priviledged to be able to shug it off.

 

[crabmeat]

A friend of mine grew up down the street from him, in Braintree I think. Said Walhberg was juiced up and had a Napoleon complex from a young age. The criminal stuff sounds pretty typical for Massholes, esp around that time. Guy really lucked out. Listening to him talk about meditation, etc., these days make me cringe…

Worked with a guy that lived Quincy, but always stayed in Braintree on weekends with friends. Pretty much said the same thing about the guy. He seemed to be a well known as a car thief in the neighborhood, too.

 

[StoneColdSteveAustin]

He’s a bad actor.

In fact his acting is so bad it’s one of the reasons Boogie Nights was so great. If you took him out of that role and added a well trained actor the movie wouldn’t have had the same appeal. His badness added to the character.

 

[StoneColdSteveAustin]

He's good at what he does, but you will only see slight variations of himself on screen. Not a big knock, as plenty of actors are fine just playing slightly different versions of themselves, but I doubt you'll ever see him in a big breakout performance that's totally off the wall for him, like you do with a Christian Bale, or Gary Oldman. "Boogie Nights" is about as close as you'll get to seeing Wahlberg step a little outside of his comfort zone.

how could boogie nights be out of his comfort zone when it was like his second really big movie. FEAR being his real first big movie role.


He didn’t make enough movies to be out of a comfort zone at the time.

 

[HaulParris]

He's a one-note actor, adept at playing an angry guy. He was good in "The Fighter", but that was a great film with a stellar supporting cast.

 

[djacobox372]

He's okay at playing himself... so he's fine as long as he's playing an unlikeable, aggressive narcissist.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

He's a decent actor at best, he just makes the cut. I don't think highly of him as an actor at all. I actually prefer his brother as an actor.

 

[Pizza Werewolf]

He basically plays the jersey toughguy persona fairly well but becomes very bland at anything else.

Exactly. Every time he's attempted to move beyond those types of roles the results have been rather painful to watch IMO.

Nah bros, he is like a Boston asshole.
Have either of you actually been to New Jersey?

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

As an actor, do you think he is good, bad , meh ?

Only movies I saw with Wahlberg are the Transformers movies, Planet of the Apes and The Departed. Except for the first Transformers movie, have not seen the others from start to finish. My recollection of Wahlberg is that his performance was not memorable, just kinda meh.

So interesting of a coincidence. I saw this Oil platform catastrophy movie lately and was impressed. I thought he was solid in it.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I still have a hard time getting over the fact that Wahlberg has been charged multiple times for racist hate crimes when he was younger and he paid for his crimes by becoming a rich and successful celebrity.

In 1986, a then 15-year-old Wahlberg and three friends were charged for chasing three black children and pelting them with rocks while yelling: “Kill the n*****s” until an ambulance driver intervened.

The next day, Wahlberg harrassed another group of mostly black children (around the age of nine or 10) at the beach, gathering other white men to join in racially abusing and throwing rocks at them.

He called one man, Thanh Lam, a “Vietnam f***ing s***” and knocked him unconscious with a five-foot wooden stick, while punching another man, army veteran Johnny Trinh, in the eye later in the same day. Officers reported that Wahlberg used racist slurs to describe both men.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...story-george-floyd-blm-protests-a9554191.html

You bitch, should he rot in hell for stupid shit he did when he was 15?

 

[FyrFytr998]

He can play working class/law enforcement/tough guy types from New England, in actions, dramas, or comedies. Limited range, but good at what he does. That’s my opinion.

 

[Joe_Armstrong]

He has some good vibrations



Tthat was 30 years ago, where does the time go.

 

[AgentSmecker]

He's about as charismatic as a wet blanket. I generally tend to avoid his movies.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Meh.

He has no range & he basically seems to be playing variations on the same guy over & over again. Definitely not one of my favorites.

He is very limited.

On the bright side you know what you are getting with him.

 

[bjjHERRERA]

not a great actor who has been in some great movies where he excells at playing himself

 

[ReligiousDiscipline]

You bitch, should he rot in hell for stupid shit he did when he was 15?

Terrorizing black children and severely beating a man unconscious with a big stick is far worse than just some mere stupid shit. We all did stupid shit when we were young like minor vandalism and petty theft, but the majority of us didn't aggressively harass people over the color of their skin and violently assault people with weapons.

I understand even the worst scumbag can be redeemed, but Wahlberg barely got a slap on the wrist given the severity of his crimes.

 

[ufcfan4]

Does strong work in the right roles-

for instance, I thought he and Baldwin stole every scene they were in in The Departed which is impressive given that they were amidst a lot of heavy hitters.

I thought he did well in The Fighter even though it was tough not to get overshadowed by Bale, Leo, and Adams. He was very good in the underrated Patriot’s Day. He did well in the intense Lone Survivor. He can also hold his own in comedy. He and Ferrell had an awesome dynamic in The Other Guys for instance.

Oh and one of his signature roles- Boogie Nights- I’d actually say that’s probably his best performance where he is borderline excellent. He really just captures the naïveté and good-natured ignorance of that character really well. So you feel the downfall as he gets corrupted. That scene with Molina has some amazing work from a great actor in Alfred, another great actor in Reilly, and from the consistently solid Tom Jane but Mark hangs right in there with them. Great moment when he just stares into the distance while Jesse’s Girl plays.

Sure he doesn’t have much range, but he is capable of quite good work.