Right before Platoon, Stone made a movie called Salvador with James Woods as a leftist journalist who's a real jerk. It may be his best film.
I thought "Wall Street" was good too. But he went downhill starting with "Talk Radio."
I liked Salvador as well. Even Jim Belushi put in a decent supporting performance. Woods plays a typically arrogant liberal journalist who treats every woman he encounters like sh-t.
Salvador was a good movie. Well, I liked it anyway, possibly because James Woods is the best 'weasel' actor there is and that was one of his best performances.
Here are mine (I'm sure some will disagree). My movie pain threshold is pretty high:
Class 1:
"The English Patient"-some parts were good, great cinematography, but mostly horrible characters I could care less about. Juliet Binoche is a notable exception.
"Casino"-Tired retread of the mafia theme. Actually fell asleep during this one. Know lots of people who love it.
Class 2:
"Finding Nemo" - political PETA garbage way over the top
"Spawn" - my younger cousin dragged me to this stinker
"Action Jackson" - thanks to my buddies in high school
"Showgirls" - went cause I heard it was racy. Ugh.
"Battlefield Earth" - good grief, this stank from the get-go
Class 3:
"Nadja" - rented this Vampire movie and actually stopped it. Very rare that I don't watch a movie through to the end no matter the pain (see Class 2 examples). This is the only one I can think of that I actually shut off and/or walked out.
The mark of a true actor is to portray an exact opposite of your true self.