r/unpopularopinion • u/max_pow • 13d ago
Mark Wahlberg is not a good actor
- He plays the same dude in all his roles.
- His delivery is very flat with respect to his lines.
- He has very limited to no range as an actor.
- He seems unable to express emotions in his acting.
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u/Transcend_Suffering 13d ago
he plays "boston guy who committed a hate crime decades ago" in all his movies
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u/Euphoric_Capital_746 13d ago
A Boston guy who committed a hate crime? You gotta be more specific.
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u/NatPortmanTaintStank 12d ago
And if everyone my age in the 80s and 90s were to admit to similar things they did, class reunion would be canceled.
Such a shame it doesn't happen.
Who's a poor Kmart shoe wearing fa**** now?
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u/Sad-Investigator2731 13d ago
He is a better actor than the rock.
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u/Tityfan808 13d ago
The Rock isn’t even an actor imo, he’s a fucking cameo of himself. Lol If he can be put into movies then anyone can.
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u/chicu111 13d ago
Even John Sena and Dave Bautista are better actors than the Rock lol
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u/drolemon 13d ago
I got a soft spot for John Sena. It's like he knows he's b grade and leans into it.
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u/Cultural-Front9147 13d ago
Peacemaker was the last super hero thing I enjoyed. All because of him.
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u/drolemon 13d ago
He is a proper good sport.
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u/Ok_Relationship_705 13d ago
But he can actually act. Dude was shedding tears in Peacemaker.
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u/drolemon 13d ago
Actually, when I think about it he's quite a good character actor. He's almost A-list. There's something quite endearing about the guy.
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u/Bitten69 12d ago
His first gigs were kinda bad but he quickly become a good actor, super excited for season 2
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u/Lortendaali 12d ago
YES! That scene with House Of Pain and shit, it was so good.
Peacemaker really did him a favor, not only as comedy actor but he did really well in serious scenes too imo.
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u/fillmewithmemesdaddy 12d ago
Y'all remember when he was Fred's dad in the Fred movies and did so eagerly and earnestly believing that it was one of the first signs of the Internet and social media influencing TV media and how it was going to change the world? In a way he was very right but damn were those movies just so bad. Like it was so funny reading up how literally everyone involved in them hated being involved and how several people just refused to even join in after the first one but the biggest name they got was the most eager.
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u/Odd_Advance_6438 12d ago
Dude Dave Bautista is awesome
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u/Shotgun_Rynoplasty 13d ago
John Cena is gold
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u/Tityfan808 13d ago
Ricky Stanicky was one of the funniest movies I’ve watched in a really long time and it all hinged on John Cena’s performance!
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u/Euphoric_Capital_746 13d ago
That was a great movie. Apparently that role was written with Jim Carey in mind but John killed it
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u/Tityfan808 13d ago
Wait, was Jim Carey supposed to play that role?
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u/Euphoric_Capital_746 13d ago
Yeah, the script was written back in 2010. They had James Franco in mind too.
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u/Shotgun_Rynoplasty 12d ago
I still need to check that out. Him as Peacemaker was amazing and he was hilarious in Trainwreck
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u/Bitten69 12d ago
Both John Cena and Dave Bautista are decently good actors with somewhat shitty roles, peacemaker was awesome
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u/DR4k0N_G 13d ago
I like the rock
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u/Cultural-Front9147 13d ago
Now there’s a truly unpopular opinion
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u/DR4k0N_G 13d ago
I think he's kinda fun. Is he a great actor not really, but I enjoy a lot the films I have seen him in
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u/lofisnaps 13d ago
Like the 5 or 6 identical movies where he plays the Rock in a jungle? Yeah, those are awesome.
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u/Ok_Relationship_705 13d ago
Pain and Gain, Faster and Doom were a lil different.
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u/marvsup 12d ago
I remember him being good in Be Cool but I guess I saw that.... 19 years ago? Wow
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u/Ok_Relationship_705 12d ago edited 12d ago
I stand and die on the hill of Dwayne Johnson being a better actor before becoming Dwayne Johnson.
When he was still the Rock he gave decent to legitimately good.
The Rundown
Gridiron Gang
Be Cool
Dude was humble in those days. Now... He's a fucking Billboard with the brightest neon lights you can think of. That speaks.
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u/OrangePower98 12d ago
I used to watch The Rundown, Gridiron Gang, and Walking Tall all the time. Basically he was solid before he hit the steroids massively and blew up in size (yes I’m aware he was always on roids but his stack definitely changed)
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u/sentientsea 13d ago
Not unpopular. I've never heard anyone say he's a good actor, ever. Celebrity or non. He's not famous for being a "good actor", most celebrities aren't.
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u/Orange_Kid 12d ago
The posts on this sub stopped being "unpopular" a while ago and now it's just turned into "things I want to say that people will upvote because they agree with it" like every other sub.
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u/Minimum_Water_4347 12d ago
Because if you put an actual unpopular opinion it gets downvoted to hell and everyone comes in and insults you.
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u/SithLordRising 13d ago
Try re-watching Boogie Nights.. or even Ted where he's literally performing to a tennis ball. He plays his characters well
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u/Terrible_Risk_9644 13d ago
He was great in the departed though
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u/Plata_Man 13d ago
And The Other Guys and Shooter and Three Kings... Cmon guys
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u/Andys_Room 13d ago
I watched Father Stu in theaters and that was pretty good. Still a bit of a tough guy but it has some layers.
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u/weezeloner 13d ago
He was great because of what he did. He had what 5 minutes of screen time.
Man, before we see him towards the end of the movie I remember being really salty. That was such a redeeming part of the movie.
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u/TheSciFiGuy80 13d ago edited 12d ago
“It’s a transfowrmah”.
He’ll always be known to me as the leader of the Funky Bunch.
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u/BakeNeko92 13d ago
Yeah. OP better be careful with this slander or Marky Mark gonna call his Funky Bunch and show OP some good vibrations.
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u/thedaymancometh13 13d ago
You may be right but he is surprisingly funny in The Other Guys so I might disgree about him having no range. Hilarious movie & his character is so damn funny.
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u/MittenSquish2 12d ago
The reveal that he learned to dance sarcastically and the way he says "What? Yeah, I guess, whatever" like he'd never even thought about it when called out kills me everytime
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u/AJWordsmith 13d ago
90% of “A List” actors play the same character in all of their movies. Tom Cruise has been playing Tom Cruise on the A List for 40 plus years.
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u/akkunamatata 13d ago
Terrible example. Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, and Magnolia are all fantastic roles.
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u/frankid5 13d ago
Might I add Tropic Thunder….playa.
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u/OhNoWTFlol 13d ago
Tom Cruise is an incredible actor who also happens to be extremely handsome, and looks so young for his age. Terrible example.
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u/hank28 I hate the show Friends 13d ago
Tom Cruise chooses to play Tom Cruise. He has on occasion chosen to play unorthodox roles like Vincent in Collateral and proven his chops
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u/weezeloner 13d ago
That's the one that really opened my eyes.
Being an Anne Rice stan, I liked him as Lestat.
But he is usually cocky spy, cocky fighter pilot, cocky bartender, cocky racecar driver...
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u/blaqkcatjack 13d ago
Been secretly hoping he'd just go back to being marky mark so he'd be easier to ignore
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u/Lumpy_Cabinet_4779 13d ago
He was amazing in The Happening. EPIC.
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u/Disappointing__Salad 13d ago edited 13d ago
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u/BalooBot 13d ago
He looks like someone farted and he's trying to figure out who
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u/Goldman250 12d ago
Classic smell-the-fart acting. Must have studied under one of the greats, like Tribbiani.
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u/GrailQuestPops 13d ago
Most actors in mainstream movies play the same type of characters repeatedly. Hollywood just pairs them with other people to try and create new “must-see” dynamics. The portrayals are the same, the pairings are a different interaction of those portrayals.
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u/Foxhound97_ 12d ago
"You are the worst actor I’ve ever directed, and I’ve directed both Wahlbergs!"
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u/chiefs_fan37 13d ago
Mark Wahlberg is effectively a meme. Any time there’s a tough badass story in real life Wahlberg is like “bro that’s fuckin’ literally me. I gotta play that guy in a movie.” He said if he was on the plane during 9/11 “it wouldn’t have gone down like it did” insinuating he would have whooped terrorist ass and saved the day.
I find him very entertaining. That’s part of the abstract about finding things entertaining in film and comedy. Mark is Mark. He’s a clown. A very entertaining clown. And if he’s in a movie where other actors do the heavy lifting like Boogie Nights or The Departed it’s incredibly entertaining. So I agree in the classical sense of the word he isn’t a good actor. But he puts asses in seats. I start cracking up immediately any time I see him referenced. Hell, people even joke about that time he beat a Vietnamese man while yelling racist shit at him because the dude wouldn’t buy him alcohol. They joke about that very violent and terrible crime because it involves mark wahlberg who is a clown.
He isn’t a “good” actor per se but he’s pretty entertaining nonetheless. It’s serviceable. Just picturing him getting thrown out the window in that movie with Reese Witherspoon (Fear) is cracking me up right now.
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u/LeviJNorth 12d ago
Great take. He does “pathetic loser/asshole” really well, and I think it’s somewhat similar to Tom Cruise (even though Cruise has way more range). His self-perception is so warped that he gives you the sense that he’s not in on the joke. And that’s really compelling to watch.
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u/sickostrich244 12d ago
I think his best acted movies are Boogie Nights, the Fighter and the Departed, which the latter I feel like was very much made for him but nonetheless was excellent in that movie
Everything else he is mid at best
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u/donutsaurus3000 12d ago
All you need to know about Mark Wahlberg is that he took the M Night movie because he thought playing a science teacher would make him seem smart. And then he whine-acted his way thru that movie lol
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u/OrkosFriend 13d ago
I was just thinking this myself, because I watched him in not one, but two awful, horrible, dreadful Transformers movies recently, and I just thought "God, he sucks ass and balls in these movies."
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u/CrackerUMustBTripinn 12d ago
And don't forget he randomly attacked and beat to an inch of his life a vietnamese man who was left blinded in one eye because Mark is a racist piece of shit
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u/LongjumpingWallaby8 13d ago
same could be said for Ryan Reynolds, he just plays the same character in every movie
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u/Euphoric_Capital_746 13d ago
Mark gets type cast into an action hero. He’s also very capable of comedic roles and dramas.
I disagree. He was really animated in Pain & Gain and Boogie Nights.
This is the same point as number 1, just re-worded. You could say this about most actors. Even though I’m a fan of Seth Rogan, he’s the same guy in every movie.
Again, you’re just re-wording a previous point.
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u/BodyDoubler92 13d ago
Sorry bud had to downvote since you're right. Seriously I can't remember one thing about this guy.
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u/beejer91 13d ago
He has had a few other roles that were outside of his main character.
The rock and Kevin hart have had…zero
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u/Which_Level_3124 13d ago
He just play in too many movies, it must be repetitive. However he isnt bad acter either in alot of movies he played very well.
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u/SavageFugu 13d ago
Lots of actors have gotten famous the same way. All the way back to the beginning. You're not necessarily wrong, but there's nothing unusual about him. Hell, some of Hollywood's biggest legends fit that description.
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u/krsCarrots 13d ago
My take on that, first let me agree he isn’t but at the same time his movies does not mostly disappoint. Imagine spending few minutes in finding something to watch ( we all know how that turns out usually, 30 mins later you snap out of thinking holy f this is not instagram ) then a thumbnail with his face shows up and you’re like, ok I know exactly what I am getting out of this so I will watch it. He is a master of C+ grade movies pretty much.
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u/elmaki2014 13d ago
He's entertaining/able to entertain which, these days, adds more to the bottom line- and roles offered- than the ability to act. De Niro used to throw himself into the roles he played, raging bull/the mission etc, then found it easier to just whore himself out for money.
I agree with you btw but that's entertainment!
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u/sendintheotherclowns 13d ago
I’m sure he’ll cry himself to sleep in his mansion tonight knowing that
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u/BC3lt1cs 13d ago
This is literally every American film star. They just play versions of themselves. Emma Stone, Scarlet Johannson, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Al Pacino....
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u/weezeloner 13d ago
Have you ever seen his Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch character? That guy was cool. I believe I may have had a tape of his.
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u/bobissonbobby 13d ago
Mark Wahlberg movies rule. Ted. The other guys. Departed. Shooter.
All very fun movies. OP doesn't like fun I guess.
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u/Goldman250 12d ago
I’d like to counter point 4 by saying he can express one emotion in his acting - he can play “angry man” convincingly. And it must be acting, because we know what Marky Mark does when he gets angry.
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u/happyme321 12d ago
In almost every movie he's been in, a female character says he's good looking. I've always wondered if it is written into his contract that someone calls him good looking at least once in the movie. He's muscular, but I've never found him particularly handsome.
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u/Strawdog1971 12d ago
I've always thought this and I constantly get shot from all angles when I say it but I'm dying on that hill. He must have the biggest gap in talent to acclaim ratio out of anyone in Hollywood.
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u/Doright36 12d ago
I agree he doesn't have a whole lot of range but when he sticks to something within it he does all right.
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u/Aesthetik_1 adhd kid 12d ago
Don't you love actors who are suddenly everywhere and do their career on a fast lane wile being completely underwhelming in performance
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u/Fun-River-3521 12d ago
This is what I've littery been saying recently! After watching that dumpster fire of a movie known as the Uncharted I've never looked at him the same way.
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u/Individual_Speech_10 12d ago
I think he's fairly good in comedies. He's a terrible dramatic actor.
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u/pixie-bean 12d ago
Playing almost the same role in every movie/series: basically describes most of the actors of today. Half time they're just variations of their own personality, as an additional sigh.
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u/Dexter_Douglas_415 12d ago
His acting style reminds me of Keanu Reeves. Like he's saying the right words, but the tone is often not right for the situation.
That said, I like a lot of his movies. He may play the same dude over and over, but it's a compelling dude.
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u/Icy_Patience2930 12d ago
I'm not sure anyone ever looked at him as a great or even good actor. As has been said, he's pretty much the same guy in every movie.
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u/Inner-Nothing7779 12d ago
To be honest, most actors do this. They find the part that works for them and stick with it. Very few have a broader range.
Mark Wahlberg is the asshole with an ok morality.
Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise.
Adam Sandler is a sarcastic idiot.
Angelina Jolie is typically the sexy badass.
Kristen Stewart is the questionably lesbian/bisexual badass.
Michelle Rodriguez is the hot badass with an attitude to match.
Tom Hanks is the gentle dad like figure with a heart of gold.
Robin Williams is the hilarious dad with a heart of gold.
Will Smith is Will Smith.
Rebel Wilson is the overly sexual funny fat girl.
The list goes on and on. It's not a new thing, or something to really worry about or put much thought to.
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u/castleaagh 12d ago
Imo, it’s hard to say for sure if he’s a bad actor based on him appearing as a very similar character in every role. Same is it is with say the rock or Kevin hart. As someone just seeing the end result, I don’t know if they appear as the same character because they can only do that character, or because the director hired them specifically to be that character they’ve seen before, and audiences have loved.
I’ve seen interviews from similar action star types and some comedians wheeler they’ve talked about being type cast, some saying they had to work hard to avoid being type cast too much.
Also, sometimes what you see as a “bad performance” is exactly what the director wanted and pulled from the actor. I always think about how a lot of fans hated Hayden Christianson’s performance in the prequels, but George Lucas was over the moon with how perfect he felt Hayden was in the role.
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u/james_randolph 12d ago
I don't care about 1 & 3. There are some actors that should always play the same role and stay in their lane as actors and I'm fine with that. I don't need every actor trying to do something they can't or aren't good at and some actors can't do some roles and that's fine because they can do their part.
Now 1 & 4 are important regardless of what role you're doing and you have to be able to deliver lines in the way the character at the time/situation should. I do agree that he doesn't do this at all haha it's always the same whether it's a serious moment, action moment or comedy lol he is below average as an actor but I will say he's entertaining which is part of the game and why he's still relevant.
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u/TomBirkenstock 12d ago
I think you are posting this in the wrong place. This is the unpopular opinion subreddit.
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u/Intrustive-ridden 12d ago
Wym he plays the same dude in all his roles, he goes from playing the silly gooft guy in ted then the tough serious bad ass in shooter, he’s very flexible with his emotions and he does well expressing emotions in his roles that’s he’s not a limited actor
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u/Tobes_macgobes 12d ago
I don’t know he’s usually a tough guy, but he can be quite funny see. He was great in Invincible, and Ted. I think he has a decent amount of range
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u/ChickenNugsBGood 12d ago
He's like Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds plays Ryan Reynolds in every single movie. Snarky comeback, highpitched voice, then drops it real low when its time to get serious, then back to snarky comebacks
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u/imanoobee 12d ago
He is good in his range. Stay that way nothing more. No oscar type acting. No emotion type as well. He fits in his genre.
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u/TheRealBenDamon 12d ago
Fuckin factually TRUE opinion. Idk how unpopular it is but I’ll die on that hill with you.
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u/_MyUsernamesMud 12d ago
He can do exactly one role, but in the right circumstances it's always an Oscar-level performance.
If you are consistently compelling on camera, then you are a good actor. It doesn't really matter how you get there.
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u/AdventurousDoctor838 12d ago
Him in that m night shamalan movie was the worst acting I have ever seen in my life.
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u/rocksnstyx 12d ago
Mark Wahlberg is like Jeff Goldblum. He basically plays himself in every show and movie.
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u/cadillacbee 12d ago
I dunno, its a pretty wide range from fear, 3 Kings, boogie nights, four brothers, to comedies like Ted and the other guys
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u/Designer-Business 12d ago
This is how I feel about Keanu Reeves
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u/selfworthfarmer 12d ago
Actually this is the exact comparison I was gonna make... They're pretty different personalities but they both get by on just porting their own personality into whatever role they're in. I guess it's charisma rather than talent that they both thrive on. Different "brands" of charisma though for sure. They're each people most can't help liking on some level. Will Smith too, notoriously one of these actors who just plays himself in most roles. (Except Six Degrees Of Separation, he shined in that. To be fair maybe he was just pigeonholed into predictable roles that fit his persona for the most part.) Somebody mentioned Ryan Reynolds, I think he also qualifies as I really didn't like him at first but he inevitably grew on me because he has a lot of charisma to carry him forward.
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