The Best and Worst of Paul Giamatti

Film Starring Paul Giamatti That I've Seen:
The Truman Show
Dr. Doolittle
Saving Private Ryan
Big Momma's House
Planet of the Apes 
Big Fat Liar
Robots
Lady in the Water 
Shoot 'Em Up
Win Win
The Hangover Part II
The Ides of March 
John Dies at the End
12 Years a Slave
The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Best Performance: Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
Giamatti's most underrated quality an actor is how game he is for ridiculous roles. He slayed as a journalist who doesn't know he's dead in the batshit crazyy horror comedy John Dies at the End and delivered some of the biggest laughs in The Hangover Part II as a pissed-off undercover Interpol agent forced to deal with the Wolfack's shenanigans in Bangok. However, Giamatti's finest piece of over-the-top acting came in the bloody, ridiculous cult classic Shoot 'Em Up. Giamatti lights up the screen as Karl Hertz, a deranged hitman hired by a presidential candidate (Stephen McHattie) to kill a baby that's set to donate bone marrow to his cancer-stricken opponent (Daniel Pilon). Giammati approaches the role with the perfect balance of humor and insanity and makes Hertz a top-notch B-movie villain.

Worst Performance: Lady in the Water (2006)
Director M. Night Shyamalan tends to bring out the worst in every actor he works with and Giamatti's work as the lead in Lady in the Water is no exception. From the time the film opens, Giamatti looks ashamed to be associated with such a ridiculous film and it shows with his indifferent, stone-face performance.

Best Film: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
War films are a slippery slope as they often tow the line between telling a compelling, complex story about American heroes and serving as brainless propaganda that only exists to reaffirm American's love of their country. Steven Speilberg's Saving Private Ryan is the best example of the former I've ever seen. The battle sequences are the most realistic and brutal ever put on film (the storming of Normandy scene that opens the film is especially well-constructed and devastating) and the narrative has substantial dramatic and emotional weight. Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket may do a better job at addressing the psychological effects of warfare, but no film has captured the desolation of combat and pain of loss on the frontlines better than Saving Private Ryan.

Worst Film: Lady in the Water (2006) 
Giamatti has proven time and time again that he will tackle any project you throw at him. In his nearly 20 year career, he's starred in a number of really bad films including Big Momma's House, Big Fat Liar and Planet of the Apes that were almost universally hated by both critics and the general moviegoing public. Despite all of those missteps with lowbrow comedies and moronic family fare, none of those films come anywhere close to matching the levels of filmmaking incompetence achieved on Lady in the Water. Shyamalan had already started his descent from greatness with 2004's The Village, but Lady in the Water brought him to the point of no return. Saying that Shymalan's attempt at making a whimsical fairy tale failed miserably would be underselling how much of a cinematic atrocity it is. The story is convoluted, the pacing is extremely slow and the final 45 minutes is so stupid that it's hard to believe it was written by a human being. Aside from a parade of unintentional laughs in the final act, Lady in the Water is a completely worthless movie that fails so hard that it's almost impressive.

  
Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "American Ultra" star Jesse Eisenberg