Theater Thursday

It's once again time for Theater Thursday.

The past couple of weeks saw the opening of several big-budget and high-concept films: The Polar Express, Alexander, and National Treasure. These movies starred Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell and Nicholas Cage, respectively.

Only one question this week. Which of these three is the better actor, and why?

This is a no-brainer: Tom Hanks is hands down the best actor of the three. His versatility and range are his two biggest assets and what make him one of the finest actors currently working, in my humble opinion. Throw out Turner and Hooch and you've got one jim dandy of a filmography- not to mention some of the finest films made in the past twenty years.

I've only seen a couple of pictures with Colin Farrell, so I may be a bit uninformed about his talent. I've liked his performances in the few movies I have seen him in, but nothing he's done has really made me sit up and say, "...damn".

I'll be honest with you: I don't think Nicolas Cage is all that great an actor. He doesn't have a lot of range; sometimes he does a credible job portraying a character and sometimes he seems horribly miscast for a role (see: Keanu Reeves). However, I loved his performance in my favorite movie of all time, Raising Arizona, so I can't be too hard on the guy.