Feel free to dislike, Charles. People who seem to like everything scare me.
Myself, I'm not a big fan of real life Crowe but found he did make the perfect Captain in M&C. His demeanor perfectly suited the image of the character that was already in my head. Of course, others may have had different pre-images.
I'm glad you mentioned Rainman because because otherwise, I put Tom Cruise in a category of actors who act well but always bring exactly the same personality to the character. Your brain always views the character as Cruise rather than the character itself.
To me, a good actor tricks you into forgetting who the actor even is, big name or not. There are better examples but to keep it controversial, I will submit Johnny Depp. Love him or hate him, he is very good at bringing a totally new personality to life that sticks in your mind way more than his real person.
Sure, we now picture him as Jack Black, but the contrasts start to appear as you look back his IMDB list and see Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas verses Edward Scizzor Hands vs Ichabod Crane Vs. the old but not forgotten Donnie Brasco.
Actually, I'm half inspired to dig up my old VHS copy of Donnie Brasco but I'm afraid that if I do, I'll spend the next three weeeks adding "Forget about it!" to all of my posts and conversations.
Yes, I'm rambling once again. Blame the idiot who booked a 1 hour conference call with a vendor who sells a new picture quality alarming system that we will never buy because we already just spent mega dollars on a system that does the same thing.
