Thursday, December 27, 2007

FILM: Breakout Actors of 2007

This was definitely a year for breakout actors, some that have brought movies quadruple what they would've earned without their presence. Here are the actors that have had critics gushing and movie-goers flooding theaters:

Amy Adams has made everyone from children to grown-ups laugh with her performance in the animated/live-action fantasy romance Enchanted. Hollywood has finally caught on to the talents she showed in Junebug. She's already filmed the comedy Sunshine Cleaning with Emily Blunt and the romantic dramedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and soon she'll dive into full-on dramas like the religious and racial controversy Doubt with Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and the biography of Julia Childs, Julie & Julia.

Casey Affleck has been in this business for quite some time, but it was just this year that critics were raving about his performances in Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He doesn't have any films coming up yet, but I sense it might have to do with the piles of scripts overflowing in his mail box that he'll be sifting through for a while.






Columbus Short single-handedly attracted viewers to the theaters to see Stomp the Yard, making his film gross a whopping $60 mil for a simple dance movie. Since then, he's starred in the holiday film This Christmas that's already grossed $48 mil and has signed on for four films, one of which is being directed by John Singleton (Shaft) and also stars Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton.





Ellen Page first broke out on the scene when goaded a pedophile into committing suicide in Hard Candy. But what really got the critics' attention is her portrayal of a snarky teen mom in Juno. We'll definitely see more of her but not in the same fashion. So far she's up for two horror films, an Edgar Allen Poe adaptation and a lesbian werewolf romance.







Emile Hirsch has been bubbling under the surface since 2002 when he appeared in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. But after starring in Sean Penn's Into the Wild and getting Oscar buzz, he's officially made it. We'll see him next in the blockbuster Speed Racer and the biography of Harvey Milk alongside Penn and Josh Brolin.





Gerard Butler is the newest hot actor on the lot after starring in the blockbuster 300. With studios behind him, he's already filmed Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, the kid's adventure film Nim's Island, and is presently filming the thriller Game with Milo Ventimiglia. Plus, he just signed on to be in the sequel to Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987), subtitled Capone Rising.








Javier Bardem is a Spaniard actor who stole the hearts of women with Love in the time of Cholera while simultaneously making men everywhere piss their pants with his performance in No Country for Old Men. Next up, he'll be in a Woody Allen comedy with Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, a Federico Fellini drama, a Pablo Escobar biopic, and a Francis Ford Coppola drama about an artistic immigrant Italian family.



Jonah Hill has done well in piggybacking off of Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow's success, eternalizing the phrase "period on me" in Superbad. Next he'll be starring alongside Jason Segel in the romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.






Michael Cera first amused us as George Michael in "Arrested Development." But once that show was cancelled we were left to be amused by his performances in Superbad and Juno. Up next, he's got two teen sex comedies, a romantic teen drama, and a comedy with Jack Black and McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).




Seth Rogen first made us smirk in 40-year-old Virgin (2005). Then he got his big break playing a stoned father-to-be in Knocked Up and got some writing cred for Superbad. Next up, he's got marijuana-rific Pineapple Express and a Kevin Smith comedy about amateur porn.



Shia Labeouf was first spotted doing sidekick bits alongside Will Smith (I, Robot) and Keanu Reeves (Constantine), as well as indies, like A Guide to Recognizing your Saints. But it wasn't until he dominated the box office this spring with Disturbia and this summer with Transformers that Hollywood really started to take notice. He's already wrapped up the Indiana Jones sequel and is presently filming a thriller with Bill Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson.



Tyler Perry impressed critics with his ability to commercialize African American films, like Why Did I Get Married? Next he's got the dramedy Meet the Browns and the musical romantic drama A Jazz Man's Blues.


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