The Best and Worst of Angelina Jolie
When it comes to female action stars, Angelina Jolie has cornered the market. As a rogue CIA agent in Salt, she's hotness incarnate and a box-office force of nature. And Jolie delivers the same kick-ass goods in Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the performance-captured Beowolf. Jolie is also the gamer's sex symbol of choice as British adventuress Lara Croft, but her two Tomb Raider movies are too brain-numbingly dull to ever consider watching again.
I?d rather watch Jolie act. You heard me. She can act. She can also drop the ball (see below). Which brings us to the best and worst of Jolie on screen. I?d like to hear your picks. But first here's my choices for the prime of Angie:
By Peter Travers
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Changeling (2008)
As the mother of a kidnapped child, Jolie?under the masterful direction of Clint Eastwood?acts with so much ferocity and feeling that she was deservedly Oscar nominated as Best Actress.
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Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Jolie won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for playing a mental patient with the ability to arouse emotions in anyone who gets too close to her flame.
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A Mighty Heart (2007)
In the role of Mariane Pearl, the crusading wife of Daniel Pearl?the Wall Street Journal reporter who was beheaded by his captors in Pakistan?Jolie had the impact of a gathering storm.
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Wanted (2008)
Of all Jolie's scary-sexy action babes, this one is my personal favorite. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov brings out something primal in Jolie. And the kiss she lays on James McAvoy to make his girlfriend jealous has enough come-on carnality to singe the screen.
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Gia (1998)
In a TV movie about the rise and fall of heroin-abusing model Gia Marie Carangi, Jolie gives early signs of being an actress to reckon with as well being a spectacular object of desire for the camera.
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Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
Not only a lousy movie about car thieves?Nicolas Cage and glazed, glassy-eyed Jolie? but a reminder of how Jolie's career could have disintegrated if she continued to go the paycheck route with mindless blockbusters.
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Original Sin (2001)
A reminder of how Jolie's career could have disintegrated if she continued to take a paycheck just for taking off her clothes, as she does as the conniving bride of Antonio Banderas.
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Life or Something Like It (2002)
Jolie gets lost in romcom fluff that is sugary enough to choke on. Avoid at all costs.
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Beyond Borders (2003)
Jolie means well playing a rescue volunteer who travels to the world's trouble spots (much as Jolie does in real-life as a United Nations ambassador for refugees), but the movie and her performance suffer from unearned self regard.
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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Jolie's second go at video-game goddess Lara Croft is contained in a movie so inept that if you watch Jolie carefully I swear you can see her eyes saying, ?get me out of this cradle of crap.?