Poll: What's Your Favorite Matt Damon Performance?

The Informant! just hit theaters last Friday. I've seen it, and thought the film itself was just okay. Matt Damon, on the other hand, is a riot. The talented Mr. Damon turns in a performance that's equal parts endearing and exasperating, and should be in line for an Oscar nomination this year.

He has another showing scheduled this winter, with a supporting role in Clint Eastwood's Invictus coming up. Who knows? Damon may be at the Kodak with two nominations next March.

So what's your favorite Matt Damon performance? Do you prefer his dramatic work or his comedy? Or are you most impressed by his action franchises? If you prefer him in a film not listed, tell us about it in the comments section. Cast your vote in the sidebar poll.

THE INFORMANT!

Based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald
Screenplay by Scott Z. Burns
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Matt Damon
Scott Bakula
Melanie Lynskey
Joel McHale

Premiere date: September 7, 2009 (Venice Film Festival)
R for language.

What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company's multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent.
xxx
Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's active imagination.

AWARDS INFO COMING WHEN AVAILABLE

Matt Damon's Oscar Prospects

Reviews for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! are starting to trickle in from Venice. The consensus seems to be that it's good, not great, but boasts a wonderfully funny lead performance from Matt Damon.

The film centers on Mark Whitacre, an executive at an agriculture company who turns whistleblower to the FBI over a corporate price-fixing scam. The closer the feds get to putting away the bad guys, the more obvious Whitacre's own set of company misdealings becomes.

Empire has seen the film, and their review is full of praise for Damon's work:

"Most people agree, though, that the film is very much a triumph for Matt Damon, who really excels in the role of Mark Whitacre...it's to his credit that a role that could easily have been a one-dimensional caricature generates, in the final reel, a lot of sympathy, not only from us but from everyone he drags into the case."

Guy Lodge over at In Contention likes him too:

"Not unlike his otherwise wholly different turn in The Talented Mr. Ripley, [Damon] reveals the psychological cracks in the makeup of the American everyman so incrementally that you hardly notice until it’s too late. Aided by a deadpan comic fluidity the actor has never controlled so comfortably, it’s the finest work of his career."

Damon will probably be a nominee in this year's Best Actor race, with a supporting turn in Clint Eastwood's Invictus strengthening his body of work. If he's good enough there, he could join the club of actors nominated in two acting categories in the same year.

Damon is a great character actor who excels in comedy, drama, and action. I'd love to see him get some recognition.

Speaking Of Matt Damon

Here's the trailer for The Informant! Directed by Steven Soderbergh and due in theaters September 18th. Looks like a good time.

Bourne Again?

I watched all three films in the Bourne franchise yesterday. It was the first time I'd seen the first two since they were playing in theaters, and the first time I'd seen The Bourne Ultimatum period. These are some of the best action films of the decade (especially Ultimatum), and at this point they've become more interesting than the Bond franchise.

Entertainment Weekly's fall movie preview is out this week and in it they have a brief interview with Matt Damon about his two films up this season, The Informant! and Invictus. When he's asked about the status of the possible fourth Bourne movie, he responds with:

"We're hoping to make a fourth, but we don't have a story and we don't have a
script. I assume it can happen, but we have to come up with a story line that's
deserving. I mean, if you see the Bourne character come out and say, "I can't
remember" again, you're going to get up and walk out of the theater. It's like,
"Get over it, buddy - it's been three movies. What the f%@#?!"

Damon has also brought up the physically demanding action and fight sequences of the films and the bigger tole they take on him as he gets older.

I have to say, even with the involvement of Damon and Paul Greengrass, the director of the two most recent Bourne films, I'm not enthused about the idea of a Bourne 4. The ending of Ultimatum wrapped the whole series up perfectly, in my opinion. As much as I love the films, I'm praying that this Bourne is dead in the water.