1. He Gets Great Performances Out of His Actors
I think everyone tends to forget that Gore Verbinksi did indeed direct Curse of The Black Pearl, which will stand as one of the all-time great adventure movies, up there with Raiders of The Lost Ark- yes, I said it! And the best thing about Black Pearl, and the only reason everyone coughed up to see the sequels, was Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Say what you like about the deterioration of his performances in the subsequent films, but his performance in the original is remarkable, instantly iconic and worthy of its Oscar nomination. Verbinski got one hell of a performance out of Depp- theres a reason he has stuck with Verbinski for Rango and The Lone Ranger. But its not just Depp- Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy as Barbossa and Davy Jones were fantastic, and were shining stars in the mediocre sequels, as were Tom Hollander and Jack Davenport. They may not be career highs, but theyre certainly not career lows, in fact its performances like these that make Verbinskis blockbusters worth seeing. I will go into detail about Nicolas Cages remarkable performance in Verbinskis The Weather Man in detail later, but Rango showcases an impressive ensemble, despite being animated. Verbinski took the same approach to animation as Wes Anderson did in Fantastic Mr. Fox, and look how they both turned out. Ray Winstone, Ned Beatty, Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy every performance in Rango is wonderful, and this is again down to Verbinskis direction as much as the talent of the actors he surrounds himself with. Compare his casting to, for example, the bland ensembles of, say, Total Remake, Fantastic Four or any number of The Harry Potter imitators weve had over the years. Say what you like about Verbinskis films, they are always full of good actors who give good, sometimes great, performances. However much you dislike the film, the acting stands out.