"Great" actors that just aren't very good - Page 9

I know I'll get hate for this but for me it's a two way tie between Cruise and DiCaprio. I like a lot of roles they are in and sometimes they have shown promise as great actors of their generation (Cruise in Magnolia and Risky Business, DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can and the Departed), but I often feel they have phoned it in playing the good looking, intense, conflicted young man in so many roles over the years. I feel that Cruise is more guilty of this than Leo is though.

You know what another term for "good looking, intense, conflicted young man" is?  The Lead.

I'm not going to mount a spirited defense of either Cruise (as he's always solid and I haven't seen his most lauded "actor" performances) or Dicaprio (who I understand just doesn't work for some folks in adult roles), but a lot of the descriptions in this thread that so and so always plays the same type of role basically seem to come down to "so and so has made more than 5 movies".  Sad, angry, drunk, scared, insane...there's only a handful of basic personality traits to go around, and if you get any kind of steady work as an actor, you're quickly going to end up doing variations on the same basic themes.