I hope I don't get hit with a phone for this

So Russell Crowe. You asked about my dislike of the guy and here you go. I see that he is in a movie and, for me, that does not register in the "good" column when deciding whether or not to see it. As for why that is the case, part of it is more instinctual and, I admit, I had not really thought of exactly what it is that bothers me about him. But here is the thing: I'm tired of seeing characters being played as a Russell Crowe version. Either it is just the way he is or it has some sort of need to always be a tough guy, but it seems like he always needs to be a tough-guy version of the character.

Sometimes it works and I will admit there are Russell Crowe movies I have liked -- some quite a bit. L.A. Confidential was a great movie and allowed Crowe to be, well, a hothead tough-guy cop. I think Gladiator is pretty self-explanatory. And 3:10 to Yuma? Tough guy. When he's doing that, I'm fine with it. When he's not playing a tough guy, though, his characters somehow turn into tough guys frequently, like his character in State of Play which diverges strikingly from both the original character and any reporter I ever met.

Then I can't help but note that a number of times either the movie or his performance have been highly overrated. I admit people might disagree with me on some of these, but I would Include movies like The Insider (great movie, but his American accent was distractingly awful among other problems with him in that movie) and American Gangster (both movie and performance were overrated for me). I think my real distance for him might have started with A Beautiful Mind, which initially came off as sweet but watching again was saccharine. And there was the fact that they took what could have been a fascinating story about a truly brilliant man with an incredible story and turned it into a romance by changing the facts. And he went for the full Rain Man in that movie.

I do not refuse to see a movie just because it has Crowe and in fact am quite intrigued by the Ridley Scott-helmed Robin Hood that he is filming. But on the other hand I have no interest in ever seeing Master and Commander or Cinderella Man. My best way to summarize this is that "Russell Crowe movies" do not sound good to me as I find the "starring Russell Crowe" character to be irritating. But if there is a good movie that he is a part of, I do think he often has some talent to bring to the table that I can enjoy. I'm still not sure that makes sense, but that's what I think of Russell Crowe.