Birthday Special: April-born actors and their best movies to watch this month

It’s time to treat yourself this April with all things awesome by watching some fantastic and engrossing cinema featuring a list of legendary actors born this month. It’s a spectacular six on this list, the likes of Eddie Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. Russell Crowe, Kristen Stewart, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino. Movie lovers certainly can’t ask for more. 

Eddie Murphy (April 3)

Dr. Dolittle (1998)

This was one of the first movies I remember watching in the cinema hall as a kid. While I didn’t remember much of the dialogues—what stood out for me was how this doctor has a gift where he could speak to animals. Watching the face of those animals move was so intriguing as a host of other actors—Chris Rock, Norm Macdonald, Albert Brooks, and Ellen DeGeneres lent their voice to the characters. Murphy as the bridge uniting man and animal made for an absolute delight. So much so, that I enjoyed the 2001 sequel as well. 

Shrek franchise (2001, 2004, 2007, 2010)

For many cinephiles, Murphy’s most-adored character is one where he is a complete ass (he actually is one). Over four fabulous movies, we saw the actor pour his heart and soul into each one of them to have us laughing out loud. It’s impossible to not root for the character and you gradually understand why Shrek has this love-hate relationship with this chatterbox of a sidekick. And he isn’t just any donkey, he’s a donkey with a dragon girlfriend. 

Robert Downey Jr. (April 4)

I’ll do things a bit different here and not talk about him being Ironman. After all, the goal here is to make you watch as many movies as possible. So why talk about what’s been spoken before. 

Zodiac (2007)

Here’s a crime-thriller that’s as perfect as it gets. More than presenting the audience with a whole lot of shock and paranoia, what the film gets bang on point is how members of the law enforcement agencies and the media plan to search the infamous ‘Zodiac Killer’. At one point, we have cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and reporter (Downey, Jr.) obsessed with the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrified Northern California with a killing spree in the late 1960s/early 1970s. While on the other, it’s also a story about two San Francisco detectives (Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards) tracking the killer down. Both stories coexist in perfect harmony with each other, making for a terrifying and riveting watch. That said, the reason this film will be etched in memory is for Robert essaying the role of a true crime reporter named Paul Avery and how his perspective into the entire storyline drives the movie forward as he becomes the target of the Zodiac. 

Chaplin (1992)

It’s a huge challenge when you’re playing Charlie Chaplin, one of the most iconic cinema characters of all time—a legend who made a name for himself without speaking a single word. But nothing seemed impossible for Robert Downey Jr. who got the iconic comedian’s mannerisms spot on. What further made him stand out in the film was how well he was able to look deep into the traits of Chaplin and showcase the many controversies, court cases and scandals that he was associated with. 

Russell Crowe (April 7)

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

We love movies that deal with mental issues. Even more so when they don’t devalue or demean the struggles of the protagonist or cater to stereotypes. Here is a movie that showed the decline of brilliant mathematician John Nash and how this genius is characterised by his social awkwardness, and later by his schizophrenia. Right from watching the symptoms of his illness to his shock at discovering what he’s suffering from, this is a movie that shakes you to the very core. For his performance as Nash, Crowe won his first Golden Globe Award and his first Screen Actors Guild Award.

Gladiator (2000)

Twenty-three years have passed and the answer to Maximus Decimus Meridius’s (played by Crowe) question of ‘Are you not entertained?’ continues to be a resounding yes. The movie earned Crowe an Academy Award for Best Actor. Audiences were left awestruck as they saw Maximus avenge the deaths of his family and the rightful emperor who was slain by his power-hungry son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). The film is far from any story of love, loss and revenge that you’ve ever come across. Never before has heartbreak and victory looked better across the span of a movie, than this. Watching Crowe fight it out in the Colosseum is thrilling and engaging, even to this day. 

Kristen Stewart (April 9)

Spencer (2001)

Stewart stepped into the shoes of Princess Diana and was part of a film that showed the anguish and sadness she faced over three days of a holiday. Not only was she unhappy in her marriage to Prince Charles, but as also part of a royal family that dissected and scrutinised her each and every move. Perfectly getting into the skin of her character and not once impersonating her, Diana’s struggles and troubles are easily seen, yet shown in a way that tell us that it was only one aspect of her life. Despite the pain, there was genuine happiness and warmth that’s seen in the moments that she shares with her children. Stewart shows the love Diana had for them in her heart and how she stood between them and the world forever protecting them. 

Personal Shopper (2016)

Here was another movie that saw Stewart play a complex character. This time it was as Maureen, the celebrity assistant and a personal shopper for a supermodel. Not only is the film a ghost story, but a psychological thriller as well as she tries to connect with her departed brother as she hopes he will send a signal from the ‘other side’. What she does to cover this void in her life is frequently trying on different clothes as she hopes these new identities will help give her some new meaning. Balancing both grief and strength in a way that’s believing and engrossing, this is a performance by Stewart that you just shouldn’t miss. 

Jack Nicholson (April 22)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

It’s his single most exhilarating performance, and arguably his greatest. We see him as R.P McMurphy, a man who gets shifted from a prison farm to a mental health facility thinking that everything will be alright as he serves the remainder of his sentence. All hopes come falling down by the nurse who keeps her patients in check with abuse, medication and shock therapy. McMurphy, not someone to take things lying down, starts to rebel against her and the staff with the other patients being impacted by it. A scene that stands out is the one where he gives a play-by-play of an imaginary World Series game in front of his inmates which leads to a violent attack and him getting lobotomized.

Not many films have won the top five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay), but this one has. It had Nicholson in his element, landing him his first Academy Award for Best Actor.

A Few Good Men (1992)

Here’s the film behind the iconic five-word line, “You can’t handle the truth”, that went on to become one of the most popular film memes out there. And no prizes for guessing that the sole reason for that dialogue was, that it was delivered by Nicholson. Sitting there looking menacing as ever in the witness stand in front of Tom Cruise, the acting legend meant each and every word of those lines. What he was trying to say was the fact that military life isn’t for everyone and it’s too horrific and gruesome for any normal civilian. 

Al Pacino (April 25)

Scent of a Woman (1992)

After seven unsuccessful attempts, Pacino finally got a taste of what it’s like to win an Oscar for Best Actor. He plays Lt. Col. Frank Slade, a former Army officer who was forced to retire after being blinded in an accident. Wanting to spend Thanksgiving in New York he hires a school student named Charlie to assist him during his trip. The events that unfold are filled with emotion, it involves Slade revealing the reason why he went blind—he got drunk juggling grenades and that caused him to lose his eyesight. Filled with a whole lot of life lessons, especially the one during the climax scene that sees him rise to the occasion in style, Al Pacino as Slade is perhaps one of the most-liked characters in Pacino’s illustrious body of work. 

The Godfather series (1972, 1974 and 1990)

Don’t ask us to choose which the best Godfather film is out there as that’s going to put us in a spot. After all, you’re asking us to pick between two of the top movies of all time. We saw and fell in love with the rise and fall of Michael Corleone (Pacino) who began as a young hothead from the army who went on to become a corrupt mafia don running the family business. From not wanting to do anything with what his father does to becoming the man who runs the show, consolidating his empire and killing his brother, to eventually find himself isolated and alone, these three films are about a tragic story that is so well told. It truly was the performance of a lifetime for Pacino.