Tale of the Tape

INTRODUCTION

In the 4^th installment of Who’s Better?, we take two prolific actresses whose bodies of work spanned 3 decades, and yet look amazingly great…and hot. Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock have been all over magazine covers as two of the most beautiful women Hollywood has ever produced. Beauty is only part of their resume since both are also acclaimed actresses in their own right with acting trophies to prove it. They are also two of the highest paid actresses and rank among the top list of influencers. Berry has represented the African-American community well while Bullock is active in several philanthropic works.

In Who’s Better?, we’ll take a closer look at the careers of Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock, put their movies, roles, awards and other achievements under the microscope and scrutinize. And we back it up with statistics gathered from the internet in order to come to the conclusion of who is the better actress. We dare to compare.

The Movies

It didn’t take long for Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock to top-bill their movies. In only her second film in her debut year, Halle Berry’s name appeared on the poster of Strictly Business (1991) with 2 now forgotten actors. For Bullock, it was a slow climb, and when her name did appear on promotional materials it was beside Keanu Reeves and Dennis Hopper in Speed (1994). And soon enough, these two actresses were out-billing their male co-stars.

How scores are computed: In the first category, we take the top 10 movies of Berry and Bullock as rated by the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) and Rotten Tomatoes and get their averages to see who top bills who.

Halle Berry

There are two things that make Halle Berry special: she could well damn act as well as she could well damn flaunt. Her brief appearance in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991) as Samuel L. Jackson’s crack woman could have been her area of specialty. Scene-stealing roles. She could have had the career of a great role player a la Viola Davis or Octavia Spencer, the problem is that she is just too beautiful, that dreamy roles followed quickly in Boomerang (1992) and the Flintstones (1994).

But, Berry has always been tempted to go back to ahem, crack and did so in Losing Isaiah (1995), in her ever increasing pursuit of challenging roles which eventually culminated in Monster’s Ball (2001) which earned her an Oscar Best Actress award. The first African-American to ever do so. In her roles, she has never really reached the glamorous type, but she has that with modeling and Revlon, and that almost every magazine was already crowning her most beautiful and sexiest. After making history in Monster’s Ball, she was earning her $10 Million plus paychecks with the box-office smash X-Men franchise. Beauty and talent to flaunt, she has it all.

10 Best Halle Berry Movies

Sandra Bullock

The world first took notice of Sandra Bullock in the action blockbuster Speed (1994) when she played opposite Keanu Reeves’ Jack Traven as Annie Porter, the accidental heroine, damsel in distress and quirky dream girl all rolled into one. A role Bullock seemed to have invented on the spot. The quirky woman on a permanent soul search would define most of her roles in RomComs like While You Were Sleeping (1995), Hope Floats (1998), Forces of Nature (1999) and The Lake House (2006), among many, many others.

Bullock's characters play her beauty awkwardly and she was never the glamorously stunning one, but she could exude an inner beauty and desirability that makes her leading men leave the bombshell for her. Bullock played the romantic for 17 long years in her career, in movies that usually ends with her and a man in love, that when she finally gave it up and starred in the football drama The Blind Side (2009), Oscar and the rest of the world took notice again and she ended up with an Oscar trophy. Well, she still got her man, sort of.

10 Best Sandra Bullock Movies

The Movies Box Scores

The results

Among the two, Bullock has the highest rated movie with the Oscar nominated Gravity (2013) with 87. Followed close by Berry’s X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) with 85.5. Bullock has an Oscar movie under her belt with Crash (2004) averaging 76.5, while Berry has all her X-Men movies in her top 10. X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: Last Stand (2006), and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) average 76.5.

It’s a close fight with only a difference of 0.85. Halle Berry’s average of 73.1 for her ten movies beats Sandra Bullock’s 72.25. This is one category that would change hands easy in the coming years, but until that time, Berry wins this one.

EDGE: Berry

The Roles

In Miss Congeniality (2000), Sandra Bullock plays a detective who goes undercover as a contestant in a beauty pageant in order to thwart a terrorist attack. Realistically, she’s in her 30s and this would place her as the oldest contestant to do so. But, that doesn’t matter. You see, Bullock can change into a glamorous beauty queen with one trip to the salon. In the movie, she even ended up as 1^st runner-up. Halle Berry is the exact opposite. From a Nubian goddess, she could transform into, what else, a crack addict, or in lesser mode, a stripper. In Frankie and Alice (201), she struggles with split personalities.

They are two of the more diverse actresses in movies who could turn on and off from being normal to knockout beauties. You could put them in any kind of role and they would adjust and fit right in. In this category we list down their very best roles and compare.

How scores are computed: First, how roles are chosen—its a combination of greatest or best roles/characters and best performances as collected from various dependable lists on the internet. Appearances of those roles in lists are then tallied to give the actress an overall score. So, its basically a numbers game.

Sandra Bullock

5 Best Bullock Roles

Bullock and why love always sells

Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Aniston…these are among the best actresses who could sell a love story better than anybody, even the authors themselves. And you would believe it. In her 10 plus romantic comedies, she has been paired, mixed and matched with various leading men and in almost all of these stories, Bullock carries the burden of making the pairing work. Her energy is addicting, her delivery almost flawless. Although, she made a career out of RomComs, her very best roles are not necessarily hopeless romantics.

She showed great range in action movies like Demolition Man (1993) and Speed (1994), thrillers like Murder By Numbers (2002) and Premonition (2007), and in dramas like A Time to Kill (1996) and Infamous (2006). In 5 of her finest roles, she is undeniably the heart and soul of those movies.

5 Best Berry Roles

Berry and the role super-model

When we think of Halle Berry, what immediately comes to mind is her coming out of the water in that orange bikini as Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). The black Bond bombshell. She has the same problem with beauties like of Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansson, that they couldn’t get the roles they wanted simply because they are too beautiful, or too sexy. This frustrated Berry throughout her career, but that didn’t stop her for pursuing roles that didn’t rely on her obvious beauty: Losing Isaiah (1995), Bulworth (1998), Gothika (2003), Frankie & Alice (2010), and The Call (2013) where she plays a trainer for 911 operators (when she could easily be a model for like, Revlon?). There you go. Quote Berry, “Let me tell you something - being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.”

The Roles Box Scores

The results

In 7 internet lists, Halle Berry’s Leticia Musgrove in Monster’s Ball (2001) is always cited as her very best role, while it’s Annie Porter in Speed (1994) for Bullock with the same number of appearances. Bullock gets the upper hand with 3 of her next roles getting 6 points each, these are Gracie Hart (Miss Congeniality), Leigh Anne Tohy (The Blind Side) and Ryan Stone (Gravity). Berry’s next 3 roles has a combined points total of 14 against Bullock’s 18. The overall tally has Bullock winning by 4 points which prove that her set of 5 best roles is more memorable (and better) than Berry’s.

EDGE: Bullock

Awards & Nominations

The pinnacle of any actor’s career is to get that elusive award. Not everyone gets that chance, only the best of them through sheer hard work and determination, and of course, talent are given the glory. Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock have tasted victory and knew what its like to get up on stage and be honored in front your peers. In this category, we compare their achievements in acting and see who has more than her share.

How scores are computed: It’s the number of times an actress was nominated and won in an acting category. A breakdown is given separately for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories. Totals for wins and nominations for each actress are shown side by side to see who has the advantage.

Berry's Oscar

Halle Berry made history during the 74^th Academy Awards when she became the first African-American woman to ever win Best Actress. Since 1954 when Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for Carmen Jones, there's a total of 11 actresses who got nominated in the category, and up to now, Berry IS still the only one who holds the trophy. In the Supporting Actress, there are 7 African-American women who have already won, a category that Berry has yet to be nominated in. Berry’s win for Monster’s Ball is her one and only, which makes it sweeter since she got it on the first try, but, that was 16 long years ago that it feels like a distant memory. Berry should get back on the Oscar race.

Halle Berry Oscar Awards & Nominations

Bullock's Oscar

Bullock opened her acceptance speech with, “Did I really earn this, or did I just wear you all down?" For it took 22 years since starting her acting career for a nomination (and a win) to go her way. Bullock has been in the power list of Hollywood for many years and an Oscar trophy solidifies her career thanks to a great part in The Blind Side. She beat Meryl Streep for Julia & Julia and avoided a potential upset from Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

Sandra Bullock Oscar Awards & Nominations

Academy Awards (the Oscars) Score Sheet

Oscar re-cap

9 years separate Berry and Bullock’s Oscar wins. In between, some of their contemporaries like Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, and Reese Witherspoon got their Oscars. Beyond that, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow already have statues. Thus, Bullock’s speech, she must’ve really wear down Oscar, but she pulled off another Best Actress nomination only after 4 years with Gravity (2013), which in saying, gratifies her win. Coming into the other award tallies, Bullock has 1 nomination more than Berry.

Other Awards Score Sheet

Awards & Nominations Box Scores

The results

Berry’s two finest performances are in Monster’s Ball (2001) and as the titular character in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), a made for TV Movie which won her the Emmy for Best Actress. For Bullock, it’s The Blind Side (2009), the true to life story of Leigh Anne Tuohy who adopts a young black football prospect from a poor neighborhood and the sci-fi epic Gravity (2013). Its her performance in Gravity that made all the difference in the fight for the awards category. Gravity garnered many acting nominations and wins in other award giving bodies such as the Critics Choice Movie Awards, Houston, Kansas and North Texas Critics Associations and give her an overall total of 8 wins out of 19 nominations. She outscores Berry’s 7 and 14 and takes home this category.

EDGE: Bullock

The Box-Office

In this category, we tally the total of 15 movies from each of the actress. These 15 movies comprise of the 10 that are listed in Category 1 with an additional 5 movies of their highest grossing movies that are not on that list. We consider only movies that the actress is the main star or in an important supporting role. Animated movies are not included since, we believe, people (especially kids) go to see them without really knowing who the voice actors are. Makes things more fair.

How scores are computed: For each of their 15 movies, we gather data of its Adjusted Domestic earnings, then sum it up to get a total Average Box-Office take. The actress with the highest average gets the edge.

Sandra Bullock's Box-Office Numbers

Bullock's Star Power

The Blind Side (2009) and Gravity (2013) each with $290M+ box-office take are Bullock’s top two money making movies, they are followed in 3^rd place by Speed (1994) with an adjusted domestic box-office take of $256 Million and A Time to Kill (1996) at 4^th with $217 Million. Bullock has 7 movies that went over $100 Million and her total domestic gross for 15 movies is $2.2 Billion, with an average of $148 Million.

Halle Berry's Box-Office Numbers

Berry's Star Power

Halle Berry’s X-Men movies power her domestic box-office grosses: X-Men (2000) $257 Million, X2 (2003) $315 Million, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) $316 Million and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) $248 Million, combine for an uncanny $ 1.1 Billion. That’s nearly half of the total of her 15 movies which is $2.3 Billion! Berry also has other movies in the $200 Million mark, and they are Die Another Day (2002) with $243 Million and The Flintstones (1994) with $276 Million, both adjusted domestic grosses.

The Box-Office Box Scores

The results

Berry’s X-Men movies unite with James Bond, the Flintstones and others for $2.3 Billion with an average gross of $153 Million beating Bullock’s $148 Million average (from a total of $2.2 Billion). The difference is just $84 Million and this could change a bit when new movies of the two come in, for now it is enough to give Berry the edge.

EDGE: Berry

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The Flops

In Hollywood, there are more than just bad hair days, or times when the stylist/couturier tells the actress the media would definitely love the dress only to become fodder for the fashion police. There will be pitfalls like bad choices in roles, box-office bombs and awful movies that will be critically-panned. Surely, Sandra Bullock and Halle Berry have their share of flops. In this category, we reveal them.

How scores are computed: We’ll gather data of the following: 5 worst rated films, 5 awfully bad roles and 5 box-office bombs. Again, we’ll go to IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to see which movies rated the lowest, look at the box-office numbers to know which movies tanked, and finally, search the Razzies to see which actresses were nominated as well as various internet "worst" lists. The score sheets will then have three sub-categories with the actress having the most edges, wins.

Sub-category 1: WORST MOVIES

Bullock and Berry built their resumes by appearing in small movies which eventually sucked and bombed. Sandra’s debut movie is Hangmen (1987), followed by two direct-to-video movies A Fool and His Money (1989) and Who Shot Patakango? (1989). These are movies that were re-released on video featuring Bullock on the cover though she wasn’t really the star, only to capitalize on her later fame. Though that didn’t really help boost sales. Berry’s are a victim of bad directing and writing, and Catwoman—but, that’s already a given.

5 Worst Halle Berry Movies

5 Worst Sandra Bullock Movies

Worst movies re-cap

Man, you can’t get any lower than 17.5—the rating for Bullock’s debut movie Hangmen (1987). Add the out of control disaster that was Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), a couple of bad TV movies and Razzie darling All About Steve (2009), and you get an embarrassing 23.5 average. Berry fared better with her average of 26.3, but that isn’t something to be proud of. Catwoman and the shark movie Dark Tide (2012) are just painful to watch, but Berry would settle for the win.

Sub-category 2: BOX-OFFICE BOMBS

Let’s turn to movies that didn’t do well in the box-office, for reasons that were not entirely the actresses’ fault. Maybe its bad publicity or not enough publicity, or just plain lack of interest. It’s like, hey, let’s just wait for the video release, or download it. That’s a fact now. The risk is just too high for high budget movies to sink in the box-office if they don’t do it right. Bullock and Berry have some movies that proved problematic, gross-wise.

Sandra Bullock's Top 5 Box-Office Bombs

Halle Berry's Top 5 Box-Office Bombs

Box-Office Bombs re-cap

This is something for Bullock fans to cheer about: her movies, except for a few bad eggs, are all money-earners. The reason is that Bullock’s movies have a high ratio of budget in favor of gross. Get this: the approximate average budget of her movies is only $38 Million against the average gross of $98 Million. That’s really a great job of money-handling. Berry’s ratio is not bad either at $64 average budget against $109 Million gross. But, Bullock’s money difference is just too high and wins this category in-your-face. The average loss of her 5 worst movies is only $16 Million compared to Berry’s $39 Million. That’s more than half!

Sub-category 3: AWFULLY BAD ROLES

Bullock and Berry share something in common. They are 2 of only a handful of actors (Ben Affleck, Tom Green, Tom Selleck and Bill Cosby) who were kind (or sport) enough to accept their Razzie award in person during the ceremony. Both actresses appear onstage to wild cheers and delivered speeches which are as good as the ones they had at the Oscars (Bullock has one of the greatest sense of humor). Here, we present their 5 worst roles to date.

5 Awfully Bad Berry Roles

5 Awfully Bad Bullock Roles

Awfully Bad Roles Box Scores

Awfully bad roles re-cap

Bullock’s reprising her role as Annie Porter in Speed 2: Cruise Control got 4 appearances in internet "bad roles" lists, while Berry's Patience Philips a.k.a. Catwoman appears in 5. This is one close catfight which Bullock scratched away from with just 1 point.

The Flops Box-Scores

The results

Berry takes the edge with her 5 worst movies rate-wise being better than Bullock’s 5 worst movies. The score is 26.3 against 23.5. However, Bullock retaliates by winning the battle of the Box-Office Bombs with her movies amazingly averaging far less than Berry’s. Her $16 Million average is the smallest we’ve seen in the Who’s Better? Series. In the Awfully Bad Roles, Bullock pulls a 1 point edge and wins.

EDGE: BULLOCK

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Other Skills

When you're an actress for a long time, there's the tendency to dive into other pursuits related to the movie making business. Some become directors like Angelina Jolie or Jodie Foster, others having learned on the job, become producers. Some who are just too talented are able to write their own stories while many make extra living as voice talents in animated features. In this category, we investigate if Sandra Bullock and Halle Berry got other goods besides their looks.

How scores are computed: There are 7 sub-categories, namely Directing, Writing, Producing, Voice Talent, Music, TV Acting, and Broadway. In Directing, movies are scored based on their IMDB/Rotten Tomatoes average ratings. The other 6 sub-categories are scored through a battle of numbers. The score sheet is divided into 7 of these sub-categories and points are assigned to each to see which actress has the edge. Whoever has the more edges in the total tally, wins.

Other Skills Sub-Categories

1) DIRECTING. Sandra Bullock directed a short film called Making Sandwiches (1996) for Sundance which starred herself and Matthew McConaughey. It may not look much but we’ll accept it as experience. Halle Berry has yet to go behind the lens.

EDGE: BULLOCK

2) WRITING. How about that, Bullock also wrote the screenplay for the short film. That’s a plus. Halle Berry has yet to write something other than cheques.

EDGE: BULLOCK

3) PRODUCING. Bullock has her own production company called Fortis Films which released All About Steve (2009). Well, hell. She was producing movies since 1998 and was Executive Producer for Hope Floats (1998), Murder By Numbers (2002), The Proposal (2009) and Our Brand is Crisis (2015). She has Producer credits in Miss Congeniality (2000) and Miss Congeniality 2 (2005), and 3 more movies. Berry has also delved into producing, but these are movies still in production. With 11 movies, Bullock owns this one.

EDGE: BULLOCK.

4) VOICE TALENT. Bullock lent her voice in two animations: as Miriam in The Price of Egypt (1998) and the villain Scarlett Overkill in Minions (2015). Berry was the voice of Cappy in Robots (2005). That’s 2 against 1, and Bullock wins again.
EDGE: BULLOCK

5) MUSIC. They have no musical credits to their name.

EDGE: NONE

6) TV ACTING. This is Berry’s cup of tea. Before becoming a household name in movies, she acted in several TV shows like Living Dolls and Knots Landing. She had appearances in A Different World, They Came From Outer Space and Frasier. Her pride and joy would be portraying Dorothy Dandridge in Introducing Dandridge from which she was honored with best acting awards from the Golden Globes and the Emmys. She has two other TV movies, namely Solomon & Sheba (1995) and Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005). This an overwhelming win for Berry.

EDGE. BERRY

7) BROADWAY. They have no Broadway acting credits.

EDGE. NONE.

Other Skills Box Scores

The results

Bullock easily dominates Berry with edges in directing, writing, producing and voice talent. Berry's TV experience isn't enough and loses by a score of 4-1.

EDGE: Bullock

LEGACY

Legacy is what the actress has accomplished in a lifetime in films. The diversity of directors she has worked with. All the other wonderful and likewise, great actors and actresses she has acted with in movies. All these define her legacy.*

How scores are computed: There are 3 sub-categories: 1) the directors the actresses worked with, 2) other great actors they’ve worked with, and 3) other great actresses they've worked with. We’ll once again, look at Berry and Bullock's filmography and list all the notable directors and actors.**

In the sub-category of directors, there are 3 tiers and each actress gets the following score: TIER 1 - 3 points, TIER 2 - 2 points and TIER 3 - 1 point.

In the sub-category of actors and actresses, there are up to 4 tiers. Each actress gets the following score: TIER 1 - 4 points, TIER 2 - 3 points, TIER 3 - 2 points, and TIER 4 - 1 point.

Sub-category 1: DIRECTORS THEY'VE WORKED WITH

This seems to be a sort of weak spot in both Berry and Bullock’s resume as they haven’t worked with the really great directors. Well, it has something to do with the projects they have chosen as RomComs and superhero movies don’t attract the likes of a Steven Spielberg or a Martin Scorsese. Anyway, Spielberg or not, so far, whom they’ve worked with brought out the best in their abilities as thespians resulting in blockbuster movies that have entertained millions.

Directors Score Sheet

Directors they've worked with re-cap

There are some names that immediately pop out like Spike Lee and Joel Schumacher. They’ve worked with some old school masters like Richard Attenborough, Peter Bogdanovich and James Foley. Alfonso Cuaron ang Lee are tiered higher for having won Oscars and are still actively making movies. Both have 10 directors on the board with Halle Berry winning by only a mere point, 17-16.

Sub-category 2: ACTORS THEY'VE WORKED WITH

Now, this is a long list as Berry and Bullock have worked with the best contemporary actors of their generation. They have their share of handsome leading men as well as veteran actors like Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Michael Caine and Warren Beatty. The board features some of the big name stars of the last 3 or 4 decades.

Actors Score Sheet

Actors they've worked with re-cap

Halle Berry has been part of huge ensembles like the X-Men movies, Cloud Atlas (2012) and New Year’s Eve (2011), which allows her to work and know more stars than she already has. Bullock’s movies are usually “starring Sanda Bullock and leading man,” but she does have big movies with a lot of stars in them like A Time to Kill (1996), Infamous (2006) and Crash (2004). If it comes to quality rather than quantity, they both have worked with A-list actors: Sandra with Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Keanu Reeves, and Sylvester Stallone; Halle with Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty, Eddie Murphy, Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr, and also with Tom Hanks. Even though Berry has less movies than Bullock in her filmography, she still wins with 9 big points.

Sub-category 3: ACTRESSES THEY'VE WORKED WITH

A lot of great names here and screen legends like Liz Taylor, Shirley MacClaine and Anne Bancroft. But, compared to actors, the list of actresses Berry and Bullock have worked with are fewer by half. This is expected since both of them are the stars of their movies, and usually in tandem with leading men.

Actresses Score Sheet

Actresses they've worked with re-cap

With actresses they’ve worked with, Bullock and Berry have almost the same number. Even though they are the stars in most of their movies, they had the pleasure of acting alongside some other fine actresses. Berry has acted with Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lawrence, while Bullock starred in movies with Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver and Kathy Bates. It’s pretty much a close fight with Bullock narrowly edging Berry 46-42.

Legacy Box Scores

The results

Berry gets the slim edge in directors and wins "actors" by 9 points. Bullock avoided a landslide by winning "actresses" with 4 points. Berry wins this category 2-1.

EDGE: Bullock

Final Box-Scores

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