Thursday, March 09, 2006

We reigned at the pool hall with one iron cue ball

I'm obviously a movie enthusiast, what with the film major and all, and the future film career (hopefully; probably not.). And for the most part, I'll sit my ass down and watch almost ANY movie made, regardless of genre or how shitty people say it is. Unless, it's a musical. I can't stand those.

But even then, I'm tempted to see Rent.

Anyway, my point here is this. What I don't understand is the well established actors that, as they get older, start whoring comedies. To me, that means that an actor is dwindling in popularity, or skill. Let's face it, I'm not talking about actors/actresses that have been doing comedies their entire career, I'm talking about those who star in serious dramas or thrillers, etc etc, and then all of the sudden start pumping out comedies, Ie: Robert De Niro.

Look, I know this guy's a good actor - Raging Bull, Goodfellas (well, basically anything that Scorcese and him have done together), he wasn't that bad in The Fan either. There's other movies, of course, but all of the sudden, he's in Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers (yes, I understand that's a sequel), Analyze This/That, Wag The Dog, etc. And frankly, those movies weren't that good. In fact, a few were downright terrible.

He's not the only one here: Think of Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets, Anger Management, About Schmidt, Man Trouble) too. This guy was a stud of the 70's, and The Shining, where he flourished.

But De Niro and Nicholson are on the short list of good actors that have slipped off the radar a bit - and it's happened with comedies. Some of the movies are okay, but I miss these guys in murderous rampages, delightful, biting violence - what they are really good at. I'm all for actors' range but when you're 60, it's not the time to start cutting into comedies. These guys have fallen off the radar, and I blame crappy comedies for it.

Now get back to beating the shit out of incest-lovers (Chinatown), and ruling the shit out of Chicago and Kevin Kostner (The Untouchables).

On the other hand, comedians tend to have an easier transition to dramas. Just look at Robin Williams, although that guy could act in anything. (One Hour Photo (a really underrated indy film), Insomnia, Final Cut)

I dunno what I'm getting at here, but I just miss the days when actors didn't play in total shit movies, playing off their star power.

-Mark

(Last week's song was Man Man - Spider Cider)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha nobody is commenting because they don't know the movie references. Believe it or not, I actually saw those movies and I agree with you.

Today was so fun! I got to splash in the flooded thames river, sing skimary dinki dinki dink, and I was screaming while riding on the back of the truck. Life rocks, eh>?

Mark said...

Those movies aren't uncommon...

Also it's only been a day and a half.

Anonymous said...

Also, I hate Mark.

Mark said...

Oh Jebus, Julia Roberts. That'll open up an exclusive rant. I HATE her.