Day 12: A Movie Question

[itasianinvasion]

 
I'm sitting here, watching American Gangster and it's great.  There's a lot of good actors out there, but guys like Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe  belong on another planet.  It's not that they act harder or emote smarter; they're captivating.  They just own the screen and their character.  Right now, Washington's character, Frank, is

Comments

[coolhandskippy]

I tend to think about who they are. But it's easier to watch movies before they went nuts. I could see Risky Business or Mad Max and not think about them being crazy. Cause they weren't when they made those movies

Saw half of Beautiful Mind the other night. Crowe was hysterical in that

[itasianinvasion]

That's interesting. But how do you decide where the crazy starts? I mean, Top Gun and Risky Business are probably safe, but what about Mission Impossible 3 or the Last Samurai?

Also, if you do think about them as people, do you avoid their movies?

PS- Fix your blog so I can leave comments.

[coolhandskippy]

I suppose yes to the second question. I really haven't gone out of my way to see a Tom Cruise movie lately. And unless it was well reviewed, I wouldn't. Also, if I think an actor acts like a douchebag, I'm less likely to see him. Crowe at least apologized for the phone thing. I mean, maybe his eggs weren't cooked right. But Gibson calling a cop "sugar tits" is pretty ridiculous.

PS - Fixed, nukka

[itasianinvasion]

Braveheart calling anyone 'sugar tits' is goddamn hysterical. It might have made "Apocalypto" better for me.

Actually, has Tom Cruise had a movie come out since "M:I:III?"

He jumped on the couch, "War of the Worlds," and "M:I:III," and then he disappeared except for his YouTube appearances.

[spanishbullshit]

Crowe i don't find an asshole. He's just an aussie cowboy with no patience for the kinds of things one finds in polite society such as manners, feelings, and liability for assault. Overall, it makes me like him more in films like 3:10 to Yuma, but conversely makes him unwatchable in films like A Good Year and Proof of Life.

Mel ... um ... I don't know. Maybe if I didn't find him hysterical in stuff like Payback and Lethal Weapon, I'd begrudge his moral failings more. But there's a shallow part of me that says "If you're funny, you get a pass on shit you do when you're drunk." (excepting of course anything that might count as a cardinal sin).

Cruise - I don't so much dislike him and shy away from his movies because I think he's done something fundamentally vile. I think he's brainwashed and overall a caricature of himself. I just can't take him seriously, so it's hard for me to watch him now in serious roles.

The only guy I find it hard to get behind is Polanski - or is it really that I'm uncomfortable when he's behind me?jp