The Actor You Love to Hate

The last time I was on a business trip, you'll recall I "discovered" the incessant TV ads for The Amazing Snuggie! Since then, I've seen numerous other blog posts re: The Amazing Snuggie!, and I've even seen one of my friends on Facebook post a picture of her wearing one. Well, the version of The Amazing Snuggie she was wearing, she insisted it was called a Slanket, not a Snuggie. Whatever.

This time, the hotel I'm staying in has HBO, and they actually played a movie about which I was just interested enough to watch. The movie was the 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben & Jerry Stiller (sounds like they should be making ice cream), the precocious Malin Akerman, and the still very attractive ex-Tom Brady squeeze Michelle Monaghan. She was great opposite Robert Downey, Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), which I briefly mentioned in my blog post on film noirs.

The Heartbreak Kid remake was a decent enough movie, if you consider that the Farrelly Brothers really were recycling two older Hollywood films, not one. The first, naturally, was the 1972 original "Neil Simon's" Heartbreak Kid*, starring Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd. The other film was one of their own, the very entertaining and quite good There's Something About Mary (1998). Mary still is one of my favorite of more recent comedies, and perhaps is the reason why I have a higher Ben Stiller Tolerance Factor** than most of my friends.

* Why don't movie directors, writers, or producers put their names in front of their movies any more these days? Neil Simon and Blake Edwards did it a lot, and who can forget the Albert R. Broccoli 007 films? Seems like a quaint old Hollywood tradition that went by the wayside several decades ago.

** On a somewhat related note, I always talk about reaching the FDA-approved Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) any time I watch a Sam Neill movie. When we went to see Jurassic Park (1993) on an IMAX screen, I must have overdosed several times over on my Sam Neill RDA!

Watching this remake of Heartbreak Kid, I was struck by how similar it was to Mary, and I do wonder whether the Farrelly Brothers are running out of ideas. I was happy to see the movie for free, essentially, in my hotel room*. It was a good movie, but it naturally contains all of those irritating Ben Stillerisms that annoy people so greatly. Like I said, you have to build up your Tolerance Level if you want to enjoy a Ben Stiller movie. It's like alcohol that way, only you really don't want to have to keep ingesting ever higher amounts of Ben Stiller movies in order to achieve the same buzz you once had watching a single episode of "The Ben Stiller Show."**

* Side note: Another movie that is good to catch for "free" -- Fool's Gold (2008) with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson -- just finished playing on HBO tonight.

** Actually, did anyone ever think that show was funny? No, I didn't think so. I just couldn't think of a better analogy.

I won't get into some of the better parts of The Heartbreak Kid, since that's really not why I'm writing this post. [At this point, I always think of Albert Brooks telling Holly Hunter in Broadcast News (1987), "How do you like that? I buried the lead."]

No, the real reason why I wanted to write a post about watching the remake of what is probably an equally cringe-worthy 1972 Neil Simon movie is because the original starred Charles Grodin, The Actor You Love to Hate. See? I told you I buried the lead!

Grodin actually has some decent chops as a comedic thespian. The Grodin humor touchstones for me are two of his newer films, and I'm not talking about Beethoven (1992) or its sequel. He did a very funny buddy movie of a very different sort with Robert DeNiro in Midnight Run (1988). DeNiro was a bounty hunter charged with bringing Grodin's accountant character in, and as he tried to do so, hijinks ensued. That's about all the plot you really need to know on that one.

The other Grodin movie I love to watch any chance I get is Taking Care of Business (1990), which still ranks as the all-time funniest Jim Belushi movie. Sure, Belushi was in The Man With One Red Shoe (1985), but that was a Tom Hanks vehicle. K-9 (1989) was OK, and Mr. Destiny (1990) was the movie that came closest to matching Taking Care of Business, but for my money, I stop and watch Business any chance I get. Even if that means coming across the movie half-way through it, I'll watch the rest of it. I don't do that for other Belushi movies.

There is just something about Grodin's character in Business (and in Midnight Run, for that matter) that can drive a person crazy. He makes the viewer actively start to root against his character, and in both of those movies, bad things happen to Grodin. I sincerely think that's a large part of why I like those two movies. The longer Grodin snivels and whines his way through the performance, the more you want him to suffer. He's a perfect comedic foil for the good guys of DeNiro and Belushi.

I also love that Belushi plays such a die-hard Cubs fan that he sneaks out of his minimum-security prison to attend a Cubs World Series game (I know, it's a complete Hollywood fantasy), catches a home run (shown on the TV broadcast, but not noticed by the prison warden, played by Hector Elizondo), and then he sneaks back in to prison so he can be paroled the next day. You do have to suspend disbelief, but that's all part of the fun! Oh, and there is the very cute Loryn Locklin in a black bikini; how could I not post a pic of that?!

Of course, I am aware that the two actors that brought me to this post, Stiller and Grodin, share some of the same qualities in their acting methods. They both can be really freakin' annoying! They just might be the actors we all love to hate for a given generation. And yet, Stiller continues to get new acting gigs all the time.

I haven't seen Night at the Museum (2006) yet, but I continue to hear good things about Tropic Thunder (2008). That might have to be another Ben Stiller movie I put on my Netflix list.

It's a very good thing I've built up my Ben Stiller Tolerance Factor throughout the years.

Old Movies - Gotta Love 'Em!

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Netflix? There is more to the story than just the fact that they have a great selection of hard-to-find movies (since they don't have to waste valuable shelf real estate in a commercial property, like a Blockbuster store would), more than the fact there are no late fees, and more than the fact that they now have a "watch it now" online feature that works through my Mac Mini* for truly on-demand viewing.

* I call the Mini the "electronic brain" of our home theater system. It's small, hooked up to the Internet wirelessly via WiFi, and it stores all of our iTunes music, videos, and digital pictures. We use the Sony HDTV as the monitor, and use a wireless keyboard and mouse to control it from the couch/man chair. The Mini's SuperDrive(TM) is our DVD player. Forgive me, but the Mini deserves an emoticon! :-)

No, for the real story behind why I love Netflix so much, I have to go back to 2002, when I was a newbie just starting my MBA program. I mistakenly took an elective course during the summer semester that really was intended for MBA students in their last or second-to-last semesters. The course was on entrepreneurialism, and was taught by an adjunct professor who was the President of Waterside Capital Corporation, a VC firm in Virginia Beach. To get a passing grade in the course, I had to estimate the break-even point in customers/subscribers for the Netflix DVD mailing service, which was in its infancy at the time. I had about two quarters of data to use to try to make any meaningful estimates, and I'm sure my calculations were completely off from reality. Luckily, the prof figured I did enough in the class to pass, and ever since then, I've had a warm fuzzy feeling for Netflix.

Let's go back to the first point I made above, that Netflix has an unparalleled library of old, hard-to-find movies. A little while ago, WSJ ran an obit for Donald Westlake, an author and screenwriter of some regard. Westlake penned detective novels with a certain humorous side to them, often under the pseudonym Richard Stark, and that was why he was lauded by the WSJ.

As they wrote the obit, the Journal did mention several of the movies that were made from the Richard Stark novels. Among them were Point Blank (1967) with Lee Marvin and The Hot Rock (1972) with Robert Redford. He also did the screenplay for The Grifters (1990), one of my less-favorite John Cusack films (although it was not without merit; if you've seen it, you'll know there's an unforgettable yet very brief scene with Annette Benning), and Payback (1999), the Mel Gibson movie I really wanted to like better than I did. Lucy Liu as dominatrix... Rowr!

I knew that I could find Point Blank and The Hot Rock on the list of available titles through Netflix, and that those titles would be impossible to find at a Blockbuster. Have I mentioned I adore Netflix? What I didn't know, couldn't possibly have known, when I put those two movies on my queue, was how remarkable they both are. Let's look at Point Blank first.

Now, I've seen enough old films to know and understand that Lee Marvin is one of the Top Ten all-time Hollywood tough guys. Scroll down in that list; you'll find him! But watching Marvin perform in Point Blank has to be one of his toughest of tough-guy roles!

At first, I have to admit I was worried that Point Blank would be another weird, creepy, go-nowhere mid- to late-sixties movie. When it started, it had a ton of flashbacks, which normally don't bother me. However, this movie had a similar look and feel for the first 15-20 minutes or so as did the immortally bad Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), the movie that made Roger Ebert be a film critic rather than a writer/director. I was overjoyed that Point Blank got better and better the longer Marvin sought out the man who shot him and took his money.

One thing I noted was that Marvin never carried his gun in a normal manner. He never had a holster for it, never tucked it away in the small of his back, and practically never held it by the grip; rather, he carried it with his hand around the chamber of the gun. Who does that?! You can see what I'm talking about in the movie poster:

The other remarkable thing about Point Blank is just how many famous actors made an appearance. Archie Bunker is in it! John Vernon, who later was immortalized for all-time in the role of Dean Wormer in Animal House (1978), was in it. James Sikking, who is most famous for his work on "Hill Street Blues", played a sharpshooter. Even Kathleen Freeman, who played Sister Mary Stigmata (AKA, the Penguin) in The Blues Brothers (1980), is in it. What a hoot!

So, if you ever want to know just why Lee Marvin was voted as the Number 1 Hollywood Tough Guy of all time, check out Point Blank!

The other Westlake film, The Hot Rock, was also interesting, but for different reasons. I have to say that I like Redford as an actor, but not at the same level of intensity as my regard for Paul Newman. Just the fact that Newman is in a movie is enough to make me like it! That's true even if he makes a small appearance in otherwise clunkers of movies like Message In a Bottle (1999) or Nobody's Fool (1994); Melanie Griffith - UGH! Newman had the special charisma where everything he touched was better simply because he was involved. And those blue eyes!

Ah, but I digress. What I meant to say above is that I haven't seen that many Redford movies that don't have Newman in them. The Hot Rock is one, and we also recently watched The Horse Whisperer (1998). I did mention earlier that Westlake was known for his comedic stylings when it came to crime dramas. The Hot Rock, as it turns out, is meant to be a comedy on par with more famous movies of the era, like The Pink Panther (1963) or, more accurately, The Return of The Pink Panther (1975).

The Hot Rock also has several actors who later went on to star in other vehicles. The movie poster might be hard to make out, but standing on Redford's left is George Segal, who I always associate with the role of Jack Gallo in the TV series "Just Shoot Me!" Ron Liebman, the guy to Redford's right on the poster, has done a ton of work in Hollywood. And the most famous cameo of all was performed by Zero Mostel of The Producers (1968 Mel Brooks original) fame. The actor who caught my eye, though, and who forced me to stop the movie and rewind to make sure it really was him, was Christopher Guest! He played a cop in the precinct house on which our foursome of jewel thieves land a helicopter (What? Did they think the cops wouldn't notice a helicopter landing on the roof?!), and he only had two lines or so, but it marked his first credited performance in a major motion film. How about that?

Something else about The Hot Rock also sent shivers down my spine as we watched it. The film was released in 1972, so they probably filmed it in 1970 or so. As they filmed the helicopter scene (on the way to the precinct house on the west side of Manhattan), they flew right past the World Trade Center (WTC) twin towers in lower Manhattan. The creepy thing is that the towers weren't finished yet! One tower still had construction going on at the top 5-10 stories or so, and the other tower had about a third of the tower yet to go. Just knowing that those two buildings no longer exist, and all the death and destruction that went with them, really freaked me out while watching The Hot Rock.

I did mention that The Hot Rock was meant to be a funny crime caper, and the only thing I'll say about that is our definition of what's funny sure has changed since the late '60s and early '70s. I'm guessing my dad would find it funny, but then again, he always thought "Three's Company" was hysterical (sorry to throw you under the bus like that, Dad). This movie, while funny at times, doesn't have the same zing as Peter Sellers achieved in the old Blake Edwards Pink Panther movies.

If you get the chance, and if you have a subscription with Netflix, definitely check out those two movies. They're worth the time!

Random Thoughts for a Monday Morning

Thus far, I've resisted the temptation to run through a semi-organized list of random thoughts that flicker through my consciousness, attempting to keep each post centered on an easily discernable topic. Once I've progressed down this list, you'll see why.

• Over the weekend, I watched the original The Italian Job (1969) with Michael Caine in the lead role. I have seen the Marky Mark remake from 2003, but from what I remember, the similarities between the two movies begin and end with the bad/good guys using Minis to escape after a heist in Italy.
  
• The ending from the original Italian Job is one of the greatest WTF? moments in movie history, apparently. It's a good thing I didn't see the movie until very recently, because Caine only revealed in late 2008 the meaning behind the sudden end credits.
  
• The movie does have a good soundtrack, courtesy of Quincy Jones. And the "Self-Preservation Society" tune towards the end is very catchy, if a complete non-sequitur in the movie.
• The original has to be considered a comedy, and that the writers and actors played every scene for laughs, or else it doesn't make any sense. And, boy, have our opinions of what is or isn't funny changed since the late Sixties!
• The original Italian Job received a G - General Audiences rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and I know that the ratings system has changed over the years, but wow! When women were prancing about in their underwear, I couldn't believe it! G -- it's not just for Disney any more!
• My wife and I have been watching a TON of period costume dramas lately, including such fare as The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Becoming Jane (2007), Lady Jane (the 1986 movie with Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes), A Room With a View (1985), and the latest, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008), a Masterpiece Contemporary production from England. As kids, we used to groan and leave the room whenever our parents would turn on Masterpiece Theater on PBS. My tastes must be changing.
• Oh, and whether the mores of the time were captured in historical fiction like The Other Boleyn Girl, or just reflected by the fiction of the time like Tess, aren't we all better off now that women are no longer treated as Chattel? It's a bit scary to think that we are not that far removed from the time when a woman had no say in her marriage, when daughters were treated as pawns to be used to advance a family's social standing, and when a woman who was raped was blamed for losing her womanly "virtue."
• Going along with the movies mentioned above, we also saw The Magdalene Sisters (2002), in which young women in 1960s Ireland were subjected to dehumanizing cruelty if the Catholic nuns considered them to be "fallen women." Not that far removed at all, are we?
• And despite the fact that women received the unfettered right to vote (the 19th Amendment, in 1920) long before African-Americans did (the 24th Amendment, in 1962, which combined with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated the last blockages imposed after the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870), isn't it interesting that the 1960s and '70s shared the upheaval of both the Civil Rights movement and the sexual revolution?
• In many parts of the world, girls are still prevented from receiving an education. They are instead sold into sexual slavery in places like Thailand, and their wages get sent back to provide a living for their family. Several not-for-profits exist to prevent or stop this human trafficking; the one I like, because it was founded by two USAFA grads, is the Somaly Mam Foundation.
• Think about it, and get involved.
  
• Boy, the statistic of home field advantage enjoyed during the Divisional playoff round (where home teams were winning 76% of the time) was turned upside-down this weekend, wasn't it?! Exactly upside-down: home teams were 1-3 this weekend.
• Who would have predicted Arizona (the number four seed, the lowest ranked Division winner, 9-7 on the season by virtue of going 6-0 within their Division, 0-5 playing in the Eastern time zone during the regular season) would be hosting the NFC Championship game next weekend? I thought Carolina was the closest thing to a cold, hard, lead pipe lock (with all due apologies to Mike & Mike in the Mornings) left in the NFL playoffs.
• Hey, that's why they play the games.
• So, we're left with a formerly 9-6-1 Philly team that advanced into the playoffs by virtue of that one tie with Cincinnati (and at the time, all the talking heads described it as a loss for the Eagles, since it was against the cover-your-eyes-awful Bungles) going up against a Cardinals team that previously hadn't won a playoff game since the Truman administration. No, no one saw that coming.
• It's also interesting to note that Joe Flacco became the first rookie QB in NFL history to win two playoff games. Ever.
  
• Now that the Giants have been knocked off, at home, by the Eagles, the Super Bowl favorite has to shift to the Steelers **shudder** who at least proved they still know how to win at home after a bye week.
• Think the NFL head office and the NBC ad execs are shaking at the prospects of a Pittsburgh or Baltimore vs. Arizona or Philly Super Bowl? Nah, this is the Super Bowl we're talking about, not the World Series or NBA finals. The ratings are contestant-proof.
• In cycling news, Lance Armstrong is getting ready to compete for the first time in the Tour Down Under (20-25 Jan 09). He says he is back in competitive cycling again just to help raise awareness for his cancer-fighting foundation, but it will be interesting to see what happens once his famously competitive juices start flowing again.
• Sorry, I probably shouldn't put Lance Armstrong and "competitive juices" so closely together in one paragraph. I would venture that no single athlete has been more suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs while simultaneously passing every single drug screening test administered to him in all his years of competition. The man has successfully passed over what? 175? 200? drug tests without a single positive or false positive. There's something to be said for that. You still cannot prove a negative.
  
• Now that Armstrong has been reunited with Johann Bruyneel, the team manager for all of Lance's Tour de France-winning teams, it will be interesting to see what they do together. For one thing, Bruyneel's current team, Astana, was blocked from racing in leTour in 2008 due to doping suspicions surrounding the team. Will they even be allowed to race in France this year?
• One more thing on Armstrong: he is an expectant father! Again! And the news story says this baby was conceived naturally. Hmmm... apparently we can still refer to Lance as "ol' one nut Armstrong."
• I've always wondered if perhaps Armstrong receives injections for the medical purposes of replacing lost testosterone, but never have seen any mention of anything at all along those lines. Does a man who has lost a testicle for whatever reason have hormonal imbalances in his body? WebMD appears to be mostly silent on this topic.
• My wife and I also had a "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS sitcom) marathon on Friday and Saturday. That shows just how exciting married life with children can be, I guess. We had to get the DVDs from Netflix, since the show normally is on during the time we are busy with the 3B routine with the kids. Oh, and CBS doesn't make full episodes of its shows available on its website, unlike ABC and NBC. I wonder why not?
  
• Being able to watch the majority of a full season of a sitcom in just two nights is pretty cool, though. It provides more continuity, and certainly more instant gratification, than waiting for a show to come on once a week. We loved it!
• Oh, and "The Big Bang Theory" is a fun show! I'm a geek, I admit.
  
• After one episode, when two Chinese kids were shown in their room with the lights flickering (the lights were being controlled remotely by the nerds in the show; you have to have seen it), I just HAD to go online and find out what comic or superhero logo one of the kids was wearing. It was a red shirt, with a red spike in the middle of a yellow circle with two squared-off "wings" on either side. How on earth can a person search for a nameless logo online? My first guess was a Flash Gordon logo from the mid-'80s movie of the same name. Bzzzzt! Incorrect answer. I googled for the words "big bang theory red yellow logo t-shirt" and came up with this as the second hit.
• Ain't the Internet great?!
  
• Like I said, I'm a geek. But "The Greatest American Hero" was way ahead of its time. I have to think its variation of post-modern ironic humor would go over much better these days.
• I did have a dream last night where I was on the Moon, and discovered a race of big, rock people, much like what was featured in Galaxy Quest (1999). Yeah, I'm a geek. I remember thinking, "Why hasn't anyone discovered this before?" and coming to the conclusion that there are vast swaths of territory on the Moon we haven't explored. There's a thought for you.

That's it! That's the list. That will do it for this Monday.