Kolya on 28/7/2017 at 21:16
A while ago I started to watch films based on actors I liked. The first one was Winona Ryder and I saw some of her earliest work ((
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094020/) Squaredance) as well as films I probably would never have seen otherwise ((
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100911/) Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael). Of course I had already seen most of the hits ((
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097493/) Heathers, (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110950/) Reality Bites, (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118583/) Alien: Resurrection and lately the (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/) Stranger Things series) but not all of them, so I treated myself to (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172493/) Girl, Interrupted which was great, not least because of the young Angelina Jolie, for whom I had kind of forgotten why she was famous. Interestingly the role she played in Girl, Interrupted was quite similar to a role Brad Pitt played in 12 Monkeys later. (Did I mention there's a huge 12 Monkeys graffiti on a roof top near the Cologne main station? Pretty cool.)
Anyway, lately I felt a severe lack of smart comedy in my life and turned to Walter Matthau whose couch face I adore and knew he could provide. I started with (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063374/) The Odd Couple
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/WRBQzPT.png...in which a freshly divorced Jack Lemmon moves in with Walter and soon drives him as insane as his former wife. That was a fun introduction but while at first I felt for Lemmon's character pretty soon it becomes hard not to get as annoyed as Matthau with his incessant cleaning and cooking and just feeling sorry for Matthau who's a poker playing pig, but happy.
Then I watched (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064117/) Cactus Flower which has Matthau as a dentist telling his young girlfriend (a very cute Goldie Hawn) he was married with children to keep her at arms length, until she wants to meet them and he hires his prickly nurse to play the part. That was a lot more fun because of the ensuing love triangle in which the two women bond against the dentist.
Also Jack Weston shows up (the old owner of Kellerman's in Dirty Dancing!) as a sleazy actor and Ingrid Bergman goes through a complete character change.
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/QTAzHjB.jpgThe next and so far last one I watched was (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080889/) Hopscotch which has Matthau as a defective CIA agent fooling secret services around the globe without ever losing his playful and sophisticated manner. It's sort of a laid back old guy James Bond film with excellent dialogues and everyone but his boss rooting for Matthau. It also contains an early lesson about the power of whistleblowers (he writes a book).
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/rCssZT6.jpgSo I have a few upcoming, but maybe you know of a great Matthau film I have to see? Or you'd like to join me?
Have you watched other films just for an actor/actress that you really like?
Starker on 28/7/2017 at 22:59
I usually make an effort to see movies with Gary Oldman, Cristopher Walken or Uma Thurman in it and from those actors who are already dead, I quite enjoyed the performances of Toshiro Mifune, Charlton Heston and Humphrey Bogart. I've probably seen over a third of the movies they've played in, which makes over a couple hundred movies altogether.
Gary Oldman plays fantastic villains, Cristopher Walken is wonderfully idiosyncratic, Uma Thurman is a great femme fatale, and the old-timers were really good at playing larger than life characters.
Harvester on 28/7/2017 at 23:03
A fairly weird movie that Winona Ryder's in is Sex And Death 101, written and directed by the guy who also wrote Heathers. I'm not sure whether to recommend it to you, but it surely is original and unusual.
EDIT: I'm not going so far as to watch all of his movies, but I'm a big fan of Michael Shannon. And I really like it when Ralph Fiennes plays bad guys, like in Schindler's List and Red Dragon.
Neb on 29/7/2017 at 00:22
I'd probably suck at this game since I always get Harvey Keitel mixed up with Christian Slater, and Philip Seymour Hoffman with Kiefer Sutherland.
I usually pick a director or a 'best of' list to binge on.
Dia on 29/7/2017 at 12:25
Quote Posted by Kolya
So I have a few upcoming, but maybe you know of a great Matthau film I have to see?
'A New Leaf' (1971 with Elaine May & Matthau): It's been years since I've watched it, but it was always one of my Matthau favorites.
(
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067482/)
demagogue on 29/7/2017 at 12:37
I wouldn't say that I'd watch movies just for an actor (that I wouldn't watch otherwise), but I'm happy when I see certain actors in movies and one of the reasons I might continue to repeat watch a movie is an actor in it.
Recent example was recognizing Rinko Kikuchi in Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, whom I already liked from the movie Babel.
Oh a few movies I've watched because of the actor, because I took it as a sign the movie itself would probably be good. Anything with Charles Laughton.
Directors play a much bigger factor in what I'll follow. But it turns out certain directors like certain actors, so I'll like those actors in the context of being paired with those directors... The Coen Bros, Linklater, old Nolan, the three amigos, etc.
henke on 29/7/2017 at 14:47
I usually go by director as well, but when it comes to actors, well, there is one guy that comes to mind. Whenever I find myself in the mood for some trashy B-movie action, I got my go-to guy. Scott Adkins. This guy is the reigning champion of B-movie action flicks, as far as I'm concerned. Doesn't hurt that he always works with good directors and fight scene choreographers.
[video=youtube;2lWvzvayMXM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lWvzvayMXM[/video]
Heeeeell yeah! Makes me wanna grab some popcorn and watch Scotty-boy roundhouse kick fools in the face for 90 minutes right now! :cool:
People, if you haven't seen Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear, Undisputed 3: Redemption or Universal Solider 4: Day of Reckoning, I suggest you remedy that as soon as possible.
Kolya on 29/7/2017 at 22:05
Quote Posted by Dia
'A New Leaf' (1971 with Elaine May & Matthau): It's been years since I've watched it, but it was always one of my Matthau favorites.
(
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067482/)
That's the one I watched tonight. And I thought it was pretty dark, the way he plans to marry to get out of his self-inflicted financial disaster and fantasizes of killing Elaine May for her money. And how disgusted he is by her clumsiness all the way through it.
It's not until the very end that he shows he has a heart at all. And even then it's because she has flattered his ego by naming the fern after him. The feelings he eventually finds for her are still patriarchal and patronizing. He treats her like a child, despite the fact that she saved his life.
May plays a complete fool to the point of incredibility. Her role doesn't give her much, but she's also not acting it in any believable way. She just drops everything all the time, besmirches herself and is oblivious to any of it. She doesn't look stupid, it's all very superficial. Matthau isn't too convincing as an egomaniac either. His key to success has always been his goofy self-ironic lovable demeanor.
Maybe I was taking it all too seriously, but a film from 1971 where the man takes over a rich woman's finances whom he only married for the money and then starts patronizing her all the time - that didn't tickle my funny bone much. I think it's unfortunately a bit too close to the truth of those days. Even his relationship with the much younger Goldie Hawn in Cactus Flower wasn't that uneven.
The film for me was somewhat saved by the end when he gives in to her pleading to become a history prof so they could meet in the lunch breaks and score students works together. A little hope came up the that he may redeem himself and get happy. But the question remained whether she didn't deserve a bit more than a selfish guy reluctantly giving in.
//Turns out (
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561938/) Elaine May directed the film.
Yakoob on 29/7/2017 at 23:01
While I don't seek out movies based on actors, I am far more likely to check out a flick if it stars Christian Bale or Steve Carrell. The former is a spectacular actor with lots of range, the former won me with The Office (albeit the movies he starred in were more on the lackluster side).
icemann on 30/7/2017 at 08:35
Anything with Arnie or Jackie chan peaks my interest.
