TV/Movies Megathread

[katmai]

White House Down. Pure Summer silliness.
Jamie Foxx as POTUS, and after This is the End hard to see Channing Tatum as any kind of action hero

C+

[CountDeMoney]

I thought this was amusing.
10 years ago, #10 would've been Tom Cruise.

9 Actors Who Play the Same Character in Every Movie

Hang in Hollywood long enough, and you're bound to be typecast every now and then.

But for some actors, playing to type isn't just laziness or the final tremors of a fading career. Keeping their characters close to home is just what they do best, or at least what keeps the money flowing. And anyway, would you really want to see Jason Statham falling head-over-heels for Katherine Heigl in some lame romantic comedy? Neither would we.

Indeed, for some actors, staying in their comfort zone is really for the best. Here are nine of them.

1. Jason Statham
The Character: Bald, badass protagonist who's not afraid to get his hands dirty.

The perpetually stone-faced Statham got his start starring in twinsie Guy Ritchie gangster movies "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" and eventually elevated to full-on action stardom with the "Transporter" and "Crank" series. In every one of these movies he spends at least three quarters of his screen time holding a gun, furrowing his brow and laying the smack down on a bad guy that's just a bit more ruthless than he is (and, occasionally, doing whatever's going on in the picture above). We're looking forward to his courageous turn as a wronged criminal out for revenge in "Redemption."

2. Adam Sandler
The Character: Man-child with more or less good intentions.

Sandler made the tough jump from SNL standout to ridiculously profitable movie star playing well-intentioned arrested development cases in "Billy Madison," "Happy Gilmore" and "The Wedding Singer." Since those early days, he's branched out with some meatier roles, but even when he got artsy (relatively) in Paul Thomas Anderon's "Punch-Drunk Love," there was still a general lack of maturity and a whole lot of loud noises. He also played a lady in "Jack and Jill", but an Oscar-worthy gender-bending performance that was not, containing a lot more poop humor than, say, "Albert Nobbs" and "I'm Not There."

3. Morgan Freeman
The Character: Wise confidante with grandfatherly wisdom to spare.

We love Morgan Freeman. We want Morgan Freeman to narrate our life story. And we enjoy hearing him lecture us on alternate dimensions and quantum physics on "Through the Wormhole." And when it comes to acting choices, the man who's been God (twice!) tends to stick with what he knows best — playing people we really wish were our uncle. In "Lucky Number Slevin," Freeman switched gears and took on a role as an evil mob boss, but we still kind of wanted to give him a hug and ask him for some sage advice.

4. Woody Allen
The Character: Neurotic, intellectual misanthrope.

Not only does Woody play a therapist's dream (or nightmare, perhaps) in the form of a nervous, sex-obsessed bookish type in every acting role, but even when he decides to stay behind the camera, someone else almost always fills in as a Woody surrogate. Everyone from Owen Wilson to Larry David has taken their shot at playing the Woody character, with varying degrees of success. ("Whatever Works" was a chore to sit through, but we'll forgive you if you get on that new season of "Curb," LD.)

5. Kate Hudson
The Character: The perky mess of a love interest.

If Kate Hudson is the leading lady in a movie, you can pretty much count on two things: 1) she'll be completely adorable 2) she won't quite have her s**t together. From her iconic role as a tossed-around groupie in "Almost Famous" to her more standard rom-com fare where she was involved in a series of escalating, mildly amusing wedding-themed hijinks and discovered a delightful Ginnifer Goodwin was sleeping with her fiance, Hudson, it seems, is perpetually awful at love. Hey, we're terrible at bocci ball. It's cool. Some things just aren't your forte.

6. Jennifer Aniston
The Character: Rachel Green.

Jennifer Aniston was the only actor to escape from "Friends" with an A-list film career, but she's never gotten too far from the vain, lovelorn shackles of her Rachel Green character. To be fair, Hollywood writers seem to be lacking in originality when it comes to mainstream romantic comedies (Will these two desperate, mismatched souls ever fall for one another? Only 90 minutes of you-almost-saw-me-naked jokes will tell!), and Aniston did branch out quite successfully with "Horrible Bosses," but she'd be well-served by avoiding scripts with titles that drip cheese before the opening credits even run. ("Rumor Has It," "Love Happens," "Just Go With It").

7. Vince Vaughn
The Character: Cocky, fast-talking, frat-boy-love inspiring everyman.

Vince Vaughn established his Vince Vaughn-ness early on, playing an exaggerated version of himself in his buddy John Favreau's directorial debut "Swingers." Following roles in Steven Spielberg's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and Gus Van Sant's extraordinarily unnecessary shot-by-shot remake of "Psycho," Vaughn seemed poised for superstardom. But it wasn't until he resurrected his lovable broseph persona in "Old School" and continued doing his best Vince Vaughn impressions in "Wedding Crashers," "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" and "The Break-Up" that he took on leading man status.

8. John Wayne
The Character: John Wayne.

John Wayne didn't act. John Wayne was John Wayne, and that was almost always enough. From "Stagecoach" to "True Grit," film history is littered with the Duke playing quintessential take-no-nonsense red, white and blue badasses. Even in the extraordinarily ill-fated, Howard Hughes-produced historical epic "The Conquerer," which had Wayne starring as Genghis Khan, the Duke still seemed to have no interest in being anyone other than himself, making the bold choice to not even attempt an accent.

9. Katherine Heigl
Character: Quirky romantic who's in over her head.

You don't have to look too far past Katherine Heigl's film posters to realize the common thread here. "27 Dresses"? That's too many dresses! "The Big Wedding"? That's too big of a wedding! "Killers"? That's too many good-looking people holding guns! "New Year's Eve"? That's too many talented actors wasting their time! Oh, Katherine Heigl, will you ever learn from your zany romantic adventures? Considering your next role is playing the domineering, mentally ill wife of a deliciously handsome Patrick Wilson, I guess the answer is ... maybe?

[garbon]

Katherine Heigel is ridiculous as she says she deplores those parts and won't play them but then always agrees to the money she gets for them.

[CountDeMoney]

I'd bang the quirky romanticism right the fuck out of her and into next week.

[crazy canuck]

I was watching Utopia over the weekend.

I would give it a B+.  Nice lowish budget conspiracy thriller that likes to poke fun at itself every now and then but with a hard hitting dark side.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Man of Steel. Wasn't as bad as I expected.  Little too heavy though. Batman may have pathos. Superman is Superman. 

[viper37]

(Will these two desperate, mismatched souls ever fall for one another? Only 90 minutes of you-almost-saw-me-naked jokes will tell!)

I don't think it's a case where Hollywood lacks originality.  Try to read the stuff your g/f reads, and you'll understand.  From Harlequin to 50 Shades of grey, it's all the same shit and it sells by the millions.  Heck, look at Twilight.  It's Harlequin for teenage girls and they love it.  It's boring&unoriginal, but it sells.  If I were in Hollywood, I'd sur produce the paying stuff too.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

[Syt]

My favorite Jason Statham scene is from Transporter 2. The facial expression is priceless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8OEapB83A

Also, the psycho chick was insanely hot. 

[CountDeMoney]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

Good points, especially Samuel L.  Has played Jules Winnfield for more than 20 years, even playing him before Pulp Fiction.

[lustindarkness]

Monsters University, as good and funny as "first" one. Made me laugh.

[Ideologue]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

[Ideologue]

Interesting 

I'm pretty sure we've already established that Rotten Tomatoes doesn't know shit and is full of hipster wannabe reviewers who follow the pack.

Do I follow the pack.

***

Anyway, I've noticed that Lone Ranger is getting the shit reviewed out of it.  18%.  Yikes.

If it were in the 40s or 50s, I wouldn't be worried, because while Viking is right for the wrong reasons (film critics have idiosyncratic tastes and, beyond that, most reviews are written within a very short timeframe, and therefore without benefit of seeing the consensus or even having the opportunity to email other critics even if the author wanted to, which they usually wouldn't), Viking is still right, and too many pro critics suffer from aesthetic retardation, which is why the best movies so far this year have either been rotten or really marginally fresh (Europa Report is only a bit over the line, at 64%).

But a supermajority does often signify something really wrong.  And I was already a bit worried since I don't like the Pirates movies very much.  Still going to see it at 10:30 however.

[Admiral Yi]

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

Not sure I see it.  He played the exact same character in Days of Guns and Top Thunder, but other than that he's picked a variety of roles.

[Ideologue]

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

Not sure I see it.  He played the exact same character in Days of Guns and Top Thunder, but other than that he's picked a variety of roles.

He's played characters with different jobs, I guess.

He's the same cocky prick with vast innate talent but who has problems with authority and often an inferiority complex, that he overcomes with a combination of determination and accommodation, in almost every movie he's ever been in, from Risky Business to Jerry Maguire to Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3 and Ghost Protocol.

I will conede that there are variations--often the problem with authority is external and completely justified, like in Minority Report, Valkyrie, or Oblivion, and sometimes the inferiority complex is completely justified, like in War of the Worlds, Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, or The Last Samurai, and occasionally he doesn't overcome shit, like in Eyes Wide Shut.  But it's not a broad range of characters.

It's also nothing against Cruise that this is the case.  He's one of my favorite working actors.  But you kinda know what you're getting.

However, there are a few roles that lay outside this categorical statement.  But only two leap to mind: his cameo in Tropic Thunder, and his turn as the villain in Collateral, although arguably Vincent is just the Standard Tom Cruise Character whose new job to be hypercompetent but self-sabotaging at is "contract killer."