Smart People

My girlfriend has this thing where, when she sees a movie she likes, she’ll watch all of the movies that the ACTOR has done. She’s done this with Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, and most recently, Robert Downy Jr. They’ve all been men and men she thinks are hot. She’s only chosen one woman, that I know of, to follow and that woman is Juno’s Ellen Page.

She’s a young actress, so there aren’t many movies to see. Xmen 3, Hard Candy, and Smart People. She always plays young girls in her movies that seem much older and more mature than they look. She’s pretty much cornered the market at this point. You need an actress to look 13 going on 30: Jennifer Garner... wait... Ellen Page!

Smart People is no exception. It’s the story about a cranky old college professor/widower (a bearded Dennis Quaid) his two kids, and his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church). Oh, and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker shows up to try to make him happy again.

To tell you the truth, I kinda liked it. It was nothing special, but I was pleasantly surprised.

AND HERE’S WHY

Three years ago, I heard buzz of a movie called The Squid and the Whale starring a bearded Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney (not bearded). It was on just about every critic’s top 10 list of 2005, so I wanted to check it out. The movie was about some intellectuals going through a divorce in 1986. I didn’t like the movie at all. It depressed me. I was in a good mood when I started watching it, and was depressed when it was finished.

Smart People started out with the exact same feel as The Squid and the Whale. So, immediately, I was depressed. Dennis Quaid even looked like Jeff Daniels, for goodness sakes. Happily, the movie took me in the other direction. Thank goodness. I was happy I saw it.

I liked Smart People because I hated The Squid and the Whale.

I wonder how many other movies are out there that I liked because I was in the right place at the right time. Or how many movies I hated for the same reason. I hated Swordfish because I saw it at the drive in and I HATE the drive in... Maybe that really was a good movie...

Rescue Dawn

The Dark Knight.

That’s the reason I saw Rescue Dawn. I wanted to know more about Christian Bale and his acting skills. And they’re pretty good! He gains and loses weight like crazy for his roles (see The Machinist) and his persona is completely different in every movie I’ve seen him in.

So what’s the big deal about Christian Bale’s Batman? Is he the reason this re-visioned franchise is so great? Could it have been just as good with a Michael Keaton or George Cloony version of the Dark Knight?

I ask myself the same question in regards to Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. Arguably the best of the 007 films, yet how does the Bond compare? Could the charm of Sean Connery have worked in the balls to the walls reboot? Or was Daniel Craig’s lack of charm what put that movie over the top?

I have come to the conclusion that the actor’s influence in the awesomeness of the movie is pretty insignificant when you look at everyone else that’s involved. First of all, the writer(s). They initially set the tone for the character, determining if he or she should be a badass or sweetheart, stone cold or sir jokes-a-lot. From there, it’s somebody makes a choice as to which actor could best play that character, taking into consideration looks and charisma.

Batman needed to be brooding, kick your teeth in hardcore, and a playboy at the drop of a hat. Christian Bale can do this. In Rescue Dawn, he showed the same kind of acting range. You see his character at the top of his game, cracking jokes with his friends, confident, stubborn. And then he starts to break. Being kept in a prison camp for most of the movie, his physical appearance changes and it seems like he’s given up, but a slight smile lets you know that the person inside is still there.

The Dark Knight did the opposite. You always see Bale brooding and angry while he’s Batman, then you see him at the party for Harvey Dent where he’s happy, and honest. One flash of a look and you can see that he was always Batman.

That’s just what Bale brings to any character he plays. And, he probably would have sucked in a Batman and Robin film because you didn’t need that in his character. To be good in that movie, you just need to be Chris O’Donnell.

Americans give way too much credit to the actors. They’re just doing what they’re told and saying what they’re told to say. Good actors are ones who stay as true to their character as they can. And when their character matches up with their own personality (or acting skills), you have a masterpiece.

Law & Order: SVU - Rockabye

I used to give the show Law and Order a hard time. When I was growing up, it seemed like this show was on every station at any time of the day. Old people television, I would call it. A friend of mine showed me this game you could play at the beginning of every episode: count how many seconds it takes from the “bum bum” before you saw a dead body (it was always less than 60, unless it was a kidnapping case). Predictable television and BORING.

But I’ve changed my mind, and here’s why:

I don’t need to know backstory when I watch a Law and Order episode. For the most part, the main characters don’t have any season long arcs (in fact, they never change), there are no inside jokes that I wouldn’t get had I not seen every previous episode, and I absolutely do not need to see the episodes in sequential order.

Normally, a show that has these characteristics would make me cringe, but there’s something to be said about TV for people with short attention spans. Most people turn to Reality TV. With that, one can turn on an episode at any time and know exactly what was going on, sit down, and be entertained. Now personally I don’t like watching idiots do idiot things. I prefer something with a script. And while I can’t watch L&O from any point but the beginning, at least I don’t have to start it from series premier.

The show has numerous spin offs that are even better than the original. All of these episodes are on “Watch it Now” on Netflix. Add that to the fact that I have never seen an episode before this year, and you have one happy subscriber.

One hour mysteries.

I won’t go into detail about these episodes when I watch them. To me, they’re just filler between the deep shows I do watch, but it’s the filler I turn to over anything else.