This is something that I have been thinking about for a while and this past weekend reinforced my anger and desire to vent. It pisses me off when movies tout big name actors, only to have them onscreen for about 5 minutes. Case in point: The Good Shepard and Smokin' Aces (two most recent movies I have seen).
I'll start with the one which has the least serious violations. I watched Smokin' Aces over the weekend. I saw it was on and vaguely remembered that it was an over-the-top action movie. I read the description and usually the description lists the three leading actors. Well number one on the list was Mr. Ben Afloo himself, Ben Afleck. This didn't bode well for the movie since he is a shit terrible actor and his last decent film was Dogma. I don't remeber who the other names were but they weren't Ryan Reynolds or Jeremy Piven (who I fucking hate), probably the two most central figures in the movie. The brief synopsis is Piven is a mob rat with a million dollar bounty on his head. Reynolds is the FBI agent sent to bring him in. The rest of the cast is primarily the hitmen trying to cash in on the money. Then there is Ben Affleck a bounty hunter trying to bring in Piven for some petty crime (I think). Regardless Affleck's total screen time is about 5 minutes. Five minutes work for lead acting credit. What the fuck is this shit? Just because you got paid the most doesn't mean you get lead credits. Maybe if his character was pivotal, I might let it slide but no. He did nothing. I'm glad the skin heads killed him when they did.
The other more serious offender is The Good Shepard. This movie was half bad but from what I can remember of the trailers it advertised names such as Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro, Angelina Jolie and to a lesser degree Alec Baldwin. All big names. All with little parts. I remember there was one preview that had Pesci in it. What the trailer showed was more or less his total screen time. Fucking pathetic. Same goes for the rest of them. Jolie got a little extra time because she was Matt Damon's wife, although her screen time would have doubled had she done one of her pre-requisite sex scenes. This a long movie, close to 3 hours, but those 4 aformentioned characters would be lucky if they had a combined screen time of 20 minutes. 20 minutes for 4 actors who were led by the public to be central figures in the plot.
I'm positive there are others out there and its ridiculous. All because washed up actors like Affleck need the extra attention and publicity or directors need to cash in on the stars name, not rely on the quality of the film. The Good Shepard was overated, still good, but overated. Come to think of it, it was like Troy, that awful excuse for a movie. Its previews basically put the whole cast list onscreen to show how many big actors they had, most of whom played trivial parts. Fucking hate celebrities.
5 comments:
First off. He is in the movie longer than 5 minutes. Dipshit. He had a scene longer than with Jason Bateman, the lawyer. Never mentioned that. Or the bar scene where you meet the charcter. I am not a Ben Affleck fan. I think he COULD be a good actor. Hasn't been really, I know...but I actually see improvement in him. Either way, Affleck is a big name, and people will recognize him as a star. That's why he's one of the lead acting credits.
Also, Jeremy Piven was that movie. No debate necessary. The best character in that movie, and one of the best actors right now. On tv.
Also, why am I not surprised Marc is siding with skinheads at the end of that paragraph?
Annnnnd.....never saw Good Shepherd. Heard it was okay. Whatever. But the problem with Good Shepherd...no one heard of it. No one saw it. And yet Marc says it was overrated. Maybe in his mind.
Troy was underrated too. I think I remember it getting less than stellar reviews. I thought it was fairly good.
To sum this up...I'd rather have big names playing trivial parts than Joe Bumfuck from Dickswat Acting Agency having his first acting role in the movie I'm watching. Fuckers who couldn't act if their lives depended on it.
Didn't see either of your reviewed movies, but I did see Troy.
When the preview for Troy came to theatres, I came. When it focused in on one ship before expanding to around a million ships, I thought that was by far the coolest thing ever and I was infinitely excited for the movie. When the movie came to theatres, I went and thought it was good. I probably thought it was awesome, but I kinda forget. Now it seems like kind of a mediocre movie.
Ya. Got it on DVD. Watched it once and thought that I remembered it being better. Must be seeing the effects on a theatre screen. Still a decent film though.
You spelled "The Good Shepard" wrong. It's "The Good Shepherd."
You're 100% stupid for saying that.
Also, I think Smokin' Aces is a good movie. That also makes you dumb because your opinion is different than mine.
Everyone knows you're wrong, so just admit it. Apologize to everyone.
You fucking douche.
I had no problem with Troy. People trashed it, but I thought it was pretty good. Smokin' Aces was shit terrible. Good Shepherd was advertised hard on TV for about 1-1.5 weeks, then they just stopped. I have it, but I don't really plan on watching it. So much commitment to a movie I know nothing about.
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