Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[MaineWriter]

I really liked Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven.  That was a pretty serious role.  Did you see him in that?

Yes, I did, and I thought he was great.

I liked Dennis Quaid from the very first time I saw him, in Breaking Away. Have you seen that, Gary? There's a good daydream movie! I also liked him in The Long Riders, The Right Stuff, The Big Easy (oh yes, for that one! "Watch out for the  gator, baby!"), Everybody's All American, Great Balls of Fire, Undercover Blues, The Parent Trap, The Rookie....do you get the feeling I am a Dennis Quaid fan? Lately, though, it seems like he is picking stupid roles just to make a buck: The Day  After Tomorrow, Yours, Mine, and Ours and now, Vantage Point. Sigh....

[MaineWriter]

I didn't like The Family Stone either.  I thought the way the mother treated her son's girlfriend was both mean-spirited and weird.  But the story never confronted that.  It was as if we were to think her attitude was sympathetic, and it wasn't.  It was nasty.

And then the way they sprang that bit about the mother dying there at the end seemed really strange.  That came out of left field.

I love Diane Keaton, but I sure didn't like her character in this film.  I kept wanting Sarah Jessica Parker's character to give her a good smack.     So what if she's this man's mother, and she's dying?  She doesn't get to decide who he's going to marry. 

I wanted to wring Diane Keaton's neck. What a witch of a mother...grrrr....I hear that Diane hasn't been a very nice character in her other recent movies (Because I Said So and Mad Money). They say that women of a "certain age" have a hard time finding decent roles but look at Helen Mirren. She's the same age as Diane and doesn't seem to have accepted the fact that she has to be a bitch on screen to keep working. Jane Fonda is another one who seems to be falling into the same trap.

L

[serious crayons]

I really liked Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven.  That was a pretty serious role.  Did you see him in that?

Did you see Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas?

Oh, there you go, finding exceptions to what I thought was a perfect rule of thumb.      You're right, I loved Dennis Quaid in FFH, too. And I thought Nicholas Cage was good in LLV (though I wasn't exactly happy I'd seen the movie). So maybe I should amend that to say, I like them in light comedies or in character dramas, but not in action films.

I defy you to find an exception in Kevin Costner's case, though. A week or so ago, I watched the first 10 minutes of Mr. Brooks and knew I wouldn't be able to stand it. I switched it off. Too horrible. I watched The Heartbreak Kid instead, which I thought was going to be stupid but turned out to be kind of (emphasis on the kind of) funny and cute.

I wanted to wring Diane Keaton's neck. What a witch of a mother...grrrr....I hear that Diane hasn't been a very nice character in her other recent movies (Because I Said So and Mad Money). They say that women of a "certain age" have a hard time finding decent roles but look at Helen Mirren. She's the same age as Diane and doesn't seem to have accepted the fact that she has to be a bitch on screen to keep working. Jane Fonda is another one who seems to be falling into the same trap.

TFS was one of those watershed roles that changed my whole view of Diane Keaton. She'd better do a nice sympathetic or at least funny role, fast.

Jane Fonda has fallen into the same trap, but I think that's because she felt it was a hurdle to get back into movies at all.



L
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[MaineWriter]

TFS was one of those watershed roles that changed my whole view of Diane Keaton. She'd better do a nice sympathetic or at least funny role, fast.

True. On her biography on IMDb, it doesn't even list anything as being in production. Maybe she is taking a break to reassess the disaster her career has become at the moment.

Jane Fonda has fallen into the same trap, but I think that's because she felt it was a hurdle to get back into movies at all.

Yes, this is true. And why did she have to get back into the movies, anyway? Georgia Rule and Monster-in-Law certainly aren't shining stars in the cinematic firmament. LOL

L

[oilgun]

I don't mind Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda (etc.)  playing unsympathetic characters, I just wish they did it in movies worth seeing, lol!

[southendmd]

I defy you to find an exception in Kevin Costner's case, though. A week or so ago, I watched the first 10 minutes of Mr. Brooks and knew I wouldn't be able to stand it. I switched it off. Too horrible. I watched The Heartbreak Kid instead, which I thought was going to be stupid but turned out to be kind of (emphasis on the kind of) funny and cute.

I agree KC has done a lot of junk.  But he was irresistible in No Way Out in 1987, and, I'm still a sucker for Field of Dreams  (just try  watching that with your father...)

[MaineWriter]

I agree KC has done a lot of junk.  But he was irresistible in No Way Out in 1987, and, I'm still a sucker for Field of Dreams  (just try  watching that with your father...)

Oh, No Way Out. I forgot that one. I loved that movie! And to be honest, I liked Dances With Wolves the first time I saw it, but now it seems sort of trite.

[Front-Ranger]

I am a long-time Costner fan.  I love him in Dances with Wolves and No Way Out, and even (I admit it) Waterworld and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

My favourite KC films are Dances With Wolves and Tin Cup.

[ednbarby]

Oh, Susie - here we have our first lovers' spat:  I cannot stand Kevin Costner.  I remember thinking he was good at the time in No Way Out and Bull Durham, but on watching them years later on TV, I could see him acting the whole time.  I'm a sucker for Field of Dreams, though, but I don't think he does any acting in that - he's just being Kevin Costner, albeit a considerably less boring version.

The only movie I think he was ever good in and still do is American Flyers.  I thought he stole every scene he was in in that one, when it was really the other guy's (I can't even think of the actor's name - that's how much he stole it) show.

I've been referring to KC for many years now as "The most boring man in America."  If you've ever seen him interviewed, you'll see why.  He's not quiet and introverted and mysterious like Robert DeNiro - he's BORING.


*backs slowly out of room*

[serious crayons]

Wow, so much to respond to!

Re Jane Fonda:

Yes, this is true. And why did she have to get back into the movies, anyway? Georgia Rule and Monster-in-Law certainly aren't shining stars in the cinematic firmament. LOL

I know! They're tarnishing her reputation more, in my view, than her visit to Hanoi!    She was once a really good actress. So why bother to come back at all, just to be in crap? So much better to go the Julie Christie route, and come back only for a really good role. It's not like she needs the money, is it?

I don't mind Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda (etc.)  playing unsympathetic characters, I just wish they did it in movies worth seeing, lol!

Exactly! The problem with Diane in TFS was that she wasn't supposed to be unsympathetic, she was supposed to be a wise, beloved matriarch. That movie was soooo deeply flawed. For me, it was also the last straw for Sarah Jessica Parker, who gets on my nerves anyway. And let's throw in Dermot Mulrooney, whom I sometimes like but don't feel very attached to. Even Claire Danes didn't come off looking great. Rachel McAdams and Luke Wilson are the only ones I don't like less after that film, and only because I've seen them in enough other things where I do like them.

Re Kevin Costner:

He's always totally delightful in romantic comedies: Bull Durham, Tin Cup, The Upside of Anger. He's also good in dramas with a mostly lighter tone: Field of Dreams, Silverado, the way-underrated A Perfect World. I'd put Dances With Wolves in that category, too, though I'm afraid that like Leslie I might find it trite at this point.

I don't like him in movies where he has to frown the whole time. I thought he was out and out bad in JFK. I don't recall him adding much to The Untouchables. No Way Out I don't remember very well, but from what I do recall I kind of suspect I'd like it better for the screenplay than for Kevin.

As for what he's like in real life ... I can't say I've ever read or seen an interview with him. If so, it must have been boring, because I don't remember it!  But with a few exceptions (are you listening, Mel Gibson?) I don't care what people are like in real life as long as they entertain me onscreen. Though they do get extra credit for being appealing in real life.