Oscar Recap
Posted: February 23rd, 2009 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 94 Comments »
Got another big baseball post — only loosely related to steroids this time — on the way. In the meantime, a few random thoughts about the Oscars.
Wow, somebody at the Oscars REALLY wants to bring back the musical. It was odd on Sunday night, no? There was Shirley MacLaine asking Anne Hathaway to be sure to keep using her lovely singing voice (to do what?). There was host Hugh Jackman putting on a top hat and tails and then bringing out Beyonce so they could put on one of the weirder musical numbers in television history, a musical montage that included songs from every musical ever made including Grease, Hairspray. Hair, High School Musical III and, I’m pretty certain, Xanadu. There was that extremely strange musical duet between John Legend and the guy who wrote the songs for Slumdog Millionaire — nobody seemed entirely sure why John Legend was there in the first place, or, frankly, who John Legend was.*
*I actually like John Legend. He just seemed oddly placed.
What was the point? As far as I know, the musical did not make any sort of comeback in 2008. The only musical they even mentioned on the show was Mamma Mia, which of course was a Broadway Show first, which of course was song by ABBA before that. I just didn’t get why they were so obsessed with musicals this year. Very, very strange.
I have to say: This was probably the lousiest Oscars show I’ve seen in my 30-plus years of Oscars infatuation. That says something because the Oscars are ALWAYS bad. For me, that’s the point of the Oscars. The badness. That’s why I love them. Sure, a good Oscars host can give you five or six funny moments — usually moments where he/she is making fun of the Oscars — and there is usually one or two good film sequences, usually one or two memorable speeches (memorable often for sheer vapidity) and then there are a few classic “Um” moments such as this year’s, “Um, why is Phillip Seymour Hoffman wearing a do rag?” But all in all, the beauty of the Oscars is the tone-deaf stupidity of the Oscars — the overwrought Hollywood shlock, the oh-so-brave and high-handed political speeches given to a room full of people who have cards in their pockets reminding them to thank their agents.
This year’s Oscars had most of that. But, I found that I really missed the host who could give you five or six funny moments. This is no offense to host Hugh Jackman who did, after all, what they asked him to do. I never blamed Roseanne Barr for botching up the National Anthem like she did all those years ago. To me, if you ask Roseanne Barr to sing the National Anthem, you are asking for exactly that. So they asked Hugh Jackman to bring a touch of 1930s class and charm and song and dance to the show, and I’d say he delivered that. The opening musical thing was pretty good. He certainly was going for Cary Grant. Trouble is: I don’t really know anyone who wanted Cary Grant. Seems to me the Academy Awards only work when everyone — or almost everyone — is in on the joke.
A few Oscar Night thoughts:
I was predisposed to like the idea of having five actors and actresses beamed in from the past to read out the nominations. But it turned out that was one of those ideas that was better in the meeting room than in real life.
For Supporting Actress they beamed back: Tilda Swinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Eva Marie Saint and Anjelica Houston. God bless those fine actresses but … really? That’s that best they could do? I mean here’s that moment when you are supposed to be in awe of the great actresses, you are suppose to be overwhelmed with memories … and what do we have? Eddie, the coach of Wildcats* and a semi-regular on the Love Boat? Come on. These are the Oscars, man! Judi Dench? Geena Davis? Jessica Lange? Cate Blanchett? Dianne Wiest? Rachel Weisz? Juliette Binoche? Someone? Anyone?
*To give you a sad idea about my feelings with this group … I originally had “Smokey and the Bandit” here because I somehow confused Goldie Hawn with Sally Field.
OK so here’s the question: Has there EVER been a worse moment in Oscars history than Whoopi Goldberg expressing her deep admiration for Amy Adams because they both played nuns? Well, maybe there had never been a more embarrassing moment … but it was coming.
For supporting actor they brought back Joel Grey — holy cow, Joel Grey! — Alan Arkin, Cuba Gooding, Kevin Kline and Christopher Walken. Wow. Was the point to show that supporting actors who win Oscars have no chance whatsoever of ever becoming stars? Then Cuba Gooding went on some supposed-to-be-funny rant about how Robert Downey, nominated (rather bizarrely) for his blackface performance in Tropic Thunder needed to stop talking away roles from a brother. It was … awkward.
I have to admit having very confusing feelings about Ben Stiller and humor. I know that I should find him hysterical. He’s about my age, he’s the son of Frank Costanza, and I’ve always been predisposed to thinking he’s very funny. Trouble is, more and more, I find it hard to remember him doing anything that actually made me laugh. Hated Zoolander. Hated, hated his Starsky and Hutch. Hated, hated, hated The Cable Guy. Even movies he has been in that I do find amusing — he’s not the reason. And when I mention this to people, they will usually point me to his TV show, which went off the air almost 20 years ago. I find that to be a bad sign.
On Oscar Night, Stiller wore a fake beard, chewed gum and acted like the Joaquin Phoenix Zombie that appeared on Letterman. And I thought this: It WAS funny. But it was only funny if Ben Stiller was one of your friends and you were in a bar and it was late at night. It was past midnight in summer camp funny. It was last-skit-on-Saturday-Night-Live funny. It was inside-joke funny. It wasn’t Oscar Night funny. It wasn’t even CLOSE to Oscar Night funny. It wasn’t Des Moines Volunteer Of The Year Night funny. And it left my beloved Natalie Portman to utter the new most embarrassing line in television history: “You look like a Hassid at a Meth Lab.” I cannot forgive Stiller for this.
The Judd Apatow short film with James Franco and Seth Rogen (special appearance by Janusz Kaminski), now, that was funny.
For Best Actress, they brought back Sophia Loren, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Shirley MacLaine. It was somewhat surreal. There was Shirley MacLaine telling Anne Hathaway to keep on singing. Then Halle Berry could not have sounded less enthralled with her assignment of finding something inspiring to say about Melissa Leo. But the big thing for me was that Sophia Loren seemed quite angry at Meryl Streep. Maybe I was the only one who saw it that way, but, wow, at first I thought Sophia Loren was going to go into the crowd after Meryl for her 15 Oscar nominations.*
*By the way, they Academy spin doctors were quick to sing Meryl Steep’s praises for her record 15 nominations … but nobody wanted to mention the elephant in the room: She has lost ELEVEN straight times. Hello. Eleven straight losses. That’s Susan Lucci. That’s the Atlanta Braves. That’s Marty Schottenheimer. She has not won an Oscar in TWENTY SEVEN years. Sure, it’s an honor to be nominated. But, you know, it’s a bigger honor to win.
For Best Actor, they reached into the time machine and found past winners Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Adrien Brody and Anthony Hopkins,* — it had to be difficult to find five Oscar winning actors who could not open a movie in Indianapolis. Where was Tom Hanks? Denzel Washington? Jack Nicholson? Russell Crowe? Kevin Spacey? Nick Cage? Were they purposely trying to NOT have any star power on the stage?*
*I realize, based on some brilliant reader tongue-lashings, that I probably misspoke here: There is plenty of star power in this group, in the grand sense of the Hollywood. De Niro is a giant, Kingsley and Hopkins are both knighted — though for some reason people seem to call him Sir Anthony Hopkins every time but Sir Ben Kinglsey only sporadically — and Michael Douglas is certainly Hollywood royalty. What I meant is that there is not anyone who is a CURRENT superstar or even anyone who I think carries over the way Nicholson might. De Niro should carry over, but Rocky and Bullwinkle didn’t help him.
Of course, this led to what I believe became the NEW most awkward moment of the night: Adrien Brody soliloquizing Richard Jenkins for finally getting nominated after managing to play in more than 60 movies without anyone ever hearing of him. Brody actually began his tribute to Jenkins by talking about how “If you Google Richard Jenkins …” Really Adrien? Google? That as the best they could come up with for you? Um, yeah, uncomfortable. Watching Jenkins’ face while Brody was talking was a bit like when the television camera pans to the parent of the kid who missed the free throw.
Then Sean Penn won his Best Actor award and made his “Commie, homo-loving sons of guns” joke that no doubt connected with .00003% of the audience.
As for the awards, they were obviously pretty predictable since I got 17 out 25 right (18 if you give me credit for Sean Penn … we all knew Sean Penn would win, but I did hope for Mickey Rourke), and I only saw three movies (six if you count Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda). People ask if the night’s big winner Slumdog Millionaire will be remembered as a great movie … I doubt it. But I think it was a good movie. It was the best of the three I saw. I saw a brilliant reader discussion about how Slumdog Millionaire would have played if it had been set in America instead of India … I don’t think it’s a fair question. For me, India was the leading character in the movie. Anyway, seems to me that most movies, even great ones, when you tear them down to their basics, are very simple stories. Casablanca was boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gives up girl for the greater good. Citizen Kane was American giant longs for love and simpler times. The Godfather was the story of corrupting power with the bonus of lots of bullets at a toll booth. I think Slumdog Millionaire is at heart, a simple love story, but it was told well, and it was filmed beautifully, and that’s an Oscar winner these days.
Anyway, it was a whole helluva lot better than Curious Case of Benjamin Button.*
*Brilliant reader Aaron does not appreciate the ripping of Benjie Button for being a slimfast version of Forrest Gump, in large part because BB was based on a F. Scott Fitzgerald short story that was written decades before Forrest Gump. I would say two things: One, I’ve read the Fitzgerald story, and I would say that the movie was very loosely based on the story. But, two, and more to the point, I wasn’t really referring to the stories. I thought the MOVIE was a slimfast version of the movie Forrest Gump. Brilliant reader David points to this which gets at least part of my general disgust.
ONE MORE THOUGHT: There was something that really bothered me at the end of the Oscars, when they brought up what appeared to be the entire cast crew and and most of the ticket buyers from Slumdog Millionaire, and I could not figure it out. My first thought was that it was very cool to have them all up there to enjoy the moment, and I mostly feel that way. But something about it did not look right, and only later did I figure it out: The scene looked PRECISELY like the final scene of the Price is Right or Family Feud, when they bring all the family members and friends from the crowd to celebrate the victory. Looking back on it, I can almost hear the Price is Right music playing.
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Hated the cable guy? Highly under-rated movie.
Perhaps, and this is just a shot in the dark, you’re the one that isn’t funny?
Joe, do us all a favor? Stick to baseball.
John Legend was filling in for the nominated Peter Gabriel, who didn’t want to perform since he would only be able to sing ~60 seconds of his song. http://www.mahalo.com/John_Legend_Oscar_Performance
Uma, Oprah. Oprah, Uma. How quickly we forget?
Frank Costanza, not George.
Frankly, I can’t stand Ben Stiller either. And “The Cable Guy” sucked. Keep up the good work, Joe!
I thought the whole 5 presenters thing was pretty terrible, too, but since when is Robert De Niro, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas, and Ben Kingsley no star power? ..especially since you put Nicholas Cage in your group of ’stars’.
And Ben Stiller, while not great, was very funny in Something About Mary, he was very funny in Royal Tenenbaums, and he was hilarious as the Spanish news guy in Anchorman, although short-lived.
Why isn’t anyone talking about David Ortiz and Pedro? Jose Guillen, Juan Gonzalez, A-Rod… all linked to this new trainer. Pujols, ol’ boy… your time is almost up. And once your name shows up, i’m driving to St. Louis and running through the streets naked in delight!!
On behalf of all those who haven’t been named a ‘brilliant reader’, I’d like to say that it’s an honor just being unmoderated…
I actually agree with much of what you say here, Joe, though I do have to take issue with your Best Actor comment — sure, Adrian Brody probably has some negative star power, and Michael Douglas is probably a wash, but I can’t imagine myself looking at a stage on which Ben Kingsley, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Robert DeNiro are standing and wondering where the star power is. To borrow a Hall of Fame argument, replacing any of the latter three with Nicholas Cage would not have increased the integrity of the stage.
Also, at the risk of becoming the ‘link guy’, you’re not the first to wonder how it is that he once thought Ben Stiller was funny: http://www.whiterose.org/pete/blog/archives/006124.html
For Best Actor, they reached into the time machine and found past winners Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Adrien Brody and Anthony Hopkins,* — it had to be difficult to find five Oscar winning actors who could not open a movie in Indianapolis. Where was Tom Hanks? Denzel Washington? Jack Nicholson? Russell Crowe? Kevin Spacey? Nick Cage? Were they purposely trying to NOT have any star power on the stage?
Nicholas Cage? I’ll admit they should have tried a little harder than Adrian Brody, but Cage is just as out of place with Douglas, DeNiro, Kingsley and Hopkins as Brody. Nicholas Cage needs to be punished for Wicker Man, and letting him on stage at the Oscars isn’t going to teach him anything.
Overall, I liked the show, although many of your criticisms do hit the mark. The gimmick with the major award presentations was a terrific idea, but as you said, it really relied on the presence of some big names to make it hum, and they didn’t have that. That, and half the time the little speeches didn’t have anything to do with the actual performance. I also missed the film clips that usually appear throughout the show – didn’t see any of those last night.
On the bright side, my wife and I took great pleasure in comparing stars who know the proper way to graciously accept such praise (Frank Langella, Angelina Jolie) and those who look like they’re trying too hard (Meryl Streep).
I thought Jackman was great, but didn’t it seem like he disappeared for quite awhile late in the show? Will Smith’s joke – “Yes, it’s me again. I think Hugh’s taking a nap.” – was very apropos.
I assumed Shirley MacLaine was referencing Anne Hathaway’s song-and-dance routine with Jackman from the opening number when she told her to keep singing. Her voice wasn’t terrible (not that I’m a great judge of vocal talent), but her Nixon needs some work.
Not to pile on, but a group of five people, 60% of which consists of Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas and Bob DeNiro, has no star power? That’s just a bizarrely wrong comment.
I liked the bizarre Hugh/Beyonce musical number, but I like musicals. And Amanda Seyfried.
I actually hated the five past winners thing UNTIL the best actress one…the nominees were all visibly touched (I mean, they’re actresses, but it seemed REALLY real), and I thought it was cool.
But I have to say one thing about that otherwise lovely moment–Sophia Loren looked very good far too late in life, well into her 60s. But she’s 74, her deal with the devil has apparently lapsed, and it’s time for her to start dressing like someone’s grandmother. That dress was kind of upsetting.
Why don’t they just bring in Spielberg or somebody to direct it one year and see what happens? (Or have they tried that?) The more they try to honor the past they succeed in reinforcing the feeling that the present sucks.
Joe rightly based star power on the ability to open a movie. And it’s true, while they are screen legends, Robert De Niro, Anthony Hopkins or Michael Douglas will not open a movie at number one. Ridiculous as he is, Nicholas Cage definitely has that potential.
Haven’t watched the Oscars in 20+ years.
Have seen only Wall-E of the above mentioned movies.
Still, I do enjoy reading Joe’s writing, even about stuff of which I am almost completely ignorant. (And there’s no shortage of subject matter there…)
Happily-
It IS Spring Training!
God Bless Ameriker.
Ben Stiller has three characters, and all of them suck:
1. Over-the-top bad guy (Dodge Ball, Happy Gilmore, Anchorman, Heavy Weights, his cameo on Friends);
2. Quirky-yet-endearing everyman (Meet the Parents/Fockers, Something about Mary, Along Came Polly, Heartbreak Kid, Mystery Men);
3. Hero without a clue (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, Night at the Museum, Madagascar)
“Robert Downey, nominated (rather bizarrely) for his blackface performance in Tropic Thunder”
Joe, did you see Tropic Thunder? Robert Downey’s performance was genius.
I was also not a fan of the 5 past winners schtick. I really missed seeing the clips from the individual movies. It would have given a casual viewer a taste of WHY these people were nominated.
And the Apatow short film was great. I laughed out loud more at that than Pineapple Express.
Also joining in the piling on, and wondering why no one has given Joe his deserved grief for saying Spacey would add some star power. If this was 2000, maybe. Spacey hasn’t done anything star-worthy since American Beauty! His Lex Luthor was pretty good, but that’s the highlight of his last decade in Hollywood.
As for the notion that Nic Cage can single-handedly “open a movie at number one,” I wonder what movie the poster was thinking of? Bangkok Dangerous, perhaps? Or maybe Next, or The Wicker Man? Yes, two Cage movies in recent memory opened at number one: a sequel and a comic book flick. But he’s much more likely to appear in a complete bomb as he is a blockbuster. And don’t get me wrong – I love Nic Cage. God of War is one of the most criminally under-appreciated movies of my lifetime.
“Why isn’t anyone talking about David Ortiz and Pedro? Jose Guillen, Juan Gonzalez, A-Rod… all linked to this new trainer. Pujols, ol’ boy… your time is almost up. And once your name shows up, i’m driving to St. Louis and running through the streets naked in delight!!”
Hey Kevin,
You are a tool.
I don’t want to come off like those first two dickweed commenters, but DO NOT diss Eva Marie Saint. She gives me a funny feeling somewhere.
The oscars suck…period. Who the f*ck has 4 hours to waste watching that drivel anyway?
re: evelyn – Joe, do us a favor, and don’t just stick to baseball.
Also, Apatow, not Apotow.
Well, I had a whole long comment typed but something crashed when I tried to submit, so I will boil it down to…
rdriley, if you think it was so “criminally under-appreciated”, you’d think you’d know the title of the movie was Lord of War, not God of War. It’s a play on the word warlord.
Brandon- someone else already addressed this, but the fact that Nic Cage has BEEN IN some movies that HAVE opened at #1 does not mean he innately has that power. We need to get some sabermetricians analyzing this sort of thing, but I’d be willing to bet that if you were able to distill star power from other things (comic book movie, sequel to a surprise hit, all that stuff), DeNiro would be the Al Pujols to Cage’s, I don’t know, Derrek Lee or something.
The five presenters thing was awful. Awful, excruciating, and a tone-deaf moment on Hollywood’s part. The public wants a clip so they can check out the nominees they didn’t see, not a minute of back-slapping as if major movie stars need to get that little ego boost just so they can handle the pain of losing the Oscar. And the true most awkward moment of the night was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s face right after Alan Arkin called him Seymour Philip Hoffman.
#23 Bill: Not saying I necessarily disagree about Cage, but when was the last time Robert DeNiro carried a movie to the top of the box office entirely on his own merit? (Really, how often does ANYONE do that?)
Boy, do I disagree with you, Joe.
Natalie Portman’s very presence combined with her beautifully offensive mouth were highlights, IMHO.
The Cuba Gooding Jr./Morton Downey Jr. nonsense was at least noteworthy for its unparalleled absurdity–kind of like “Tropic of Thunder” in that respect. Stiller definitely detracted from that movie. Granted, his role sucked. OK, all the roles sucked in “Tropic of Thunder”. But come on, Morton Downey Jr. really broke through the color barrier with that performance.
For Halloween in 3rd grade, my brother went as Mr. T in full blackface (and arms). A boy ahead of his time.
Adrien Brody’s historically backhanded tribute to Richard Jenkins was a real gem. Brody was clueless. His speech, very loosely translated:
“I have no friggin’ idea who you are. I had to google you for Christ’s sake. I’m sure you know that you have no chance of winning. I salute you for remaining completely under the radar throughout your 30 years in film. We’ll be sure to include you in the annual postmortem video montage when you die.”
If you just stick to baseball this site would be the poorer. These essays are the surprise gems that keep those of us who tolerate baseball (and your ability to make it interesting by being passionate and well written) coming back.
As for the Oscars, I hated the five flashback presenters. Having not seen most of the nominated roles, I would much rather have seen a clip that illustrated the actors’ work than heard other people trying to gush about them.
But the real tragedy of the production was that annoying moving camera during the In Memorium montage. Who thought that was a good idea?
Keep surprising us Joe.
I really didn’t catch much, but I saw Bill Maher’s presentation on the documentaries. I suppose he thought he was being self-deprecating, but wow, what a big jackass he is. To paraphrase: “The only reason my documentary didn’t get nominated is because some people cannot handle it when you criticize religion”. In sports, I think we call that poor sportsmanship.
You really need to see Tropic Thunder to understand how truly great Downey was. Certainly an Oscar-worthy performance, even if he didn’t win.
The rest of the movie pretty much stunk.
I only saw three movies (six if you count Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda)
Are children’s movies park adjusted?
What do you mean by “don’t know anyone who would want Cary Grant?” I for one would have been happy to have him – any way. I’ve heard his name so often during this Oscar month, it is disgusting. Or maybe it’s a compliment. Seems everyone wants to be him, and the stars of today have no comparison, but they keep trying to compare! sad.
There was a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror once where all the advertising signs came to life and went on a rampage. In the end they were defeated when Lisa got Paul Anka to write a jingle convincing everyone to stop paying attention to them, “just don’t look, just don’t look”. I would so very, very, very much like it if we could all take this approach to steroids-in-baseball stories. If we all start ignoring them, maybe people will stop writing them and we can get back to actually covering the game. It would also be a lot easier to ignore them if there were less of them, if you see what I’m saying, Joe.
As far as the Oscars go, I thought the 5 presenter thing had potential. It was pretty cool to see legends like Sophia Loren and Robert De Niro. So, yeah, potential… the execution was painful, though. Bad wedding toast level tributes read by tenuously connected past winners as the camera focused tightly on the faces of people for whom excruciating embarrassment was the only defensible reaction.
I just watched Tropic Thunder this past weekend. Just last night, I declared that I don’t think Ben Stiller is funny. For me, I’ve enjoyed only one Ben Stiller performance ever, the old folks home caretaker in Happy Gilmore.
You are not alone, that guy stinks.
I called “Tropic Thunder”, “Tropic of Thunder”. It’s the only one of the movies mentioned that I’ve actually seen, too.
Keep writing about everything, Joe. I love the Academy Awards and I don’t even see most films. Recent films, that is. I would happily watch Lauren Bacall in “The Big Sleep” and “Key Largo” played on a loop for eternity.
Good Ben Stiller performances:
The Zero Effect; Permanent Midnight; The Royal Tenenbaums; Tropic Thunder.
I also think he’s pretty funny in Dodgeball if you’re looking to turn off your brain and enjoy a throw-away comedy.
I enjoyed Ben Stiller in The Zero Effect too. He makes a great straight man.
What’s with the Indianapolis dig? We can recognize star power, and those were five excellent -actors- up there.
I agree with so much here, comments and entry alike, particularly where Ben Stiller and his not actually being that funny in almost anything.
But am I the only one who thinks they screwed up the “In Memoriam”? Call me somewhat sick, but I like guessing who’ll be first, who’ll be last (nailed it with Newman over Heston and Pollack) and who gets applause and who gets head scratching. This year, it was like Queen Latifa was the focus instead of the dead folks. Poor Cyd Charisse didn’t even get her name legibly displayed. And why do we need to see footage of a tv screen showing us the footage of the people?
the Oscars were terrible. Hugh Jackman was terrible. I never used the mute button more often. Sean Penn, really? Mickey Rourke is his brother huh? What is that shit?
pompous asses. That’s what we got 4 hours of.
Off the top of my head, the top comedies of the last two decades would start with something like this:
My Cousin Vinnie
Tanenbaums
Dumb and Dumber
(gap)
Cable Guy (so well balanced)
(small gap)
Zoolander (best of the Will Farrell et al bunch)
….Ace Ventura doesn’t age well imo, but now i’m going deeper than the top of my head
I loved the humor of Michael Douglas putting over Frank Langella’s Nixon with Anthony Hopkins standing RIGHT THERE/
I too have always found Ben Stiller to be astonishingly unfunny. Also, Will Farrell.
“…Tilda Swinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Eva Marie Saint and Anjelica Houston….That’s that best they could do?…Eddie, Smokey and the Bandit and a semi-regular on the Love Boat? Come on…”
When did they re-make “Smokey and the Bandit” with one of these ladies? ‘Cause I damn sure didn’t see any of them in them in the original.
i thought Jackman was okay…the opening sequence was really really good, though. the first one i’ve liked in years.
robert downy jr. was incredible in tropic thunder. the movie was pretty meh. but RDJ was incredible. he had one hell of a year.
i’m not on board w/ Cruz winning best supporting actress and i was never on board with Doubt getting any nominations, sorry ms. streep.
slumdog reminds me of the movie Shine a little bit. at the time, its amazing, in hindsight, maybe not so much. it doesn’t really hold up well, i think, after watching it last month.
Even Ted Williams had bad days and it’s good to see you’re not perfect Joe. Zoolander and The Cable Guy were awesome movies. And to say Hopkins, Douglas, Kingsley, and DeNiro aren’t monsters of Hollywood is insane.(which you addressed)
Nichalos Cage is now a bigger star that Robert DeNiro? People think Tom Cruise is crazy. Who wants to see him, I’d rather see Brody, who is actually making good movies at the present time.
Anyway, the Oscars are always lousy, so I’ll give you that and thanks for writing, as usual. You’re officially like The Simpsons in the 90’s; even the worst of the worst episodes were BETTER* than ANYTHING* else out there, just like your columns.
* My homage to you
@Ryan JL (#42):
re: Will Ferrell
For the most part, I agree.
I love low-brow comedy but when people are acting like idiots, I don’t think it’s funny when they know they’re acting like idiots. Will Ferrell may be *THE* biggest offender. In Anchorman or any of the Will Ferrell sportstravaganza films, he may as well be holding up a big sign that says, “I am trying to be funny.” You can see him trying to be funny instead of just letting himself be funny. Much of what is written (especially in Anchorman) may actually be funny but, like a sitcom with a laugh track, he tells you when to laugh and it ends up ruining most of the jokes.
The thing is, I think Will Ferrell is capable of being very funny. His funniness is inversely proportional to his self-awareness. His Elf character doesn’t seem in on the joke and I think there is a sort of hilarious innocence to that performance. His Stranger Than Fiction character is funny because he’s sort of a straight man for a joke being played on him by the universe. If he was in on the joke, it wouldn’t be funny any more and, to his credit, he seems to get that.
During the 2008 Des Moines Volunteer Of The Year Night, we watched The Cable Guy.
How dare you, sir….
I don’t think Stiller is funny either, unless he is the butt of someone else’s joke. Then he’s useful. His skits hinge on whether you only need awkwardness to find something funny. It’s similar to the reaction I had to Andy Kaufman – I’m wasting my time watching this guy reprise Jerry Lewis? Is he actually seeing how far he can go with an annoying concept until you give in one way or the other? The lack of payoff is the payoff? OK, I will laugh uncomfortably if it makes you go away say the A-listers. Seemingly, it’s now Stiller’s role each year, I missed his turn this time, but I remember the blue suit thing he did from a past show for its, of course, painful awkwardness without a payoff. I only watched about 30 minutes of this year’s show, but don’t be pissed off about me avoiding a lot of pompousity, because I was reading the Torre/Verducci book instead.
#26: Morton Downey, Jr.? Now that would be a performance!
Royal Tannenbaums (sp?) sucked in my humble opinion. That kind of humor is so easy but usually not effective. Rich people playing idiots…We see that too often in real life.
I also wondered about how Anthony Hopkins felt about the praise for Frank Langella’s Nixon.
My wife watched much of the Oscar show, I only watched for bits and pieces. She wasn’t too impressed but gave a lukewarm grade for Hugh Jackman. I think she wished he had not shaved for a few days prior to the show. I’m an old fuddy-duddy. Johnny Carson was the host of hosts for that gig.
I agree – Find me another Lauren Bacall.
I was gonna pile on Ben Stiller by describing the 3 characters he’s capable of playing, but I see someone beat me to it.
Let me just add to the “Ben Stiller is not funny in the least outside of Royal Tenenbaums but that’s not really to his credit, but rather the director Wes Anderson”.
Royal Tennenbaums is a great movie. I think you miss the point if you consider it a mere comedy.
Adrien Brody is certainly NOT a star’s star, but his performance in The Pianist is one of the best performances in the last 10 years. So he’s got that going for him.
To Jackman’s credit, the opening musical sequence was pretty good. “The Reader! I didn’t see The Reader!”
Best moment of the night was definitely Man on Wire’s win for Documentary, though. Phillipe Petit stole the Oscars and my heart.
I liked the Oscars for one reason.
I don’t recall a single winner being cut off. In years past, when Heath Ledger’s father was finished Bill Conti would have cued up the orchestra and the mom and sister would have been left standing there, dumbfounded.
The show ran its normal length, and every winner was given all the time he or she wanted. A couple of them even ran out of things to say, yet kept talking waiting for the music to start.
I loved it. Sure, it is an annual tradition to lament the winners being cut off by the wicked director. Not this year, and I don’t miss it. I liked the Oscars for that reason.
And to you, Jim Future, I would add that Phillipe Petit would have been cut off by the orchestra in every other year.
Math question. You saw three of the movies, and six if you count Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda…wouldn’t that actually be five? I agree about Ben Stiller, though. Except for Dodgeball – he was pretty funny in that.
Zoolander was gold.
Weird that nobody has mentioned “In Bruges” in this thread yet. Hey, Joe: You really must see “In Bruges.”
Also, yeah, Ben Stiller is pretty terrible, but “Zoolander” really holds up to repeat viewings. You just have to throw yourself into the ridiculousness of it.
I’m not a compulsive movie-goer, but have seen Ben Stiller a handful of times (not Cable Guy, since I find Jim Carrey’s shtick as hard to take as that of Robin Williams). It seems obvious to me that his approach is the comedy of mortification; his characters always overreach, and are slapped down for it. Maybe this lack of authenticity in the characters diminishes his status as a comedian. I don’t think he’ll ever win any prizes, but he attracts great acting talent to his projects (maybe because they know their characters will be cast in a better light to contrast w/his). Tropic Thunder, in addition to Downey, had a fine supporting actor in the Brit director (just look at his face while he’s entertaining the “put them in the real sh*t” gibberish of Nick Nolte’s character in the tent on the beach), plus he had the greatest departure from a story-line that I can recall.
I also have a general dislike for Ben Stiller. The Meet the Parents/Fockers movies just make me feel generally uncomfortable, like I want everything to fix itself. I don’t find everything turning into a worst-case scenario funny. Just like I don’t want to see Horacio Ramirez make the rotation and Wille “F.” Bloomquist win the starting job at second.
When I saw the trailer for Zoolander, I thought it looked like one of the dumbest movies that had ever been made — and not in a good way. To the contrary, however, it was ridiculous in such a good way that it really does hold up well to repeat viewings.
However, the more we analyze comedy, the less funny it becomes, and no one is really going to be convinced that something is funny when they don’t believe so in the first place. Why am I still talking?
Hated the presentations for the acting awards. With 4 categories and 5 nominations per catergory, there were 20 variations of the same speech: “You are a fantastic artist. The beauty/grace/humor you displayed was blah blah blah.” Like someone else said above, most people, myself included, haven’t seen every single performance yet. I like to see a small clip showing what each person was nominated for.
The dead people montage was terrible too. That’s usually my favorite part of the show, but by the time it came on, I had retired from the living room and HDTV to my bedroom, with a 25″ standard definition tv. I couldn’t read half the names on screen! I spent half the segment yelling at the cameraman to stop moving and the other half squinting. I can’t believe anyone thought that would be a good idea.
Jackman was fine. I liked the change of pace away from the standard comedian. Much of the time, the jokes feel forced and aren’t really funny. The second song, with Beyonce? That was terrible. Maybe it’s just because I don’t like Beyonce and can’t understand why she always has to work in Etta James’ “At Last.” Plus the lip-synching/singing.
She keeps working in “At Last” because she did the song/played Etta James in a movie this year (Cadillac Records).
Although Ben Stiller makes a lot of bad movies, he also has been in some good movies.
The Royal Tenenbaums,
Meet the Parents,
Keeping the Faith,
Mystery Men,
There’s Something About Mary,
and yes The Cable Guy
I don’t understand why people dislike this movie so much.
The committee presentation wouldn’t have been so bad if they added a traditional reading of the nominees complete with film clips. I mean, they showered praises before reading all of the nominees again with clips on all of the technical awards. Why couldn’t they have done that with the acting awards? It would would have made the pointless drivel somewhat worth it.
Anyways, no love for the “Domo arigatou, Mr. ROBOTTO” speech? It seems like it’s on the way to becoming another YouTube meme.
Another fabulous comedic moment came when Tina Fey and Steve Martin were presenting the screenplay awards, but it bothered me that Martin had almost all of the punch lines. I know Tina Fey played the straight woman to Martin’s zany hippie in Baby Mama, but shouldn’t she have a chance to get some laughs?
As always, proud to be in the .000003%.
I will echo the sentiments of those who didn’t like the In Memoriam segment. I appreciate what I think they were going for, but having a live singer (as opposed to just having the orchestra play) wound up being distracting.
In fact, I missed the first few names because I got up to leave the room when I saw Dana Owens (that’s the Queen’s real name) get up to sing. As far as I know they never had someone sing over the death montage so I didn’t realize that’s what they were doing at first.
And to Tim at #38…congrats on “nailing it” by correctly guessing Paul Newman would be last in the montage. That puts you in an exclusive group with “everyone.” Heston and Pollack are big names, but this was one of those years where there was no doubt who the final person would be. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there was nobody in the movie business who could have died in 2008 who would have bumped Paul Newman from the final spot.
One thing that I do enjoy at each Oscars is the time near the end when those that have died within the industry are honored…Boy was this a mess this year. Either the TV cameraman/producer didn’t know what to focus on or they were distracted by too many moving images but do you think they could have given us at home a full screen image of the production?! Way too often time the camera pulled away so that occasionally I could not see who was being honored. Very poorly done in my humble opinion. Only at the end when they showed Paul Newman and a few of his clips was this production acceptable if one was watching on TV.
The Visitor was a great movie. If anyone had bothered to see it they might have not have been so quick to dismiss Richard Jenkins.
“The Visitor” was a fine movie, very worthwhile story to be told, good viewing….But, “great”?. That’s like saying Kevin Youkilis is “great”.
Richard Jenkins did become a pretty good African drummer…
gogiggs,
I did not know that. I still don’t like Beyonce though.
The more I think about it, the more I think Joe (and others) are right that Wall-E should have at least been nominated for Best Picture.
Pitchers and catchers?!!! Joe, if you’re coming to Phoenix and want somebody to buy you a beer, send me an email.
Robert DeNiro is about as good an actor as there is. The fact that he takes extremely non-traditional roles and sometimes fails (Rocky and Bullwinkle) and succeeds (Stardust) merely says that he doesn’t take himself so seriously that he isn’t willing to do quirky, genre, or out and out weird.
Ben Stiller has been very hit and miss for me. Still, I liked him a fair bit in “A Night at the Museum” and I thought “Mystery Men” could have been a gem if the studio hadn’t messed with it (there’s a lot of continuity issues and obvious scenes that were cut out, such as any exploring the budding romantic relationship between The Spleen and The Bowler). Comedy by its very nature is hit or miss. I loved Larry David as the creator of Seinfeld, and can skip him in “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
And I must say: most movie musicals started on Broadway. Hollywood has been mining Broadway since the first talkies. Yes, Baz Luhrmann and Hugh Jackman would love for there to be more musicals. But given the history of Oscar, musicals get *far* more representation and credit than do superhero, science fiction, or fantasy movies. And those “genre” flicks are far more popular and do far more business. I’d say that Oscar rewards musicals because musicals *need* the boost of Oscars to drive sales. “The Dark Knight” isn’t going to sell many more DVDs no matter how many Oscars it got, but “Mamma Mia” might.
Interestingly, another noted blogger called this year’s Oscar telecast ‘…the best Oscar show I’ve ever seen…’.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/02/the_oscars_are_outsourced.html
I wonder what he thinks of the Royal’s chances this year.
Mark W., #49. Thanks for pointing out my gross “Morton Downey Jr.” error. ROBERT DOWNEY is far too good an actor to be confused with even his father, though obviously they were generally involved in different parts of show business.
In fact, as was mentioned before in the Cage, DeNiro, et al. discussion, Downey qualifies as one of the few actors that compel me to see almost 100% of his movies when they are in the theater. The Coen Brothers also fall into this category for me. Robert Downey has to be considered one of the greatest living actors, IMHO–even with his relatively young age as compared to most actors that normally enter that discussion. Robert Downey was the reason I saw Tropic Thunder, and he did not disappoint.
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m going to give Zoolander another chance. I didn’t make it all the way through it the first time. I respect the opinions of Joe’s readers, and several spoke up in defense of the film.
To clarify my opinion of Stiller, despite my statement regarding his performance in Tropic Thunder, I agree that he has put in solid performances in many of the movies mentioned above. Matt Brown’s (#15) observation of Stiller’s 3 characters is spot on, but I don’t see that as proof of incompetence. I enjoy watching James Cagney play the same character over and over.
Yeah, I hate Ben Stiller. As a couple of readers before me have pointed out, his humor is based on embarrassing situations – and I have never been able to stand that kind of humor (bizarrely, there is one exception to this – the American version of The Office, and even that overdoes it for me sometimes). Meet the Parents remains the single most uncomfortable experience I have ever had in a movie theater.
Fundamentally, I just feel sorry for people when I see them get abjectly humiliated, and I want it to stop. It’s not funny.
There are a couple of things he’s been in that I find OK, like Zoolander, which was just so over the top ridiculous as to be amusing. But the ‘ha ha look at me get humiliated’ stuff – no.
Y’know what irked me about the Oscars? This year, when they did the montage of dead people, they kept pulling back so we could see the singer. It isn’t supposed to be about her, it’s about the stars who passed away, and you couldn’t see who half of the people were because the camera was pulled so far back.
Joe, I think you are easily one of the most engaging, brilliant writers I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. But as someone with no interest in Bruce Springsteen, steroids or the Oscars, you are killing me. 1.2 million words that hold no joy for me.
I happened to flip by the Oscars when, I think, Sophia Loren was on and I thought she was an extra from a new version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Some sort of bizarro grandma Oompah-Loompah or something. I think I gasped and clicked the “last” button as quickly as possible.
Rutbag (#46) re: Will Farrell-
“In Anchorman or any of the Will Ferrell sportstravaganza films, he may as well be holding up a big sign that says, “I am trying to be funny.†You can see him trying to be funny instead of just letting himself be funny.”
Very well put. I think you can see both dynamics rutbag identified in Farrell’s Harvard commencement speech. He commits fully, but still has moments of superficiality. It’s worth watching, IMO.
Will Farrel’s Harvard commencement speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k
“Joe rightly based star power on the ability to open a movie”
Maybe we needed Adam Sandler up there.
I loved Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. Meet the Parents was phenomenal (Meet the Fockers, not so much). Starksy & Hutch, The Cable Guy, and Dodgeball all had their moments, although overall they were pretty average. His character in Heavyweights was hilarious. The old Ben Stiller Show was pretty great. There are definitely several duds mixed in there (Duplex, Along Came Polly, Envy, The Heartbreak Kid), but when Stiller hits, he hits big. I can’t think of 5 comedic actors I like better than Ben Stiller.
By the way, during the Oscars I was trying to think of the last good movie Michael Douglas had been in, and couldn’t do it. Turning to the IMDB, you’d have to go back to 2000’s Traffic and Wonder Boys.
Michael Douglas is now too busy TRYING to be a good husband to Zeta-Jones to do anything worthwhile on screen. He’s admitted to having a sexual addiction in the past – I don’t know if that sort of slowed his career – but in Hollywood, I would suspect not.
Frankly, my favorite Michael Douglas character was as Karl Malden’s young buddy detective on ‘The Streets of San Francisco”.
Malden would always give him the “ok, buddy-boy” line. Malden was great in that…Good “bad television” at its finest!
Mark W – I say great because of the reality of the movie. 99% of American movies would have found some way for him to circumvent the system and stay in the US. Instead reality actually found it’s way onto the big screen. Families were separated, love was broken, and the bureaucrats win as usual in real life. Takes guts to make a movie with no happy ending and I thought Jenkins was excellent.
Hey and Joe keep writing about whatever gets your keys stroking. We have a gazillion sport writers but only one Joe, if some whine about you writing about non – sport items, just remind them, this is your blog and you write about what you want and all they have to do is go onto the next post instead of whining about having to read a post they have no interest in. No one is putting a gun to their heads and saying read something you don’t like.
Two comments:
1. Ben Stiller is awful. It’s okay.
2. Reese Witherspoon quoted ‘Airplane II’ during her Best Director presentation. (Awesome.)
You didn’t like Zoolander? It’s like I don’t know you anymore…
And it left my beloved Natalie Portman to utter the new most embarrassing line in television history: “You look like a Hassid at a Meth Lab.â€
Hey, George Lucas had her saying much, MUCH worse crap than that. Though admittedly not on television.
I fail to understand why anyone even bothers watching the Oscars? It’s a terrible show. It takes for-bleeping-ever. Actors and actresses are some of the dumbest people on the planet. To top it off, the drooling mongoloid idiots who hand out the awards are a bunch of withered corpses who
- went to watch every game that Old Hoss Radbourn started.
- think %(&Y%$#&)^ TOOTSIE is the funniest movie of all time. (I bleep you not, TOOTSIE!)
- stopped being in touch with what’s good, what’s not and what the world considers good (or not) about 85 years ago.
Hey, let’s spend four hours watching that?
The more they try to honor the past they succeed in reinforcing the feeling that the present sucks. — Spud #12
That would be because they DO suck. Curiously enough, the number of movies made in/by Hollywood each year has increased dramatically (roughly 400/yr through at least the 70s, around 10,000 each of the last two years) — and, if anything, the total QUALITY has declined. To make a very rough analogy, Hollywood used to give us Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, with the occasional Ron Santo and Bert Blyleven; now we get a whole bunch of straight-to-DVD David Ecksteins and Moonlight Grahams.
3rd Period Points #26 — I’d be more impressed with your thoughts if you were aware of the distinction between Robert Downey Jr. and Morton Downey Jr. (there’s a gap between them roughly the size of the Grand Canyon). Among other things, Morton Downey Jr. is the spiritual father of all of today’s loud-mouthed, know-nothing blowhards (e.g., Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli).
Creston #84 — “Tootsie” is funnier than Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, and Paul Blart combined. Not only that, but also Dustin Hoffman is actually a real actor, i.e., he acts, he doesn’t indulge in the (as a previous poster put it) “Hey, look at me trying to be funny” schtick.
Wow, lets just all pile on Ben Stiller shall we? I won’t say he’s great, but he’s often pretty good. Zoolander is one of my favorite comedies ever. I found Dodgeball surprisingly good, and Tropic Thunder good as well. Meet the Parents was just OK for me, and it goes down hill from there. As someone else said, comedy is pretty hit and miss. I’d like extend that to if you don’t like the general type of comedy a particular actor does, you’re just going to think that person sucks. The reality is you are just not able to disassociate your own personal tastes from objective judgment. A commenter above said he doesn’t like awkward humor, well that’s primarily what Ben Stiller does… so the conclusion flows pretty naturally there. Just as Will Farrell does the “I’m an idiot” and self injury humor. If you don’t like a guy walking around like a fool chugging a beer and getting hit in the balls, you won’t like Will Farrell. Personally I think Blades of Glory, Step Brothers, Anchorman, and Old School are hilarious, and often find reason’s to quote these movies with friends. But I’m a sucker for d!ck and fart humor, so what do I know….. Awkward humor is just OK on me, and often too much. As such Ben Stiller is often not good for me, particularly Polly and Meet the Fockers.
Also, to anyone that wants to rag on Stiller for only being able to play 3 different characters, I challenge you to make a list of 20 or so actors and come up with the basic character types they have played and see how many have more than 3. Many, if not most, actors in Hollywood are only good in a very limited number of roles.
As for the Oscars, I second most of the criticism above. Watching five actors stroke the ego of five other actors was really nauseating, until I finally just starting making fun of them. I usually avoid these award shows at all costs, but my wife insisted. Thankfully I was cooking and eating for most of it…
Well, I stopped to have some dinner and Wally beat me to it on the 3 characters thing, but I’m going to agree with him. I’d agree that Ben Stiller pretty much only has three characters, but then, so does Bill Murray; 1) smartass trickster/rebel : Stripes, Meatballs, Ghostbusters 2) sarcastic/angry boss-type: Scrooged, Groundhog Day 3) world-weary middle-aged guy: Lost in Translation, Rushmore, Broken Flowers, pretty much anything made this century, really. Chevy Chase has 1 1/2 characters, or rather, he has one character that he sometimes plays clever (Fletch) and sometimes clueless (Vacation). Mike Myers has Mike Myers and Mike Myers with an accent, usually, but not always, Scottish.
As far as Meet the Parents goes, I didn’t care for it either, but I’m not sure why we’re blaming Ben Stiller for that. He didn’t write it or direct it or produce it. He was just hired to act in it, just like De Niro. And I agree, he wasn’t funny in it (but then, other than Owen Wilson, nobody was funny in it). The thing is, he isn’t really supposed to be funny in it. De Niro is supposed to be funny. The situations are supposed to be funny. Stiller is the straight man. Now, the situations aren’t funny and neither is De Niro, but I don’t see how that’s Ben Stiller’s fault any more than it’s Teri Polo’s fault or Blythe Danner’s or anybody else in that crappy movie.
Steve B, I was just explaining why Beyonce has been doing that same song everywhere lately. I don’t care for her either. I’m eagerly awaiting the day when her middling good looks fade enough that they no longer support her mediocre talent and she goes away. Of course, I’ve been waiting 25 years for that with Madonna. I’m sad now.
Hey, David in NYC, if you’re still reading these comments, you got a source for that 10,000 movies a year figure?
I know the number of movies being made is a lot higher than it was a generation ago but that seems incredibly high. 200 movies a week are coming out? Sheesh.
That’s a figure I’d like to be able to cite, so I hope there’s a source out there somewhere.
It’s funny you say that people always say “Sir Anthony Hopkins” but not “Sir Ben Kingsley” because I swear that when they came out, the announcer said “Sir Ben Kingsley” but just “Anthony Hopkins.”
Because it was asked for:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43651608539#/note.php?note_id=66858028752
…and while you’re at it:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43651608539
David in NYC(#85), I’d respect my own opinions on the matter a lot more too if I could get my Mortons, Roberts, Juniors, and Seniors straight. It’s a good thing you didn’t see my later comment (#73) where I apologized for my error then proceeded to imply that MDJr. was RDJr’s father. Later that evening, while driving, I realized the sheer extent of my buffoonery. I clearly need a refresher on my Downey family history. That’s where you come in.
Thanks for the Limbaugh/Santelli comparison. In just a few words you convinced me that I would’ve despised everything Morton Downey Jr. stood for, and you illustrated why getting Morton mixed up with Robert is an even more egregious sin than I ever dreamed.
I mentioned (#34) that I’m not a fan of today’s movies either. So we have that in common. Most of the films I watch were released long before I was born in 1979. Even an idiot that mistakenly refers to Robert Downey Jr. as Morton can appreciate the superiority of the golden age of cinema, as they call it. Or maybe they don’t call it that, but I hope you know what I’m trying to say, anyhow.
I’m not a huge fan of Meryl Streep, but it’s unfair to call her a “loser,” just because she’s only won a few of the Oscars she was nominated for.
When the Buffalo Bills lost four straigth SUper Bowls, it was their own fault- they either came up short or failed to execute when the big game was on the line.
But when Meryl Streep doesn’t get an Oscar she was nominated for, well, it’s not as if SHE did something wrong to cost herself the award! The Buffalo Bills controlled their own destiny, and THEY determined whether they won or lost. Meryl Streep never has ANY control over whether she wins an OScar. All she can do is give the best performance she can, and then HOPE that hundreds of unknown, unseen voters choose to reward her for it.
Meryl Streep “losing” the Oscar for “Doubt” is like Tom Seaver “losing” the 1971 Cy Young award. Seaver and Streep did everything they possibly could to earn the awards, but the voters chose, partly for illogical reasons, to give their award to someone else.
What “illogical reasons”? Well, for one thing, voters OFTEN think, “So-and-so has already won this award, but Whatshisface has been passed over a bunch of times, so I figure it’s Whatshisface’s turn.”
To use another example, how many season could/should Shaquille O’Neal have won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award? Answer: he could easily have won it seven or eight times. The only reason he didn’t is that sportswriters get tired of picking the same guy every year, and start looking for excuses to pick someone else!
Oscar voters are a lot like sportswriters. They get tired of voting for the same people, and often bypass worthy contenders who’ve already won Oscars, in order to reward people who’ve been overlooked before.
“There was something that really bothered me at the end of the Oscars, when they brought up what appeared to be the entire cast crew and and most of the ticket buyers from Slumdog Millionaire”
I don’t know if you were going for a joke about just how many people were on the stage or if you were going for that AND a joke about how Slumdog was a movie no one had seen. On the off chance that it’s the latter, I just wanted to point out that it grossed $101,890,024.00, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that that’s $32,136,141,00 MORE than the combined grosses for The Reader, Milk and Frost/Nixon. Benjamin Button did beat it by an easy $23 million, though.
So Ben Stiller only plays 3 characters? That’s more than Kevin Costner or Tom Cruise, and yet there are several movies with Costner or Cruise that have been very entertaining because of (rather than in spite of) their efforts. Janeane Garofalo always plays Janeane Garofalo, but her success on the big screen comes from when she chooses a character that’s a perfect fit. The big downside for Stiller is that none of his three can easily drive a movie, whereas Costner and Cruise can easily play a movie star because, well, that’s what they are. It only looks like acting.