Unappreciated Page

JOE LO TRUGLIO

This guy shows up for about five minutes in a lot of movies and steals them away with his energetic, quirky performances. Here’s a rundown.

There’s Joe on the left in Wet Hot American Summer. He played a character named Neil, an antsy camp counselor who memorably failed to catch the counselor pictured on the right above with a motorcycle (the guy was trying to escape on foot).

There’s Joe in Superbad, playing Francis, the guy who hit Jonah Hill with his car. Again Joe was a little too energetic, putting a weird spin on his lines to make his character more interesting.

Joe’s the guy on the right, his character’s name is Kuzzik, and he’s doing some sort of weird slightly off-Russell Crowe impersonation. It’s hilarious. He might be the best part of the movie. He can pretty much turn a straight line into a joke by delivery alone. Even his laugh is funny.

You can also catch Joe in bit parts in Pineapple Express as well as I Love You, Man and many other movies.

WALK HARD

This spoof of rockstar biopics, starring John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, was a fairly noticeable flop upon its USA theatrical release.

Despite being generally well-received by critics in the USA (currently at 75% on Rottentomatoes) Walk Hard failed to garner any major audience during its theatrical release.

According to boxofficemojo.com the film made $18 million during its theatrical release, a fairly paltry figure for a film written by Judd Apatow (and others).

The film’s failure to ignite at the box office also likely set back John C. Reilly, a talented thespian both in comic and dramatic territory given a rare leading role.

And frankly how could you not think it’s a little bit funny?

These are literally quotes from a duet Reilly and costar Jenna Fischer sing in the movie.

“Let’s duet…in ways that make us feel good.”

“I’m going to beat off….all my demons.”

“In my dreams you’re blowing me…some kisses.”

There’s also a scene where a dude’s penis is casually inserted into the corner frame of a shot for an extended period of time.

And of course there’s Dewey Cox’s angry father, who can’t stop saying “the wrong kid died” after Dewey accidentally chops his brother in half with a machete.

At one point the father goes so far as to say, “You’re not even half the man that half of your brother was after you cut him in half!” to which a young Dewey responds, “Are you saying, I’m not even a 1/4 of the man my brother was?”.

John C. Reilly also plays his character at 14, a fact the film repeatedly self-consciously evokes.

He marries Edith, a school sweetheart, played by Kristen Wiig. She ends calls with him by saying, “You’re never going to make it,” even after he has made it.

She also demands Dewey acquisce to her dreams, to which he responds, “I can’t build you a candy house, it will collapse!”

Edith shoots back, “Not if it never rains!”

Did I mention Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman appear as The Beatles?

If you have a taste for this type of super-silly humor, this movie is worth watching.

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Kingdom of Heaven may simply not be a movie for American audiences, raised on epic battle movies of clearly delineated lines of good and evil.

While Lord of the Rings may not be a historical piece, it’s influence is unmistakeable. In America we expect our epic battles to clearly have someone to root for.

This may explain the general apathy with which Kingdom of Heaven was received in the USA. Critics shrugged it off. Audiences did too.

Yet overseas the film did fairly well, grossing more than 3 times what it did in the USA.

Admittedly the extremely long running time doesn’t help matters, this is a movie surely beautiful to watch on the bigscreen but so long it’s best viewed with a healthy intermission.

And casting Orlando Bloom as the lead when Ridley Scott’s go-to-guy Russell Crowe would surely have held up a film of such massive scope better is also problematic.

But where else can you find a movie that speaks with such an open mind about religion? That casts its Muslim characters in as favorable a light as its Christian ones?

As my friend Brandon Fibbs wrote on his website (he also writes for Christianity Today), “Developed before the “war on terror” began, Kingdom of Heaven is profoundly relevant for our troubled times. In this era of intense religious and political fervor, Scott aims to understand both the Christian and the Muslim side of history and show that co-existence is possible if the voices championing jingoism, intolerance, xenophobia and religious war rhetoric are ignored. Some will see the film as a politically correct take on our post 9/11 world. Others will see it as a template for future harmony and racial concord.”

This is a movie with a heart. It’s not a simplistic villain vs. good guy movie. It has bigger things to say than that.

So sit down one day, and watch this gorgeous epic, and think about it. You shouldn’t be disappointed.

PETER STORMARE PLAYING WEIRD PEOPLE

As Satan in Constantine

Stormare played a freaky, white-suited, almost goofy Satan. But one of Stormare’s big talents is he can be goofy and creepy at the same time.

As the sleazeball doctor in Minority Report

Running the grimiest eyeball swapping operation around, Stormare and his wife were like doctors from a Psycho sequel.

As the nearly mute partner in Fargo

A big test for an actor is, what do you do when you have no lines?

Stormare had basically none in Fargo, playing Steve Buscemi’s partner-in-crime. Still he radiated menace and danger without needing to say much, his actions (such as the casual murder of a cop) spoke louder.

As Cavaldi in Brothers Grimm

The above picture kind of sums up Stormare, look how goofy he looks playing torturer Cavaldi in The Brothers Grimm. No matter the role, Stormare always put some strange spin on it, and that’s what makes him so much fun to watch.

GARY OLDMAN PLAYING CRAZY PEOPLE

Man this guy is good. He really should be on the top wish list of anyone looking for a great villain. He’s done villainous turns so good, some of that could be mentioned near the same breath as Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight (take it easy, I said near the same breath, not in the same breath).

Let’s consider.

State of Grace-1990

Itself a film that may make its way onto this page, State of Grace, was a story of Irish gangsters with Oldman as the unpredictable Jackie.

Always messing things up with his hot temper and not disturbed by things like, you know, morality (at one point he jokes around with a dead man’s hands), as played by Oldman Jackie was a tragic screw-up of misguided energy, equally loony as he was loyal to his gang family.

The Professional-1994

Oldman played Stansfield, some sort of police agent who seemed way too crazy to ever hold down any real job. He plugs in earphones and practically waltzes to classical music as he murders a family. Oldman sells it all the way.

The Fifth Element-1997

Oldman played oddly coifed baddie Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. Irritable, condescending, and utilizing an odd vocal style, Oldman creatively mixes up his villainous tics from previous films and portrayed a more verbose villain.

EHREN KRUGER-screenwriter of Arlington Road, and The Skeleton Key

Ehren broke in by winning the prestigious Nicholl fellowship way back in 1996 with his script Arlington Road.

That script went on to become a feature film, directed by Mark Pellington and starring Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges.

He would also later write The Skeleton Key, in many ways a reimagining of Arlington Road as supernatural, basically.

Why he’s fantastic-definite SPOILER ALERT

Ehren’s concept for Arlington Road, a professor suspects his neighbor is a terrorist, was a clever exploitation of a relatable paranoia.

The movie itself was average for pretty much its entire runtime…until the end.

Basically the entire movie Jeff Bridges (who plays the professor) is trying to find out if his neighbor (Tim Robbins) is a terrorist, and then later he is trying to expose him and stop his plan to blow up the FBI building.

But here’s the twist, it’s Bridges who ends up blowing up the FBI building.

…..What?

Stay with me.

Bridges’ character is a professor of terrorism studies. He has a friend who’s an FBI agent. He suspects Robbins’ character wants to blow up the FBI building (a suspicion fed by Robbins, who plants clues for Bridges to find).

So Bridges drives into the FBI building like a madman, determined to stop this bomb. His FBI agent friend is there to prevent Bridges from being shot, and everyone is relieved when there is no bomb in the car Bridges thought belonged to the terrorists.

Unfortunately the bomb is in Bridges car, planted by the terrorist Robbins. He banked on Bridges paranoia and made him into his suicide bomber through it.

That’s the kind of killer twist ending, a downer, that you rarely see in studio films these days.

Replicating it with Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key does basically the same thing, only with magic.

The entire movie we are led to believe the characters played by Gena Rowlands and Peter Sarsgaard are in fact possessed by the souls of children, who long ago consorted with magic-practicing slaves (who were soon after hung) on a plantation.

But in fact it is not the children who magically transferred their souls to other bodies. It was the slaves.

The slaves transferred their souls into the children, which in the magic of the film is a swap.

So the souls of the children were inside the slaves as they were being hanged!

Years later these slaves possess the bodies of the characters played by Peter Sarsgaard and Gena Rowlands, a lawyer and the matriarch of an old house, respectively.

Kate Hudson comes in as a nurse and keeps discovering clues to what happened.

She finally thinks she understands, and assumes Gena and Peter are the souls of the children.

At the end she thinks she understands the spells and casts the soul swapping spell on herself, thinking it’s protection.

Gena and Peter were banking on this, and Gena’s character gets herself a young new body.

Meanwhile Kate Hudson’s character is wheeled out on a stretcher, incapable of speaking now, and existing in the body of Gena Rowlands!

Serious Bravery

Studio movies simple don’t end with downer twists like this anymore. They’re diabolic and clever and vicious.

The problem is not enough people have seen them.

Arlington Road did poorly at the box office, grossing about 24 million domestically.

Skeleton Key did a bit better at the box office (47 million domestic), but was by no means a big hit.

Neither film was beloved by critics, Arlington Road was just at 60% on Rottentomatoes.com and Skeleton Key topped out at 38%.

THE MOVIE THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

This Risky Business update came out in 2004 to tepid box office and (14 million domestic, 30 million worldwide) and mixed critical reception.

But it combined raunchy humor and heart long before Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) made it fashionable.

It also featured one of the best performances from Timothy Olyphant in years (he would go on to dull his way through Hitman and Live Free or Die Hard). Look at the energy and personality Olyphant brings to this scene.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIWOsu8ipB4]

And all around was very funny.

And the funniest bit was…

Revolved around the strangely enthusiastic student body reaction to foreign exchange student Sam-Yung. Who was referred to widely as “Samsung”.

Several people also exclaimed variations on “I’m gonna do that little guy!”

Plus

It was one of the early leading roles in the career of Emile Hirsch, who went on to star in Alpha Dog and Into the Wild.

Watch it

Seriously, it’s funny, the message about seizing the day is effective, it’s a damn good movie.

BEN FOSTER PLAYING PSYCHOS

Ben Foster has basically been cast in the same role 3 times. Imagine what his agent must have said.

“Hey Ben, wanna play a crazy killer dude?” (in Hostage, with Bruce Willis).

“Hey Ben, wanna play a crazy neo-nazi junkie?” (in Alpha Dog, with Justin Timberlake).

“Hey Ben, wanna play a crazy killer dude…in a Western?” (in 3:10 to Yuma, with Russell Crowe).

Now, a lesser actor would have played all three of these roles on one note. Probably just a bass growl or a really intense stare.

Ben played each of them entirely differently, and was thrilling to watch in all three.

Hostage-Gothic

In Hostage Foster play introverted nutcase kidnapper Mars Krupcheck, he was very internalized and creepy.

Alpha Dog–Extroverted at 1,000 miles per hour

Now notice the shift from Hostage to Alpha Dog, Ben went basically the total opposite direction and made everything external. He’s shifty and antsy and manic.

Unfortunately equally good clips of Foster in Alpha Dog are not easily available, but watch from :30 to :40 of the trailer and even there you can see the drastic shift from Hostage.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPbwocBe_tQ]

3:10 to Yuma-Quiet but With a Sense of Humor

Foster went internal again for 3:10 to Yuma, but as opposed to the gothic darkness of Hostage this time he added a playful humor to his performance.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIR0prW_xA]

But he still kills away, casually, as you can see in the latter part of the film’s trailer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeroJ1BK6GQ]

I actually interviewed Ben Foster personally at my position at the University of Maryland Diamondback for this movie and he said he wanted to be catlike, and even watched cat documentaries in preparation for the film. You can read a little blurb from my interview at

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2007/09/06/Diversions/UpAndComer.Ben.Foster.Talks.About.Yuma-2952202.shtml

Who does that kind of stuff? Creative actors, that’s who.

BOB HOSKINS IN UNLEASHED

Who? Yeah, I know.

But the point of this whole page is you shouldn’t be saying that, because Bob Hoskins gave a terrific, vigorous, venomous, snarling performance as Bart, the “owner” of Jet Li’s character in “Unleashed”.

In the film Bart has reared Danny (Li) since he was a child, and controls him like a dog.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis wrote, ” The infinitely silly, unconscionably entertaining action film “Unleashed” earns most of its juice from the martial-arts star Jet Li, the eminent martial-arts choreographer Yuen Wo Ping and the fine British actor Bob Hoskins in full terrifying lather.”

Unfortunately it is difficult to find good clips of Hoskins’ performance online, so the below Youtube one will have to do.

Still, watch this clip and tell me Bob Hoskins isn’t giving a better performance than half the assembly line villains you have seen recently.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvVmtcYZXo]

And take my word for it, he has much better scenes in the full movie.