Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Great (film) Debates vol. 4

Let's continue our Great (Film) Debates series with a little visceral dislike. Today's issue:

What famous actor/actress can you not stand?



Panelist: AndrewPrice

Eugene Levy. Even a small scene with Levy in it can ruin a movie for me. I don't like actors doing their "shtick" in the middle of films and that's all Levy does. What's more, I can't stand his shtick. It's not funny or clever or interesting. It's amateurish and incongruous in any context. It's what you would expect at a high school play. It is annoying. And when I see him, I cringe, knowing that he is about to ruin the film.

Panelist: ScottDS

Selma Blair. I can't really explain it. She's just so... blah. And she only has two facial expressions, both of which read... "Blah." I'd say the Hellboy films were good in spite of her presence.

Panelist: Tennessee Jed

I cannot stand Barbra Streisand. Just typing her name makes me want to hurl. She was a very good singer who is an incredible narcissist and way overrated as an actress, but I am pulling my punches (nice guy that I am.)

Panelist: T-Rav

Hands down, Sean Penn. Maybe it's not fair, that I'm judging him on his politics; I guess he's had some good roles in Mystic River and so on. But he is perhaps the most vicious and intolerant, when it comes to politics, of any actor I can think of. And I think it's shown in his more recent work, which has mostly been water-carrying for the Left. I can separate most actors' politics from their on-screen performances, but not his.


Comments? Thoughts? Who did we miss?

71 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I think the worst is over, at least for me. I live in an elevated part of Jersey City so flooding isn't as much a problem as it is for, say, downtown JC and Hoboken. The power must've blinked off at one point but I obviously have it now. :-)

Hmm...

My choice was just a gut reaction, and it's one I've had before. There really are no actors that I vehemently hate but Blair just comes across as generally unpleasant and uninterested.

I think Penn is a great actor but he takes himself waaaaay too seriously. I imagine even people who agree with his politics might be compelled to agree with that observation. (But we'll always have Spicoli!) SNL even did a Sean Penn "celebrity roast" sketch a few years ago. Seth Meyers played Penn as a huge buzzkill - it was actually pretty funny. (It's not online.)

I honestly have no opinion of Steisand.

Eugene Levy? Really? Did you ever watch him on SCTV or are you basing your opinion on his film work? (There's only so much one can do playing a father of a kid who f---s pies.) :-)

Tennessee Jed said...

geez, Scott - I have to cop to not even KNOWING who Selma Blair is (l.o.l.) On your say so alone, I can tell she sucks, however.

Andrew - Levy is johnny one-note. A comedian, not an actor. Still, since I laughed at Best in Show, I could never make him my choice.

T-Rav - T-Rav, I would have to say you probably are not being fair. Penn is a sick dog of a human being, but he is too good an actor to fill this slot.

Of course, the way the question is posed, there really cannot be good or bad choices.

Anonymous said...

Jed -

Yeah, I thought that might be a problem but, again, it was just a gut reaction based on my observations. I honestly couldn't think of anyone else, let alone someone really famous and A-list.

Besides, there are plenty of big A-list actors that seem to drive people crazy that I really like (Nicolas Cage being an example).

Mike K. said...

I can see the point about Levy. He was great on SCTV, but although I love Best in Show and quite like Waiting for Guffman, his comedic acting doesn't have the same tone as the others. I always expect the timpani drum bounce.

But he doesn't really bother me. Jack Nicholson does.

I can't watch him in anything but The Shining because he creeps me out just looking at him.

Tennessee Jed said...

wow, Mike -- interesting choice. I doubt anyone would have seen that coming, but, hey, if he creeps you out, he creeps you out. I actually think he is one of the top actors of our time, although particularly in later life, he becamepretty full of himself.

Tam said...

Tom Cruise. Over actor, sniveling, uptight, annoying. Even without being craaaazy, I just can't stand him.

Writer X said...

Julia Roberts. Never has there been an actress so overrated, IMO. She's the same person in every role.

Will Ferrell. Ditto. No depth.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Congrats on surviving the sharks!

Yeah, Levy. I really can't stand the guy. I won't see a movie where he features prominently and whenever I see him, I just know the scene is going to suck.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed and T-Rav, Believe it or not, as an actor, I've been a big fan of Penn for a long time. I thought he was in great most of what I've seen him in. I even liked him in U-Turn, which was a bizarre movie.

Politically, I can't stand him and he's getting to the point where I would rather throw things at the screen when I see him rather than watch his films, but he isn't quite there for me yet. I won't watch his political films. But I do still like him as an actor.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I have to agree about Steisand. She's such an airbag even as an actress that I just want no part of her.

Best in Show is a movie I wanted to like, but I just couldn't because it felt flat.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, I think Blair is a weak actress, but she falls more into the "oh yeah, she was there" category for me than any sort of hostility.

Floyd R. Turbo said...

I don't think I have anyone that takes me out of a movie from the get-go.

NOW Eugene Levy is a joke... but he was pretty funny when it was fresh.

Julia Roberts plays herself and she's pretty nice... and pretty bland so working up a visceral anything for her is hard.

Jack Nicholson? Again... Batman, One Flew Over... his good roles....

How nice am I? Not even Jeremy Piven can drive me away (and he can be quite funny).

I'd say Jake Gyllenhaal because he nearly ruined Zodiac, but the gratitude for October Sky prevents from hating him. Oh well... I'll continue to think about it.

AndrewPrice said...

Mike, That's my feeling about Levy exactly. I feel like he's going to stumble into the scene as we get the infamous comedic drum accompaniment, followed by him knocking something over and then mumbling something completely unrelated to the scene.

You said "Jack Nicholson" and I thought... "what?" But the more I think about it, the only roles I can really think of him in that I enjoyed were The Shining and Batman. Maybe he's not as good of an actor as I thought?

AndrewPrice said...

Tam, LOL! I've gone through phases with Tom Cruise. I thought he was a great actor when he was young. . . then it hit me that he wasn't acting, he was just being arrogant Tom. Then I liked him again around the time of Mission Impossible, but that didn't last. Right now I'm at a point with him where I don't mind him as an actor, but I know I won't be rushing out to see his films.

AndrewPrice said...

Writer X, WILL FERRELL!!! Oh wow, can I change my answer!!! I HATE WILL FERRELL!! Sorry for yelling, but I really, really hate Will Ferrell.

You're absolutely right -- no depth, same character every time, and an arrogant jerk (plus a leftist). I actively avoid his films because I dislike him that much.

Good call!

P.S. I don't like Roberts either.

AndrewPrice said...

Floyd, I have issues with Jake Gyllenhaal as well. He strikes me as a political actor. I'm not 100% sure that's fair, but it seems that every time I've seen him, he's trying to sell some political point in one of this films. I don't care for that.

On a more acting level, I also don't think he's a very strong actor. He strikes me as part of a crop of pretty-boys that Hollywood got into recently. They are all bland and indistinguishable.

Unknown said...

Actor: Tie between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow. Cruise and Pitt are like cardboard cutouts, and Paltrow always looks like her hemorrhoids are kicking up.

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, I have to say that I actually like Pitt. I think he's done some great work.

Paltrow has always struck me as a weak actress. I liked her in Shakespeare In Love, but that's been about all I remember her in.

Tennessee Jed said...

Tam - I understand your points about Cruise. He just never rose to the level of "can't stand him" to take the top price. Yes, the whole Oprah thing and the scientology thing didn't help, for sure.

Writer X - I actually originally liked Julia, but she really is not a great actress. Her whole runaway bride schtick has gotten old and the way she tried to do Denzel onstage at the Oscars was shameful. How needy can anyone, even a Hollywood starlet be afterall?

Tennessee Jed said...

Floyd - good call on Gyllenhall. That was a fabulous movie and he went downhill from there.

Hawk - wonderful, wonderful pick on the Lady Gwyneth. Talk about a no talent cheezer. I might have picked her (I'll never, ever, view country strong unless I'm captured and tortured.) Still, I realize a little of my contempt for her is due to my absolute hatred of her late father Bruce, the biggest a**ho** in the history of Hollywood.

Tennessee Jed said...

"X" missed the Will Ferrell comment. He has become far more than annoying anymore, and far too political.

Tennessee Jed said...

Brad Pitt is one of those actors who has actually improved over the years. I first saw him in a recurring role on the original "Dallas" where he played the boyfriend of Jenna Wade's (Priscilla Presley) daughter "Charley." From just another pretty boy, he has actually has had some pretty good roles.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I'm honestly surprised that none of us thought of Ferrell -- he's that obvious a choice. And yet, he never came to main. Maybe I've just blocked him out of my thinking?

I don't know anything about Bruce Paltrow, so I can't hold his sins against his daughter. I just get the feeling she's mighty stuck up and not a very good actress. And I can't say that I've enjoyed her films except Shakespeare.

Mike K. said...

Andrew & Floyd--I forgot about his Joker. That was fine too, either because of the makeup or because it's another role where it doesn't matter if he makes my skin crawl. The only other actor who makes me react like that (and always has) is Charlie Sheen, but that seemed too easy.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I thought Pitt was brilliant in 12 Monkeys and Fight Club and I've enjoyed him a lot in the Ocean's 11-13 films. I liked him in Seven as well.

AndrewPrice said...

Mike, I should add One Flew Over to the list of films I've liked him... but again, he's playing a crazy role. I can't think of any normal roles where I've liked him. And a lot of him movies (like Wolf) just completely disappointed me.

Ed said...

Sadly, I no longer like seeing Danny Glover in films. I thought he was great in "Lethal Weapon" and "Predator 2", but he's been so obnoxious in his anti-Americanism that I literally don't want to give him a dollar of my business.

I feel the same way about Matt Damon.

AndrewPrice said...

Ed, Both of their politics annoy me, but I'm not at that point yet where I won't watch their films -- unless they're political films. I think Damon actually is trying to downplay his politics now because it's hurting his career.

Tennessee Jed said...

Andrew here is a non-link to Dwight Schult's article "The Liberal Bastille" during the early halcyon days of Big Hollywood. Read it and you will see what I mean:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dschultz/2009/03/16/the-liberal-bastille/#more-78910

Tennessee Jed said...

Ed - I understand your point about Glover. Harry Belafonte as well. They are truly hateful. However, Glover was not without talent so there were easier targets for me to pick. Babs Streisand is a wonderful singer, but she annoyed me as an actress. The most homely woman who ever lived casting herself in a romantic lead. Just shows what money can buy.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, Thanks. Now I remember the article. Yeah, Paltrow was an ass. Here's the link:

LINK

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, My issue with Steisand is that she strikes me as arrogant in all of her roles. The personality she plays is always condescending to those around her and thinks she's the best person in the room. That rubs me wrong in each of her films.

Tennessee Jed said...

gotta disagree about Nicholson. I liked him in 5 easy pieces, chinatown, the border, Hoffa, and the pledge not even mentioning his crazy roles. It's just a personal opinion.

BevfromNYC said...

Okay, don't hate me, but Robert DeNiro. He has the acting range from A to B...

Meryl Streep only in the early years. Her early years she acted from her head then she did a silly comedy and relaxed.

Dustin Hoffman too. My favorite quote about Hoffman - Marathon Man - Hoffman did his method acting schtick and spent 24 hour running around without sleep so he could really "feel the part". Laurence Olivier told him "Dustin, you should really try acting, it's so much easier."

Mike K. said...

I'm always prepared to hate Brad Pitt, but he's so damn charismatic that he wins me over. Which is another thing I hate about him.

It's like this guy I went to high school with: good-looking guy, girls loved him, lettered in football and baseball, got into an Ivy League school. And he didn't even have the common decency to be an a-hole! So, if I hate him anyway, now I'm the jerk! Diabolical.

So, uh, I hate liking Brad Pitt, is all.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I forgot about Chinatown, good point. I liked him in that a lot.

BevfromNYC said...

Andrew, I know from personal experience that Streisand IS arrogant and condescending to those who work for and around her...

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, That's a hilarious quote! LOL!

On DeNiro, I do like him, but I've said for years that he has no real range. He always plays the "Italian Cop" character no matter what he does. And he picks roles that keep him in that genre (Italian cop, Italian mobster, Irish cop, Irish mobster, Jewish mobster). It's rare that he ventures beyond that.

I remember an article from Roger Ebert in the early 1990s where he said that DeNiro was "the greatest actor of our generation because he's the most versatile actor of our generation." Uh... no. At least, let's put it this way. If he's versatile he's almost never shown it.

AndrewPrice said...

Mike, LOL!

I actually know exactly what you mean about Pitt, by the way. On principle I feel like I shouldn't like him, but I do. And that is rather frustrating.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, I haven't met her, but I suspect she plays herself on film. Everything I've ever seen from her is just horrible arrogant.

(P.S. I'm glad you survived the hurricane and didn't have to resort to cannibalism.)

Mike K. said...

Tennessee Jed--I think you're right, and Nicholson is a superb actor. It's just a visceral thing for me.

LL said...

If Hanoi Jane Fonda is part of a movie cast, I don't watch it.

AndrewPrice said...

LL, Yeah... that's another one. I can ignore a lot of politics in my actors, but I can't ignore a traitor who endangers the lives of American soldiers. That's unforgivable.

AndrewPrice said...

Mike & Jed, Let me clarify... I too think Nicholson is brilliant. In the roles I've seen him in, he's iconic. He's absolutely brilliant.

But after Mike mentioned his name, I started thinking about other films I've liked him in apart from where he plays crazy guys, and I realized that I didn't care for most of those films.

So while I think he is a great actor, I think is greatness is limited to a certain narrow set of roles.

Anonymous said...

Just a few that've been mentioned thus far...

Julia Roberts doesn't do anything for me. I think the last movie I saw her in was Duplicity in which she shared absolutely zero chemistry with Clive Owen (who I do like).

I like Tom Cruise, even if he is an oddball sometimes.

I also like Brad Pitt and I think Mike sums him up perfectly. I've known people like that in real life: popular, athletic, ladies' man... dammit, why do you have to be so nice?! :-)

I also like Jack Nicholson but I think I understand the criticism. I just watched his "You can't handle the truth!" scene again - good stuff!

I like DeNiro but I'll be the first one to admit he's become a parody of himself in recent years (those damn Focker movies haven't helped). All things being equal, I'd choose his contemporary, Al Pacino, over DeNiro.

I don't mind Gyllenhall and I think it's just a coincidence that he appears in films that make political points. The man ain't Sean Penn and when Carl Koslowski on BH reviewed one of his movies and mentioned "the Gyllenhall sucker punches," my first thought was, "Carl, he doesn't write or direct the movies! The sucker punches, if any, aren't his fault!"

I just watched Source Code and liked it. It's smarter than your average sci-fi film today. SPOILER ALERT: Yeah, the train bomber is a white guy who just wants to see the world burn so we can start over but I think BH made a mountain out of a molehill. This plot point wasn't Gyllenhaal's fault and yes, it's annoying and PC that films don't feature Muslim villains but NOT doing so doesn't make the film anti-American.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, I prefer DeNiro to Pacino any day, except in the first Godfather film. I think Pacino WAY overacts everything. I would love to see him order a pizza.

On Gyllenhall, I think you can only blame the material so often. There are hundreds of actors who find roles all the time that don't include that kind of politics. So when an actor seems to be constantly in roles that promote liberalism, then it's hardly a stretch to think that the actor is pushing an agenda. And that is the sense I'm getting from Gyllenhaal.

I haven't seen Source Code so I can't comment on that one specifically. But he's also got: Brokeback Mountain, Day After Tomorrow and Rendition, plus he's done environmental films like Arctic, he's politically active, he's a big time supporter of the ACLU and does ads for them, and for environmental causes.

That's too much for me to ignore.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Pacino does overact and I suppose he could be considered a parody of himself, too. Though I would love to see him on stage in a Shakespeare play (which he does now and then).

Kevin Smith hosts a movie podcast called Hollywood Babble-On with an LA radio personality/actor named Ralph Garman. I listen to it at work and it's hilarious (and quite X-rated). Garman does a ton of celebrity impressions, including Pacino, which simply consists of loud talking with generous amounts of "Hoo-ha!" and "Come on now!"

Re: Gyllenhall - yeah, I can see a pattern forming, but it doesn't bother me. I wonder where Bubble Boy fits in. :-)

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Bubble boy is how he grew up.... in a liberal bubble.

I recall someone else recently talking about "how to Pacino dialog". What it involved was isolating the middle of the sentence with pauses between words, and then yelling each word after you start isolating words louder than the prior word:

"I want. . . . . . CHEESE. . . . ON . . . MY PIZZA!"

T-Rav said...

Hey, don't knock me for my choice (Jed)! Conversely, I like most of the actors everyone else has mentioned fairly well--except Selma Blair, who I just have a "meh" reaction to--so we're even. Actually, I don't care for Eugene Levy that much either, but it's not a "can't stand him" kind of thing.

As for Will Ferrell, he was funny a few years ago before he got totally sucked into the Left. I could see putting him on my list except for one thing--"Elf."

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, No one's knocking you! We're just talking about you behind your back and looking at you funny when you walk into the room! ;-)

I tried very hard to like Ferrell. When everyone said "oh, you have to like Ron Burgandy" I did my best to like it.... but I just couldn't. It's not even a political thing, he just annoys me as an actor.

Tennessee Jed said...

T-Rav: no right or wrong answers and no knock intended. I severely dislike Penn. However, there were just too many people who are jerks and lousy actors to boot for me to have personally listed him as my most disliked. ;-) It is hard for me to take Penn seriously.

Anonymous said...

Re: Ferrel, I think he can still be funny but, yeah, his schtick has gotten a bit old.

That said, The Other Guys was better than I thought it would be (and Michael Keaton was in it - I miss him!) and Elf is fun. He's done a few other movies that I enjoy but, oddly, Anchorman took time to grow on me. I think if the filmmakers took the film and edited it down to a five-minute short of just Steve Carell, it's be a masterpiece!

I also don't like Ferrel and his chief collaborator Adam McKay's style of working, which is the Judd Apatow "Okay, for this take, just say anything and then we won't cut it and the final film will feature you guys rambling for five minutes about nothing" School of Comedy.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, I don't care for their school of comedy either. It reminds me of MTV anchors (or David Letterman) who are not clever enough to come up with anything funny, so they substitute a "knowing look" for cleverness. In other words, rather than actually being clever, they give the set up for saying something clever (like telling the beginning of a joke) and then they look at the camera like "oh, that's too easy, so I won't even dignify that by finishing the joke."

I see it as style for people who aren't actually funny to pretend to be funny by acting super hip and hoping that other people aren't willing to admit they didn't get the joke.

It's slacker humor and would have been ridiculed by the comedic greats like Groucho Marx.

T-Rav said...

Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys? But what's with all this nervous whispering? I said, what's with all this nervous whispering???

Actually, in light of Scott's last comment, I want to change my answer. Can I do it? Seth Rogen is my "ruins movies" choice. Penn actually has some talent, but he has none. Everyone else who usually stars in a Judd Apatow film is a close second.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, I'm not quite at that point with Rogen yet, but I can see myself heading there. He is really poorly suited for being a leading man and he's not very good at comedy. I see him as (at best) a supporting actor with a very limited appeal.

Ed said...

If you expanded to directors, I would add Aptow. I also didn't know I disliked Kevin Smith so much as a director until I read the piece on him today. I liked "Clerks" and "Dogma" but everything else he's done since then is crap.

AndrewPrice said...

Ed, I'm not an Aptow fan either, or any of these recent comedic guys. I just don't like what they are doing at all.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Kevin Smith fan and, while I'm looking forward to seeing Red State (if only out of curiosity), I must confess I haven't enjoyed his last couple of films. I think the failure of Jersey Girl (his first film without Jay and Silent Bob and Co.) may have forced him back into his comfort zone.

There are parts of Clerks 2 that I like but I have some problems with it, most notably the donkey show and Randal's mean-spiritedness, not to mention a lot of the restaurant gags had been done before (in movies like Waiting).

There are also parts of Zack and Miri Make a Porno that I like and I can't blame Smith for trying to latch on to Judd Apatow's success (one could argue that Apatow in turn owes some of his success to Smith's earlier stuff) but it doesn't quite work for me. I think, in trying to go more mainstream, Smith lost some of that unique POV that made his earlier films special (such as they were).

And while Smith has always called himself a "dick and fart joke" director, none of his films were ever really "gross-out" comedies and much of that humor was verbal, not physical, "stink-palming" in Mallrats notwithstanding. But the two aforementioned films go completely the other way. I'm no prude but the donkey show in Clerks 2 is f---ing disgusting! And I could've lived without one particular fecal gag in Zack and Miri.

Oh, and Cop Out just wasn't any good. It was the first film he directed that he didn't also write and while I can't blame him for trying something different, it just didn't work and it wasn't funny. I think the man is a talented writer and he is, in fact, one of my filmmaking heroes but his best days are waaay behind him. Hopefully, his next film - a hockey flick titled Hit Somebody - will be a welcome return to form.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, I saw "Cop Out" one night on HBO or something like that. It's the kind of movie that I honestly cannot imagine who thought this script could be turned into anything other than a disaster.

The set up was awful. The characters were pathetic. There wasn't a funny joke. The dialog was tired. And all the technicals stank too. It felt like a movie made by a college student on an extreme budget, who somehow blackmailed Willis to be in it. I actually didn't even know Smith had directed it until a couple days later.

I liked Dogma and I liked Clerks, but nothing after that worked for me. I never bothered with Red State, which just looked like propaganda.

T-Rav said...

I saw part of "Clerks" once. I don't remember any of it except for the part with the lead guy's girlfriend and the corpse. I think you know what I'm talking about; I won't go into any more detail than that. I did not really care for the movie, if I remember right. (Not because of that, necessarily--I just didn't get it.)

On a related note, MTV's Video Music Awards were on tonight, and glancing over the headlines made me realize that if Lady Gaga were an actor, she would have been my choice for this list without hesitation. Why do we need so many awards shows, anyway?

(P.S. Yes, Andrew, before you ask, I did get your email this afternoon :-) I'm trying to decide whether to go the straight-arrow or the psycho route.)

USArtguy said...

With me, off the top of my head, it's pretty much actors who are in the news more for their politics than their acting. For example, I refuse to watch 30 Rock for no other reason than it stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey. Ted Danson after his "oceans will be dead in ten years", Sean Penn's Katrina Tour PR stunt, and so on. By contrast, I don't have a problem with the actor who expresses an occasional political opinion, even if I don't agree with it. Meryl Streep made a fool of herself over alar, but I haven't heard a peep from her politically since then. That's not to say she has been silent, it's just that her political opinions haven't been front and center over her acting since.

When actors suddenly become "experts" who are better than we, the unwashed masses, then neither they nor their advertisers deserve my attention or dollars any longer.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, In that event, I won't ask. :-)

I never pictured you as a Lady Gaga fan? I actually like a lot of her stuff - though I think she tries too hard to be "outrageous" and she should concentrate more on making music that publicity.

On Clerks the moment that summarizes the movie for me (and what I liked about it) was the geeky conversations which you really didn't see in Hollywood films at the time. In particular, I'm thinking about the discussion about blowing up the Death Star and whether or not it was right for Luke to kill all the "independent contractors" who were working on it.

AndrewPrice said...

USArtguy, I agree with that. I can usually separate the politics from the acting, but there comes a point where they really become known for politicking rather than acting. That's the point where I start to have problems with them.

Also, when they get anti-American, that is a killer. I can take stupidity, but not hate from these people.

On the becoming experts thing, it just stuns me that anyone listens to these people. Most of them are barely literate, a lot are high school drop outs. They hire publicists to find causes for them that they will never actually undersand and they mindlessly repeat whatever talking points they are given.... and yet, people want to hear their insanely ignorant opinions. I don't get it.

T-Rav said...

Andrew, I must've missed that bit. That does sound like an interesting conversation, come to think of it.

No, I am not a Gaga fan by any means. A few of her(?) tunes are catchy, I will admit; but she is such a bizarre personality, and shoots for such public grotesqueness, that it completely turns me off of her. Every time I see her I just get a "blech" feeling.

I've realized from this conversation that I in fact can't stand a whole lot of celebrities.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, While I like many of her songs, I would have no desire to see her on film. . . or anywhere else really. Being heard is enough.

There are a lot of celebrities I don't like either -- especially anyone in that genre of being famous for being famous (infamous), e.g. the Kardashians, the Jersey Shore "people", Paris Hilton, etc.

Koshcat said...

A little late to the show.

Matt Damon

I really liked his earlier work, but ever since he became more politically engaged and we found out that he is a mean, insane communist, I refuse to see any of his pictures.

I agree about Brad Pitt. Since sh*t doesn't seem to stick to him, he probably is a nice guy in real life...jerk! I also really respect him for sometimes taking some really wild roles and just running with it. He makes 12 Monkeys and in Snatch, I can't stop laughing. I can't understand a word he says. Another person it would seem easy to hate is Dicapprio, but he has grown on me. I used to think that What's Eating Gilbert Grape was the peak of his acting (almost seemed like he wasn't!), but I think he has gotten better. I really liked Inception.

Watched part of Dances with Smurfs. Will try to finish it. What a dog of a movie! This movie sucks worse than the Star Wars prequels. At least we rented it from the library. Screw you, Cameron!

AndrewPrice said...

Koshcat, I watched Dances With Smurfs because I promised to review it. By the end, I was literally thinking I wanted to find Cameron and punch him. It's a horrid film and it feels like sitting through a brainwashing session.

Yeah, Pitt's hard to hate for some reason. Oh well. DiCaprio has grown on me a lot as well. I used to dislike him early in his career, but he's done some excellent work since then and I usually find myself largely pleased with his work. I would even go so far as to say I'm impressed with a lot of what he does these days.

Damon is a guy that came across like such a decent guy at first. He seemed very likable and normal by Hollywood standards and he had good roles and did good work in them. Then he suddenly became this huge leftist jerk who just blasted the US and the public (i.e. "me") at every opportunity. Suddenly, he was Mr. Arrogant and I lost any desire I had to see his films. I can stand him in small roles, like in Ocean's 13, but I have no desire to see anything in which he's a lead actor.

(P.S. Late is ok.)

Outlaw13 said...

I would say Jane Fonda, but because of her actions in real life I refuse to even see a movie with her in it.

So if I had to pick an actor I've actually seen it would be Pauly Shore.

AndrewPrice said...

Outlaw, Yeah, Fonda is a definite choice.

I really can't stand Pauly Shore either. Arg. He's just awful. Thank God his career came to an end.

Outlaw13 said...

I'm suprised nobody's mentioned Keanu Reeves or Chris Tucker (do you hear the words coming out of my mouf?)

AndrewPrice said...

LOL! Yeah, those names usually come up in this kind of discussion!

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