I’m not so sure about “BEST ACTOR”, it’s pretty hard to be a comedian and be taken seriously.
However I have a huge crush on Owen Wilson and think he is tremendously funny. My husband got to pick the movie one night (revenge for having had to watch “An Ideal Husband”) and he picked Shanghai Nights (or knights, whatever, the one where they go to England). I thought that he took a pretty insipid movie and made it really funny (“What in our history together makes you possibly think I could ever do that?”).
I don’t quite know what it is about him. I think I like his deadpan, laid-back delivery of lines. Some people have referred to him as just “playing himself”, and since I obviously don’t know the man, that could be true. However, I have long been of the opinion that it’s a lot harder to be a great comedian than a great dramatic actor. Comedians don’t get much respect… we laugh at them and dismiss them. Dramatic actors are put on Inside the Actors Studio to talk about their “craft”.
However I think that comedic actors (and stand-ups, for that matter), have just as hard or harder of a job to do, they always have to be on or ready with a joke or “act funny”, and if they have an off day and the movie isn’t funny, it’s a big problem, where as in drama you get all sorts of scenery-chewing actors who are then labeled GREAT (Sean Penn springs to mind… I have like him in precisely one movie (Mystic River), and loathed him in all the others because he takes himself so SERIOUSLY - I don’t feel like I’m watching the character, I feel like I’m watching Sean Penn being a GREAT ACTOR and I can’t get caught up in the movie. Kind of like Jon Lovitz’s character on SNL where he would strut around in a velvet robe and shout “ACTING! GENIUS!” Maybe he needs better directors, like Clint.) Wow, that was a long sentence. Sorry. I tend to go off on tangents.
In any case, I think the whole “best actor” thing is bogus, there are too many different types of acting and why does there have to be one best one? Perhaps instead of calling the award “Best Actor” at the Oscars and the other shows, it should be “And the winner for Best Performance by an Actor is…”
Owen Wilson. Funny. Interesting looking nose. Love the laid-back, nothing really bugs me thing that he does. Oddly the only movie I didn’t like him in was Bottle Rocket. I am bothered by this because I feel that I should have liked that movie; I loved Rushmore, Tenenbaums, haven’t seen Life Aquatic yet; having 1.5 year old triplets is limiting my movie-going lately as I don’t think people would appreciate their presence in the movie theatre.
In any case, my opinion is that Owen Wilson does what he does well. He’s kind of like one of the Rat Packers of old; he has his thing and he does it well; you didn’t see Frank or Dean going out for all these serious roles and trying to become GREAT ACTORS, yet they are now much more famous then many “best actors” of their time.
I would never have seen Starsky and Hutch in the movie theatre, if he wasn’t in it, even though I like Ben Stiller.
Should I rent the Life Aquatic? Is it similar to the previous movies by Wes Anderson, in style?
I like Bill Murray well enough although he is aging in an alarming way, as far as his face goes. But of course, 20-year-old Scarlett Johansson is naturally very attracted to him, right? Cause that’s the way it is, it doesn’t matter how old the men are, or even if they are remotely attractive, the ingenues always go for them (shuddering as I remember Sean Connery touching Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment with his liver-spotted hands). I’m still waiting for the movie that has the 55-year-old woman of average looks who is pursued by the 22-year-old young buck who looks like a model.
Sorry to go off topic. I’ll summarize: Owen Wilson funny. I like. I see his movies. I hope he doesn’t try to go dramatic <cough>Behind Enemy Lines<cough>.
Thanks,
Karen
