Levon Helm as “Mr. Rate” in Shooter. He had one short scene but between the crackling character writing and his perfect delivery, it’s the best part of the entire film.
It’s only while looking up his name that I discovered his musical career with The Band. Interesting guy.
Not quite, since the character also “steals” it in the original graphic novel; the story jumps into her hands and what she had to do was not drop it. She is not the title character but she’s the star of the story in the sense that without her it would have been completely run-of-the-mill. Hers is the one character that can’t be neatly dropped into a pre-existing, used-a-zillion-times mold. I loved her work, but partly I loved it because she’s doing exactly what she should be doing.
Nicholson is the kind of guy who goes into any movie with Ill Intent; when he does not steal them, it’s because the rest of the cast have specifically stopped him from doing so. For some reason, this seems to work better for actresses.
re: Chloe Moretz: Imho, it’s not that she stole the show. The other two main characters (Kick-Ass and Big Daddy) were so poorly handled that she became the star by default. It reminded me in a way of Titanic, where the first half of the movie (simple rom-com) and the 2nd half (action movie) totally reversed tone.
Again, that is how the characters are in the graphic novel!
It’s hard for me to see this as “Stealing the Movie” – the character of Hannibal Lecktor (spelled that way) did steal the show in Michael Mann’s film Manhunter. He’s hardly on screen at all, yet his appearances were clearly the highlight of the movie. Brian Cox did a heckuva job in the role. It was clear that Silence of the Lambs (first as a novel in 1988, two years after Manhunter, then in 1990 as a film) was written to give the character of Lector (respelled) more “screen time”, and that he was clearly the “star” of the film from the get-go, despite having less actual time on screen that Jodie Foster’s character.
When I first saw Silence of the Lambs, knowing nothing about it, and heard Lector’s name, I knew I was in for something good.
“Aim High Willis, Aim High!”
Awww man that was great, I forgot about that scene.
This was my first thought and I still think it’s one of the better examples. Five, actually: Oldman, Pitt, Hopper, Walken and Gandolfini.
After reading the thread, I’ll add a bit-part scene-stealing: J.T. Walsh in Outbreak.
Youtube clip - such a great scene, though he starts getting chewy at the end.
Okay, this is a case of probably not stealing the entire movie, but Joe Pesci in JFK has to qualify for the thread.
Kevin Spacey at the end of Usual Suspects. He goes from being the lowly patsy to the coolest guy ever.
I don’t remember it that way. Depp has been considered a top-notch actor for years, but up until surprisingly recently, he was also mostly associated with smaller films and seen as a character actor. POTC is what turned him into a bona fide star. Sure, he was mentioned in the trailers alongside Bloom and Knightley, but the emphasis in the marketing of the first film was absolutely focused on them.
Remember that this was during the height of Lord of the Rings hype, and Knightley was also a hot new thing thanks to “Bend it Like Beckham.” The intended audience of POTC was teenagers of both sexes, and the vast majority of that demographic was, at the time, barely aware of who Depp was. In the meantime, thanks to their extremely popular supporting roles in LOTR and “Beckham,” both Bloom and Knightley seemed to be one step away from A-list stardom. All they needed, it seemed, were true leading roles in a blockbuster franchise to turn them into this generation’s Tom Cruise. POTC was intended to be that blockbuster, and the marketing reflected that. POTC1 was “Pirates of the Caribbean, starring Legolas and the Hot Tomboy from that Soccer Movie, and co-starring this character actor who you might remember from ‘Edward Scissorhands.’”
In fact, the producers of the film state in the commentary that Sparrow was conceived as a peripheral character - someone important to the plot but more of a sideline commentator than an active protagonist. It wasn’t until during filming that they realized that Depp was doing things with the character that they never anticipated, and it wasn’t until the film’s release that anyone realized that Depp’s performance was the clear standout.
*Side note: Geoffrey Rush was fantastic as well, but audiences are used to villains upstaging the protagonists. What was far more surprisingly was that the side character upstaged the protagonists as well. Jack Sparrow is as close to a “Han Solo” as we’ve had in a long, long time.
Speaking of which, Han Solo totally stole “Star Wars.”*
Anyway, all of that is a long and rambling way of saying: you’re remembering the POTC1 marketing incorrectly. Jack Sparrow was intended to be on the second tier of POTC stars alongside Barbossa and those two annoying “wacky pirate” characters. His ensuing popularity is evidence of his “stealing” of the movie - and his complete domination of the sequels (which was never part of the original plan) even moreso.
I watched some terrible direct-to-video movie about wine growing in California - they could have just cut it down to the 20 minutes or so Rickman was on screen and saved the few who actually watched it some pain.
Are you talking about Bottle Shock? I saw that in the theater.
Ah. My mistake; I’d never ever heard of it before seeing a preview on a NetFlix DVD & adding it to my queue because, hey, Alan Rickman and wine, what could go wrong? The answer was: the rest of the movie.
He’s in the middle of the poster. His face is larger than the other three, and his name is listed first. You’re right that he’s a much bigger star after the movies than he was before, but he was a big name before that.
Forgettable movie except for that scene. I did not know it was Levon Helm, as I only listen to The Band and do not watch their movies. He was great.
I didn’t know his musical background, either. First noticed him as an actor in The Right Stuff.
Whoever played Torgo in Manos: The Hands of Fate.
Yes. His gravitas and quiet dignity were perfectly accentuated by the haunting “Torgo’s Theme.”
Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet.
HAL9000 from 2001
And Huey, Louey & Dewey the three drones from Silent Running
Agree about Brian Cox in Manhunter
Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors