The All-Movie-Star Game

Cafe Society
1

Inspired by Baseball’s All-Star game, I decided to draw up two teams of 10 Movie Stars each. One team consists of USA-born stars, one team non-USA-born. My criteria for inclusion are as follows:

  1. Must play a primary character in one of the top grossing movies of 2005 so far (International box office figures used where available).
  2. Animated movies and CGI voice work are excluded.
  3. Extra credit for appearing in multiple hit movies.

And so, here are my picks:

USA Team:
Will Smith, Hitch
Brad Pitt, Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Angelina Jolie, Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Dakota Fanning, War of the Worlds and Hide and Seek
Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds
Vin Diesel, The Pacifier
Adam Sandler, The Longest Yard
Nicole Kidman, The Interpreter (extra credit for Bewitched)
Sean Penn, The Interpreter
Sandra Bullock, Miss Congeniality 2

Non-USA Team:
Ewan McGregor, Revenge of the Sith
Hayden Christiansen, Revenge of the Sith
Natalie Portman, Revenge of the Sith
Rachel Weisz, Constantine
Keanu Reeves, Constantine
Christian Bale, Batman Begins
Michael Caine, Batman Begins
Liam Neeson, Batman Begins and Kingdom of Heaven
Orlando Bloom, Kingdom of Heaven
Naomi Watts, The Ring 2

2

Uh, so now what? Who would kick whose ass? Which stars on each team you’d want to watch have sex with each other? And when you say “top” movies of this year–Top 10? 25? 50?

If you want to compare Oscars, Team USA comes out ahead: 12 nominations and 3 awards vs. 9 nominations and 2 awards.

3

Nicole Kidman–USA?
I thought she was an Aussie.

4

I was wondering: which team do you like better? I did have to make some choices. Do you agree with them? Is there someone you think deserves to be on one of the teams that isn’t? Dakota Fanning is 11 or so. Let’s leave sex out of it, shall we?

I was using the top 12 non-animated films in gross worldwide receipts.

Oscars? How about Golden Globes? I’m trying to retain an international flavor.

According to the IMDB, Nicole Kidman was born in Hawaii.