Actors who regularly appear both in brainless popcorn movies and in "serious", artsy movies

You know, people like...

Nicolas Cage
Brendan Fraser
Steve Buscemi
Gerard Depardieu
Sigourney Weaver
Peter Stormare

Can you name some more? And do you think they equally appreciate both sides of their career, or do they do popcorn movies just to pay the bills?

Vincent Chase

George Clooney

Who claims to do popcorn stuff to be able to make more 'artsy' films.

myatt..........damon

Nicolas Cage

when was the last time this hack was in an artsy film?

pretty much every working actor in hollywood.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman? He was in MI:3, anyway.

guttenberg.

John Turturro seems to pop up in most Adam Sandler movies these days alongside his more serious work. Also Transformers.

turturro's serious work is hardly in a majority or anything like, or would it just not have made it across the atlantic?

The 99.995% of actors who have never had a speaking part in a "brainless popcorn movie" would sell their first-born to get one, and not just because it pays the bills. These movies are what make you famous and keep your name in circulation. The idea that a part in a blockbuster is some kind of embarrassing side-job that pays the bills is ridic.

Jeff Bridges.

Steve Martin

The idea that a part in a blockbuster is some kind of embarrassing side-job that pays the bills is ridic.

otm -- probably even to steve martin, though admittedly he seems an extreme case. From the actors POV, that's implying that they do their job half-assed in movies that you don't approve of.

I suppose "Turturro's serious work = Spike Lee and Coen Brother's movies basically. And that WTF musical he directed.

I'm trying to think of an "artsy" movie Steve Martin has appeared in

Shopgirl, I liked a lot. But that's not what I mean -- "LA Story" is great and v funny, and "Cheaper by the Dozen" is not something many of us will have seen, unless we have a dozen children. (Or one.)

Pink Panther movies. Yow.

The Spanish Prisoner, Novocaine, too.

otoh. exactly.

Robin Williams

Bruce Willis

He's pretty much on the fence either way, though, right?

Nicolas Cage

when was the last time this hack was in an artsy film?

The Weather Man and Lord of War, both came out in 2005.

I haven't seen Lord of War, but The Weather Man was both artsy and good.

yeah, the "regularly" in the title confuses things. Ask a critic about Nick Cage in the 80's and they would have bubbled over, the guy's just brilliant and on the edge of... something! But it's edgy! And somehow he wore himself down to a nub.

I dunno, he's still been pretty good most of the "serious" films he's appeared in during the last 10 years: The Weather Man, Matchstick Men, Adaptation, Bringing Out the Dead...

Oh don't bring out the dead. Plz no.

But ok, Adaptation I'll give you for sure.

oh those kooky indie directors ridley scott and martin scorsese...

Who said anything about "indie"?

Wait a minute I've got it..

- Every film actor you've ever heard of!

Samantha Morton...

Yeah, I take it back, the problem with this question is that (even though I think I know what you mean) it draws a line between serious and not serious that can't be anything but totally arbitrary. Because it's meaningless.

Maybe a better question would be actors who play both serious characters and complete goofballs.

But then you'd have the Pacino Problem.

Wait a minute I've got it..

- Every film actor you've ever heard of!

Note the word "regularly". Yeah sure, even folks like Vin Diesel or Arnold Schwartzenegger may have done one serious film in their career, but this thread was about the actors who do both types of movies on a regular basis.

So the vast majority of actors then, rather than actually 100%?

Yeah, I take it back, the problem with this question is that (even though I think I know what you mean) it draws a line between serious and not serious that can't be anything but totally arbitrary. Because it's meaningless.

Okay, if I say the difference is between big-budget genre movies and smaller-budget non-genre movies, would that sound better? I didn't mean to imply that the one of type movie is necessarily better than the other, that's why I put "serious" in scare quotes.

You're still not going to see a lot of love for this premise as long as the words "brainless" and "artsy" are in the title and "serious" in in quotes

xposts

So the vast majority of actors then, rather than actually 100%?

Name the names then.

You're still not going to see a lot of love for this premise as long as the words "brainless" and "artsy" are in the title and "serious" in in quotes

Yeah, I guess I should've worded the title better. To me "brainless" can be good.

Samantha Morton

I just love her too much to think she's ever done anything brainless

By the way, Vin Diesel has been in these movies over the past 10 years in addition to xXx and Chronicles of Riddick or whatever:

Find Me Guilty (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419749/

Boiler Room (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181984/

Multifacial (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0226168/

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/

I've totally missed Morton's popcorn movie career, what movies was she in?

Minority Report is the only big-budget stuff I can think of.

She's been in comedies... uh... if Synecdoche, New York counts. No, I guess not. Sweet and Lowdown?

www.imdb.com

look i'll even make it clickable

http://www.imdb.com

Through the MAGIC of the internet, we learn she was in

MINORITY REPORT

LASSIE

FREE JIMMY

That's not more information. Who has seen this Lassie, and wtf is Free Jimmy?

Holy shit, they made a new version of Lassie?!

How the fuck did a Lassie remake fly over my head?

please let "Free Jimmy" not be something with Vincent Gallo. I feel v protective of Samantha Morton.

sylvester stallone's been in:

COPLAND

GET CARTER

D-TOX

SHADE

AM I BLOWING YOUR MIND YET

No you're being a dick

I remember reading about Free Jimmy, it sounded more like a transgressive indie animation a la Meet the Feebles than a popcorn movie.

Get Carter is your idea of an artsy movie?

Sam Morton's the one I recalled first, talking nonstop about using big-budget roles to let her work on Harmony Korine films or similar. Maybe it's because she wants a giant pat on the head for it?

actors who have done good films and bad films
actors who have done low- and high-budget films
actors who have done indie and studio films

No Tuomas it's not. But you have reduced the entire complicated, thrilling universe of movies into two tired cliches: brainless popcorn movies and serious arty movies. Which bucket does Get Carter fall into? Why does it matter?

Well if you don't care for the premise of the thread, you don't have to post here. And it's not like I'm doing some deep film theory here, of course my categorization is rigid, but I thought it'd get the idea across.

no, tracer is right, your premise is flawed.

I mean, you can't deny many people make the distinction between "serious" actors who appear mostly in "serious" movies, and actors who specialize in popcorn movies, and I just wanted to discuss about actors who fit into neither category.

(x-post)

It's not just flawed, it's pointless.

That's pretty flawed.

pointless. strange criticism to make of an ilx thread.

better to do a thread about actors who ONLY do 'serious' films or 'non-serious' films, as it might be.

"This thread premise is nothing but an invitation to talk in circles forever!"

But I'd argue it's worse than that.

Because it makes about 20 loaded assumptions just in the title.

I'm sorry for starting a pointless thread. I'm sorry for coming up with binary categories for things. Surely no one else has ever done anything like that...

For you:

http://www.freefoto.com/images/05/08/05_08_5---Cross-on-a-Hill_web.jpg

Ok, now I'm being a dick. I'm sorry. :(

http://www.pete-online.us/cjimages/4I%27mSorry%20note.jpg

Not that sorry. More like

http://www.appletreeblog.com/wp-content/2008/11/bush-shrug.jpg

"OK, I'll grant you that all of the actors in Hollywood fit this premise, but who are they?"

I don't think all of the actors in Hollywood fit this premise.

Who doesn't?

Arnold?

OK, Arnold.

Yes, I have also seen large rocks and trees that appear in both serious sets and brainless sets.

harrison ford.

on the fence with bruce willis, afaic

Okay, let's take a list of the 10 highest paid Hollywood actors I copied form somewhere, for example:

1. Will Smith
2. Johnny Depp
3. Eddie Murphy
4. Mike Myers
5. Leonardo DiCaprio
6. Bruce Willis
7. Ben Stiller
8. Nicolas Cage
9. Will Ferrell
10. Adam Sandler

Out of these I think only Depp, Cage and DiCaprio fit into my premise.

stiller doesn't do brandead popcorn movies; ferrell has been in a woody allen film; sandler in 'reign over me'.

Careful, he can always fall back on "regularly"

Yeah, but I said "regularly". 90% of Hollywood actors have probably appeared in one serious, "artsy" film.

(x-post)

sandler in "Punchdrunk Love" as well

Mike Myers was in Studio 54

Will Smith was pretty great in "Six Degrees of Separation" in 1993

stiller doesn't do brandead popcorn movies

What is a braindead popcorn movie?

Will Smith was in the Pursuit of Happyness

2 movies out of 35 still isn't regularly.

(xxx-post)

Stiller doesn't really do artsy films either, does he?

Jim Carrey then?

Stiller's done some artsy films.

Willis was in Pulp Fiction, Fast Food Nation and 16 Blocks.

Orson Welles

Stiller: Royal Tenenbaums, Permanent Midnight, The Cable Guy!

Also Flirting With Disaster

He was pretty awesome in Pulp Fiction, but I think the movie title alone eliminates it from the not-popcorn category

Willis, I mean... xposts

The Cable Guy, Flirting With Disaster, and 16 Blocks are artsy films?!

Flirting With Disaster

Rather like Tuomas starting this thread

Oh, how the ghost of your thread premise clings/
these foolish things/
remind me of you

Dude, you should watch The Cable Guy again.

It's not exactly a popcorn movie!

But it's not an artsy movie either.

OK dude.

Sidebar: actors who are far better in brainless popcorn movies than they are in "serious," artsy movies

Yeah that's a good thread right there.

Probably starts with Ben Stiller, tbh.

How about the inverse: people you can stand when they play it straight, but you want to stab with rusty things when they try to be funny. I'll nominate Robin Williams right off.

Actually -- I only want to stab Robin Williams when he does his full-on Robin Williams thing, which damn near derails The Fisher King, despite that being pretty excellent when RW isn't giving a monologue about taking a shit, which makes no sense at all in any context. He was good in insomnia, and great in... ahem... Death to Smoochy. It was like Robin Williams, only so purely malevolent I somehow gained respect for him again.

BRENDAN FRASER???

The Quiet American is a good film, but also a popcorn movie. Graham Greene sold books.

plz no one call Gods & Monsters or Cr*sh artsy.

I misread this as "Actors who regularly appear brainless both in popcorn movies and in "serious," artsy movies."

It's accurate!

gods and monsters was artsy.

ho! boom!

yeah boom wd be my wish, like in Scanners.

hey tuomas i dunno if youre on 77 or not - i think you are - but i started a thread on 77 that was similar to what you were getting at with this thread, it was called "encylopedia of obscure character actors who had action figures at toys r us" and if you click on this link you can read it: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=69779

Guys, Ben Stiller was in a fucking Neil Labute pre-Wicker Man movie, "Your Friends and Neighbors." Doesn't get much more artsy than that.

"popcorn movie" now means incomprehensible 'action,' adolescent dialogue, 'mythic' self-importance & pref based on a gr*phic n*vel, when it used to mean The Apartment or The Wages of Fear.

or fucking 'ben-hur'.

or any one of thousands of shitty, empty spectacle movies going back to the 1910s.

Willis was in Pulp Fiction, Fast Food Nation and 16 Blocks.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, February 16, 2009 12:48 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ok dude 16 blocks?? have you SEEN this movie?

back then, popcorn movie meant the apartment or the wages of fear... i wore an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time.... you couldnt get white onions back then, so i had to wear a big yellow one....

yeah i know that was a stretch

haha. im still with you

Yeah, I guess I should've worded the title better. To me "brainless" can be good.

― Tuomas, Monday, February 16, 2009 11:42 AM (5 hours ago)

hmmmmmmmm

"upholsterers who regularly repair both expensive antiques and shitty sectionals"

smash their 2 heads tgether like Larry & Curly. artsy.

fucking Ben Hur >>> fucking Dark Knight

keep fighting the good fight

tuomas doesnt get either one

Honest question: would the people who got all het up about the dichotomy in the thread title have freaked out this much if:

(a) they were hanging out with their friends in a bar, and one of them proposed the same taxonomy, or

(b) it wasn't Tuomas who made the post?

Because I think we all know exactly what T. was getting at with the thread question, and all the hand-waving and/or dick-waving that ensued was pretty pathetic, IMHO.

nylund's right imo yall should save the vein-popping anger for screaming on folks about a bass guitar

Or for sanctimoniously arguing with black ILXors about racism.

Or for attacking Barack Obama.

OK, that last one went over my head...

Or for sanctimoniously arguing with black ILXors about racism.

― Charlie Rose Nylund, Monday, February 16, 2009 12:26 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

okay who the fuck is this guy

(a) they were hanging out with their friends in a bar, and one of them proposed the same taxonomy

I would think it was a pretty uninteresting and reductive convo TBH. Maybe I should be more positive?

I would think it was a pretty uninteresting and reductive convo TBH. Maybe I should be more positive?

Maybe! If I had that convo and thought the binary was too simplistic, I'd be more interested in exploring where it breaks down than in throwing it out. I mean, it's not perfect, but it describes something real.

kinda surprised this thread turned so volatile. it seemed like a pretty fun, innocuous question.

i don't have that many convos that involve listing people, when i think about it.

Maybe! If I had that convo and thought the binary was too simplistic, I'd be more interested in exploring where it breaks down than in throwing it out. I mean, it's not perfect, but it describes something real.

― Charlie Rose Nylund, Monday, February 16, 2009 6:30 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what does it describe, besides a list of working actors

maybe we should explore where it breaks down

i think it broke down about 100 posts ago

i will try to start this convo irl anyway.

what does it describe, besides a list of working actors

Among other things, a continuum that most working actors would accept as real! Surely we can acknowledge that there's something different about the roles taken on by (say) Schwarzenegger vs. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Some actors move between both kinds of roles, and manage to do so without losing either audience. If you want to see it that way, it's as much a conversation about "branding" as anything: you've got someone like Jeff Goldblum who plays basically the same character in every movie, and that's how he markets himself, vs. one of the allegedly chameleonic actors like Depp.

philip seymour hoffman was the bad guy in MI2.

schwarzenegger is like the only actor who seems to not fall into this category - wouldn't this thread be more interesting if it was about the inverse? actually, it's interesting neither way

Yeah, fair enough, I realized that right after I posted. I was trying to think of someone famous-ish who's never crossed over into blockbuster territory, and coming up short!

xpost There are a bunch of action movie stars who've never gone arthouse/serious, no?

fuck jeff goldbum man!

I know many people who'd like to (at least ca. 1991).

xpost There are a bunch of action movie stars who've never gone arthouse/serious, no?

― Charlie Rose Nylund, Monday, February 16, 2009 6:47 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

even JCVD has an arthouse movie these days!

Name Jeff Goldblum

Dirt will chase anything in a skirt; banged Kristin Davis, Lisa Marie, Laura Dern and an additional cast of thousands
More dirt

philip seymour hoffman was the bad guy in MI2.

Btw, that was MI3, I think. (checks IMDB) Yep.

my case falls apart

I think that this was much more of a distinction 10-20 years ago, too, or even five years ago. The "comic actor takes on serious role" thing was certainly harped on in many an article about Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine, etc.

con air changed everything

I was trying to think of someone famous-ish who's never crossed over into blockbuster territory, and coming up short!

I remember being shocked in the '90s when Steve Buscemi appeared in Con Air and Armageddon and Parker Posey was in You've Got Mail, but I don't think that kind of thing is all that uncommon anymore, especially since indie/arthouse cinema doesn't really exist as a distinct, stable entity as it did 10 years ago.

Wow, that was a double xpost.

don't forget armageddon

# Will Patton - Charles 'Chick' Chapple
# Steve Buscemi - Rockhound
# William Fichtner - Col. William Sharp
# Owen Wilson - Oscar Choi
# Michael Clarke Duncan - J. Otis 'Bear' Kurleen
# Peter Stormare - Col. Lev Andropov
# Ken Hudson Campbell - Max Lennert
# Jessica Steen - Jennifer Watts
# Keith David - Lt. Gen. Kimsey
# Chris Ellis - Walter Clark
# Jason Isaacs - Dr. Ronald Quincy
# Grayson McCouch - Gruber
# Clark Heathcliffe Brolly - Freddie Noonan
# Marshall R. Teague - Col. Davis
# Anthony Guidera - Tucker
# Greg Collins - Lt. Halsey

Owen Wilson - Oscar Choi

Did they explain the surname in the movie at all? Marriage? Adoption? I'm assuming that O.W. doesn't have any Korean/Asian-American heritage of which I'm unaware...

has Jennifer Aniston really not been mentioned yet?

the two 1st actors named on this thread are two of my least favorite

has Jennifer Aniston really not been mentioned yet?

― Surmounter, Monday, February 16, 2009 8:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have no idea what this means, but it's an a+ post.

the title of this thread reminds me why i go to fewer and fewer movies: because i fucking hate the sound of popcorn being chewed.

con air was first iirc

I'm gonna go with Jean-Paul Belmondo on this one. Pretty much kills this thread rite guys? enh?

"popcorn movie" now means incomprehensible 'action,' adolescent dialogue, 'mythic' self-importance & pref based on a gr*phic n*vel, when it used to mean The Apartment or The Wages of Fear.

Hey Morbs, can you name some films actually based on a gr*phic n*vel, as opposed to a superhero property or ongoing series?

Harry Dean Stanton kinda owns this thread along with Belmondo

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0e/Magnifique_affiche.jpg

^ My wife was so into that movie, and she almost never likes anything non-mainstream!

Hey Morbs, can you name some films actually based on a gr*phic n*vel, as opposed to a superhero property or ongoing series?

Does "ongoing series" exclude graphic novels that are definitive collections of material that was originally serialized? Like From Hell and Ghost World?

let's let the good Dr respond before initiating inevitable_quibble.clusterfuck.exe!

I always thought it was crazy that Joe Pesci would go from Home Alone to Goodfellas to My Cousin Vinny to Casino.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Tape-Poster.jpg
Uma Thurman - definitely
Ethan Hawke - definitely
wilson from house?

also
Bruce Campbell

Keanu

yes to Keanu

Tim Roth

this thread is really pointless isn't it?

maybe I just suck at this thread

This thread question is still pointless. Because we're all going to die.

http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/14/going_to_die.jpg

Viggo did "Texas Chainsaw III." In an apron and a cowboy hat. No, I haven't seen it.

"I always thought it was crazy that Joe Pesci would go from Home Alone to Goodfellas to My Cousin Vinny to Casino."

Joe Pesci needed money.

Blade Trinity was on TV the other day and I think "wow, parker, that fay grim shit didn't pay out well at all, huh?"

last three words of thread title should've been "brainless artsy movies"

why is that?

they're made by democrats

bcz those are the "artsy" movies ILXors list

go fuck yourself

J/K!

Oooh!

(xpost)

i was thinking Casino

John Malkovich is the master of this.

May I present: The Mutant Chronicles, Beowulf, Johnny English, Con frickin' Air!