Mark Wahlberhg is the new Kim Novak

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Both were thought to be talentless pretty faces who were brought to hollywood and discovered that they could act . Discuss

― anthony, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Don't know who the first name is. But Novak: actually not that much of a career? I recently read Thomson's entry on her in the Biog Dicto: inevitably he spends a lot of time talking about Vertigo as the part she was born to play, and as the finest allegory of the dangers of cinema, etc. But I'm not sure he mentioned too many other notable achievements.

Novak in Vertigo: sadness, above all. Her exploitation by everyone else in the film (and her, um, manslaughter at the hands of - huh! - 'good guy' J Stewart): terrible pathos, in fact almost rouses me to anger. But then (and this is part of Thomson's point?), Hitchcock always treated her kind that way anyway?

― the pinefox, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's a nice idea Anthony: but the assumption that a successful stage entertainer and recording artiste (ESP. in post-rap era) can't act on-screen seems to me the strange thing here (I knwo some of em can't: but surely this is nervous direction — the hired hand behind the camera too wussy to say cut, Mr Bowie that was terrible, again please w/o extreme cardboard mockney uselessness...).

Mark Walhberg = Markie Mark, pinefox. He of the enormous prosthetic penis in Boogie Nights (as MW),and the Calvin Klein undies poster (as MM).

[The gleamless expression on the Pinefox's muzzle changes not a wit...]

― mark s, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But we expected Mark Wahlberg to be a nice set of pecs. Just like we expected Kim Novak to be a nice pair of tits The general public would have expected something like Cindy Crawford in Fair Game. It is not genre hopping i am talking about. It is people we assume to be vain and stupid actully having talent. Wahlbergs "rap" career was mostly party hip pop. No onme thought he had any serious talent

About Novak: She started dating Sammy Davis jr. shortly after Vertigo and lost alot of roles because of american racism, not lack of skill.

About Bowie: Have you seen Basquit, it is eerie how much he acts like Andy Warhol. It is not merely apeing its almost channeling.

― anthony, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

There was a fucking terrible movie with Paulina Porizkova on the other night. Enough to make you wonder if the Bad Brains were really all that!

― tarden, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Exactly what i mean. Models genre hopping is almost always a disaster. The two examples i can think of where it isnt the case are Novak and Wahlberg

― anthony, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

donny was funky especially with seiko, and they really acted in the video - marky mark never meant shit to me though.

― Geoff, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Anthony: I have seen Basquiat, and still hate his [Basquiat's] work. I also founf it GRATE that Bowie couldn't keep up the American accent for more than ten seconds at a time.

― JM, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You have read the Robert Hughes eviscaration of Basquit. I hate Jean Micahel as well. However Warhol talked in what he imagined to be a "posh" accent . So it was a really weird combination of Boston BRahman and Pseudo-English. (In fact alot liek Madonna) So Bowies accent was nearly perfect.

― anthony, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

read have you

― anthony, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Warhol talked in what would now be considered a stereotypical "emasculated gay male" voice. Kind of a high falsetto with a slight lilt. Nothing as flagrantly British, as Mr. Bowie (if that is his real name...) kept slipping into.

― JM, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Maybe Cameron Diaz is the new Kim Novak, except she can only really do comedy whereas Novak pretty much did weight of world tragic. Whalberg's career seems to be jumpin' jumpin' till he finds what he is good at - it certainly wasn't music. That said - has he really shown much range yet in his film career? Wide-eyed innocent is his stock in trade from Boogie Nights through the Corruptor and even the Yards (where he ties to regain innocence).

― Pete, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"only really do comedy": ie the actual hard difficult bit of film acting. "Range" like who? Harrison Ford? Meryl Streep?

― mark s, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

One of the benefits of being single is I now no longer have to meet Kate's friends who thought that 'Three Kings' was a disturbing movie. (Or her flatmate who thought that 'Buffy' is wierd) But presumably this was not just because of Mr Wahlberg's input alone. Knowing them, it would be to do with not being able to place it instantly generically, or work out who the good guys are, and why the Iraqis aren't EVIL, like it says they are on the TV. So, most of the things which make it a good film, then.

― alex thomson, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I suppose that did sound a touch derisory to young Ms Diaz. No, I respect her ability as a screen comedienne but still believe that greatness in an actor (as opposed to a great screen protrayal of one character) is the ability to do more different stuff. Admittedly Diaz has done different kinds of comedies - but often settles back into the clever klutz role of Something About Mary (reprised pretty much note for note in Charlies Angels). If this thread is about Whalberg being a good actor then we've got to look beyond someone just turning up and doing their schtick . If all you are good at is your schtick (say Bob De Niro) then you are as one dimensional an actor as the character you constantly play.

Of course a clever star will not venture too far from what he knows his public wants to see or challenge himself - but does that make a good actor? Look at Russell Crowe in The Insider. Great acting because it is not the Russell Crowe of LA Confidential or Gladiator. Will Smith in Six Degrees Of Seperation?

― Pete, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Three Kings wuz pretty good. Not as good as Boogie Nights as didn't feature giant penis, but no slouch. And Marky Wahlnut wuz good in both. Wahlnut = new Kim Novak argument, howeva, is total green-is-the- new-blue frippery.

― AP, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'll grant that Three Kings is meant to be a comedy - but that the comedy is in the subtext rather than the playing. And Whalberg gets the least comic material (Spike Jonze and Clooney get all that stuff).

What was Ice Cube doing in that film by the way?

― Pete, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

De Niro has been a total mono-shtick snore since he ate Meryl Streep's face in that divorce melodrama where he wore a hard hat.

― mark s, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Having repressed the urge to think up an appalling joke which would involve Ice Cube melting in the desert, I can instead say that I thought he was pretty good.

― alex thomson, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yes, I believe Ice Cube was acting in that movie. He did the same thing in Anaconda. Perhaps you've seen that, Pete? It was crap, & involved the Midnight Cowboy getting testy w/ J-Ho.

― AP, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I don't think it was strictly Ice Cube's fault in Three Kings - I just couldn't quite see what the character was for.We had stupid (Jonze) cynical (Clooney) and idealistic (Whalberg). I'm not sure film needed stoical too. Useful fore issue which is nicely handled but beyond that he's a bit of a makeweight.

He's pretty wasted in Anaconda too - but then you had to be wasted to get involved with Anaconda in the first place. Jon Voight is officially the stupidest character ever written in a monster movie ever. There's probably a J-Lo / trouser snake joke around here.

Cube is great in Boyz In the Hood and I tend to like him in most of his stuff. He's not as bad an actor as Dre after all.

― Pete, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Its funny we're being asked to compare Mark Wahlberg with Kim Novak... and my opinion is that Wahlberg's a better actor than Novak, but I like Kim Novak much better. Anyway, how about Tippi Hedren, a real model Hitchcock spotted in a diet soda ad on TV, and cast the unknown in the lead of "The Birds"? She wasn't a great actress, but had a strange quality I love...

― Sean, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yet again: most classic case: Hitchcock's misognynistic manipulations: Dud. No?

― the pinefox, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have nothing to say about Hitchcock unfortunately, but I do want to let everyone know that I am listening to Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch right now and it is AWE INSPIRING. What are you people talking about, dogging Marky Mark? Goddamnit, I forgot how ace he was. Remember his version of Walk on the Wild Side? Damn. I wish he'd start rapping again. I am so being serious. This is great. I totally want to have a '90s party, this music was so great.

― Ally, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ally you are on crack. The only thing awe inspring about MArk Wahlberg before he started acting was his ass .

― anthony, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

His ass wasn't awe-inspiring, I don't think he's attractive at all. Good Vibrations is totally the best song I heard all night, besides California Love and What's My Name and The Humpty Dance.

― Ally, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mark Wahlberg is pretty attractive. As is Ryan Phillipe.

― Otis Wheeler, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You have godawful taste, Otto.

― Ally, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You're one to talk, Allison. You think Ray Liotta is hot and that Aaliyah is better looking than Beyonce. Uh-huh.

― Otis Wheeler, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Aaliyah IS better looking than Beyonce, after I dragged up the point on that thread pretty much everyone agreed with me not named "Otis Wheeler" for god's sake. It's proven by science. Ray Liotta is good looking but only in Goodfellas. Still way hotter than Mark Wahlberg, who resembles an H&M mannequin, but with bigger pecs. Thank god for his mad skillz otherwise I'd hate him. His brother looked dead freaky in The Sixth Sense.

― Ally, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ray Liotta always looks like he's got loadsa make-up on. Especially in Blow - where he does have loadsa make-up on.

― Pete, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The point here is that Ryan Phillipe is a good looking man.

― Otis Wheeler, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

He isnt. He is pretty and vain. A bad actor with even worse hair.

― anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ryan Phillipe looks fey and annoying, this only goes to prove my point that you have no taste.

― Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

He looks like Ian Ziering with a collagen injection.

― Nicole, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hmmm, that's true. He looks like Stupidface from N'Sync to me, but without that godawful nose.

― Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

have you seen 54 when he is being undressed by Sela Ward.
That was such a bizzare movie with Mike Myers looking liek the Pengyuin rolling around the bed with his money.

― anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

two months pass...

Anyone who is unable to see that Marky Mark Wahlberg and Ryan Phillipe are drop-dead gorgeous is either semi-blind or is lying. Marky had/has the best torso since Micheangelo's David. Ryan is sweet; especially the way he talks (as though each word required such effort).

― brian toporowsky, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

four years pass...

Kim Novak's early remixes were criminally underrated

― kingfish doesn't live here anymore (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 4 June 2006 06:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Kim Novak > Mark Wahlberg, for yet another reason: he hasn't inspired any German screamo hardcore punk bands yet.

http://www.myspace.com/killkimnovak
http://www.killkimnovak.de

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 4 June 2006 09:04 (eighteen years ago) link

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