William Hurt Versus Jeff Daniels

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Is this the first "versus" thread in ILX 2?

― Nob Fun, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:18 (eighteen years ago)

William Hurt!

― G00blar, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:19 (eighteen years ago)

they are both great but william hurt because dude is really weird irl and has always been great. jeff d didnt really hit his stride till the late 90s.

― chaki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:19 (eighteen years ago)

also you could've made it a poll!

― chaki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:20 (eighteen years ago)

People say my husband looks like Jeff Daniels, so I'll have to vote that way, besides, has Wm Hurt ever done comedy?

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago)

btw your husband is v v pretty

― chaki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff D hit his stride in Purple Rose of Cairo

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:10 (eighteen years ago)

Morbs OTM. None of Hurt's performances mean as much to me as Daniels' in The Purple Rose of Cairo or Something Wild.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)

He was great in Purple Rose. Did you buy him as a homo in The Hours, though?

― jaymc, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff Daniels! Hurt never did anything as good as Something Wild.

― Alex Forgot His Email Address in SF, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

I always get Jeff Daniels and Jeff Bridges confused.

That said, Jeff Bridges.

― jessie monster, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:23 (eighteen years ago)

I like Jeff Daniels more than Jeff Bridges, but I like Jeff Bridges more than William Hurt.

― Alex Forgot His Email Address in SF, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:25 (eighteen years ago)

. Did you buy him as a homo in The Hours, though?

I didn't buy anything in The Hours.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:29 (eighteen years ago)

Touche.

― Alex Forgot His Email Address in SF, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

Anyone remember Jeff as Debra Winger's drip of a husband in Terms of Endearment?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:31 (eighteen years ago)

Of all the things he's ever done, whenever I think of William Hurt, the first thing that comes to mind is him as Duke Leito in the sci-fi channel version of Dune saying "DESERT POWER, PAUL". I find this sort of disturbing.

I am inclined to say I like him infinitely more than Jeff Daniels, but that's probably because he wasn't in Dumb and Dumber.

― nickalicious, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:32 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff Daniels = your really nice pushover of an uncle
Jeff Bridges = your kind of creepy stoner uncle
William Hurt = your really creepy uncle

― jessie monster, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:32 (eighteen years ago)

But then, Jeff Daniels has never stooped so low as to do a "Sci-Fi Channel" version of anything yet. So conflicted.

I like Jeff Bridges (as well as Beau and Lloyd Bridges, for that matter) more than either.

― nickalicious, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:33 (eighteen years ago)

DANIELS

― s1ocki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff Bridges is probably my favorite actor of the last 30 years, actually.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

Bridges has made some complete crap unfortunately. Really my only reason for rating Daniels so high is Something Wild. He's been in other good movies, but that's maybe one of my ten or twenty favorite movies.

― Alex Forgot His Email Address in SF, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

more of a beau bridges guy are ya?

― s1ocki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:47 (eighteen years ago)

TS: Randy & Dennis Quaid vs. Beau & Jeff Bridges

― Alex Forgot His Email Address in SF, Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:49 (eighteen years ago)

Daniels was ace in the Squid and the Whale. Has Hurt done anything worth seeing lately?

― will, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:18 (eighteen years ago)

His splendid overacting in A History of Violence.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:23 (eighteen years ago)

his scene in history of violence was really great

― chaki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:24 (eighteen years ago)

OTM

― G00blar, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:24 (eighteen years ago)

xpost?

― G00blar, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:24 (eighteen years ago)

Great beards.

http://www.vh1.com/shared/media/images/movies/people/h/hurt_william/150x223.jpg http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/graphics/filmslide/squid/sdad.jpg

― jaymc, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:29 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, older Daniels is actually well, well-improved with the beard.

― G00blar, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

he's so good as my dad in squid except my dad was a philistine.

― chaki, Thursday, 22 February 2007 22:35 (eighteen years ago)

has Wm Hurt ever done comedy?

He was in that movie with Keanu and River where they tried to kill Kevin Kline. At least I think that was supposed to be a comedy.

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 22 February 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago)

Morbs OTM. None of Hurt's performances mean as much to me as Daniels' in The Purple Rose of Cairo or Something Wild.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn on Thursday, 22 February 2007 21:19 (Yesterday)

OTM!

Funnily enough I watched Something Wild the other night. Which is the second time it's been on BBC in less than a year. And the following night I brought out my DVD of Purple Rose Of Cairo to show my girlfriend. She loved it. Daniels all the way! Although I approve of both actors' recent beard developments.

― Stew, Friday, 23 February 2007 00:11 (eighteen years ago)

Oh yes, and it remains to be said....

"I deliberately played him with a cheeful bravado!"

― Stew, Friday, 23 February 2007 00:13 (eighteen years ago)

has Wm Hurt ever done comedy?

He used his intelligent dull recessiveness to good effect in The Big Chill.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 February 2007 00:15 (eighteen years ago)

William Hurt did not make Escanaba in Da Moonlight, so, Daniels.

― dan m, Friday, 23 February 2007 00:17 (eighteen years ago)

We just rewatched "I, Claudius," and JOHN Hurt is amazing as Caligula.

― Beth Parker, Friday, 23 February 2007 05:11 (eighteen years ago)

so great in purple rose

― s1ocki, Friday, 23 February 2007 05:22 (eighteen years ago)

has Wm Hurt ever done comedy?

Ummm, Broadcast News? Back when comedies about semiliterate adults were getting nominated for Oscars?

Hurt played a schmuck husband for Woody Allen -- was it Alice?

Does Kiss of the Spider Woman look good today?

Something Wild: Demme anticipates good (first half) and bad (second half) Tarantino.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 23 February 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

William Hurt did not make Escanaba in Da Moonlight, so, Daniels.

That's just Michigan pride.

― jaymc, Friday, 23 February 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

So you like []Broadcast News[/i], Morbs? I'd have thought you'd cringe at the pretty fine head of steam worked up over a non-issue (TV reporters PRETEND TO CARE), with the added offense that the goddamn thing looks like a TV movie.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 February 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

Something Wild: Demme anticipates good (first half) and bad (second half) Tarantino

huh?

― gabbneb, Friday, 23 February 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff Daniels did a drunken song at this year's Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit about getting drunk and watching the Lions. Advantage: Daniels. William Hurt is too pompous, although his acting in Lost in Space is still roffletastic.

― Nicole, Friday, 23 February 2007 20:43 (eighteen years ago)

Alfred, I remember Holly Hunter being teriff and it being the closest James L Brooks has come in movies to his TV peak w/ Mary Tyler Moore etc, but haven't seen it in at least 15 years. So who knows;after all, I like Treat Williams.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 23 February 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, Holly Hunter and Hurt are fine; so is Albert Brooks in an impossible role. Look for one of Jack Nicholson's least heralded performances as the smug Peter Jennings-esque anchor.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 February 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

hey, Jeff D is gonna be in Blackbird on bway soon

― gabbneb, Friday, 23 February 2007 23:07 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff Daniels did a drunken song at this year's Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit about getting drunk and watching the Lions.

Yes, but that Tigers song...

I have somewhat conflicted feelings about Jeff Daniels that cannot be articulated.

That said, as a fellow proud native of Washtenaw County, I will still go with him over Hurt.

― Andy K, Friday, 23 February 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

nobody has mentioned ARACHNOPHOBIA??! nu-ILX suxks

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 24 February 2007 11:39 (eighteen years ago)

six years pass...

Trial by Jury--quite absurd. Which isn't to say I wasn't diverted. Couldn't find a thread on courtroom films; I think I'll do a little research and put up a poll next week.

― clemenza, Monday, 5 August 2013 04:12 (twelve years ago)

Or not. Scrolled through this, and there must be three times as many that are well known. Also vague as to how much of the film would need to be inside a courtroom.

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/50-greatest-courtroom-dramas

― clemenza, Monday, 5 August 2013 04:19 (twelve years ago)

Heh. Actually thought you meant Trial and Error--courtroom hijinx with Jeff Daniels and Kramer--until I wiki'd both filmographies.

Daniels has by far the more interesting filmography. He even manages to turn in an enjoyably daffy performance in something as shrug worthy as Clint Eastwood's Blood Work.

Hurt's filmography looks a lot more bland and prestige-y to me. My main association with him remains this (paraphrased from memory) exchange from my childhood:

Dad: What are we going to see?
Mom: The Doctor.
Dad: Who's in it?
Mom: William Hurt.
Dad: Oh God...this will be boring.

― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Monday, 5 August 2013 04:38 (twelve years ago)

one year passes...

Watched Body Heat for the first time since it came out. I always find it interesting to go back to films I saw once then, late-'70s/early-'80s when I was still in school, and never again. Invariably they're films I didn't like; anything I liked, I would have already rewatched (more than once, probably).

Still basically a shrug of the shoulders. When I saw it in '81 (I thought Body Heat came after The Big Chill, but no, it was Kasdan's first film), I doubt I'd seen Double Indemnity yet. As I'm watching this time, all I could think about Hurt was, "What's wrong with you--haven't you seen Double Indemnity? Don't you know how this ends up?" Mickey Rourke's good; Ted Danson was not really cut out for films.

― clemenza, Friday, 24 July 2015 15:12 (ten years ago)

but a ted danson cutout did appear in a film

https://newsfromthespiritworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/three-men-a-baby-ghost-large-ted-danson-urban-legend.jpg

― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 24 July 2015 15:43 (ten years ago)

We just rewatched "I, Claudius," and JOHN Hurt is amazing as Caligula.

My wife used to get confused between John Hurt and William Hurt, so now I always to refer to him as "Mississippi William Hurt".

― Aimless, Friday, 24 July 2015 17:26 (ten years ago)

I watched Body Heat a few years back because Ebert had included it in his "Great Movies" series and it felt like something that was made by a filmmaker who probably enjoyed watching noirs but had no actually feeling for the genre himself. Forget comparing it to Double Indemnity and whatnot, this isn't even one of the better Cocaine Noir flicks, not when things like Sea of Love or Internal Affairs exist.

― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Friday, 24 July 2015 19:08 (ten years ago)

My admittedly faded memory of Body Heat recalls that it had a noir-like plot, but the noir-like atmosphere was entirely missing.

― Aimless, Friday, 24 July 2015 19:15 (ten years ago)

That's pretty much it.

― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Friday, 24 July 2015 19:18 (ten years ago)

Mickey Rourke was ten times sexier and more dangerous than Hurt and Turner. And Turner did noir better in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2015 19:20 (ten years ago)

Forget comparing it to Double Indemnity and whatnot, this isn't even one of the better Cocaine Noir flicks, not when things like Sea of Love or Internal Affairs exist.

Yeah--it doesn't just miss by a bit. It tries so hard, too; I remember that Hurt throwing the chair through the window made me roll my eyes in 1981, and while knowing it was coming mitigated that a bit last night, it still seemed a little unnecessary. ("I can see her right through the window--try knocking first.") They frame the plot to murder Crenna like some deep dark mysterious thing, intricate like in Double Indemnity, and then it amounts to...Hurt showing up at the house one night and killing him.

― clemenza, Friday, 24 July 2015 19:36 (ten years ago)

weird I've just started a thread cos I'm watching and enjoying an awful but great hurt performance

― irl lol (darraghmac), Friday, 24 July 2015 20:38 (ten years ago)

No need to choose between the two btw:

http://i61.tinypic.com/2ynp5aw.jpg

― ... (Eazy), Friday, 24 July 2015 20:47 (ten years ago)

D - After Body Heat and Gorky Park, let us know how Altered States holds up.

― ... (Eazy), Friday, 24 July 2015 20:51 (ten years ago)

Rourke is amazing in BH yeah.

Cocaine Noir! one of my favourite genres.

― piscesx, Friday, 24 July 2015 21:10 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

Is JD's diarrhea scene in dumb and dumber the peak of his career

― F♯ A♯ (∞), Monday, 20 February 2017 03:00 (eight years ago)

Anyones

― The Perks of Being a Wall St R (darraghmac), Monday, 20 February 2017 09:45 (eight years ago)

btw re Fifth of July above, i seem to recall Daniels had to pick up and carry Hurt (playing a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran), and then Chris Reeve who succeeded WH in the role. Strapping young man.

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 20 February 2017 13:33 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

Geez, I had no idea that Jeff Daniels was a performing musician, or that he was playing a small club in Toronto tonight.

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 July 2018 01:42 (seven years ago)

same mutant WASP chins