Which great actor is currently slumming it hardest?

[The Borgified Corpse]

I don't know about Al Pacino's recent career overall.

His film career for the last decade has been medicore to bad, apart from an excellent turn as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 2004.

I didn't much care for The Merchant of Venice. The problem is it's a comedy, yet because of the PC overreaction to some of the casual antisemitism, it has to be played as a drama. (And frankly, much more modern productions have gotten away with much worse stereotyping.)

 

[Captaindemotion]

Jeff Goldblum was a really hot item during the 1980s-'90s when he did The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, & The Lost World. Frankly, he weirded me out when he did Cats & Dogs. That felt like the beginning of the end. Now, he's decent on Law & Order: Criminal Intent but he's leaving that show.

I think he prefers theatre work these days.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, but--returns, as what?

Super Gandhi. Watch as he steps in and sorts out the mess that is the Commonwealth Games. He become puzzled when an incompetent criminal in a badly fitting wig keeps trying to prevent him from succeeding.

Gentlemen, I believe we have a fine basis for a pitch meeting with a studio.

It seems that someone has already done the concept artwork for the character. I'm thinking Jude Law or Matt Damon.

"[Super Gandhi] is the king of the Magical Kingdom Zeth. Magic the Gandhi is his daughter. He is always accompanied by two girls wherever he travels."

http://alicesoft.wikia.com/wiki/Ragnarockark_Super_Gandhi

Bang goes the dhoti product-placement.

 

[Deckerd]

Mark Hamill. Oh, you said "great actor"...

Meryl Streep

I thought she was easily the best thing in The Manchurian Candidate remake, which wasn't really too shabby overall.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Mark Hamill. Oh, you said "great actor"...

Meryl Streep

I thought she was easily the best thing in The Manchurian Candidate remake, which wasn't really too shabby overall.

Perhaps, but it's not Sophie's Choice or Out of Africa ... ZZZzzzzzzzzz ...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Another "will take any role that pays him" icon is Michael Caine. But then, that's not a recent thing. His entire career is peppered with shit that he only did because he likes to work. But he's doing pretty well recently since he's latched onto such a talented filmmaker as Chris Nolan.

Well, he's always worked on quality projects even when he occasionally slums it. I seem to recall Caine giving an interview where he said he takes any movie that offers him a chance to be filming in a warm tropical climate during the Winter. I can't really fault him there.

 

[Aragorn]

I don't know about Al Pacino's recent career overall.

His film career for the last decade has been medicore to bad, apart from an excellent turn as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 2004.

But he's done some great TV work on HBO, winning two Emmys, so that saves him from oblivion.

Hey, the last decade includes Insomnia!!!

 

[Owain Taggart]

I've got another one. Kelsey Grammer. He was good in Cheers and Frasier, but those were one single character. His entry into the movies hasn't been all that good and he hasn't made many, and his last sitcom, 'Back to You' was terrible and uninspired. He needs a new agent.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Doh! The board double posted my entry.

 

[Holdfast]

Super Gandhi. Watch as he steps in and sorts out the mess that is the Commonwealth Games. He become puzzled when an incompetent criminal in a badly fitting wig keeps trying to prevent him from succeeding.

Gentlemen, I believe we have a fine basis for a pitch meeting with a studio.

It seems that someone has already done the concept artwork for the character. I'm thinking Jude Law or Matt Damon.

"[Super Gandhi] is the king of the Magical Kingdom Zeth. Magic the Gandhi is his daughter. He is always accompanied by two girls wherever he travels."

http://alicesoft.wikia.com/wiki/Ragnarockark_Super_Gandhi

Bang goes the dhoti product-placement.

I see his new incarnation came with vibrant new hair growth, so I'm thinking shampoo and conditioner adverts.

"Gandhi, because nonviolence also applies to your hair follicles."

 

[Wynterhawk]

How about mmm Julia Roberts. Hot stuff in her Pretty Woman days... how did Eat Pray Love do in the theaters?

 

[Greg Cox]

I got the impression she'd been slumming it because I tend to notice her roles in 101 Dalmatians, The Devil Wears Prada, and Mama Mia, which all seem pitched far below her considerable talents.

I haven't seen Dalmatians or Mamma Mia, but Streep's role in Devil Wears Prada is actually a pretty tough one to pull off without being hammy. She gives Miranda Priestly enough nuance to make her human, which cannot have been easy.

Again, Streep was NOT in 101 Dalmations. That was Glenn Close.

 

[DarthPipes]

Christopher Lloyd. He was in so many of my favorite films of the 80s. But I can't even remember the last time he was in a decent film with a memorable role.

I am surprised he has not been utilized better by the generation of newer film makers who grew up on those classics. Nice to see him a supporting role in one of the big superhero franchises.

It's strange with Christopher Lloyd. It seemed like he was in everything back in the day but then in 1995-96, you just never saw him in movies. You'd see him pop up in movies once in a whle but it's like directors stopped using him. It's a shame because he is a damn good talent.

I would agree with a lot of the names listed here...DeNiro, Ford, Murphy, Williams, etc. Pacino still seems to be in movies or HBO films that give him good reviews although I heard Rightous Kill was an embarrassing piece of shit...again, with DeNiro.

Samuel L. Jackson just likes to appear in multiple movies a year, many of which aren't good.

 

[Captaindemotion]

How about mmm Julia Roberts. Hot stuff in her Pretty Woman days... how did Eat Pray Love do in the theaters?

She's basically reduced her workload to spend more time with her family. Being selective about work doesn't mean slumming it. And I think that EPL has done pretty well.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I got the impression she'd been slumming it because I tend to notice her roles in 101 Dalmatians, The Devil Wears Prada, and Mama Mia, which all seem pitched far below her considerable talents.

I haven't seen Dalmatians or Mamma Mia, but Streep's role in Devil Wears Prada is actually a pretty tough one to pull off without being hammy. She gives Miranda Priestly enough nuance to make her human, which cannot have been easy.

Again, Streep was NOT in 101 Dalmations. That was Glenn Close.

So it was, well, 101 Dalmatians, that is. Streep was in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was pretty forgettable.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I've got another one. Kelsey Grammer. He was good in Cheers and Frasier, but those were one single character. His entry into the movies hasn't been all that good and he hasn't made many, and his last sitcom, 'Back to You' was terrible and uninspired. He needs a new agent.

What's worse, Back to You wasn't his last sitcom. You completely forgot about last year's Hank (a show so bad that Grammer himself asked ABC to cancel it).

But yeah, after 9 years of Cheers & 11 years of Frasier, I think Grammer has dug himself quite a typecasting hole to dig himself out of. It's not even that Frasier was such a specific character. I think that every actor uses a facet of himself to play any character. After 20 years of playing Frasier Crane, I think that Grammer ended up at some point using nearly every single facet of his own personality to portray a side of Frasier. At this point, except for a few biographical differences, Frasier Crane & Kelsey Grammer are pretty much the same guy.

It also doesn't help that, as far as sitcom writing goes, Frasier set the bar impossibly high. Maybe Grammer should get Mitch Hurwitz to write a series for him.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

No one has descended further from youthful promise than Malcolm McDowell.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I've got another one. Kelsey Grammer. He was good in Cheers and Frasier, but those were one single character. His entry into the movies hasn't been all that good and he hasn't made many, and his last sitcom, 'Back to You' was terrible and uninspired. He needs a new agent.

What's worse, Back to You wasn't his last sitcom. You completely forgot about last year's Hank (a show so bad that Grammer himself asked ABC to cancel it).

But yeah, after 9 years of Cheers & 11 years of Frasier, I think Grammer has dug himself quite a typecasting hole to dig himself out of. It's not even that Frasier was such a specific character. I think that every actor uses a facet of himself to play any character. After 20 years of playing Frasier Crane, I think that Grammer ended up at some point using nearly every single facet of his own personality to portray a side of Frasier. At this point, except for a few biographical differences, Frasier Crane & Kelsey Grammer are pretty much the same guy.

It also doesn't help that, as far as sitcom writing goes, Frasier set the bar impossibly high. Maybe Grammer should get Mitch Hurwitz to write a series for him.

Gosh, you're right. I forgot about Hank. Memories of those were combined into one show. I don't even remember the premise for Hank.

I don't know, but I think Kelsey Grammer and Woody Allen would make a good match for working together on something. He needs something really good to make people take him seriously again.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

If it hasn't happened already, I'd like to see Kelsey Grammer on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Somehow, I think he might be a good fit and yet could make it feel drastically different from Frasier Crane/Sideshow Bob.

Gosh, you're right. I forgot about Hank. Memories of those were combined into one show. I don't even remember the premise for Hank.

I never watched it but I think Hank was the owner of a hardware store who lost all his money somehow.

 

[Anwar]

Hank was about a stockbroker who returned home after the failure of his career and fortune.

The problem was the same problem as "Back to You". It's the same premise as Frasier but with different occupations and reasons for returning home:

Frasier - Failed marriage, came home

Back to you - Failed big time TV Reporter career, returned home

Hank - Failed Stockbroker career, returned home.