So each week with the Good Times column, I try to pick a relevant actor due to their upcoming release. This week I decided to go with two, we’ve got Jack Black appearing in “Kung Fu Panda,” and Edward Norton with “The Incredible Hulk.” Jack Black, will be hard to talk about because, despite a few fun supporting roles, it was a bit of a challenge to drum up our good times. Edward Norton and I have had some good times, but, honestly, between the hard to swallow fact that he’s the Incredible Hulk, and the mess that was “Italian Job,” (sure, I know that the story is you were in a contract, but Mark Wahlberg danced circles around your whiney villain) he looked like a challenge as well.
Anyways, here goes nothing.
Jack Black, remember that time you got your hand shot off in the Jackal? That was a good time, it was almost as good as seeing your face smeared with oil flying a seaplane in Waterworld, and playing guitar in ‘Bio-Dome.’ Perhaps your charm is that you always pop-up in random places, a Government computer tech with Seth Green in ‘Enemy of the State,’ the music snob in ‘High Fidelity,’ and the dog-kicking Biker in ‘Anchorman.’ Though, I will admit, though I wasn’t the target demo, I thought you did a great job in School of Rock. I wasn’t a fan of ‘King Kong,’ but that probably was more because of the “King Kong on ice” scene. I’ll forgive you for ‘Nacho Libre’ because of your awesome Paul McCartney in ‘Walk Hard.’ And despite my reservations for Kung Fu Panda, I will admit, ‘Tropic Thunder’ looks like its got some potential.
Edward Norton, you’ve shown us your acting legs, very rapidly, but it almost feels like things have shifted. Stories of your demands of supervised reedits and rewrites make me a bit nervous about your personality, although, things do seem to come out right regardless. Your reformed skinhead in ‘American History X’ was one of the best performances of the late 90s, and your starring role in Fight Club made it was it was. Your directorial debut with ‘Keeping the Faith’ was so-so, but for some reason following that, you set off on a tangent of iffy films, ‘Red Dragon’ made me shake my head, but I forgave you because of the ’25th Hour.’ However, it wasn’t long though that you gave us ‘The Italian Job.’ I’m not the best at following my own advice, but someone told me no matter how much you hate a job, your performance is still going to reflect on you. Despite its length and subject, I did thoroughly enjoy ‘The Painted Veil.’ Finally, with Incredible Hulk, I’m extremely iffy, I heard you rewrote the thing, its buzz across the blogosphere has been mixed, but I’ll hold judgment, for all hope is not lost, I know you’re a good actor, just don’t mess it up.
So there you have it, a quick review of some good times with the big stars of the week. Till next time….
I’m hearing nothing but good things about Kung-Fu Panda. And the huge marketing campaign Hulk is going through right now has me excited for the flick. I think we’ll have some good times with these two this summer.
I’ll admit, they are doing a good job selling Incredible Hulk, but I think its more because that’s one superhero I’ve never been crazy about.
It is interesting that Norton is mysteriously MIA for all the promotional stuff now, though. It could be either a) he was held back from doing press because of the inevitable barrage of questions he’d get about the editing room stuff or b) he’s being a dink again.
Two Edward Norton movies that you missed were early ones- ‘Primal Fear,’ was that rare creature: a good Richard Gere movie. It was Norton’s first movie and got him noticed. (It even got him nominated for an Oscar.)
I’m also a huge fan of ‘Everyone Says I Love You.’ It’s a Woody Allen movie and a musical. For me, it proved that Norton could do everything- including sing and dance
you know, him being MIA on the promotional stuff on Hulk is extremely interesting, does he ordinarily avoid doing those things? I can’t really remember.
Oh yes, Primal Fear was great, Everyone Says I Love You has been on my Netflix Queue for ages!