Owen Wilson – NZ Film Freak

Wedding Crashers

Director: David Dobkin
Writers: Steve Faber and Bob Fisher
Released: July 2005
Starring: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Jane Seymour
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While it’s crudely about John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) crashing random weddings to get lucky, it’s certainly a very funny film once everyone’s put their boobs away.

What begins as just another wedding to find a fling, ends with John developing a genuine crush on Maid of Honour Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams). However, Jeremy is trying to convince John to escape the wedding early as Claire’s wildly intense and immature sister Gloria (Isla Fisher) forms a strong attachment to Jeremy.

While there is a lot of swearing, there is also a ton of very funny one-liners.

At the end of the wedding, Gloria demands that Jeremy come to her family’s summer home for the weekend. While John jumps at the chance with the hopes of getting to know Claire better, Jeremy finds himself trapped by the scary nutcase that is Gloria.

From here, I thoroughly enjoy the Claire/John half of the story, and not so much the Jeremy/Gloria storyline. Purely because I like a plain old love triangle, and am not such a fan of the crude humour that is typically associated with Vince Vaughn.

Owen Wilson plays the classic ‘good guy’ character as usual, which I adore! He goes out of his way to sabotage Claire’s cheating boyfriend to keep him out of the picture for as long as possible.

[Playing football]
John: Oh, *you’re* gonna cover me.
Claire: Like white on rice.
John: All right I like my odds here. Let me give you a little warning, I’m going downtown.
Look for me in the endzone after this play, I’ll be the guy holding the ball.

John’s love interest is Claire who is played by Rachel McAdams, who conveniently happens to be my love interest because she is so upsettingly pretty. How does she do it? I don’t know whether to be pleased or angry when she’s on screen because I’m so jealous of her beauty. I could cry it’s so unfair.

Anyway. Be that is it may.

Vince Vaughn’s character experiences some pretty freaky situations with the Cleary family, which leaves you cringing but ultimately in fits of giggles. Isla Fisher’s character is really scary. She’s everyone’s worst nightmare of an ex.

Gloria: Jeremy, you’re amazing!
Jeremy: I think you’re amazing…
Gloria: Don’t *ever* leave me.
Jeremy: Ever.
Gloria [in sing-song voice]: Good… Because I’d find you!

Nevertheless, it is very funny watching Jeremy and John keep up their aliases in front of Claire, Gloria and their posh but highly inappropriate family.

It’s cheap and dirty, but with an unexpectedly wholesome storyline in parts. Ultimately, it’s an entertaining summer comedy!

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10

Top 10: Actors Who Stopped Getting Typecast

Ricky Gervais loves being typecast, he says that actors should do what they do best and not feel the pressure to play different parts.

However, this is clearly not the view of a lot of actors who seem to be trying to shake their ‘character’. Some have not been successful, such as Jack Black and Adam Sandler, who forever play the School of Rock and Happy Gilmore type characters.

Jennifer Aniston is still being typecast as her Friends character Rachel in various rom-coms, despite the attempts to ditch it such as in Cake or The Good Girl.

Will Ferrell ditched his ‘mean but dumb funnyman’ character in Stranger Than Fiction, Robin Williams played a very serious role in Good Will Hunting, and Owen Wilson almost detached from the funny guy persona in Midnight in Paris.

For other actors such as Daniel Radcliffe and Robert Pattinson, I don’t think their iconic roles as Harry Potter and Edward Cullen will ever be able to be shaken, sadly. That is despite their clear acting ability.

Meanwhile other actors have been successful in breaking free from their typecast, and are in all sorts of films now.

I think the top five female actors (are we allowed to say actresses anymore?) who narrowly escaped being typecast are:

Rosamund Pike
I wrote about Pike’s change in public perception in my post What are you like, Rosamund Pike. Just when we thought she was forever going to play the smart, elegant and beautiful lady-like characters in films like Pride & Prejudice, Made in Dagenham and The World’s End, she goes and does something like Gone Girl! Which, I’m sure surprised us all. She’s certainly shown Hollywood what she’s capable of. Having said that, have we seen her in anything big since..? Eek.

Emma Stone
She was the rough and ready comedy support actress, and I think that’s where we thought she’d always stay. The Superbad, The House Bunny, Zombieland, Friends with Benefits kind of girl. But then The Help came along, showing her dramatic and compassionate side, then Spiderman, then La La Land, which turned her into an all-singing, all-dancing serious actress! Love her.

Kate Winslet
Sense & Sensibility turned into Titanic, and Finding Neverland turned into The Holiday. Kate Winslet remains a brilliant dramatic actress who sometimes showed her comedic side (like in Extras). But if you look closer at her career, you’ll find some gems that shows a totally different side to Kate Winslet. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being one, where she plays an eccentric woman. The Dressmaker being another, where she plays a flamboyant Australian. I guess she is still typecast in a way, but she has shown that she can do so much more.

Reese Witherspoon
I wrote her off, because she’s always played ‘the blonde’. The Legally Blonde airhead, then Sweet Home Alabama and Little Nicky. But then Walk the Line happened, and suddenly Reese Witherspoon was a genuine and talented dramatic actress who could sing beautifully. THEN, there was Wild. And I was sold. I’ve heard she’s amazing in Devil’s Knot too.

Jennifer Lawrence
At first, I thought she was going to forever remain as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, then I thought she’d be typecast as a sci-fi blue thing in X-Men (I haven’t watched the X-Men series). But each time she managed to escape the typecast hold! With movies like Silver Lining, American Hustle and Joy keeping her not only out of reach of typecasting, but also the highest paid female actor of 2015 and 2016.

The top five male actors who narrowly escaped being typecast are:

Jim Carrey
He may have been typecast during the ’90s as the goofy, outlandish comedy actor of Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and The Cable Guy, but there was a sudden turn closer to the naughties. There was Liar, Liar (a personal favourite), and then The Truman Show, which showed a far more serious side. Man on the Moon showed yet another angle, then the biggest leap of all in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In this film, he was a nervous, serious introvert. (It’s joked that Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet swapped their typecast roles in this film.) He was made for the part. He returned to children’s films after that (Dr Seuss and A Christmas Carol), but is sadly slowly riding the curve back to being typecast in cheap and dirty comedy sequels.

Bryan Cranston
This actor was forever Malcolm in the Middle‘s dad. But actually, I think he was born to be a dramatic actor in serious roles. It seems he was accidentally made famous in comedy roles instead! He could have easily stayed on that road of comedy, but he escaped. First came a small role in Little Miss Sunshine, then Drive, then Argo… But suddenly, there was a TV show that no one could stop talking about. Breaking Bad. And now we look at Bryan Cranston a little differently and with a little more respect than we did when he was Malcolm’s dad.

Steve Carell
In his early career, Carell was credited as a ‘Mailroom Guy without Glasses’ in a 1998 film called Tomorrow Night. He soon found himself climbing the ropes in the comedy genre. Bruce Almighty, Anchorman and 40-Year-Old Virgin were quick to follow. Then out of nowhere was Little Miss Sunshine, where Carell played a reasonably serious role of a suicidal, gay scholar. In between his typecasting, serious roles keep cropping up, like The Way Way Back, where he plays a really mean dick of a stepdad. Then Foxcatcher, which I really need to watch. These brilliantly serious roles in his career have acted as a red flag to Hollywood, telling them that he has the ability and the power to resist his comedic typecast.

Jonah Hill
It all began in the massive Hollywood comedies – 40-Year-Old Virgin, Click, Knocked Up, Get Him to the Greek… Then he stepped up a notch and did 21 Jump Street and everyone was like ‘whaaaaaat, is that the same guy?’ because he lost a ton of weight. Not only had his look changed, but so did the kind of work he got. He began to get into more serious roles like The Wolf of Wall Street and Django Unchained in between sequels to successful comedies and animation films. Go Jonah!

Bradley Cooper
Does this guy have the same agent as Jennifer Lawrence? Because he’s in a ton of the same films as her now. He began in comedy, the Wedding Crashers being a memorable feature, Yes Man and The Hangover of course. I thought rom/coms was where he’d stay, but somewhere along the way he got into a bit more action, like Limitless. Then that progressed to The Place Beyond the Pines, American Hustle and Joy. This has extended into superhero films! I personally don’t like the guy because he seems a bit pompous, but he sure can act in a variety of roles!

There are lots of all-rounders or ‘chameleon’ actors who could never be typecast! They show how talented they are in every genre and in every role. These include:
Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Leonardo DiCaprio… The list goes on!

Top 5: Favourite On-Screen Duos

I was thinking about Ant and Dec, and the unfortunate circumstances that led to Dec having to do the Saturday Night Take Away on his own. I thought, without taking away from their obvious talent, how one can’t do much without the other. You always see them together, and they are at their best together.

It’s the same with the Australian equivalent – Hamish and Andy. They bounce off each other and their energy is great together. But something’s missing when they’re on their own.

I guess these television duos are contractually obliged to stay together now for the good of their careers and pay-packet, but I get the feeling that they love being with each other off the screen too.

That got me thinking about film duos – the actors we always see together on-screen, but get the feeling they hang out off-screen too.

Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller

Good-guy Wilson and funnyman Stiller are always working together! Ever since the 1990s actually. It almost seems weird seeing one but not the other in movies. Sometimes they include their third wheel Vince Vaughn, which is cute.
The Cable Guy
Permanent Midnight
Meet the Parents
The Royal Tenenbaums
Zoolander
Starsky & Hutch
Meet the Fockers
Night at the Museum
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Little Fockers
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Zoolander 2

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

I feel like these two were the smart-cool guys at school. Like, if Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller were the ones who screwed around in class, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were the ones who knuckled down in class, getting good grades, while winning American football games on the weekends. If they’ve written the movie (i.e.: Good Will Hunting), it’s definitely going to be a good one!
School Ties
Glory Daze
Good Will Hunting
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
The Third Wheel
Jersey Girl

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg

Carrying on the school student theme, these guys would be late for school because they were staying up all night playing video games and writing their own comic books. Nevertheless, they are involved with some of the best comedy/action films ever.
Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
Grindhouse
Paul
The Adventures of Tintin
Ice Age: Continental Drift
The World’s End
The Boxtrolls

James Franco and Seth Rogen

At school, these would be the party animals. But probably not the super-cool kind, but the kind who are super funny and get invited because they’re a laugh. I can’t help but think many of their films are based on personal experience?
Knocked Up
Pineapple Express
The Green Hornet
This is the End
The Interview
Neighbours/Bad Neighbours
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising/Bad Neighbours 2
The Sound and the Fury
Zeroville
Sausage Party

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly

The brothers from another mother! These guys are the classic angry man-children that we all love. Strangely, they haven’t been in as many films together as I thought they had. But they seem to stick to together like white on rice. I feel like if they were at school, they’d pretend to be the teacher and be sent home for hitting the other children.
Stepbrothers
Anchorman 2
Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
Holmes and Watson
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

I know I said ‘top five’, but here is a sixth… But they’re not ‘our favourite’ duo so they don’t really count…

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter

At school, these guys would be in art class or in a dark drama room somewhere. They don’t tend to do anything without Tim Burton. I used to loved all their movies but I feel I’ve grown out of my gothic phase, and I can’t relate to them as much anymore. Nevertheless, their films are entertaining, if not a tad samey.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Corpse Bride
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Alice in Wonderland
Dark Shadows

Who’s your favourite on-screen bromance? Who would be your best friends at school?

Midnight In Paris

Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Released: June 2011
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody
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When I first watched this film I was disappointed because I had hyped up the plot of Gil (Owen Wilson) travelling through different time eras of Paris. The artistic, fashionable, sophisticated and elaborate times of the 1920s, as well as the ceremonious, coming of age times of the 1890s. But after letting my great expectations subside, I really enjoyed the watch.

The plot is about the Golden Age. That is, longing to live in a time before your own. For example, mine is the early 1960s. Rock and roll music and amazing fashion, with the huge liberal movement against war and for free will.

Paul: Nostalgia is denial – denial of the painful present… the name for this denial is golden age thinking – the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one’s living in – it’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.

However, Midnight In Paris attempts to shroud my Golden Age in contempt, trying to convince me that few are content with the current times and to get over it. It dampened my comfort of believing I would be happier in a different time, because the reality is – as Gil discovers – that you would simply find another time that you would believe to be better.

There is a lot of magic in this film, which I love. Gil goes through a wormhole of sorts, where at the strike of midnight every night a 1920s car picks him up and takes him to parties with his literary heroes. It’s a beautiful “what if” storyline that lives out everybody’s dream to travel through time to experience a life not meant for them.

I think that the decision for Gil to be transported to different era via transport appropriate for that time was perfect. It seems like a small, obvious detail, but I’m just glad that there was no CGI, special effects or sound effects to make the transition obvious.

midnight-in-paris-carload-of-literary-types

This magic does not last throughout the film, however. “The grass is always greener on the other side” is a phrase that has been converted into the moral of this story – the cold, harsh light of day is not welcoming.

Gil sees that the beauty of every era can still be inspiring without having the ability to experience it first hand. Which is disappointing since it seems that he is throwing away his idyllic time era of 1920s Paris for an average life in 2010 Paris. He could have continued to live his dream, but chose not to for no convincing reason.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS marion

On the other hand, I loved how his heroes gave him advice and support, which ultimately builds his confidence to improve his life in the present.

Gil: Would you read it?
Ernest Hemingway: Your novel?
Gil: Yeah, it’s about 400 pages long, and I’m just looking for an opinion.
Ernest Hemingway: My opinion is I hate it.
Gil: Well you haven’t even read it yet.
Ernest Hemingway: If it’s bad, I’ll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it’s good, I’ll be envious and hate all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.

Instead of taking the easy option of staying in his dream, he takes the tough road of building his life into what he really wants. I guess he shook of the security blanket of living in the past – an easier place to live because you know what’s coming for you.

Gil: Adriana, if you stay here though, and this becomes your present then pretty soon you’ll start imagining another time was really your… You know, was really the golden time. Yeah, that’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life’s a little unsatisfying.

Gertrude Stein: We all fear death and question our place in the universe. The artist’s job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.

The beautiful French music was glorious! Seriously considering buying the soundtrack.

The acting was very well done. I really hated Rachel McAdam’s character. Like, it got to the point where I was starting to think that she must be a total bi-atch in real life because she played evil Inez so convincingly. So, kudos to her acting ability.

Owen Wilson was pretty much the same character he is in everything. I’m not totally sure why he was cast. Perhaps to keep the film upbeat.

midnight-in-paris-rachel

It is an uplifting tale of something that many of us dream of doing. The ending was rather disappointing, at first. But I have come to terms with it, and I think it works well for Gil.

Worth a watch, but don’t expect it to be a deep and meaningful movie – you will be disappointed! Look at it as a quirky drama/rom-com. Although, I do think that it would have been a very moving film if it was heavier with more drama and emotion.

Jodie’s rating: 8/10