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Posted on
03.27.08 by Widge @ 9:59 pm
So I started responding to a post over at Sore Eyes regarding George Clooney as the Last Movie Star and then I realized it would be rude to leave a small essay as a comment, so here goes. Go read that first. I agree that Mr. Smith has been in some eminently forgettable films. I AM LEGEND and I ROBOT spring to mind. And I think that among his action flicks, ID4 will probably be remembered as fondly as any other Irwin Allen film or perhaps as the 90s version of something like DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. But, in Smith’s defense, while he knows that the cash comes from his stint as Action Guy, he does still strive for things like ALI and PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. He did work for Redford in BAGGER VANCE and although Schepisi might have a warm spot in only my heart for ROXANNE, Smith was in his version of SIX DEGREES. But Clooney’s box office has come from mainly the OCEAN’s series (which was driven by star power) and *cough* BATMAN. So yeah, my question would be what kind of deal does Clooney have so that he can be in a string of films that don’t have huge box office gains and yet still basically pick and choose whatever he wants. Maybe he makes that much money off of ER reruns? I have no idea. I wanted to say it’s because the small films he’s in still turn a profit because they *are* small, and maybe that’s the case. SOLARIS underperformed given its budget. But SYRIANA almost doubled its production budget in worldwide box office, THREE KINGS made a profit worldwide, PEACEMAKER doubled its budget worldwide, and the rest…well, Box Office Mojo doesn’t have budgets listed for them and I’m too lazy to go hunt them up right now. And I’m sure Clooney is who sold the tickets to those. Clooney does have star power. And I think he’s an excellent actor. Even though I’m one of the five people on Earth who didn’t enjoy O BROTHER, it’s still the film in which (among his that I’ve seen anyway) he does the most acting and isn’t playing his usual Clooney on-screen persona. I’m not quite sure if I even made a point in here. And I don’t feel like formatting this properly. Just had to put this somewhere. And oh, that’s what this is for, isn’t it? Taggification: george-clooney, movies, will-smith Filed under: General BS
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John Robinson is a writer of prose, poetry and comics who also writes under
the pseudonym of Widgett Walls.
This is my latest book. Short stories written especially for you, or at least someone who reminded me a lot of you at the time.
I think it’s that Clooney has such great charisma and ‘presence’, he tends to dominate anything he’s in. Take Michael Clayton, I thought it was a pretty great film. But even though Clooney is in about 95% of it, I thought the film was also as much about the characters of Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack as it was about Clooney’s. But it’s George Clooney, and you could almost sense that the story ends up focusing more on him because, dammit, we just want it to. I think he’s sort of the new Harrison Ford.
Comment by Jones — March 28, 2008 @ 7:09 pm