Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010) WINNER
Michael Douglas for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
Andrew Garfield for The Social Network (2010)
Jeremy Renner for The Town (2010)
Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech (2010)
Showing posts with label Michael Douglas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Douglas. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Review: Michael Douglas' Performance in Original "Wall Street" Still Amazes
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 104 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux
Wall Street (1987)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Oliver Stone
WRITERS: Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone
PRODUCER: Edward R. Pressman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Claire Simpson
COMPOSER: Stewart Copeland
Academy Award winner
DRAMA
Starring: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Darryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, John C. McGinley, Hal Holbrook, James Karen, Terrence Stamp, Sean Young, James Spader, Saul Rubinek, and Tamara Tunie
Although I was hot to see it when it was first released, I finally watched director Oliver Stone’s Wall Street – 23 years after it debuted in theatres. The film, which follows a young stockbroker’s adventures with an immoral corporate raider, is certainly one of Stone’s most popular films.
Wall Street opens in 1985, as Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a junior stockbroker (salesman) at Jackson Steinem & Co., struggles to get out of a rut and make it big. Fox wants to become involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the corporate raider and Wall Street player who is legendary for both his ruthlessness and his success. Bud’s father, Carl (Martin Sheen), an airline maintenance worker and union president, inadvertently provides his son with the information that captures Gekko’s interest. Gekko takes on Bud as a kind of apprentice and co-conspirator and helps him to become wealthy. Bud also gets a new girlfriend, an interior decorator named Darien (Daryl Hannah), a close friend of Gekko’s. Bud, however, begins to lose himself the deeper he goes in with Gekko.
Michael Douglas’ performance as Gordon Gekko is one of the best of the last quarter of the 20th century. Simply, it is magnificent. It is hard to believe that at the time of the film, Douglas was apparently considered a mediocre actor – more of a film producer than a performer. In Douglas’ hands, Gekko not only personifies “Wall Street greed,” but also the nature of greed and the competitive urge in humanity. Douglas as Gekko could make you think the phrase, “tour de force,” was created specifically to describe such an awesome and awe-inspiring performance. Like Raging Bull, Wall Street is a movie that enters the rarefied air of remarkable dramatic films made important because of great performances by lead actors.
Still, Wall Street is not completely about Michael Douglas. Charlie Sheen’s stiff-acting style actually makes Bud Fox the perfect dupe/foil for Gekko. Sheen’s (then) exceedingly fresh-looking baby face embodies America’s youth (relatively speaking), and his facial expressions are all about lust for success and money. At other times, Sheen depicts in Fox that inherent guilt that keeps our gluttony and baser appetites in check, for the most part.
Oliver Stone even draws out Wall Street’s religious subtext in scenes where the devilish Gekko mentors (or tempts) Fox on how to get ahead the unethical and illegal way. Stone and Douglas are quite good at presenting their vision of greed. Wall Street makes it look sexy – as if greed were really good, as Gekko says in his legendary monologue. Wall Street is still fantastic, and it may make you remember just how good Stone and Douglas were when they were at the top of their respective games.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1988 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Michael Douglas)
1988 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Michael Douglas)
1988 Razzie Awards: 1 win: “Worst Supporting Actress” (Daryl Hannah)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wall Street (1987)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Oliver Stone
WRITERS: Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone
PRODUCER: Edward R. Pressman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Claire Simpson
COMPOSER: Stewart Copeland
Academy Award winner
DRAMA
Starring: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Darryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, John C. McGinley, Hal Holbrook, James Karen, Terrence Stamp, Sean Young, James Spader, Saul Rubinek, and Tamara Tunie
Although I was hot to see it when it was first released, I finally watched director Oliver Stone’s Wall Street – 23 years after it debuted in theatres. The film, which follows a young stockbroker’s adventures with an immoral corporate raider, is certainly one of Stone’s most popular films.
Wall Street opens in 1985, as Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a junior stockbroker (salesman) at Jackson Steinem & Co., struggles to get out of a rut and make it big. Fox wants to become involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the corporate raider and Wall Street player who is legendary for both his ruthlessness and his success. Bud’s father, Carl (Martin Sheen), an airline maintenance worker and union president, inadvertently provides his son with the information that captures Gekko’s interest. Gekko takes on Bud as a kind of apprentice and co-conspirator and helps him to become wealthy. Bud also gets a new girlfriend, an interior decorator named Darien (Daryl Hannah), a close friend of Gekko’s. Bud, however, begins to lose himself the deeper he goes in with Gekko.
Michael Douglas’ performance as Gordon Gekko is one of the best of the last quarter of the 20th century. Simply, it is magnificent. It is hard to believe that at the time of the film, Douglas was apparently considered a mediocre actor – more of a film producer than a performer. In Douglas’ hands, Gekko not only personifies “Wall Street greed,” but also the nature of greed and the competitive urge in humanity. Douglas as Gekko could make you think the phrase, “tour de force,” was created specifically to describe such an awesome and awe-inspiring performance. Like Raging Bull, Wall Street is a movie that enters the rarefied air of remarkable dramatic films made important because of great performances by lead actors.
Still, Wall Street is not completely about Michael Douglas. Charlie Sheen’s stiff-acting style actually makes Bud Fox the perfect dupe/foil for Gekko. Sheen’s (then) exceedingly fresh-looking baby face embodies America’s youth (relatively speaking), and his facial expressions are all about lust for success and money. At other times, Sheen depicts in Fox that inherent guilt that keeps our gluttony and baser appetites in check, for the most part.
Oliver Stone even draws out Wall Street’s religious subtext in scenes where the devilish Gekko mentors (or tempts) Fox on how to get ahead the unethical and illegal way. Stone and Douglas are quite good at presenting their vision of greed. Wall Street makes it look sexy – as if greed were really good, as Gekko says in his legendary monologue. Wall Street is still fantastic, and it may make you remember just how good Stone and Douglas were when they were at the top of their respective games.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1988 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Michael Douglas)
1988 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Michael Douglas)
1988 Razzie Awards: 1 win: “Worst Supporting Actress” (Daryl Hannah)
Monday, December 20, 2010
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Saturday, February 20, 2010
You, Me and Dupree a Triple Threat of Bad
You, Me and Dupree (2006)
Running time: 110 minutes
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity, crude humor, language, and a drug reference
DIRECTOR: Anthony & Joe Russo
WRITER: Michael Le Sieur
PRODUCERS: Owen Wilson, Scott Stuber, and Mary Parent
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Charles Minsky, ASC
EDITORS: Peter B. Ellis and Debra Neil-Fisher A.C.E.
COMEDY
Starring: Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon, Seth Rogen, and Michael Douglas
Carl Petersen (Matt Dillon) and Molly Thompson (Kate Hudson) are just married, and they already get stuck with a houseguest. Carl’s longtime friend, Randy Dupree (Owen Wilson), best known to everyone as simply “Dupree,” has lost both his job and home, and Carl offers to let Dupree stay with them for a little while, much to Molly’s chagrin. However, the newlyweds start to believe that Dupree, a free-spirited bachelor, has permanently attached himself to their couch., and the longer he’s living there, the more Carl begins to suspect that Dupree may be making a move on Molly. It doesn’t help that Molly’s father, Carl’s boss, Mr. Thompson (Michael Douglas), is also giving Carl grief.
The brotherly directing team of Anthony & Joe Russo directed several episodes of the critically-acclaimed, but low-rated FOX television series, Arrested Development
. They even won an Emmy Award for directed the series’ pilot episode, but Arrested Development
was an offbeat series with the appropriate script writing. The Russos’ recent film, You, Me and Dupree, is the first script by new writer Michael Le Sieur to be produced as a feature film.Ostensibly a romantic comedy about a young couple besieged by a houseguest/pest, it lacks the appropriate writing that would make it funny. The script pretends to be one thing, and then, goes off on many tangents, so the Russo Bros. apparently couldn’t do much to make You, Me and Dupree work either as a comedy or a romance. There are some humorous moments throughout the film, but the romance is dead on arrival. Overall, You, Me and Dupree
is just a clumsy effort at being a slapstick, romantic comedy built around the concept of “three is a crowd.”Even the cast, which is fairly talented, can’t extract much from this, nor do they put forth much effort at doing so. Owen Wilson’s laid-back dude character is mostly listless, and Dupree’s clumsy attempts at beach bum philosophy is… well, clumsy. Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson have no screen chemistry and their pretend romance is… well, too lethargic to call pretend. No sparks start flying when they get together. Dillon phones in his typical vulnerable, tough guy façade, and Hudson barely registers; in fact, any actress struggling to make it could have delivered the same performance as this highly paid Hollywood star for a fraction of the salary.
Also, any movie that has a Hollywood legend like Michael Douglas could at least put the man to better use than having him deliver a desert-dry performance as the jealous father-in-law.
3 of 10
C-
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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