Some years back I was watching the extras on the Jaws (1975) DVD, and in an overview of the franchise lead actor Roy Scheider stated that he stopped after the second one because he wanted to be known for more than just Jaws. Yet every obit about him mentions Jaws, his memorable line, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,”and not much more, which is odd considering he had a career that spanned over forty years and was twice nominated for an Oscar, Best Supporting Actor for The French Connection (1971) and Best Actor for All That Jazz (1979).
Some of his other career highlights include playing a pimp in the thriller Klute (1971), an assassin in The Marathon Man (1976), rouge cop in the cheesey Blue Thunder (1983), scientist in 2010 (1984), and starred in the hit TV show SeaQuest DSV for two seasons. And that’s just a quick overview. He made many TV appearances and was working on film projects right up to his death. Roy Scheider was much, much more than just that guy from Jaws.
Posted on Feb 10, 2008 under Musings |
After my completely way off prediction about how the writer’s strike could go on indefinitely blew up in my face, I think they started hammering out a tentative deal about two days after my post, I was thinking I don’t know anything. Then I see Roger Ebert’s Oscar picks and I’m feeling a whole lot more confident about my ability to read a situation correctly.
Here’s how our picks break down. We agree on actor (Daniel Day Lewis), Actress (Ellen Page), Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), Animated Feature (Ratatouille), Picture (No Country For Old Men), Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Original Screen Play (Juno), and Adapted Screen Play (No Country For Old Men).
What we disagreed on was Supporting Actress (Ebert-Ruby Dee, Me-Amy Ryan), Documentary (Ebert-No End In Sight, Me-Sicko), and Song (Ebert-Falling Slowly, Me-So Close).
Most interesting is that Ebert made predictions for Cinematography and Editing, which I didn’t; while not making any predictions for Special Effects, Make Up, and Score, which I did. So as you can see we sorta think alike.
Posted on Feb 08, 2008 under Musings |
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t get all of the hoopla about Juno (2007). I’m constantly hearing about how it is so funny, it is so realistic, etc. I just don’t understand what the big deal is. The movie is pretty simple, teen girl gets pregnant, decides to give the baby up, the couple she is giving he/or she to get divorced, but the wife decides to adopt anyway, and Juno and her boyfriend become closer, the end. I’m sorry, but take out Ellen Page’s snarky one liners she continually pulls out of an apparent mental bag of holding (a little D & D reference there for you die hard gamers), and all you have is an after school special my High School teachers used to love to tape off TV and show us during class, you know, stuff like Scott Baio showing the dangers of smoking pot. It ’s like all the fanfare Napoleon Dynamite (2004) received, I didn’t get that either, a day in the life of a group of dysfunctional high schoolers, let the laughter begin. Yet a truly interesting and different take on high schoolers, like Brick (2005), where an old style film noir mystery is told in a high school setting was virtually ignored by audiences. Where was all the internet hoopla when that film came out? I think Roger Ebert was one of the few critics who even wrote about it. Yet Juno is a big ground breaking piece of independent cinema. Whatever.
