Domestic Disturbance
Domestic Disturbance is an unexceptional thriller about
stepdad (Vince Vaughn (Be Cool)) vs
original dad (John Travolta (Be Cool)). The son caught in the middle witnesses
stepdad kill Steve Buscemi (Spy Kids 2:
Island of Lost Dreams) but, of course, no one believes him. So there’s a bit of cat and mouse and a bit
of The Stepfather.
I bring this one up for two reasons. First is that I never realized how long Vince
Vaughn’s dramatic acting stretch was. I
think it’s safe to say we all think of him as a dude who does only comedies but
that’s not the way he started out. He
did Swingers as a one off comedy role
in ’96 but then dove into The Lost World
right after that in ‘97. He continued to
take serious roles until 2001 when he did Made
and he pretty much hasn’t looked back since.
The one real exception is Domestic
Disturbance which he also did in 2001.
So this is kind of a farewell performance for the ac-tor Vince
Vaughn. (Just a side note, I’m really
curious about how he’s gonna be in the next True
Detective, will he play it straight or not?
Can’t wait for it)
Second is the baseball catch scene. The son and stepdad are just throwin’ the old
horsehide around on a sunny day in the backyard, but what makes this scene so
funny is that they’re being total dicks to each other the whole time. The son is throwing the ball all over the
place making Vince run after it and in turn Vince throws it really hard back
hurting the son’s hand. And the line
Vince delivers to cap this all off is “now come on turn the ball loose, you
throw like shit, let’s go”.
Unfortunately the whole movie isn’t as good as this scene
but it’s still fun to watch. Mainly
because the villainous stepdad is built up to be this menacing threat but all
he does is bumble around and sloppily murder people.
The Muse Cameos
A lot of the celebrity cameos in Albert Brooks’ The Muse remarkably still hold up today. You got Jeff Bridges, James Cameron, Martin
Scorsese and I’ll even throw in Wolfgang Puck.
Rob Reiner’s pushing it though. Strangely
the script that Brooks is writing in the movie about a wacky Jim Carrey comedy
set in an aquarium also still holds up. Mr. Popper’s Penguins could’ve easily
been only one scene in Brooks’ film.
One more thing on this, the celebrities that made an
appearance must like Albert Brooks because they make themselves kinda look like
fools kowtowing to this nut job woman (Sharon
Stone). The one I’m most surprised
to see is James Cameron. This was after Titanic too which makes his presence even
more shocking. In real life he doesn’t
seem like he has a huge sense of humor, especially about himself.
Restraint in Action Extravaganzas
Recently I reupped on Die
Hard and Aliens and I never
realized before how restrained they are in their setups. You don’t see a single damn alien until an
hour in with Aliens and it’s also forty
five minutes into Die Hard before the
first big fire fight. These movies take
their time in building tension and suspense and holy shit is it effective.
Now I’m not saying that all action films should follow this
approach. Take Terminator 2 for example, that one opens with a future war battle
scene. Or even Out for Justice which starts with Seagal throwing some asshole
through a fucking windshield. Those pictures
are not about restraint and that’s cool too.
All I’m saying is some movies we think of as action
extravaganzas don’t really get to the extravaganza part until much later than
you think. They properly set shit up and
make you care about the characters and appreciate the situation at hand. You’re so engrossed that you don’t realize
you haven’t seen one single solitary alien and you’re almost halfway through
the thing. That takes control and
confidence in your piece.
Edward Furlong Sings
Did you guys know that after Edward Furlong hit it big with T2 he tried his hand at singing? I didn’t either. Check out this cover of The Doors’ “People Are
Strange”:
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