Joey Lauren Adams, how could she not have been a much bigger star, smoking hot, sexy voice, and certainly not a horrible actress

Her looks fell off a cliff really fast. Her face is terrible in Big Daddy. Looks like she's wearing a rubber clown mask or something. But back in D&C and Mallrats era, yeah, hot.

Lucky You wasn't even close to Bana's first starring role though. Before that, he had Chopper, Hulk, Troy and Munich.

I know, but it was the first big Hollywood production that he had to carry as a "movie star". Sort of like Orlando Bloom with Elizabethtown. If that movie was a hit, we would have had 6 more Orlando Bloom rom-coms by now.

It's bad luck for them that the scripts for Lucky You and Elizabethtown both blew dingo balls, but that's the way it goes. I really liked Bana in Funny People btw. And Chopper is obv great. I think he has leading man stuff, but not in Lucky You type movies, and Hollywood doesn't give a lot of second chances.

legend,

cliffs on what art had to say about the making of the edge?

I tried to watch Lucky You and shut it off after like 20 minutes. I can't stand when they are able to pull a bunch of name actors together then the script and direction is ****ing AIDS. Why even bother?

Funny that the script is so cheap and they still **** it up. A terrible script costs just as much as a great script. But Hollywood continues producing movies with terrible scripts. Sometimes they start shooting without even having a script in hand (they did this with MI 3).

nm im an idiot.
i have the book just haven't read it yet.

Ah yeah, I get what you mean now.

It still amazes me that Bana ever became a big Hollywood movie star, though. I still remember his days on Full Frontal fondly (which was great btw), but picturing him as a serious Hollywood action star would have been too funny to even imagine back then. Almost like it could have been a skit from the show.

Don't get me wrong - he is great in dramatic/action roles, but I really wish he would be cast in some more comedic roles from time to time. He is a fantastic comedic actor. Have you seen The Castle before? It might be a bit too "Australian" for the majority of the US public, idk. Very funny though.

Not that I'm really surprised he isn't a bigger star, but I was watching This Is England last night and it really made me wish Stephen Graham would be cast in more stuff. Between that and Boardwalk Empire, it's obvious this guy is seriously talented.

Oh lol, it actually was!

Am aware of The Castle, have not seen it. I'll try to track it down. Like I said, he might be the funniest part of Funny People, so I have no doubt he can do comedy.

He should have at least had Gerard Butler's career over the past 8 or so years. Law Abiding Citizen and Playing for Keeps would have been much more enjoyable with Bana imo. And even a good Hugh Jackman role like Prisoners, I could see absolutely see him crushing.

Read it, it's good. The funny thing I remember is that Mamet originally titled it Bookworm. Studio obviously hated that, but said maybe The Bookworm might fly. Linson told Mamet, who said "*The* Bookworm is an awful title, Bookworm is a terrific title." Studio sent a list of generic titles and somehow The Edge was born.

Also good stuff about Baldwin showing up in a full beard because he thought that was the character (or was trying to hide that he had gained some weight), and Linson and and Tamahori being too scared to ask him to shave. When they finally approached him, Baldwin went full Ed Norton in Birdman on them.

for those of you who don't have the book this is a pretty good article written by linson about the making of the edge:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2002/...e-alec-baldwin

Yeah it's crazy how movies "come together" sometimes. I guess it's just not easy to do everything perfectly when you have egos to manage and investors itching to get a return on their dollar and stuff. I heard Fred Wolf say he basically wrote Black Sheep in like a weekend. They were so quick to get Farley and Spade in another vehicle that they called him and threw a bunch of money at him. I think he said he was on vacation but couldn't decline it so he was faxing in stuff pages at a time. Like he was basically writing stuff that was going to be filmed the next day. lol.

I heard that movie Twister suffered kind of the same fate. I think some CGI guy showed them a version of the twister with the cows flying around and stuff and they basically hurried up and made a movie about twisters, before there was ever a script. They just wanted to beat anyone else to the punch. That movie is hilariously bad. Bill Paxton's lines alone are worth admission.

I'd say Eric Bana has over-achieved

Yeah he's good looking but wooden as ****. Dude scored the lead in a Hulk movie.

MI 3 was good though! RIP Seymour.

Other films that started without a finished script:

Iron Man
Edge of Tomorrow
Lawrence of Arabia
Casablanca
Jaws
Jurassic Park 3 (oops lol)
Boyhood

There is something to be said about taking the same career path as Russell Crowe. You know the playing of a psychopath which kickstarted his Hollywood career (Chopper for Bana and Romper Stomper for Crowe).

Russell Crowe is an interesting case study. He has had a pretty big career, but he's someone who I thought would have ended up being a much better actor. I thought he was terrific in some early films.

Virtuosity
LA Confidential
The Insider
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind

I've enjoyed the stuff he's been in since then, but my esteem of his acting prowess has diminished a little with each passing film.

Bale in American Psycho

Brando coulda had a bigger career if he'd only kept the weight off.

Yeah pretty much ended in 2005 with Cindarella Man - although he still gets the gigs.

I like Guy Pierce and he seems to take lesser movies than blockbuster types but Sose of these movies he has like 5 minutes of screen time, The Road, Prometheus, I don't remember him in the Hurt Locker and IM3 sucked but he wasn't bad.

I used to wonder why the Brat Pack wasn't more successful after the 80's but then I don't think a lot of them were very good actors. Same with Christian Slater but he would be a Keanu Reeves type.

How come you missed the original Aussie bad boy Mel Gibson in Mad Max? (I know he was born in America)


Probably would have helped if he remembered his lines too. I saw an interview with Robert Duvall a while back where he just skewers Brando for needing cue cards on Godfather and Apocalypse. He also mentioned how clueless Brando was when it came to jokes. Couldn't get a thing.