HBO does John AdamsFollow

John Adams the HBO mini-series starts this Sunday with a 2-hour premier.

Its filled with top-shelf actors and co-directed by Tom Hanks. It's slated to be very good.

more Eye candy

[John Cleese]hrmmph..a costume film[/John Clesse]

I hate movie stars, but I have a great deal of respect for people that can actually act

Are you ******* joking? Since "Sideways" the guy's taken every script with a check attached.

Shoot em Up? Lady in the Water? FRED CLAUS??? The Nanny Diaries?

He's awful. Brazen sell out the likes of which the world hasn't seen since DiNiro signed on for Meet the Parents.

For the record, Sideways was an excellent movie...

It was, but not because of Giammati's performance. Now, American Splendor was a movie he carried, I'd grant, but it was also 2003. The guy had two good years where he picked scripts that weren't absolute train wrecks. He's ludicrously overrated because of the "Sideways" buzz. He's a mediocre character actor who's name shouldn't be spoken in the same sentence with actual talented character actors like William H Macy, John Riley, Steve Buscemi, John Tutoro, etc.

There are hundreds of actors better for this role than he, but he had the best name recognition/willing to work for short money combination to get the part.

Buscemi showed breath-taking range in the Spy Kids movies.

Buscemi showed breath-taking range in the Spy Kids movies.

Same deal.

Johnny Depp made Disney movies, Brando was in Superman. Etc.

This isn't the same as them having one or two good performances then making 100 ****** throw away movies.

It's just a shame that that's the first movie that springs into my mind when I hear his name these days.

He'll always be the Digger from Mystery Men to me. "This is egg salad. FULL OF CHOLESTEROL! I may as well just eat it..."

I can't blame anyone for selling out.

Artistic integrity just doesn't pay as well.

Sure, but we're talking about a guy who's from a multi-million dollar family who had a trust fund worth more than 20 mil his entire life. He's the guy who needs to take Fred Claus? He's a Yale Scroll and Key Giamatti, not some starving actor who left the sharecropping farm for a shot at the big time.

When I said I can't blame "anyone", that was meant to include sons of former MLB commissioners.

I mean, it's romantic and all but to think that someone should pass on lucrative opportunities when engaged in a career that is really so insignificant in the grand scheme of things just because they haven't suffered enough for their art seems rather naive. But I guess that's what makes for great romanticized idealism; naivete and delusion.

I could understand if he was say, a person whose occupation afforded him some meaningful influence or responsibility, but he's an actor. An artist. It's not exactly a requirement that he be noble.

That said, I've never thought he was that great, either. Thomas Haden Church was way better in Sideways, hell, even the dog-faced Asian chick was, in my opinion. Bill Macy, though, he's pretty much infallible.

Edited, Mar 14th 2008 3:52pm by Barkingturtle

I think Giamatti is a decent actor - he just does what a lot of actors do - take the paycheck for crappy movies so that he can afford to take the "indie" films and keep his solid acting chops up.

Bruce Willis does this, too, and he's been critically acclaimed for those serious roles (despite what you think of him as an actor).

Since you guys mentioned Mystery Men, I think Tom Waits stole the movie - he was awesome.

The American dream!

Oh yeah, forgot he's Bart's boy. Oh well, it's a free country.

It's ******* awful.

I'd like to find all the critics who clearly praised it blindly without watching a second of it and punch them each right in the ****.

Maybe he enjoys it?

Acting, that is.