Last night, I watched Finding Amanda (or at least all that I could tolerate of it) and became curious about Matthew Broderick's career. I usually approach the Matthew-Broderick-subject with a safe "not that there's anything wrong with that" and a look in the other direction, but I suddenly was interested in just why, two decades after Ferris Bueller, he's still getting leading roles.

After indulging in my curiosity some, I can't really come up with a logical reason for why he's still a name actor. He hasn't had a true box office hit (where the total gross outpaced the production budget by a safe margin) since the late 80's. Moreover, aside from two exception-not-the-rule movies / performances in Election and You Can Count On Me, post-Glory, his normal M.O. is "bad movie, bland performance."

So he's not a money-maker . . . isn't a critical favorite . . . doesn't pick good projects . . . and yet he still has four movies that have come out or will come out this year. And I'm like, why?

Possible reasons:

1. People get nostalgic when they see him, think of Ferris and Sloane and Cameron, and keep letting him get away with shit a normal actor never would (I guess I'm Jennifer Grey in this equation).

2. The Broadway community holds that much weight. *enter limp wrist joke* *fax out apology to GLAAD*

3. Usually show-biz marriages benefit whatever new young blonde an A-list leading man has on his arm. Here, however, is the power of Sarah Jessica Parker just so potent that she has kept her husband relevant even when it didn't really make sense? (But I guess if SATC can trick millions of well-intentioned women into eating such tremendous bullshit and licking up the plate, then anything is possible).

4. There is no God.

Anyway, do any of these ideas fit or are there other possible explanations for why Matthew Broderick still has a movie career?

BTW, did you know he killed two people back in '87 in a car accident? His penalty apparently was a $175 fine. Hmm . . . maybe number four was right.

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Steph: I was just fooling about

Kyrie: I wasn't.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8OWNspU_yE

He should be able to average at least one every three years, right?

Okay, name them.

1. The Cable Guy. Underrated.
2. Election.
3. You Can Count on Me.
4. The Music Man remake.
4.5. The Producers (okay, the movie version was weak, but he was sidesplittingly funny on Broadway)

His performance of Felix in the revival of The Odd Couple was also different and funny.

He's a good actor. He just has picked mostly shitty projects over the last few years while he's mostly done voiceover work and Broadway.

I mean, name 5 great performances by James Earl Jones in movies over the past 15 years. He takes paychecks. Which is fine.

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very, very underrated. Probably my 2nd favorite Jim Carey comedy. I never understood the hate some people had for this movie.

I still remember seeing it in theaters.

I still probably have the soundtrack lying around somewhere (truly).

But there's not an inch of what I like about that movie that I can honestly attribute to Matthew Broderick.

You can plug any number of actors into the part and the movie doesn't skip a beat.

"Just average enough to not be distracting" isn't exactly a sterling recommendation.

I enjoyed that

lol he was great on that and if we're still counting small comedic roles of his I thought he was pretty damn funny in Strangers With Candy too

Avy: Tyrion disrespects King Joffrey yet again

"If your life consists of NO drankin, NO drugs, NO loose booty, NO fatty foods, NO additives, NO preservatives, AND no waings.......then what the fuck you wanna live so long for, boring ass n****?" - Tay

They make 'em good in spite of what they're surrounded with.

And Matthew Broderick isn't exactly a transcendent actor.

Or they pick 'em right in the first place.

And dude picks movies about as well as Ras Kass picks beats.


>He's a good actor. He just has picked mostly shitty projects
>over the last few years while he's mostly done voiceover work
>and Broadway.

I've seen plenty of good actors, not to mention GREAT actors, in shitty movies collecting a check. See: Ben Kingsley.

Broderick is kind of a milquetoast dude. He's best on Broadway, where he can be more *ahem* broad. He's also good at playing milquetoast dudes. He's never gonna be a Sean Penn or anything, diving deep into a role that's a stretch for him... but he's still quite good at what he does.

Bad actors don't give performances like he did in Election or You Can Count on Me.

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>I've seen plenty of good actors, not to mention GREAT actors,
>in shitty movies collecting a check. See: Ben Kingsley.

Right, but Ben Kingsley still had time to check into Elegy or Sexy Beast or The House of Sand and Fog in between Suspect Zero and Thunderbirds. (And, I'm just thinking, but Anthony Hopkins probably is another one who is more capable than most of the movies he signs on to.)

But this kind of takes me back to my crazy idea once upon a time that most perceived good acting is a matter of casting or the director or the script, etc. Broderick's been great in the past decade in two movies that were great aside from him, too (You Can Count on Me / Election). On the other hand, I don't think he can / does elevate lesser quality films. Ben Kingsley is strong in spite of The House of Sand and Fog being a mess, for example. I would never expect that out of Broderick. In that way, that disqualifies him from being a "good actor". He's capable, at best.

When you hear Matthew Broderick is in a movie, you can be pretty sure what his character is going to be like.

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But he plays that type of dude well, and in the right film, he can give a really terrific performance.

Plus, to talk about his acting ability without talking about his stage work is to ignore many of his biggest and most successful roles.

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NOPE! Simba count!

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Mar-A-Lago delenda est

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bshelly

"You (Fisher) could get fired, Les Snead could get fired, Kevin Demoff could get fired, but I will always be Eric Dickerson.” (c) The God

But I've never been a fan.

I like Ferris Bueller in spite of him.

He's got the range of my pinky finger.

He's Kevin Spacey plus a wife minus the hardware.

I had all this bias with me 24 hours ago, but then I started checking out his filmography.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000111/filmorate

Do it yourself.

And it's not that box office numbers are the be all and end all, but he's crossed the $50 million domestic gross mark (excluding voice acting) four times since Ferris Bueller. In each case, those movies barely surprassed their production budget and folks likely didn't come out for him (Cable Guy, Godzilla, Inspector Gadget, and The Stepford Wives).

And it's not that awards are the be all and end all, but the last notable nomination he got was in '93, at the Emmy's, for a miniseries. He's in consistent 2-star flicks, knowing how to find the right project like he's Ed Rooney in a Chicago arcade.

But he keeps popping up at theaters like he's a prediction of anything but a whiny voice and a bad movie.

>But I've never been a fan.
>
>I like Ferris Bueller in spite of him.

cmon.

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Mar-A-Lago delenda est

take him out (broderick AND the character) and it's not even close to funny.

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"I don't want a president I can have a beer with, I want one that can think." - Aaron Sorkin

Worse than the obvious, stale writing and the inane plot even, the
worst thing was that they made Maura Tiernery not look so good.

That hurt my heart a little.

- Finding Amanda and Wonderful World were produced by small production companies that were probably happy to have anyone with a recognizable name attached to the film. Broderick isn't exactly picky when it comes to roles so he probably gladly took the paycheck with the added bonus of being Sanaa Lathan's love interest in the latter film (or at least that's what I got out of the little synopsis).

- Diminished Capacity and Margaret are both directed by people with theater roots so they probably are judging Broderick off of his theater work as opposed to Deck the Halls and Inspector Gadget.

- The Tale of Despereaux is animated and Broderick's still got an interesting voice.

It also should be noted that these films are not getting major releases. Finding Amanda was in 13 theaters for three weeks and Diminished Capacity was in a grand total of 4 theaters (also for three weeks). It's not like Broderick is getting lead roles in studio pictures.

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>It's not like Broderick is getting
>lead roles in studio pictures.

Were The Stepford Wives and Deck the Halls considered failures?

I know that's stretching back a couple years, but they seem to be his most recent studio flings.

If I recall correctly, they spent a ton on it, it got delayed forever, there was in fighting, and it tanked at the box office.

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Just like The Invasion was a huge bomb but nobody is holding it against Daniel Craig.

Deck the Halls didn't do great but I'm not sure what the studio expected out of it. I really can't believe they thought it was going to do that much business.

I think the biggest issue was The Producers absolutely bombing. 45 million, big ad campaign, only made 19 in the US (and didn't even break even worldwide).

It also doesn't help that there just aren't that many big roles for someone like Broderick in major studio films nowadays and, looking over his filmography, he has a surprising lack of supporting roles.

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NBA MOCK DRAFT #1 - https://thecourierclass.com/whole-shebang/2017/5/18/2017-nba-mock-draft-1-just-lotto-and-lotta-trades

The ad campaigns that is.

Is there any set formula or way to tell how much a studio is putting up for a project they're promoting? Or is it a kind of negligble sum? Obviously, if an ad campaign fails then that hurts the box office, but does it ever amount to an additional financial failure?

>I think the biggest issue was The Producers absolutely
>bombing. 45 million, big ad campaign, only made 19 in the US
>(and didn't even break even worldwide).

Ad campaigns are becoming bigger and really adding to the risk. It's hard to know just how much an ad campaign costs (just as most budgets are BS). Some reports had studios spending, on average, 30 million per film.

More than ever, what to do with a film is a tough call. Tropic Thunder cost over 90 million? Do you really want to spend another 30 - 50 million promoting it? But if you don't, aren't you setting it up for failure? You know Meet Dave is bad but you have an agreement to give it a wide release? Do you really just let it die and just eat the budget as well as the bad press?

In terms of smaller indie films, the marketing can often be more expensive than the actual production budget. People are bashing Warner Brothers for dumping Slumdog Millionaire because it could be an Oscar contender but let's be real, what are the odds that film makes back the money its going to cost to promote it?

I really don't know that much on the actual specifics about film financing because it's all a sham. The studios claim every film loses money. POTC: Dead Man's Chest reportedly took a year to show a profit. The movie made a billion dollars (literally) and Disney was still saying it barely eeked its way into the black.

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NBA MOCK DRAFT #1 - https://thecourierclass.com/whole-shebang/2017/5/18/2017-nba-mock-draft-1-just-lotto-and-lotta-trades

>Ad campaigns are becoming bigger and really adding to the
>risk. It's hard to know just how much an ad campaign costs
>(just as most budgets are BS). Some reports had studios
>spending, on average, 30 million per film.

30 million for advertising? That's much bigger than I expected.

lol

Seriously though. I think with the nostalgic factor, his parlay into "real theater" and his unusually stable Hollywood marriage, people are just rooting for the guy. with all the non-actors, Hollywood tabloid relationships and revolving door ways of Hollywood, maybe the people just want one "good guy" to stay afloat.

or maybe i just pulled that all out of my ass.

he saved the world though.
and taught us how to live.





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I was damn near shocked to read that.

Obviously, I wasn't following movies and actors at age two, but I was surprised how relatively well that story has been pushed out of sight and mind when discussing him. People seem to have been run out of Hollywood for less severe acts than that before.

hollywood has a very selective memory.



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Mar-A-Lago delenda est

And her boyfriend (the passenger in the car) died in the accident.

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Mar-A-Lago delenda est

!sig!

Yeah, keep the crack raps up
That shit is double plus...whatever the fuck
Everybody�s afraid to say it just sucks
To watch talented muthafuckers pretending they sell drugs
- EL-P

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___________________

Mar-A-Lago delenda est

Weirdest hate thread in a long time....

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