Amph That's Some Casting Director: "Catch Me If You Can" (2002)

Fast Times now officially has three best actor winners, after Whitaker's win tonight.

 

Another film that has three: "Raising Arizona" (Nicholas Cage; Holly Hunter; and Frances McDormand)

 

Next: "Animal House" (1978)

For a gross-out, small-budget comedy, a good cast: John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Tom Hulce, Cesar Danova, Peter Riegert, Stephen Furst, Karen Allen, Kevin Bacon, and Donald Sutherland,

 

It made most of those people's careers. Though getting Sutherland was an extremely good move.

 

Next: "Scream" (1996)

The cast included David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtenay Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Drew Barrymore, Liev Schrieber, Linda Blair, Wes Craven and Henry Winkler.

 

Next: "Go" (1999). The cast included Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant, William Fichtner, Nathan Bexton, Desmond Askew, Robert Peters, Breckin Meyer, Taye Diggs, and Jane Krakowski.

 

Next: I'm using the handset to blitz through the television channels, and what do I see? Dr. House and Arthur Weasley dognapping 99 Dalmation puppies!

And the movie in question is the live-action "101 Dalmations" (1996) whose cast also includes Glenn Close, Joan Plowright, Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson as well as Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams.

 

When she never heard the term 'underplaying', but Cruella de Ville doesn't call for it...

 

"Can't Hardly Wait" (1998) This comedy is obscure but has an extraordinary cast, generally in the tiniest of roles. The cast included:

Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embrey, Peter Facinelli, Lauren Ambrose, Seth Green, Erik Palladino, Sean Patrick Thomas, Freddy Rodriguez, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly, Seth Petersen, Marisol Nichols, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Clea DuVall, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, Sarah Rue, Reni Santoni, Amber Benson, Summer Phoenix, Jenna Elfman, Melissa Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer, Jerry O'Connell, and Liv Tyler.

 

The only temptation to see this is that it takes its title from my favorite song, Can't Hardly Wait by the Replacements.

 

Next: "JFK" (1991) Didn't like this movie, but the cast was something else:

Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Laurie Metcalf, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Walter Matthau, John Candy, Donald Sutherland, Vincent d'Onofrio, Edward Asner, Lola Davdovitch, and John Larroquette.

 

Terrifc cast. Gary Oldman was amazingly over the top as Oswald. Best casting of that movie

 

I think what annoyed me about JFK was how little most of those people had to do. I don't even remember John Candy and D'Onofrio being in it; Kevin Bacon was in about ten minutes and Oldman in even less, spread over about a hundred five second flashbacks.

Sutherland really owned his cameo though; what did he do, talk for fifteen minutes? And it was fascinating; the mark of a truly great actor. That was the best scene, I think.

 

Oldman and Sutherland were good. Costner was infuriating.

 

I like Costner in the role, but imagine if Oliver Stone had gotten his original choice of Harrison Ford in the role. That would have been amazing.

 

He did have a full scene in a nice deleted scene on the DVD though, which I was happy to see, a fantasy thing.

 

Next: "Amistad" (1997)

Spielberg always has a sharp eye for talent, and proves it here:

The cast included: Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, David Paymer, Matthew McConaughey, Pete Postlewaite, Stellan Skarsgaard, Anna Paquin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeremy Northam, Arliss Howard, and Austin Pendleton

 

It's a tremendous cast for what is an unremarkable film. I just wish there was more Hopkins and Hawthorne.

 

I don't know why people have it in for Amistad; I really enjoyed it.

 

Next: "Patriot Games" (1992)

The cast included: Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, Thora Birch, Patrick Bergin, Sean Bean, James Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, Polly Walker, James Earl Jones, Richard Harris, David Threlfall, and Ellen Geer.

 

"Patriot Games" did have quite the cast.

Love Sean Bean and Patrick Bergin.

Funny side story: i actually saw this on opening night when my buddy and i were not allowed into "Alien 3" because it was rated R. We had NO idea what other movie we wanted to try to see, and just picked "Patriot Games" at random.

Wound up being a good pick.

 

VERY funny, considering Patriot Games is also rated R...

What I've always found amusing is that the three Jack Ryan movies which ostensibly form a loose trilogy (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger) all have different ratings: PG, R, and PG-13, respectively. Unusual for a series that one would assume is targeting the same general audience with each installment.

 

LOL That is funny

Up here in Canada, though, we have a slightly different rating system. There's PG, and then there's AA which is adult accompaniment required for anyone under 14, and then there's R which is "no one under 18 admitted, under ANY circumstances"..(I believe in the states you can still get into an R rated movie if you're underage and with an adult.)

"Patriot Games" was AA up here while "Alien 3" was R.

 

Wow, those are some harsh ratings. And I thought the MPAA was bad. Well, they are, but still, giving Alien3 the equivalent of our NC-17...

As much as I loathe parents who bring their kids to inappropriate movies just to save on babysitting (like the woman who brought a four-year-old to Scary Movie), I'm totally opposed to the notion of movies for which parents aren't allowed to decide for themselves whether or not their child is mature enough to handle them. Especially given how often arbitrary the distinctions between ratings can be.