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

But, yes, this is a fantastic movie and the cast is pitch perfect.

Completely agreed.

On an unrelated note, seen Deer Hunter, Rogue?

 

This is a great example. Guttenberg is actually funny here, Rourke is charming and emphathic, Reiser steals the show with his hilarious performance. It?s Daniel Stern I feel the most for. If you?ve seen this movie and City Slickers, you?ll feel sorry for the guy being reduced to slapstick Disney movies and Home Aloneesque films.

And, yes, I?ve seen Deer Hunter. Another good movie for this thread.

 

Patience.

Next: "Raising Arizona" (1987)

This movie features three future Best Oscar winners at the start of their careers: Nicholas Cage; Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand.

Also: John Goodman; William Forsythe; and that guy Sam McMurray. Trey Wilson might have had a good career, but he died two years later.

 

Great, great cast. I don't know what to say except they were all perfect.

 

I liked seeing John Goodman in this movie. He seems to be right on every movie he is in.

dkt

 

Goodman is a bright spot in just about every movie he makes, except when he's the lead...

Next: (as promised) "The Deer Hunter" (1978)

DeNiro was the star, but the cast included John Cazale, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and Meryl Streep.

 

Great film with a great cast. It's worth seeing if only for Christopher Walken and De Niro. It was John Cazale last film, and he was saved from being removed from the movie by his relationship with Meryl Streep, who refused to continue on unless he remained.

The roulette sequences have to be some of the most intense in movie history.

Also of note is a truly beautiful and melancholy theme piece, heard throughout the film (and especially at the end).

 

Yes, the Cavatina.

Great film, cast is all around great. Interestingly enough, Savage would never do such a great job again, though the rest of the cast would (well, except Cazale, tragically).

Leads me to believe there was something else at work there. Of course, couldn't have been Cimino . . .

 

Yup, a great cast although I find the film itself overrated. It is interesting how some careers take shape after a boost from a film like The Deer Hunter. De Niro and Streep did okay. Savage never really took off from that point and Walken has had his ups and downs. Cimino himself was looking great...until his next film. Hello oblivion

 

The reason Savage's career didn't take off is because he's apparently a horrible actor when he doesn't have help. See his appearance on the X-files: Dod Kalm. Certainly the worst supporting performance of the entire run of the show. He can barely remember the lines.

 

Its hard to believe that Cazale only made 5 films. But what a set of 5 films and he is terrific in every role. I remember reading he got the audition to The Godfather thanks to long time friend Al Pacino. Of the 5 films Pacino was in 3 of them.

Speaking of Pacino, over the weekend I revisited Sea of Love. Another great cast: Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, Michael Rooker, William Hickey, John Spencer and a bit part by Samuel L. Jackson.

 

Next: "The Big Lebowski" (1998)

Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Jon Turturro, David Thewlis (!), Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott, Peter Stomare, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Huddleston, Steve Buscemi, among others.

 

Next: One of my favorite bad movies: "The Dirty Dozen" (1967)

The cast includes Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes (one of his few studio films), Donald Sutherland (his first non-bit part), Trini Lopez, Telly Savalas, Richard Jaeckel, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy and Clint Walker.

You get every style of acting from Cassavetes' hammy Method to Marvin's Hollywood cool.

 

Here's a movie that should have been successful, but wasn't:

"Out of Sight" (1997)

The title's a bit generic, but the movie itself is excellent, as is the cast (with one exception), which includes:

George Clooney, Dennis Farina, Steve Zahn, Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Catherine Keener, Albert Brooks, and Nancy Allen. The exception? Jennifer Lopez, whose presence probably precluded anyone taking it seriously. Carla Gugino played the Karen Sisco role on television and was, oh, a 1,000 times better.

 

You actually watched the show "Karen Sisco"?
well we must have been the only ones. A terrific show and she's hotter than a pistol. Just like the movie; that show didn't really find an audience.

Now...can't comment on the movie cause I haven't seen it. I really don't like Clooney. Think he is very overrated and (like David Caruso) he has that one signature look or style about him. To me he will always be a television star. I also carry a grudge for him about crapping on Charlton Heston a few years ago. Clooney is not good enough an actor to dog someone of Heston's legacy; when he has the same body of work and accolades..then maybe.

 

I love Out of Sight. When the film came out Lopez did not have anywhere near the notoriety that she does now. This film showed she could act. The scene with her & Clooney at the bar is terrific and they had great onscreen chemistry. She has yet to find another part as good as this one. I think the problem with the film is it came out toward the end of the Tarantino inspired film wave. For me this is where Soderberg really hit his stride. He was able to work in Hollywood with big time actors yet still experiment and use his own style.

 

Great movie, by turns very funny and very dramatic. And Lopez doesn't bother me. Which is surprising since she usually does.

 

Out Of Sight was really unfortunate in that it was released just at the wrong time: Clooney's fledging movie career still could've gone either way at that point, and Lopez had yet to break through into megastardom. If it had been released a couple of years later, once the pulling power of both had been well established, I bet it would've been a solid hit, but as it was it just kind of slipped through the cracks. That's a real shame as I think it's one of the best mainstream films of the last decade, and both Clooney and Lopez are more then solid in it. Excellent David Holmes soundtrack, too.

 

You actually watched the show "Karen Sisco"?
well we must have been the only ones. A terrific show and she's hotter than a pistol. Just like the movie; that show didn't really find an audience.

If Gugino had been in the movie...well, it might have been different. Anyway, yes, I did watch the television show and it was much better than yet another CSI or L & O. Gugino was excellent, and so was Robert Forster as her dad.

I heard there was some trouble at the studio, and the push they intended to give OOS went a glimmering; an Entertainment Weekly cover was planned, and didn't happen (of course, that didn't help "The Island.")

 

That better not be a jab at King Ralph.

 

Next: "The Great Escape" (1963)

The cast included: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum and Gordon Jackson.

 

I was actually thinking of starting a Great Escape just a few days ago.

I first saw the film almost two years ago (it's shown pretty much every Christmas here in the UK) and has since become one of my favourite films.

Let's face it, despite the fact that during the real escape all the Americans were transferred to another camp a week before the escape took place, Steve McQueen's Virgil "Cooler King" Hilts was in fact the King of Cool. I've only seen one other McQueen film (and not even all of it, just the second half) and that was The Blob (where he played the oldest teenager in existence).

When I first saw it, it took me a long time to get used to seeing Donald Pleasance as a good guy, because I'd only ever seen him as Blofeld. Blythe was a fantastic character though.

And I'd just like to point out that one of my favourite lines is the exchange between Charles Bronson and James Coburn and one of the ferrets while the Germans search the barracks:

German Guard: Vot are you here?
Danny: I'm taking a shower.
German Guard: Vot are YOU doing here?
Sedgewick: I'm watching him...I'm a lifeguard.

Great film. Some classic scenes (everyone knows of the McQueen bike chase), and who can forget the theme music? As for the cast themselves, I really can't think of a film with a better cast.

 

Well, here's one with a very good one: "Black Hawk Down" (2001). The only problem is, it's tough in the noise & dark to tell who's who, but the cast includes:

Josh Harnett, Ewan McGregor, Jason, Isaacs, William Fichner, Eric Bana, Sam Shepard, Ron Eldard, Hugh Dancy, Steven Ford (!), Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Piven, and Ioan Gruffudd.

 

Great movie. I love Black Hawk Down ot my hearts content. It just it so much different that most of the movies out today. Most of the cast doesn't really do anything other than shoot and get blown up.

 

I just watched Black Hawk Down last night. It is in my top three war movies alongside Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers. Eric Bana is one of my favorite actors. He is just awesome as Hector of Troy.

Extremely good movie!