20130728: Pillars of Dislike

Pillars of Dislike

A. Fundamental reasons for disliking a movie or a performance.  Here is a partial list.  I'll develop this over a long period of time.

B. Misplaced energy.  Here are some examples.

1. Pride in drug use.  So many films: Knocked Up, Bad Teacher, Dude Where's My Car, This is 40, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Scary Movie, Up in Smoke, Grandma's Boy, Pineapple Express, and the TV series Weeds. See the ratings sections of Bad Teacher and Fear and Loathing. Stoned people tend to be self-involved, with a high ability to concentrate on one thing.  This makes it hard for them to prioritize in a multi-threat environment, such as driving a car.  Also, stoned people tend to forget that when dealing with other people or with the material world, laws have consequences.  That includes physical law: 'I hit the brakes late, so I crashed into the restaurant, ha-ha.'  Entertaining?  Sorry, no.  What I find even less entertaining is the fury and hatred that so many people exhibit in defending such movies.  Any one who levels criticism at stoner movies or stoner humor is flamed in return.  In the comedies, the greater the disasters caused by drug use, the funnier the film is supposed to be.  Yikes.


2. Pride in ignorance.  On the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Jaywalking interviews illustrate this time and again.  Celebrity interviews are much the same.  Education seems to have failed in a broad set of fronts: spelling, grammar, history, current events, everyday arithmetic, orders of magnitude, and the fine arts come to mind.  For instance, Dumb and Dumber is perhaps the exemplar of this sort of anti-sense.  One reviewer wrote, 'I laughed, I cried, and I think my IQ dropped. I love this movie!' Later in the same review, 'Will it offend you? Perhaps if you're a snob.'  That was the kindest remark I saw from a reviewer who liked this film.  The trend seemed to be the more someone liked (loved, craved) this film, the more their language expressed hatred for anyone who disagreed with them.


3. Pride in stupidity. Dumb and Dumber is a strong illustration of this, as is Scary Movie, Dude Where's My Car?, Black Sheep.


4. Pride in moral turpitude.  Bad Teacher, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.    In Just Go with It, Adam Sandler's character interacts with his receptionist's two children by bribing and cajoling them to perpetrate hoaxes on others.


5. Pride in bad manners. This is 40, Bad Teacher, Something about Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Big Daddy, Along Came Polly.


6. Energetic defense of despicable or criminal acts. Bad Teacher, Traffic, Grandma's Boy, Wall Street, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.


7. Pride in grossness for the sake of laughs. Something about Mary, Dumb and Dumber, This Is 40, Scary Movie (every death or dismemberment is played for laughs).

C. The Endless Adolescent Defiance of Mastery (including self-mastery).  Apparently being a child forever is cool and attractive.  Let's look at some of the traditional hallmarks of adulthood.

1. Control of one's bodily functions.  It's so rebellious to {fart, belch} publicly for effect when you're forty.  It shows a certain lack of maturity.  At forty, this does not mean anything, except that you are inconsiderate of others.  It certainly is not funny.  {Defecation, Urination} in public takes the matter a bit further.  One might get arrested for it.  Of course, that shows a 'proper' level of defiance, and adds to your chops of not being a grownup.  Big Daddy commemorates this defiance by having Adam Sandler's character teach a child he is in charge of to urinate on a wall in public.  That's portrayed as being cool, and was even included in some of the trailers.  Other films, such as Bridesmaids, The Heat, Hangover {I, II}, Role Models, Dumb and Dumber celebrate such childish behaviors.


2. Control of one's sexual desires.  Much of the humor on Scary Movie {1, 2, 3, 4} is about the lack of such mastery.  Some old cliches come to mind: get a room, keep it to yourself, she's half your age, grow up, and so on.  Many scripts and directors play lack of control in this area for laughs.  All too often, the real life consequences of lack of adult control is some combination of sadness, mental illness, criminal charges, and possible tragedy.  The attitude encapsulated in 'I can do what I want to do' seems to be valued more than adult good sense.


3. Control of one's urge to acquire.  Children sometimes say to other children, 'give me your lunch money.'  The victim either gives up the money to the thief or not, but is usually beaten in either case.  This kind of bullying, entitled attitude is sometimes crushed and deleted during childhood.  In this case, the child might become a more decent adult, and one more likely to stay out of jail.  In all too many cases, the bullying is not squeezed out and eliminated.  It continues into adulthood, sometimes with many consequences.  For instance, the bully encounters stronger bullies who steal from them after beating or killing them.  Sometimes the stronger bullies are called law enforcement officers, and jail time ensues.----This is an endlessly repeated theme in film.  Gordon Gecko in Wall Street had the 'that belongs to me' attitude, especially when whatever he wanted did not belong to him.  The drug lords in Traffic were all the entitled personalities that had not had the thieving bully mentality expunged in early life.  The gang fights in mafia films are all about settling 'that belongs to me' using guns, knives, extortion, and crooked law enforcement.  Pirate movies are about settling 'that belongs to me' using swords, pistols, torture, cannon, extortion, and blackmail.  There have been a number of films since the 'war on drugs' started that involved independent contractors.  In Blow, Johnny Depp plays a character who thinks he can get money from drug trafficking.  He has some success, but runs afoul more than once with stronger drug runners who think money he acquired 'belongs to me.'  Another such movie is Leaves of Grass, 2009.  ----  This is a huge film theme, but the wellspring is the lack of adult control of 'that belongs to me.'


4. Control of one's quality of speech.  Adults often limit foul language to make it more forceful when it is occasionally used among adults.  One can also skip it altogether and still get your point across with more moderate speech.  In film though, the rather childish 'I can do what I want to' attitude is valued for shock, for defiance, for rebellion, for who knows what.  The script for Superbad included some 350 obscenities and profanities.  Bridesmaids, The Heat, Pineapple Express, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and so on have similar levels of intemperate speech.  Does this advance plots, deepen character development, improve the cinematography?  No, no, no.


5. Acceptance of the need to learn.  Is it good to know that losing 10,000 USD in poker in Vegas is worse than spilling a glass of iced tea?  I'd say yes, since the one is 4 orders of magnitude worse than the other.  Is it good to know what compound interest is?  Over the span of your life, yes, it is.  Is it good to know how to write effectively?  Perhaps.  Is it good to have some historical perspective?  Absolutely.  Hearing a 25 year old claim to have fought in the Civil War is just absurd.  Are they lying, or just strongly ignorant?  Do they expect the listener to accept such a ridiculous falsehood?  Movies have a bad track record here.  Education is usually treated as a waste of time.  College is a place to waste time and learn about drug use and sex.  Also, one networks with others who do drugs and sex.  Young people who study are usually treated as losers, are shunned and treated badly ('give me your notes or I will break your face').  On the other hand, rebellious ignoramuses who lie when confronted with their many deficiencies are usually lionized, and are gifted with snappy dialog.  'What are you, correcting my spelling now?'  Also, they act like they expect others to believe their lies, rather than admit their ignorance, just as they would expect their childhood peers to cough up their lunch money.  Movies do their audiences huge disservice here.  ---  Examples?  Watch the movies I mentioned above.  You will see hundreds of examples.

20130723: Antonym of deal-breaker ?

Antonym of deal-breaker ?

A. I've been looking for an antonym of 'deal breaker' so that I can apply it to good actors whose presence helps make me want to see a film or a TV series.  So far I've come up with clincher, but I'm still looking for something better.

B. In the scale I mentioned in the previous blog entry, a rating of 8 or 9 or 10 qualifies an actor to be a deal breaker.  On the other end of the spectrum, a rating of 1, 2, or 3 qualifies an actor as a clincher.

C. Here are some of my top rated clinchers.  I list only some of the top movies I liked from the clinchers.

D. Level 1:

1. Tom Cruise.  Mission Impossible series (1 through 4), Jerry McGuire, Interview with a Vampire, Collateral, The Firm, Days of Thunder, Risky Business, The Color of Money, Eyes Wide Shut, A Few Good Men, Minority Report, Jack Reacher.

E. Level 2:

1. John Cusack.  Grosse Pointe Blank, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Grifters, True Colors, Must Love Dogs, 1408, 2012; on the other hand, The Numbers Station.


2. Gillian Anderson.  The Fall, The X-Files, Princess Mononoke.


3. Sigourney Weaver.  The Year of Living Dangerously, Galaxy Quest, Alien series, Death and the Maiden, Ghostbusters, Political Animals; on the other hand, Avatar.


4. Jeremy Renner. The Hurt Locker, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Bourne Legacy.

F. Level 3:

1. James Spader. Sex, Lies, and Videotape; Stargate (original movie), Pretty in Pink, Crash, Secretary, True Colors, The Practice; on the other hand, Boston Legal and Alien Hunter.


2. Xander Berkeley.  The Booth at the End, Nikita, 24, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Taken, Gattaca, Terminator 2, Timecode, Air Force One. 


3. Jon Stewart.  The Daily Show.


4. Robert Carlyle.  Once upon a Time (TV series), Stargate Universe (TV series), The World Is Not Enough, The Full Monty, Eragon, 28 Weeks Later.


5. Justin Long.  Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, Live Free or Die Hard, Drag Me to Hell, the Mac versus PC commercials, He's Just Not That into You.  On the other hand, the Chipmunks films.

G. Deal-breakers, additions.

H. Level 10:

1. Amy Poehler. Baby Mama, Chipmunks films, SNL, Blades of Glory, Deuce Bigelow, The Secret World of Arietty.


2. Seth Rogen.  Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, The Green Hornet, Zach and Miri Make a Porno, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. What do these wretched movies have in common?  Seth Rogen.


3. Danny McBride. Your Highness, Pineapple Express, Land of the Lost, Tropic Thunder, Drillbit Taylor, Eastbound & Down (TV series), oh, enough.  Land of the Lost was my I-hope-Will-Farrell-can-suddenly-act film.  Of course it was not.  It also illustrated how horrible McBride is.  Natalie Portman was in Your Highness, as was James Franco, but, blast, McBride was in it.  Tropic Thunder had actors I usually like as well, but the whole film was lousy, as was McBride.


4. Jonah Hill.  Moneyball, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, I Heart Huckabees, Grandma's Boy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  I liked Moneyball, but I hated Jonah Hill's acting in it.  I kept watching for Brad Pitt's performance, and the acting of the other stars.  However, listening to Hill's voice, or watching him onscreen is off-putting.  Every second of it makes me want to be somewhere else.  Of the other films, only I Heart Huckabees was of any interest, and it suffered from the double-whammy of two deal breakers (Hill and Jason Schwartzman).

I. Level 9:

1. John C. Riley.  Step Brothers (with Farrell), Talladega Nights (with Farrell), Cirque du Freak: the Vampire's Assistant, Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story, The Extra Man, Cedar Rapids.  We have some really bad movies here, and Riley contributed to the badness.  On the other hand, Riley has been in some much better films such as The Hours and The Aviator.  Still, films like Cyrus are so hideously bad that I've got to include Riley in the deal breaker list. Also, Cyrus knocked Marisa Tomei off my clinchers list.


2. Rob Schneider.  Rob (TV series, 2012) lasted 8 episodes, despite a great time slot, good supporting actors, and the well wishes of CBS.  Even I wanted the series to succeed.  The problem was...Rob.  Deuce Bigelow, Grandma's Boy, Martians Go Home, Judge Dredd, The Water Boy, Big Daddy, and The Longest Yard are some of the rotten films that Schneider's presence made even worse.  Several of these have double doses of deal breakers, but Schneider did not make things better.


3. Toby Maguire. Maguire's Spiderman films (2002, 2004, 2007 versions) certainly made a lot of money, but that does not change the fact that he sucks as an actor, and his ability to irritate is far greater than his ability to perform.  The Ice Storm (1997) had some fine actors, but not all of them.  Maguire's performance stank, despite the ice, and was one of the stronger reasons that The Ice Storm was a grueling exercise in boredom.  Despite his reputation, Ang Lee's direction did not help.  Maguire teamed with Ang Lee again in 1999's Ride with the Devil, but I had learned my lesson (regarding Lee) with The Ice Storm.  It took the Spiderman films to convince me Maguire was also a deal breaker.  So, Maguire has given me 4 very strong reasons never to watch another film that he is in.  I was interested in seeing the new version of The Great Gatsby, since DiCaprio was in it, but Maguire was also in it.  Watching clips confirmed my suspicions.  Maguire has not improved, and he remains at level 9.


4. Claire Danes. Ever since My So-Called Life was on (1994-95), I've been hearing what a great actress Danes was.  That TV series put me off pretty strongly.  It was not until Homeland started that I began hearing the drumbeat again.  I hoped time had improved her skills.  Sadly, no.  There's nothing in the series that I like, and Danes is the worst of it.


5. Jim Carrey.  Dumb and Dumber.  Terrible.  Irredeemable.  Felony: bad acting.  Batman Forever.  Bad, over the top, shallow.  Ace Ventura.  Bad, bad, useless, bad.  In Living Color.  I wish I had never seen any of this.


6. Jason Schwartzman. I Heart Huckabees: he was one of the worst parts of the film.  The Darjeeling Limited: he was one of the two worst things about the film.  The other was Owen Wilson. 


7. Michael Cera. Juno, Superbad, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the ever hideous This Is the End.  Ah, where to begin?  I liked Infinite Playlist, but upon reflection, what I liked about it was Kat Dennings.  Cera was his usual cardboard self.  Clips and reviews of the other films show him to be the same empty vessel throughout.

J. Level 8:

1. Ben Stiller. Meet the Parents, sequels Meet The Fockers and Little Fockers; I also saw the first Museum film which was more than enough.


2. Owen Wilson. Drillbit Taylor, Anaconda, Shanghai Noon, Meet the Parents (and sequels), The Internship (2013), Wedding Crashers.  I've tried to watch Shanghai Noon three times, but Owen Wilson is on screen too much.  Jackie Chan's positives were not enough to make up for the constant negative of Wilson's presence.  I struggled through all the three Meet the Parents films, and Owen Wilson was the worst part in each film.  I liked Anaconda (relatively speaking) since Wilson was out of the picture early on.  The Wedding Crashers was dreary; I wish they had made a nice 20 minute short.  Since I had seen Wedding Crashers, I had no need to watch the repeat, Internship.


3. Jack Black. School of Rock.  Horrible film, horrible performance.  Who would put up with the behavior of this unmitigated jerk?  Tropic Thunder.  One more unbelievable piece of acting.  Nacho Libre.  Unforgivably bad.


4. Paul Rudd. This Is the End.  Oi.  This Is 40.  One of the worst films ever, with Rudd a heavy contributor to the badness.  The 40 Year Old Virgin.  Rudd's performance is yet another negative part of this awfully bad film. 

20130714: Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot

A. Deal breakers.

1. The (online) Urban Dictionary has seven rather nice defining rules for deal breaker


2. Along those lines, I often refer to certain actors as deal breakers: Adam Sandler, John Corbett, Jimmy Fallon, Will Farrell, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin James, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Zachary Levi, Melissa McCarthy, David Spade, Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris, Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Jeff Goldblum.


3. I often rate movies 1 to 10, where 1 is 'will never see it' to 10 being 'see it in the theater and buy a permanent copy'.


4. For any given movie, based on reviews, cast and crew, and word of mouth, I form a preliminary rating.  The presence of a deal breaker in a film means my preliminary rating will likely be less than 3 of 10, and I will not see it.


5. Here 'deal breaker' is not a binary, as in yes or no.  Rather, I rate actors as deal breakers on a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 (one) means I usually like them, and 10 (ten) means I usually despise their presence on screen.  So a rating 8, 9, or 10 is enough for me to term an actor a deal breaker.


6. Some ratings as deal breakers:


7. Ten (or more) of Ten: Melissa McCarthy, Jaden Smith, Will Farrell, Jimmy Fallon


8. Nine of Ten: Neal Patrick Harris, Stephen Baldwin, Adam Sandler, John Corbett, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin James, Ken Jeong, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Segel.


9. Eight of Ten: Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Zachary Levi, David Spade.

B. Details on the level ten deal breakers.  Melissa McCarthy, Jaden Smith, Will Farrell, Jimmy Fallon

1. Melissa McCarthy.  She's supposed to be a comedian.  She has never made me laugh, though she has made me cringe.  I no longer watch anything that she is in except under duress.


2. Jaden Smith.  He gave an unbelievably bad performance in the 2008 version of the film The Day the Earth Stood Still.  I liked Keanu Reaves, Kathy Bates, and Jennifer Connelly in this film, but Jaden Smith was a huge anchor tied to the neck of the film.  It sank because of him.  His performance in After Earth, if the critics and the clips are to be believed, was even worse.


3. Will Farrell.  Yikes.  Every movie I have seen him in sucked.  The best, perhaps, was Melinda and Melinda, by Woody Allen.  Here we have an excellent director, a good script, and several fine actors whom I have enjoyed in many other good movies.  That excludes Farrell, of course, whose performance was revolting.  Farrell's work on Saturday Night Live was a turning point for me.  SNL had been one of my favorites for years.  Farrell's performances made watching SNL drudgery; I was often wondering, when will this jerk get off the screen?  In the last few years, I've tried watching some of Farrell's films when I did not have to pay for them.  For instance, I tried Land of the Lost.  This was an incredible re-affirmation.  Farrell was just terrible.  Clips of other films, such as Bewitched, Anchorman, Elf, and Talledaga Nights come to mind.  Funny, entertaining, worth seeing?  No.  Boring, stupid, repulsive?  Yes.  I watched Bewitched in the theatre, since I hoped that the skill and talent of Nicole Kidman, Michael Caine, and Shirley McLaine could overcome Farrell's strength as a deal breaker.  Sigh.  The movie bombed, in no small part because of Farrell's smothering presence.


4. Jimmy Fallon.  Fallon marked another transition for me.   Whereas Farrell made me think of SNL as tired, old, out of ideas, boring, and un-funny, Fallon took me to the better state of "I'm never watching SNL again."  Thanks Jimmy.  I've never watched your Late Show, and when you replace Jay Leno in the Tonight Show, I'll stop watching NBC.  Why?  The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is the only NBC show that I watch, that's why.

C. Some comments on the level nine deal breakers.  Neal Patrick Harris, Stephen Baldwin, Adam Sandler, John Corbett, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin James, Ken Jeong, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Segel.

1. Neal Patrick Harris.  Has he ever done anything good?


2. Stephen Baldwin. Shark in Venice, Earthstorm, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Bio-Dome, Lost Treasure.  The movies he's in are more of a chore than entertainment.  One looks forward to commercial breaks.  Plus he has that facial expression problem (the one that says, yes, I'm an even bigger jerk than you think I am) in common with Jaden Smith.


3. Adam Sandler.  Where to begin?  Once on the Tonight Show, I heard him brag, "I'm your worst nightmare!"  He was correct.  Poor actors who present hideous persona but gain great monetary success...that is one of my worst nightmares.  As I contemplate his filmography, I'm trying to find something I like to offset the rest.  Ah, not doing well on that.  His frequent presence in films depicting men as bad role models is the single biggest reason he's a deal breaker for me.  (Big Daddy, Grownups, Grownups 2, Jack and Jill, Just Go with It, for starters) Because of him, American men receive an extra ocean of hatred and contempt.


4. John Corbett.  Ruined Northern Exposure for me.  Sex and the City went from mildly enjoyable and laugh out loud funny to dreary and never funny after Corbett joined the cast.  I am so glad that NCIS: Red was not picked up.  From IMDB, one sees that Corbett has had a busy career...that has had little intersection with my viewing.  I've made several earnest attempts to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but Corbett keeps clouding up the screen.


5. Ashton Kutcher.  That Seventies Show.  Bad times.  I liked all the actors except Kutcher and Topher Grace.  I tried the film No Strings Attached despite the presence of Kutcher because Natalie Portman starred opposite.  Her presence was not enough.  In contrast, I watched Friends with Benefits, with Timberlake and Kunis, three times so far.  I'll probably watch it again in two years.  One of my favourite TV series was (not is) Two and a Half Men.  When Charlie Sheen left, I was sad.  When Kutcher joined, I was heartbroken.


6. Kevin James.  The King of Queens.  Bad times again.  I've tuned into this series by mistake a few times, and had a few laughs.  Then James would come onscreen.  The channel would be changed in seconds.  His movements onstage, his voice, negotiable morality, his...whatever; as an actor he's repulsive.  Hitch was the only time I've seen a film of his in the theater.  That was quite a film.  It not only confirmed Kevin James as a deal breaker, it added Will Smith to the list.  How impressive is that?


7. Ken Jeong.  The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, interviews on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Nothing good here.  While I have not seen the Hangovers, every clip, interview, and review confirms them as hideously bad films.
   


8. Zach Galifianakis.  The Hangover, The Hangover Part II were both beyond bad, and Zach was a heavy contributor to the badness.  His performance in Tru Calling was more mixed, so I gave him a 9 instead of a 10.


9. Jason Segel.  How I Met Your Mother is a series I wanted to like.  I tried a number of episodes.  There are two things that ultimately doomed the effort: Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel.  After seeing too many episodes of HIMYM, I started being careful about movies involving Segel.  Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the hideous Bad Teacher, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and The Muppets are examples of movies that I might have liked if not for Segel.

  D. Level eight deal breakers: Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Zachary Levi, David Spade

1. Jeff Goldblum.   From the what-the-hell-was-that film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eighth Dimension to the absurdly horrible Earth Girls Are Easy, Mr Goldblum has made a number of unsuccessful cult films.  He's been in an even greater number of forgotten bad films.  The Right Stuff and The Big Chill were good films that I watched end-to-end, but, for the life of me, I can not remember what JG did in them.  His biggest successes, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Independence Day featured acting performances that still make me cringe. Over the years, I developed a soft spot for him, mainly because he kept trying, despite his lack of acting talent and excessive smart-mouth cleverness.  I was rooting for him in Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but there was still too much oh-I'm-clever attitude, and not enough interaction with other actors.  I breathed a sigh of relief when they brought back a real actor, Vincent D'Onofrio, to bring the series to a reasonable end.


2. Will Smith.  Hitch, Independence Day, I Robot, I Am Legend, Wild Wild West, and the absolutely terrible After Earth feature Smith's ability to deliver a bad acting job.  Enemy of the State was a mixed bag.  I liked the film, but Smith was not credible.  How could Mr Entitled ever have a bad day?  The enduring snotty attitude from Fresh Prince of Bel Air still shines through.  On the plus side, the Men in Black series was enjoyable.  I'm not saying I liked Smith's acting; I did not.  I'm saying the other elements (Tommy Lee Jones, Stephen Spielberg, reasonable script, good co-stars) overcame Smith's deal breaker effect.  Smith's presence was strongest in the third Men in Black installment, and the movie nearly drowned in it.  While consistently a deal breaker, Smith does not have the vile strength of Will Farrell or even Kevin James.  (That's right, Hitch REALLY sucked!  Both Smith and James.)


3. Zachary Levi. I wanted to like the series Chuck.  After several episodes, I realized that the problem was the actor playing the protagonist.  Recently, I saw Levi on Jay Leno's show, and decided to look him up on IMDB.  The man has been busy since 2001, but the only thing I recognized was Chuck and Tangled, in which he did voice work.  That leaves a lot of failures and who-cares efforts.


4. David Spade. Where do I begin?  Spade has been in television and films since 1987, so the list of bad projects he has helped ruin is long.  Grownups, Grownups 2, Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts, Grandma's Boy, Jack and Jill, Beavis and Butt-head come to mind.  I more or less enjoyed him is Terms of Engagement, where he played a parody of the roles he's done badly in his career.