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.