March 10, 2006
King of the Cameo….
How did Tony Scott - the man who made truly classic True Romance and the underrated Man on Fire, Spy Game and Last Boy Scout - end up making the truly atrocious Domino? he has way too many camera tricks on show - jump cuts, slow mo, fade out, rewinds, filters - noise noise noise noise - you feel queasy and confused watching this movie - guess it’s what happens when he isn’t reigned in and allowed to go crazy in the editing room - plus he’ll usually have great actors (Redford, Willis, Washington, Pitt) or writers (Shane Black, Tarantino) to back him up. In Domino he ends up with Knightly looking good but acting ridiculous and writer Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame really suggesting he had a lucky break with his parallel universe superhero tale of teen angst and that he may not be the genius Darko suggested.
After Cursed, Domino is probably one of the worst main-stream movies I’ve ever seen in my life - the supposedly true life story of a model turned bounty hunter - one who can burst into a room of hostile shot gun wielding drug dealing Mexicans and appease the situation by giving them a lapdance - really - one who practices nunchuck and knife throwing whilst an angry teenager so therefore qualifies for the role of bounty hunter after she throws a knife through Mickey Rourkes windshield - the whole plot made no sense what so ever, the camera could not sit still, soundtrack was atrocious - it was all so desperately trying to impress like a school girl in too much make up wearing a scarf as a skirt winking at the local club bouncer.
Worst of all it had these two fecking ass-munches from Beverley Hills 90210 running around for no discernable reason - sure it’s good to see cult TV stars of the crappy past turn up every once in a while - like the Hoff in Dodgeball - but 90210 should never be held in such comedic reverence - it was way too far up it’s own ass - there was never anything worth remembering from 90210 - apart from when Luke Perry tried a come back and turned up in Oz - the psycho prisoners ended up sealing him inside the concrete walls of the prison.
(spoiler warning if you’ve never seen Out of Sight - which you really should of by now)
Quality Cameo’s can always add that classic scene to a films running time - True Romance, whilst being possibly top of my all time greatest movie list, is probably also king of the scene stealers - like Christopher Walken as mafia emissary Vincenzo Coccotti going head to head with Dennis Hopper as Clarence’s dad, Clifford, in my one of cinemas true classic moments - then there’s Brad Pitt as true stoner Floyd, James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) as a ruthless hitman, Gary Oldman as gangster pimp Drexl, Chris Penn & Tom Sizemore as gun happy cops - there were also smaller roles including Val Kilmer as Elvis, Sam Jackson as Big Don - but they are all mentioned in the credits - true cameos are when you have no idea they are about to pitch up and steal the show for a few minutes - like they were just calling past the movie set and someone blagged them into doing a scene.
From the simple touches like Sean Connery popping up as King Richard in Robin Hood, to Will Ferrels turns in Wedding Crashers and Starsky and Hutch - the way Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider always appear out of nowhere saying you can do it!! in each others films - the entire Anchorman battle in Legend of Ron Burgundy along with Jack Black’s dog kicking biker in the same - Samuel L Jackson as Rufus the piano player in Kill Bill Vol.2 - Brad Pitt and Matt Damon on the dating show in Confessions of a Dangerous mind - Chuck Norris in Dodgeball - Steve Buscemi (also a Sandler regular) as the Buddy Holly waiter in Pulp Fiction - Alice Cooper in Waynes World (-MillyWockay-) - Bruce Willis crops up in Charlies Angels 2 & Oceans 12 - Danny Glover in Maverick - Anthony Hopkins in Mission Impossible 2 - the Austin Powers Mix with Cruise, Spielberg, Paltrow and Devito - Micheal Keatons FBI character Ray Nicollete from Jackie Brown turning up in Out of Sight - Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher in Jay and Silent Bob.
In Euro-Trip, Matt Damons uncredited rocker singing Scotty Doesn’t know about sleeping with the main characters girl was world class.
But the greatest cameo of all time has to be Samuel L Jackson in Out of Sight - it’s not just a sly nod so folk can say Shit! that’s Sam Jackson!- it’s an integral scene right at the end of the film letting you know that although Jack Foley (Clooney) may have been caught by Karen Sisco (Lopez), she still sets him along the path to another escape by delaying his jail transfer - this allows him to sit with one of the most notorious prison breakers to have ever ended up in the American justice system - Jackson’s Hejira Henry - thus finishing off the movie perfectly as they realise their coming together was no coincidence.... Jack Foley: What kind of name is Hejira?
Hejira: It’s Islamic.
What’s it mean?
The Hejira was Mohammed’s flight from Mecca in 632. Brothers in Leavenworth gave me that name.
You were in Leavenworth?
For a time.
What’s that mean?
Means, when the time came, I left.
You broke out?
I prefer to think of it as an exodus from an undesirable place.
How long before they caught up with you?
That time?
There were others?
Yeah. That was the ninth.
The ninth?
Well, ten if you count that prison hospital in Ohio I walked away from.
You done a lot of walkin’, Henry.
Hijirah.
Hijirah....Now we’re off to Glades.
Yeah, it looks that way.
I was supposed to leave last night with the lady marshal, but for some reason she wanted to wait.
She did, huh?
Guess it’s cheaper taking two of us down in one van.
Could be.... Maybe she thought we had a lot to talk about.
Really? Like what?
I don’t know.....Long ride to Florida.
Sam Jackson is always stealing scenes - and this was his best - because this one you had no idea he was even coming.
Spo | March 10, 2006
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