To Be in a Heist and To Own a Monkey

So I had heard mentions of this Kevin Costner movie that's coming out called Mr. Smith. I really hadn't heard much about it, considering that KC hasn't made a good film since, well, let's just say Field of Dreams was his last good movie. He might have been in something better since then, but quite frankly I don't have the energy to go look him up on IMDB considering I just spent 20 minutes finding a Dane Cook reference that could be the title of this post. Anyway, you get the point, it's been a while since Costner has done anything that doesn't end up in the $2 movie bin at Walmart next to From Justin to Kelly.

Kevin Costner's failure's aside, I happened to catch the full trailer for this movie and noticed that Dane Cook is trying to pull off a serious role here (Ah, and now you all understand why I referenced him in the title). I was rather baffled by this development. Now it's been somewhat of a tradition in recent years for actors who we love as comedians trying to take on more serious fare. This has always saddened me, Robin Williams, Jim Carry, Adam Sandler, and even Will Ferrell started to make a move towards dramatic rolls with Stranger Than Fiction. I'm sure Steve Carrell will follow suit in no less than 3 years. Anyway, thing thing that I was so abashed by was the fact that Dane Cook has yet to have any success in any comedic acting roll. Williams,Carry, Sandler, Ferrell have already been major movie stars in the comedy world and they segued over to drama by slowing slipping in more and more drama into their otherwise humoristic undertakings. They proved themselves first.

Granted Dane Cook is a huge success when it comes to stand-up comedy. His CDs have made more money than pretty much any other comedy CD in history, but as far as acting is concerned he's been a downright failure. I can only remember him having a more than tertiary role in two movies, Waiting and Employee of the Month, both of which bombed and are in the process of forever disappearing from our collective consciousness. So first of all, why did he get picked to play this part, since he hasn't really shown any real talent for acting. Also, why did he choose to take this role? I'd really think that he'd want to build up his acting chops in the comedic world, where he might feel a little more familiar before tackling a thriller. I guess the answer lies in the fact that it's likely a crappy movie. As for why Dane Cook's doing it, my only guess is the money.

Woh, that post was way longer than I had planned. I was originally planning on writing something like: "Hey, Dane Cook has a major part in a dramatic film, weird."

I'm a thousand miles away
But girl tonight you look so pretty