YES, WE ALL KNOW WHO WROTE 'REGARDING HENRY': PTI, heads-on-sticks, last one tonight:
Wilbon: You're Harrison Ford. How come you're not working harder?
Kornheiser-as-Ford: You want to know how I work? I already WORK around the clock!
As I noted here
back in 2003:
Indeed, here's his last movies: Sabrina, The Devil's Own, Air Force One, Six Days Seven Nights, Random Hearts, What Lies Beneath, K-19: The Widowmaker and Hollywood Homicide. Not only is there nothing Raiders-level in the bunch, there's nothing Presumed Innocent level either -- though, to be sure, Air Force One and What Lies Beneath both made buckets of money.
So is it that Ford's not getting good scripts? Not at all. In fact [] Ford was offered, and accepted, the role in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic that eventually went to Michael Douglas. ... (Indeed Douglas, his contemporary, picks much more wisely: why didn't Ford take on Douglas' parts in Wonder Boys, Falling Down or even Basic Instinct? All would have worked for him.)
Ford's a great actor, with a nice comic touch (see: Working Girl). It'd be nice if he started picking roles that were up to the standards of his pre-Regarding Henry career.
Six and a half years later, and we're still waiting.
Tony's comment was a reference to the trailerfor Ford's current movie Extroadinary Measures, as in it he yells "I already work around the clock" in response from a push from Bendan Fraiser to work harder
ReplyDeletehe did just provide the voiceover for the TLC show about sully's landing on the hudson
ReplyDeletethat was definitely better than "what lies beneath"
every time i see a commercial for his new movie
i wonder when it will debut on lifetime
it has tv movie (perhaphs hallmark hall of fame?) written all over it
Someone created a website that is just that line from a trailer looped over and over again. I can say it garnered a few laughs when a colleague played it on an internal conference call in response to a discussion about coming in over the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked K-19 and Air Force One. And Maggie, that is awesome. Need to find for my meeting today.
ReplyDeleteFrom the commercials, it looks as if Ford's latest movie was filmed entirely in soft-focus.
ReplyDeleteGot it: link.
ReplyDeleteWorse yet, I heard on the news yesterday that he's suiting up for another Indy sequel. Please make them stop.
ReplyDeleteHaha...I'm surprised TLC considered Ford for v/o work after what happened LAST time he did it!
ReplyDeleteSomeone learned the wrong lesson from "Raiders" and "Star Wars", and convinced Harrison Ford that he was a Big Action Star who needed to make Serious Movies. There's an alternate universe where Jeff Bridges never existed and Harrison Ford became The Dude.
ReplyDeleteLike Katie, I too thought from a brief glimpse of the ad campaign (between TiVo badoops) that this had to be a tv movie -- it actually caused me to stop, rewind, and watch the whole ad, because I was so confused by the idea that Ford had fallen that far.
ReplyDeleteSo it's not quite that far. Yet.
I can see DensityDuck's point (although I don't like to ponder a universe without Jeff Bridges). But really, was Richard Gere unavailable for this role? Totally in his wheelhouse, he'd certainly be cheaper than Ford, and he could probably be counted on for a better, more nuanced performance.
That's a really good point DensityDuck. You line up Bridges' and Ford's career post 1991 and suddenly the affection for Ford seems misplaced.
ReplyDeleteCould Ford have done Arlington Road? Yes. The Contender? Not sure. Lebowski? I'm not feeling it ... Ford has never seemed that relaxed on screen.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you, Michael Douglas is the person whose agent Harrison Ford should steal. Ford could have been Grady Tripp. He signed up for the Traffic role, helped rewrite it and then backed down. He could've been the cop in Basic Instinct, could have done The American President instead of Air Force One ... though, of course, Romancing the Stone and its sequel are just Douglas doing watered-down Raiders work.
Ford could have done Arlington Road but my guess is that he'd have been mighty uncomfortable with that ending. Just saying, if he bailed on Traffic....
ReplyDeleteAnd I take your point, Adam, about his inability/reluctance to do "relaxed" on screen. Not really since Working Girl, and otherwise probably only in American Graffiti, Star Wars and Empire, and The Frisco Kid. (I didn't see that romcom he did with Anne Heche -- does that qualify?)
And Raiders. Duh.
ReplyDeleteI'm not seeing how most of those Douglas roles help Ford's career any. Maybe Basic Instinct. I enjoyed Falling Down, but I don't think critic types think of it as a "good" movie. I agree that Ford's choices have been crap - wasn't he in Firewall with the guy who knocked up Reese Witherspoon?
ReplyDeleteIt's weird -- in all this discussion no one yet has mentioned how awesome The Fugitive was. So I will.
ReplyDelete