Wednesday, August 31, 2011

BENEFITS OF A CLASSICAL EDUCATION: Linda Holmes lists Twenty Iconic Male Movie Roles In Which Helen Mirren Would Have Ruled.

20 comments:

  1. Marsha10:12 AM

    I think I love Linda Holmes even more than I love Helen Mirren.

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  2. Duvall10:12 AM

    21. Hobson, Arthur. It's hard to imagine matching the elegant snark of Sir John Gielgud, but if anyone is up to the task, you have to think Dame Helen...what? 

    Nevermind.

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  3. isaac_spaceman10:35 AM

    I'm not on board with all of them, but some of them work damn well.

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  4. Did anyone actually see this movie? Was she good in it?

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  5. Meghan10:57 AM

    I can totally see James Bond and Hannibal Lecter.

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  6. Anonymous11:42 AM

    I just watched it on a plane this weekend - it was actually fairly entertaining, and she's delightful (as always).

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  7. Oops, that was me.

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  8. Anonymous1:04 PM

    She auditioned for Bond in Red.

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  9. Becca1:23 PM

    I saw it in a screening on a lot, and NO ONE laughed the entire movie. It was very uncomfortable. She did the best she could, but the movie was such a vortex of suck that nothing could escape. Brand was also working pretty hard, but again, the vortex did him in.

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  10. Tosy and Cosh3:25 PM

    Is this the first time ever that someone suggested Alan Rickman could have been bettered in Die Hard?

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  11. Also, how did Helen Mirren manage to be seemingly the only major British film performer who never appeared in a Harry Potter film?

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  12. Genevieve4:20 PM

    I would love to see a post on major British film performers who never appeared in a Harry Potter film, and either (1) the fictitious reason why they never did, or (2) the roles (fictitious or not) that they could have played.

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  13. Nancy7:04 PM

    Helen Mirren in Harry Potter... hmm... well she'd have been a kick-ass McGonagall, of course... I can totally see it. For some reason I see her as one of the Malfoys or some other evil-side character but I can't think which one.

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  14. JosephFinn7:16 PM

    I was thinking of that the other day and came up with some names from that generation (or so, and including some Scots and Irish as well):

    Judi Dench
    Anthony Hopkins
    Helen Mirren
    Glenda Jackson (she's an MP, so that's an obvious reason)
    Sean Connery
    Roger Moore
    Alan Cummings
    Pierce Brosnan
    TImothy Dalton (really, I somehow think he'd have been great as a Ministry of Magic prat)
    Geoffrey Rush
    Simon Callow
    Stephen Fry
    Kate Winslet
    Cate Blanchett
    Toni Collette
    Hugh Grant

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  15. Adlai7:35 PM

    On a plane with jetlag, it was delightful. And SO MUCH better than Source Code (which I also watched) that perhaps it improved by comparison.

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  16. Rush, Collette, and Blanchett are Australian.  Hugh Laurie also belongs on the list, as does Colin Firth.

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  17. JosephFinn9:25 PM

    Yeah, I know, but then Timothy Dalton isn't British either.  So I cheated a bit.

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  18. Genevieve1:47 PM

    I think she should be in The Hunger Games as Coin, but then she wouldn't be using a British accent.  But that's the next Harry Potter-esque movie in the sense that tons of teen-adult fans are waiting for it and were breathless about casting.

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  19. Genevieve1:53 PM

    Hugh Grant as Quirrel - the idea just cracks me up, whether it's plausible or not - but he's so good at stammering nervously.  More plausibly, perhaps, Geoffrey Rush (though too ironic now to have him stammer - perhaps Firth).

    Judi Dench or Helen Mirren as Neville's grandmother?  Especially at the end, fighting for Hogwarts and very proud of Neville.

    Ministry of Magic prats (:) ):  Dalton, Fry, Grant

    Winslet as Tonks (and give her more to do).  Or given her hair, a Weasley or Lily Potter relative.  (When we were at HogwartsOrlando, the Hogwarts Express conductor saw some redheads go by and said, "Ah! Weasleys.")  Or Winslet as Luna's mother, in flashback.

    Anthony Hopkins as a Death Eater a la Lucius Malfoy (surface haughtiness with pure evil leaking out), in full Hannibal Lecter mode.

    If Sean Connery does a good Irish accent, make him Seamus Finnegan's father.  If not, he has to be related to Cho Chang.

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  20. Linda Holmes7:16 PM

    Not bettered! Not bettered! Just also good! Also would have ruled! 

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