Sabrina Lloyd

Brad Dourif

Lynn Cohen (the whole cast of Vanya on 42nd Street actually)

ETA Oh, oh, oh and Fiona Shaw.

I've dearly loved John Glover in a lot of stuff, but his performance in Batman and Robin is a serious stumbling block. Over-the-top camp can be done well (and sometimes—as is the case with Richard Roxburgh's Dracula—can be the lone saving grace of a crappy movie), but that sure wasn't.

A picture of Christopher Walken in a picture called Balls of Fury [link]

Uhmm... It's apparently about the deadly cut throat world of ping pong tournaments.

A picture of Christopher Walken in a picture called Balls of Fury [link]

I'm reminded of Bill Murray in Kingpin.

I've dearly loved John Glover in a lot of stuff, but his performance in Batman and Robin is a serious stumbling block.

Wow, I managed the supress the fact that Glover was even in that movie. Who was he? The only character I can think of that he might have been was the professor in charge of the project that Uma got mutated into Poison Ivy during.

That's him. The one with Bride of Frankenstein-style white streaks in his hair and beard. And Bride of Frankenstein-style acting.

Saw Dreamgirls tonight, and liked it a lot. Didn't love it, but that may have had more to do with the fact that the guild screening audience we saw it with was annoyingly distracting. (Applause at the end of a really good movie, I understand, but clapping and hooting and hollering after EVERY FRIGGING SONG? Dudes, it's a MOVIE. Jennifer Hudson CAN'T HEAR YOU.)

Speaking of Jennifer Hudson, she's clearly meant to be the breakout star of the film, but she's not an actress. She's got an amazing voice, and she sings the hell out of her big numbers, but she's not playing a character, she's performing the music. And since she has to carry most of the emotional weight of the film, it's a problem. I really wish they'd cast that role from Broadway instead of American Idol.

The best performance in the film is Eddie Murphy -- he steals every scene he's in. Just fantastic.

We saw Stranger Than Fiction today, finally. Great movie about writing and stories and life and living and death and all that business.

My three character actor pick for today:

Roger Livesey
Claude Rains
Steve Zahn [and can somebody get him some more decent roles, please?]

Caught a few minutes of A Matter of Life and Death on TV yesterday. Sigh. I'm picking him even though he played the lead - romantic lead even - on occasion, because he definitely fits the character actor definition.

Funnily enough, it's much easier for me to think of favourite male than female character actors, though there are plenty about.

This weekend's been all Harry Potter, all the time on ABC Family channel. They've been including little 30-second behind-the-scenes footage from Order of the Phoenix, which the Leaky Cauldron has up here (although the one labeled "Bellatrix Lestrange" is a dup for the director one right now--hopefully, they'll fix it pretty soon, because that one is really good, including a shot of her holding her wand to Neville's throat).

ETA: there's also a clip from HBO's First Look at the film.