MAGGI PICAYUNE

First it was Molly Wringwald. Now it’s the other actor who John Hughes made a star. I think his career fared better than hers in the long run since he was the lead in an ongoing series on USA but it was more than a cameo at the end of a weak comedy.

I may have had a crush on Molly but Anthony was the guy I related to more because I had a similar thin, weakling frame and struck out with the ladies just as much. Hence Weird Science remains one of my personal all-time favorite movies. His character definitely got the shaft at the end of The Breakfast Club too. If Hughes was going to stretch the truth, he should’ve had six kids since he paired them off when their detention concluded. It’s the least he could’ve done since Brian was cajoled into writing the smarmy essay to the principal (jerk specialist, Paul Gleason). Maybe it was karma coming back regarding Sixteen Candles; Hughes almost cast a lesser known Jim Carrey in the Farmer Ted role before sticking with “realism” through Wringwald and Hall’s ages.

Then just like Molly, Anthony broke off his relationship and passed on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for fear of being typecast. Typecast? Of all the original Hughes’ stories covering teen life in Chicago during the Eighties, Ferris is my least favorite. The title character is a popular kid who gets away with breaking the rules which is why I probably sided with his sister (a lesser known Jennifer Grey). I wasn’t super obedient as a student yet I attended class every day. I skipped one class my entire time; Latin II at Lawrence North to cram like hell for the Chemistry final I failed anyway. It was an unwise decision for Hall and it made Broderick a larger star.

Hall moved on to make really lame flicks I would’ve expected to see Patrick Dempsey in then: Out of Bounds and Johnny Be Good, definitely a stretch. I was happy to see him as a cast member on SNL with Robert Downey Jr. He later mysteriously dropped out by Christmas with little explanation (turned out to be rehab). Many critics cheered saying he wasn’t funny unless someone else wrote the material for him. According to imdb.com, Hall spent the remainder of the Eighties fighting his drinking problem which he beat by 1990. Too bad he didn’t conquer it sooner, I think it cost him the lead in Full Metal Jacket.

After leaving for Marquette, the actor dropped off my mental radar alongside Wringwald. When he turned up as the bullying boyfriend in Edward Scissorhands, I had to do a double take. He had bulked up and reached his full height of 6′ 2″. Then I didn’t notice anything else he did again until he played Bill Gates on TNT’s Pirates of the Silicon Valley. I’m not an expert on Gates to have an opinion about Hall’s accuracy, I was more amused to see John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender, as Bill’s right-hand man Steve Ballmer.

These days, Anthony is enjoying his life appearing in occasional dramas. He even has his own official site. I even dropped him a quick e-mail thanking him, hoping the Alamo Drafthouse would invite him to Austin to do a showcase of his material. The actor who played Wyatt in Weird Science currently teaches at San Angelo State. They could do a reunion gig! Definitely a personal geek pipe dream.

In closing, be on the look out for Michael in the upcoming Batman movie.

When the Duke was still alive, he said James was his favorite actor on the scene. Too bad his resume and charisma weren’t enough to get a string of movies shown on TCM this year. Today is the 75th anniversary of the original King Kong and Charlton Heston’s death overshadowed all else.

I wrote much more about him two years ago but before we turned off our cable last year, I saw Sunset which starred him and the always underwhelming Bruce Willis. It was the second time James portrayed Wyatt Earp in this rather odd “what if” story set in 1929 and directed by Blake Edwards. It was certainly better than his throwaway flicks such as Tank because Garner’s presence, along with Malcolm McDowell’s villainy, prevented it from being a complete waste. I do recommend it to fans of Garner’s work and they don’t mind all the historical inaccuracies about Earp’s life; he retired to LA and remained there until his death contrary to the ending.

Recently, I wrote about Alec Baldwin for his 50th and had the great luck of finding Miami Blues but Ethan showed me how funny he is on 30 Rock; I need to borrow the DVDs of this.

I think I will push my luck on finding a copy of Jimbo’s stronger action-comedies such as Skin Game or How Sweet it is! before I throw in the towel and settle for The Notebook which is easier to find at Blockbuster.

I suppose the Right will claim his leadership of the NRA was a success since the world wasn’t taken over by apes, just the other kind of monkey business in the White House. Good thing he never held a real public office or else the country would be forced into another series of long, phoney-baloney state ceremonies for an actor who believed the Soviet Union would invade through Malibu.

I have grown to like him as an actor over the years. When Baldwin first appeared on my radar in She’s Having a Baby; he was memorable as Jake’s best friend Davis, a cynical, selfish person who popped in and out of the story until he made a pass at Kristy. Then he went on to have decent leading roles in Beetle Juice, The Shadow and The Hunt for Red October but I think he’s always been liked for his supporting characters, namely the primo jerk in Glengarry Glen Ross which I imagine is his part on 30 Rock; we don’t have cable or rabbit ears in my house.

My opinion of him remained neutral until he demonstrated his great sense of humor about himself, starting with The Larry Sanders Show. Sure he can be opinionated, loud and irritating, namely to the Right but he volunteered to provide his voice to the unflattering, yet funny portrayal he received in Team America. Personally, I think Parker and Stone are petulant jerks who hide behind their characters because they’d collapse in a real debate. Baldwin’s turn on The Simpsons was great, especially when he was yelling “Grab the shuttlecock!” He’s also not too proud to work on other cartoons: the villain in Spongebob’s movie and the adult version of Timmy Turner on The Fairly Oddparents’ Channel Chasers. For his birthday, I’m going to hunt down Miami Blues which was recently plugged in The Onion as a new “cult” flick. The writer made it sound interesting plus I’ve become a big Noir fan after I saw LA Confidential.