Excogitating Genius, With Brandon Brendel

Never in my life have I seen this many cameos. Cybill Shepherd to Lorenzo Lamas, Martin Scorsese to James Cameron. Director/Writer/Star, Albert Brooks really has the hookup in Hollywood! And the movie still isn't really all that good. It was alright, but I found a lot of the dialogue to be quite campy. I don't know if that's just an Albert Brooks style, but it just came off a bad acting here. And these were some good actors, so I think it had to be the dialogue.

Jeff Bridges has a kind of extended cameo here, and he has fun as Brooks's bigwig Hollywood friend who first introduces Brooks to his Muse, played by Sharon Stone. He doesn't have much to do here, but I enjoyed his screen time. Especially the scene where he repeatedly tries to hit tennis balls over the net, never succeeding throughout the whole dialogue. Oops! Was that a spoiler? I think this movie would have been better with JB as the lead.

It's been a few days since I've watched this one. I usually do my post fairly close to the time of viewing the movie, so it's interesting to see if my thoughts about the movie have evolved at all with waiting a little bit to post. Hmmm, I think I like the movie more now than I thought that I did immediately after it ended. Without giving away any spoilers, the ending of the movie is quite unexpected and jarring, so I guess that it wouldn't be good to review this movie right away. There are a lot of nuances in this movie to think about that don't hit you until later.

Jeff Bridges gives a fine performance. You can really see the pain of losing a spouse. He doesn't really point it out or exaggerate it, the pain is just there. And all the while, he trying to cover that pain and just go on with life. Until he meets his oddball neighbors who start raising some suspicions. He then seems to direct all the energy of his pain into the investigation of his neighbor, and in everyone else' eyes, starts spiraling out of control until the shocking end.

St. Louis is mentioned about a million times during the course of the movie, which was pretty cool. Represent!

This is one of those movies that I can't help but have a silly grin on my face while watching. I'm not even sure what it is about it. The Coen Bros just do that to me sometimes.

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges, is forced into an absurd situation when a couple of thugs come looking for another, much richer, Jeff Lebowski's money. One of the thugs proceeds to urinate on The Dude's rug. This is unacceptable to The Dude. In search of repayment for the rug, The Dude pulls himself and his friends deeper into a twisting turning tale of F-bombs, "man"s, and white Russians.

I loved JBs performance in this. This is the first Jeff Bridges performance that I ever saw before I embarked on this quest. The Dude is unlike any other character that he had played up until then. He seemed to have a lot of fun with it. I loved his interaction with John Goodman's character, Walter. You can see how strong their friendship is, even with all of Walter's shenanigans.

An acting note: Before some shots, JB would ask The Coen Brothers if The Dude burned one on the way over. If the answer was yes, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before the shot. Brilliance!

It's funny, JB is on the poster art, even featured in the trailer, but he's in this movie for a total of about five minutes. False advertising? He plays a semi-asshole doctor who works with co-star Bruce Davison's character. He was also Executive Producer on the movie. This was definitely a vehicle for brother Beau, who delivered a fine performance. It was directed by Martin Bell, who previously directed JB in American Heart, which was awesome. Bell sure likes his depressing subject matter.

Not much to say about JB's little performance here. He was believable as an asshole doctor.

Next up...The Dude!

Jeff Bridges goes and makes me watch a Barbara Streisand movie. In it he plays a nebbish, goofy, awkward college professor, Gregory Larkin. A character unlike any he has played before. Except for maybe Starman. This was kind of like Starman after he has been integrated into society and became a teacher. Gregory Larkin is deathly afraid of physical attraction after being spurned by his super-model ex. Therefor, he falls for Rose, played by... you guessed it, Barbara Streisand. But what happens when Rose wants to be loved for more than just her inner beauty?

This was an interesting performance from Mr. Bridges. He convincingly plays the nerdy anti-ladies-man. He embraces his inner geek.

Jeff Bridges plays his character so tough and strong as the captain of a school sailing ship that it hits that much harder when his vulnerabilities finally show through. Great performance. I think this is the shortest that JB's hair has ever been.

1958 - Sea Hunt: The Lost Ones(TV episode) - Jeff Bridges' first credited role...Davy Crane.

1958 - Sea Hunt: The Birthday Present (TV episode) -  Jeff Bridges is so versatile that he can play a different character on the same show in the same season...when he's 9.

1965 - The Loner: The Ordeal of Bud Windom (TV episode) - Jeff Bridges showing some chops at a young age in this old Western TV show.

1969 - Silent Night, Lonely Night(TV movie) - VHS is $238. Who wants to buy it for me?

1970 - The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go - This was pretty weird. I was a little drunk when viewing and had a hard time following. Maybe I'll have to watch it again sometime.

1970 - Halls of Anger - Saw a few clips of this. It looks interesting. I need to find it.

1971 - In Search of America(TV movie) - 3/5 stars.

1971 - The Last Picture Show - Some great performances from some young stars-to-be.

1972 - Fat City - A nice, old-school boxing movie. Jeff Bridges holds his own opposite Stacy Keach.

1972 - Bad Company - Jeff Bridges plays a young man trying to survive during the Civil War, by avoiding the war. Or does he?

1973 - Lolly-Madonna XXX - Can't find this anywhere.

1973 - The Last American Hero - Jeff Bridges, Gary Busey and car racing.

1973 - The Iceman Cometh - Really long. People really used to sit through 4 hour plays? And that's not counting the intermissions. Wow. Very interesting from an acting perspective. Some fine performances here.

1974 - Thunderbolt and Lightfoot - Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood team up to get some loot. Then JB dresses in drag...and looks damn good.

1975 - Rancho Deluxe - The best scene involving Pong I've ever seen! Oh, and there was some rustling.

1975 - Hearts of the West - Entertaining, but not very memorable. I had a few drinks before viewing, so that could have had something to do with that.

1976 - Stay Hungry - The best movie about bodybuilding...ever. You can't grow without the burn!

1976 - King Kong - I really liked this. The special effects were pretty good for the time. Jeff Bridge's beard was freaking awesome!

1978 - Somebody Killed Her Husband - DVD is $195. Christmas present anyone?

1979 - Heroes of Rock and Roll(TV documentary) - JB lends his voice to this nice doc about the history of Rock and Roll.

1979 - Winter Kills - This one was pretty awesome, strange and funny. Great cast! Need to watch again, there was so much going on. And there seems to be a bit of mystery behind the making of the movie.

1980 - The American Success Company - Can't find this one. Emailed the director and he never got back to me. :-(

1980 - Heaven's Gate - This movie is supposed to be one of the, if not the biggest failures in movie history and pretty much ruined Michael Cimino's career. And, yeah, it wasn't very good. I can't say it was entirely bad. There were some really fine performances and cinematography. But some of the scenes just went on and on and on. I think an hour of the movie was people dancing in circles while the camera spun around them. Some shots had so much dust blowing around I don't know how Vilmos even know what he was shooting. And then there's the rumor of animal cruelty on set and the on camera rooster fight, which is a no-no in my book.

1981 - Cutter's Way - Really good movie.

1981 - The Girls in Their Summer Dresses and Other Stories by Irwin Shaw (TV movie) - The first two of these shorts were pretty good, the last one...not so much.

1982 - TRON - An entertaining action/sci-fi flick. I thought that the special effects were pretty good for the time. And the soundtrack was bumpin'. Can't believe it took me this long to see it.

1982 - The Last Unicorn - I thought that this was going to be like My Little Ponies or something but it actually ended up being pretty good. Lots of boobs, granted they're on some crazy bird-thing and a tree. And that butterfly was stoned off his ass. An awesome 80s-rock soundtrack to boot!

1982 - Kiss Me Goodbye- A little cheesy at times, but good.

1983 - Faerie Tale Theatre: Rapunzel(TV episode) - It was fun to watch JB play in this one.

1983 - Saturday Night Live: Beau and Jeff Bridges/Randy Newman (TV episode) - Jeff Bridges gives Beau Bridges an oiled up full-body message. Awkward.

1984 - Against All Odds - I liked this one alright, just seemed to loose track a little.

1984 - Starman - JB's first nom for Leading Role, and well deserving. His first role as an alien.

1985 - Jagged Edge - A good little thriller. JB keeps you guessing.

1986 - 8 Million Ways to Die - A bit messy, but fun stuff.

1986 - The Morning After - Good thriller. Got a little cheesy romancey at times.

1987 - Nadine - A fun little caper. Runnin' from the cops, runnin' from the bad guys.

1988 - Tucker: The Man and His Dream - What happens when the government can't help but intervene and sides with the big dogs with the money against the underdog and tries to regulate the underdog out of business. I thought everything about this movie was top-notch. Didn't realize that it was based on a true story until the end.

1989 - See You in the Morning - Okay.

1989 - Cold Feet - JB had a nice little cameo as a bartender, I think as a favor to his wife who produced this. Pretty good movie though.

1989 - The Fabulous Baker Boys - Great movie. Jeff Bridges is really hitting his stride.

1990 - Texasville - A nice quirky sequel to Last Picture Show.

1991 - The Fisher King - Really liked it, but think I will like it more. Didn't realize I had DVRed it on a channel with commercials and censoring.

1992 - American Heart - My favorite Jeff Bridges performance up to this point. Very raw and real.

1993 - The Vanishing - Jeff Bridges is a creepster in this one. I liked it all but the cheesy ending. The most interesting JB character yet.

1993 - Fearless - Great performance from JB.

1994 -Blown Away - This was overshadowed by Speed, which came out a month earlier. But I think I may like this better.

1995 - Wild Bill - Quite possibly my new favorite Western. Ya aughta know better that ta touch another man's hat.