If you were writing a movie featuring a movie star whose
career was taking off, you’d likely show his or her face on a billboard, and
then the side of a bus, and then a TV ad. The protagonist, assuming he or she
was jealous of this particular character, would become increasingly frustrated
with each new appearance of his or her rival's beautiful mug.
I got kind of that impression Thursday night when going to
the movies to see Spider-Man. Everywhere I looked, there was Dave Bautista.
Fortunately, I love Dave Bautista so it was a good thing.
It was only two instances, but the fact that it was two
different movies made me sit up and take notice.
When I first summited the escalator at the Village Crown
Casino, and looked up to the big screen above the snack bar, they were playing
the familiar trailer for Stuber,
Bautista’s upcoming mismatched cop buddy comedy that co-stars Kumail Nanjiani. I
say it’s familiar only because I’ve seen it once before. I like both guys
so this looks like something worth seeing.
When I took my seat in screening room 6, the trailer playing
also featured Bautista, so at first I thought it was Stuber again. It was not. Bautista is apparently following in the
footsteps of big action lugs before him – Arnold Shwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, Vin Diesel in The Pacifier and Dwayne Johnson in The Tooth Fairy – by starring in a movie
with a kid. This one is called My Spy.
Although I welcome the ascendance of Bautista, I do wonder
if he’ll be able to sustain what we love about him in a leading role. So far he
has excelled as side characters, most notably Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and the replicant in Blade Runner 2049. He may have played the lead in a
straight-to-video movie of some kind, but Hollywood hasn’t come knocking for
the big budget wide releases until now.
I guess part of me suspects that as much as I love the
former wrestler, he may not actually be a “movie star,” like the guys I
mentioned above. He’s probably closest to Diesel, who doesn’t cross over to the
same extent as Schwarzenegger or Johnson. Of course, I’m sure he’d be plenty
happy if he ended up with Vin Diesel’s career.
Another funny thing about him is that he is already 50 years
old. I suppose that makes sense, but if you asked me to guess I likely would have
put him at 45. Fifty is indeed a strange age to finally become a leading man.
The next trailer was the first I had seen for Charlie’s Angels, and I was surprised to
note something I would have already known if I followed film/social media
gossip more closely: It stars Kristen Stewart.
I’d suggest that in signing on to play Batman, Robert
Pattinson had made it safe for Twilight
stars turned serious actors to go mainstream again. Except that if anything it
would be the other way around, as Stewart obviously signed on first.
Both former Twilight
stars have worked overtime in the past five to ten years to put that phase of
their careers behind them. If one of the two of them were more dedicated to
shunning the spotlight, I’d say it was probably Stewart. After finally
sloughing off the yoke of the Twilight series
in 2012, Stewart has worked for name directors like Ang Lee and Woody Allen,
but none of the projects she’s taken could be confused as attempts to earn a
paycheck. Pattinson has been more obscure in his choices, with David Cronenberg
being about the only household name he’s worked with, but he was never as
vociferous as Stewart in how much he hated the trappings of fame.
Yet Stewart has made the choice to earn money again through
a movie that seems a bit less likely to be good than The Batman. I wonder if she liked the opportunity to work with a
female director, Elizabeth Banks, who also stars as Bosley. It certainly doesn’t
seem like we need another Charlie’s
Angels, though we haven’t needed any more Batman movies for a while now.
So while I don’t take lightly accusations of people selling out, and appreciate
actors who work in both big and small fare, I do think that it seems like
Stewart might be doing this, sort of.
Plus I couldn't resist the chance for the alliteration in the
title of this post.
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