As an actor, Christopher Walken is no slouch. He won an Oscar for The Deer Hunter and was nominated again for Catch Me If You Can. That said, sometime around the late 90's, people started to realize that Christopher Walken was best at playing Christopher Walken, and directors have simply been turning the camera on him and saying "just be you" ever since. And he has been.
It was also around this time that comedians added him the list of essential impressions that everyone needs to be able to do. Right behind Sean Connery and William Shatner. And it was also around this time that he made SNL waves with the infamous 'cowbell' sketch.
Which is all well and good. But does it make him man crush worthy? Well, let's see: He entertains me. He has a good and self deprecating sense of humour. And really, he just seems like a cool guy.
Although, he's not without his flaws. You know how some actors seem to just do every movie offered to them. And you joke 'man, that guy'll do anything as long as the cheque clears'. Well in Walken's case, that's pretty much true. He has actually stated in interviews that he'll decline a roll only if he is too busy with another project to work on it. And because of this, a fine filmography which has seen movies he's acted in receive 35 Oscar nominations and 12 wins (although the fact that Click was nominated for an Oscar discredits that entire statement) is also marred by a list of duds that would rival Dane Cook. For every Man on Fire there's a Balls of Fury.
...and a Kangaroo Jack.
But he was in Pulp Fiction. And not even Gigli can cancel that out. And because of it, I can hold my head high knowing he deserves to be here.
Proof of Awesomeness:
You were expecting the 'cowbell' sketch there, weren't you? Don't get me wrong, like everyone else on the planet, I love me some 'more cowbell', but it's a bit played out these days. A lot played out. Annoyingly so. Plus, I really love that Fatboy Slim video.
Ok, so due to the copyrighted nature of this music video, it's been a struggle to post it here on the blog. Right now it seems to be fine, but the second anyone clicks on the video on the actual YouTube site, the embedding function gets disabled here on the blog. So, please don't view it in YouTube, and please don't write too much hate mail if you go to click on it and it says that due to embedding being disabled you have to view it on YouTube (in which case, feel free). Sorry, it's the best I could do.
ReplyDeleteOh man, now that song will be stuck in my head all weekend. It's not a bad thing, I'm just stating fact.
ReplyDeleteI thought Balls of Fury was pretty good. Well, it was OK.
ReplyDeleteYou must have seen a different Balls of Fire than I did...
ReplyDelete*spoiler alert, don't read this comment if you wish to be surprised as the list continues to be revealed.
ReplyDeleteI could never craft the written word as eloquently as T, so I won't even try. I would however, like to submit my predictions for remaining 21 Man Crush entries. My main goal is that my 21 names appear on the list, actual order is close to what I expect, but nailing that bang on would be just fluke. That said, I can guarantee, my number 1 and 2 picks!
1. Steve Nash
2. Kevin Smith
3. Jemaine Clement
4. Ewan McGregor
5. Dave Grohl
6. Jackie Chan
7. Adam Carola
8. Guy Richie
9. Will Arnett
10. Robert Downey Jr.
11. Clive Owen
12. Jason Statham
13. Brett McKenzie
14. Jason Mewes
15. Conan O'Brien
16. Michael Cera
17. Charles Barkley
18. Bill Simmons
19. Gerard Butler
20. Baron Davis
21. John Cusack
Honorable Mention
(While I didn't guess they would make the list, I still get points for calling it, if the following do appear on the list)
Charley Boorman
Matt Groening
Vinny Jones
Craig Ferguson
George Lucas
Ryan Reynolds
Larry Bird
Trav, you better not change this list around just to spite me cause I've nailed it, I can picture our conversation already..."Ryan Seacrest Trav? Number 1? Really?" "Oh ya Randy, he was always number 1!"