The Moviefone Blog

Nicolas Cage Movies: His 10 Best and Worst

Dan Solomon — 2011-01-07T16:30:00+00:00

In honor of Nicolas Cage week, we've been sifting through the man's prepostorously long filmography in order to determine the ten best and worst films he's appeared in. This is no simple task. The highs are some of the better movies of the past few decades, and the lows are -- well, they're pretty low. As the man turns 47 years old today, we can only hope that the next four-plus decades are filled with an array of his movies as wildly uneven as the first.

When compiling the list, we tried to focus mostly on the Cage's more noteworthy performances -- so, even though it was awesome in its own right, his cameo in 'Fast Times At Ridgmont High' doesn't qualify for a spot on the "best" list. We also limited it to movies we'd actually seen, meaning that 'Season of The Witch,' which opens today, also doesn't count. (Cage told us this week that the script was "marvelous," so who knows?) Nonetheless, if you disagree with some of our picks, let us know in the comments.

THE BEST:

10. 'Valley Girl'
The movie that launched Cage's career, 'Valley Girl' is responsible for the past 28 years of Nicolas Cage glory. His first time on screen, he gets described as a "hunk," which set the stage for Cage's early career. Regardless, his turn as the L.A. punk rocker who falls for the well-heeled, titular Valley Girl was a worthy beginning.

Julie Sees Randy for the First Time
Valley Girl at MOVIECLIPS.com

9. 'The Weather Man'
If all you knew about this 2005 film was that it was directed by 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' maestro Gore Verbinski, starred Nicolas Cage as a character who carried around a bow and arrow, and was called 'The Weather Man,' you would be forgiven for assuming that it was about an evil, weather-controlling wizard brought down by a warrior played by Cage (with Michael Caine as his mentor, obviously). Instead, it's a quirky, indie-style dramedy in which Cage stars as a TV weatherman with a troubled, but charming, family life, whose interest in archery is mostly inspired by an interest in keeping people from throwing milkshakes on him as he walks down the street. We kind of prefer it the way that it is.

8. 'Moonstruck'
Cage's first time receiving awards consideration (he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor) saw him successfully pull off a fairly ridiculous accent and believably appear to be attracted to Cher. The movie was also one of the first major hits of Cage's career, helping elevate him to the level of stardom he'd eventually achieve.

Ronny Lost His Hand and Bride
Moonstruck at MOVIECLIPS.com

7. 'The Rock'
Part of the tension of Cage's career has been his interest in both artsy, challenging fare and high-profile popcorn pictures. That became immediately pronounced when he followed up his Oscar-winning turn in 'Leaving Las Vegas' with a starring role in Michael Bay's follow-up to 'Bad Boys.' But while some of Cage's more commercial choices have been on the schlocky side, 'The Rock' is a pretty genuinely great example of mid-90's action filmmaking. He holds his own with Sean Connery here -- even if he's not as insanely ripped in this movie as he is in 'Con Air,' the Jerry Bruckheimer production that he starred in immediately after this one.

6. 'Honeymoon In Vegas'
Surprisingly, the first time Nicolas Cage and Bruno Mars appeared in the same film wasn't in the fevered imaginations of people who'd spent too much time reading Popeater -- it was in this well-beloved early-90's romantic comedy, where Cage starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker. (An adorable, 6-year old Mars had a cameo as "Young Elvis.") The movie's at least half as famous for its ending -- which featured a gaggle of skydiving Elvis impersonators -- as it is for Cage's performance, but the highest praise he may receive in his career is that he is worthy of appearing in the same film as the epic contingent of skydiving Elvises. (If that's not enough, he also nabbed another Golden Globe nomination.)

You Turned Me Into a Whore!
Honeymoon in Vegas at MOVIECLIPS.com

5. 'Wild At Heart'
The second entry in the trio of Las Vegas-themed Nicolas Cage movies, 'Wild At Heart' is another strong performance that reveals an important facet of Cage's appeal -- visionary directors want to work with him. This time out, he worked with the divisive David Lynch on a film that at least half of our readers would probably place on the "worst" list. We've got it here, though, because of Cage's deeply affected performance that delivers exactly what the director asked of him.

Don't Turn Away From Love
Wild at Heart at MOVIECLIPS.com

4. 'Face/Off'
One thing Cage hasn't been renowned for throughout his career is subtlety. However, that's because, in most movies, he's not playing the same character (two of the same characters, actually) as John Travolta. Thrown into sharp relief by the comparison to the hammiest living movie star (in one of his hammiest roles, no less), Cage shines in 'Face/Off' as both Castor Troy and Sean Archer, turning in his finest performance in an action movie.

3. 'Leaving Las Vegas'
The role that got Cage his first win at the Golden Globes, also brought him an Oscar. It's also depressing as all hell, thanks in large part to the humanity Cage brings to the character of the pathetic alcoholic on a mission to drink himself to death.

2. 'Adaptation'
We've already highlighted the twitchy, neurotic performance that Cage gives in this Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman picture once this week, in which he plays screenwriter Kaufman and his fictional brother. There's more to say about it, but instead let's focus on his hair in this one, which is possibly the most compelling hairdo Cage ever sported on screen. The movie is outstanding, and it's a Cage performance without peer, but it's been gushed over so many times that we're left staring at his hair and thinking -- "Brilliant."

The Deconstructionist
Adaptation. at MOVIECLIPS.com

1. 'Raising Arizona'
There are an endless number of things to admire about Cage's signature role in this collaboration with the Coen Brothers, but even if the only truly great thing about it were the scene where he steals the diapers, it'd probably warrant the number one spot. Cage is rarely utilized as a physical comedian, but in 'Raising Arizona,' he delivers on that level, as well as on every other level he attempts -- and in this weirdly ambitious comedy, that ranges from charming nice-guy goofiness to some real emotional moments.

Picking Up Diapers
Raising Arizona at MOVIECLIPS.com

THE WORST:

10. 'Trapped In Paradise'
It's a very particular kind of bad performance when an actor is co-starring in a movie alongside Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey, and he gives the least believable and naturalistic performance, but maybe the opportunity to play it that way is what attracted Cage to his role in the mid-90's Christmas caper flick 'Trapped In Paradise?'

9. 'Bangkok Dangerous'
Moviegoers leaving the theater after watching 'Bangkok Dangerous' were not being unreasonable if they questioned whether or not Nicolas Cage ever learned how to read, or if he selected his projects by playing Jenga with his script stacks and choosing the first one to topple. Other valid questions involved a Wesley Snipes-level of possible back taxes or reams of blackmail-level photos. Our explanation? He took the part because he was so stoked about the haircut he'd be wearing in the film. Nothing else makes any more sense.

8. 'Amos & Andrew'
When a comedy intended to take on race relations, starring Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson is released with the title 'Amos & Andrew,' one thing is fairly likely: at some point in the picture, Nic Cage is going to be in blackface. The movie isn't exactly offensive, but it's certainly misguided, and Cage's performance as the bungling white trash burglar Amos isn't a high point. On the bright side, the Sir Mix-A-Lot song from the soundtrack does recount the movie's entire plot, so if you're curious about it now, you can just listen to him rap "Suburbian Nightmare" instead of queuing up the whole movie on Netflix.

Andrew Meets Amos
Amos & Andrew at MOVIECLIPS.com

7. 'Windtalkers'
Sometimes Hollywood math doesn't work like real math. The equation "John Woo + Nicolas Cage - John Travolta + Christian Slater x World War II" should end "= AWESOME." Instead, it equals heavy-handed, cliched schlock that doesn't even come close to Woo and Cage's first collaboration, despite being Travolta-free. Check out Cage's death sequence for proof. (Spoiler: Cage's character dies.)

The Death of Sgt. Enders
Windtalkers at MOVIECLIPS.com

6. 'Knowing'
Director Alex Proyas made three deeply compelling science fiction movies -- 'The Crow,' 'Dark City,' and 'I, Robot,' -- before apparently getting hooked on 'Lost' and recruiting Nicolas Cage to make this pile of nonsense. Sadly, 'Knowing' came out alongside two of Cage's more underrated recent works, 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' and 'Kick-Ass,' but in lieu of the sort of compelling performance he gave in those movies, he instead just shouts mystical mumbo-jumbo a bunch.

A Numbers Discovery
Knowing at MOVIECLIPS.com

5. 'Ghost Rider'
Ultimately, there are two kinds of movies based on Marvel Comics: Ones that are faithful to the source material and compelling in their own right, and ones that have Mark Steven Johnson's name on them. 'Ghost Rider' is of the latter variety, but Cage -- who famously toiled for years to get a crack at the role of Superman -- was so desperate to play a superhero that he took the part anyway. With cringeworthy lines ("I feel like my skull's on fire, but I'm good!") peppering the script, Cage's performance as Johnny Blaze, the titular hero's alter-ego, only rises above "wooden" to reach "cringeworthy."

4. 'Snake Eyes'
Following 'Face/Off,' Cage began a 5-year tear of mediocre-to-bad movies that he wouldn't break until finally reminding people why they used to like him with 'Adaptation.' 'Snake Eyes' was the start of that, and the only clearly memorable thing about the movie is Cage's absurdly loud shirt for the first half, which he seemed determine to render muted by overacting so egregiously that you can't pay attention to anything other than his big stupid face.

3. 'City of Angels'
After earning $200 million worldwide in its initial release, launching the Goo Goo Dolls into stratospheric (albeit short-lived) success based on the strength of the song "Iris" from the movie's 5x platinum soundtrack, and replacing the passion of Wim Wenders' 'Wings Of Desire' with a treakly mushiness in this remake, Cage would go on to never ever star as a leading man in a romance ever again ever. That's about the only thing it has going for it.

2. 'National Treasure: Book Of Secrets'
The first 'National Treasure' is a surprising, family-friendly gem of a Disney adventure movie, with Cage getting his Indiana Jones on alongside Harvey Keitel and Jon Voigt. Its sequel, by comparison, is a disappointing mess. The reason this one is ranked so high is that, while there was no reason to ever suspect 'Ghost Rider' or 'Amos & Andrew' might be good, 'National Treasure: Book Of Secrets' had everything going for it. Except for Cage's performance, its incoherent script, and the nonsensical plot. Stay tuned for the inevitable sequel in 2011!

1. 'The Wicker Man'
If you've been paying attention to Internet memes for the past few years, then you're almost certainly familiar with the so-bad-it's-hilarious "How'd it get burned??!?" clip from this 2006 Neil LaBute thriller. What you may not be aware of is that Cage's performance in that scene is actually about as good as he got in this unspeakable mess. 'The Wicker Man' is a strong contender for the worst movie out of all the movies Cage -- or anyone else -- ever made, and his performance is a very big part of why that is. Even John Travolta, while watching this in the theater, was probably thinking to himself, "Dude, turn it down a notch, okay?"

And check out our week of Nicolas Cage coverage:

Monday -- 47 Facts About Nicolas Cage
Tuesday -- In Defense of Nicolas Cage
Wednesday -- Nicolas Cage Q+A
Thursday -- The Evolution of Nicolas Cage & 'Season of the Witch' X-box Kinect Giveaway
Friday -- 10 Best and 10 Worst Nicolas Cage Movies

Happy Birthday, January Jones! Is 2011 the Year She Becomes a Movie Star?

Dan Solomon — 2011-01-05T15:00:00+00:00

Given how passionate fans of the TV drama 'Mad Men' are, it's easy to forget that the cable show's audience is so limited that its stars aren't, like, stars.

Sure, Jon Hamm appeared in a moderately successful movie last year ('The Town') and has hosted 'Saturday Night Live' multiple times. But as of yet, no box-office heroes have emerged from 'Mad Men.'

Which leads us to ask: Will January Jones (aka Betty Draper) be the first to break out? With big roles in a trio of promising films due out this year -- the Liam Neeson thriller 'Unknown' (Feb. 18), the potential blockbuster 'X-Men: First Class' (June 3) and the Nicolas Cage drama 'The Hungry Rabbit Jumps' (release date TBD) -- Jones has a real shot at transitioning from small-screen favorite to bona-fide star.

In honor of her 33rd birthday -- she isn't named December Jones for a reason -- let's take another look at Miss January (enjoy the photos!) and debate a burning question: Will the 'Mad Men' actress's upcoming films push her over the movie-star hump?

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Will January Jones become a movie star in 2011?

Argument 1: NO WAY!

The thing that all three of Jones' upcoming roles have in common is that they all see her in a role that, at least on the surface, isn't all that different from Betty Draper.

In fact, the biggest difference is that none of them is likely to be as complex or interesting. She plays the lead character's wife in 'Unknown,' the lead character's wife in 'The Hungry Rabbit Jumps,' and a frigid anti-hero in 'X-Men: First Class.'

Filmmakers looking for some surprises from Jones' 2011 movies aren't likely to find them, and they're not likely to consider her for the sort of roles that go to actual movie stars, such as Natalie Portman, Angelina Jolie or Drew Barrymore.

Argument 2: ABSOLUTELY!

Familiarity breeds success in Hollywood, so the fact that Jones is appearing in three different movies is a good start.

'Unknown' looks like it's aiming to be the next 'Taken,' which would warm audiences up nicely for her role as Emma Frost in 'X-Men: First Class.' That geek-fest is virtually guaranteed to be a hit, and the fact that the White Queen tends to spend most of her time in a corset and thigh-high boots probably won't make her appearance any less memorable.

While the Roger Donaldson-directed 'The Hungry Rabbit Jumps' is more of a question mark (especially since it's still lacking a firm release date), an indie starring Nicolas Cage could help her come off of 'X-Men: First Class' with some added, well, class.

Our Take

The transition from TV star to movie star is a tough one, so it's hard to predict if she'll be able to pull it off -- especially since none of these movies is in theaters yet. We don't even know how much screen time Emma Frost will get in 'X-Men: First Class,' or whether Jones has a particularly memorable scene in 'Unknown.'

Still, her worst case scenario is that she's relegated to playing Betty Draper on a cult cable TV show, and that she enjoys a nice under-the-radar career as 'Mad Men' fans-turned-filmmakers start finding roles for her. Either way, we'll take it -- and I'm sure she'd be okay with that, too.

What side do you fall on? After checking out the photos in the gallery above, take part in our readers poll and sound off in the comments -- we'd love to hear what you think.

Will January Jones become a movie star?
Yes -- she'll make the jump this year.	21 (39.6%)
Maybe -- but not this year.	18 (34.0%)
No -- but at least there's 'Mad Men.'	14 (26.4%)

Thanksgiving Movies: 21 Films About Turkey Day

Dan Solomon — 2010-11-25T06:00:00+00:00

Thanksgiving doesn't get the same sort of movie love that holidays like Christmas and Halloween do. Still, just because there aren't quite as many theatrical examples focusing on America's favorite celebration of turkey and smallpox doesn't mean that there aren't a number of films delivering a cinematic representation of the big day.

As you prepare to gorge yourselves on stuffing and pie, Moviefone gives you a list of some of the best Thanksgiving-related movies ever made.

'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' (1987)

The 'Citizen Kane' of Thanksgiving movies, this proto-'Due Date' stars Steve Martin as a beleaguered everyman forced to work with an oversharing buffoon (John Candy) in order to make it home for the holiday. The movie marks John Hughes' first time working with an adult cast instead of teens, and helped cement Martin and Candy's places on the '80s comedy A-list.

'Pieces of April' (2003)

Mostly regarded now as a chance to see a mid-period Katie Holmes in full early-2000s hipster drag, 'Pieces of April' stars the erstwhile Mrs. Cruise as the black sheep of her family, steadfastly working to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for the clan in her tiny apartment with a broken stove.

'Dutch' (1991)

Another John Hughes production, 'Dutch' stars Ed O'Neill as a goofy man-child tasked with escorting a pre-adolescent Ethan Embry as an over-serious child-man to his mother's house for Thanksgiving. In the tradition of 'Home Alone,' it includes lots of shots of a little kid beating up a grown-up.

'Son In Law' (1993)

As far as Pauly Shore movies go, 'Son In Law' is a magnum opus, in that it doesn't co-star Stephen Baldwin and it wasn't followed by a made-for-TV sequel called 'Encino Woman.' It also includes a scene in which Lane Smith presages serving his family a Thanksgiving dinner with the immortal words, "Let's munch some grindage!"

'The Ice Storm' (1997)

Nothing says "Thanksgiving" like key parties and '70s-era suburban angst, and the American debut of director Ang Lee features both of those things. It also features winning early performances by Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, and Elijah Wood.

'The House of Yes' (1997)

Nineties independent film darlings Parker Posey and Josh Hamilton team with Tori Spelling and Freddie Prinze Jr. for the film adaptation of Wendy MacLeod's play. Hamilton brings his fiancee home to meet the family at Thanksgiving, and Posey, who plays his twin sister, doesn't take it so well.

'The Myth of Fingerprints' (1997)

The Thanksgiving setting is usually shorthand for themes of homecoming and family drama, but it's rarely as on-the-nose as it is in the 1997 debut of director Bart Freundlich. Bonus fun fact: Freundlich actually did follow up the Paul Simon title-biting 'The Myth of Fingerprints' with a TV movie called 'The Only Living Boy in New York'.

'Home for the Holidays' (1995)

Even more explicit about its "Thanksgiving as homecoming" theme than 'The Myth of Fingerprints,' this Jodie Foster-directed ensemble piece about a dysfunctional family stars Holly Hunter as a recently laid-off single mom who returns home for Thanksgiving.

'Funny People' (2009)

Judd Apatow's Adam Sandler/Seth Rogen dramedy spans a good amount of time in the lives of its characters, but an early highlight is a scene in which Sandler, as comedian George Simmons, offers up a Thanksgiving toast at the house of his protege, Ira Wright (Rogen).

'Hannah and Her Sisters' (1986)

Woody Allen's 1986 classic spans the course of two years in an extended family, bookended with Thanksgiving dinners. For extra ick-factor, one of the guests at Thanksgiving dinner includes a teenage (and thus pre-marriage to Allen) Soon-Yi Previn.

'Brokeback Mountain' (2005)

Apparently something about Thanksgiving resonates with Ang Lee as a time to depict existentialist despair, as he revisits the setting of 'The Ice Storm' for two rough scenes in 'Brokeback Mountain.' In one, Ennis (Heath Ledger) is confronted by his wife about his encounters with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhall), and in the other, Twist gets into a fight with his father-in-law.

'Scent of a Woman' (1992)

Like most Thanksgiving meals at Casa MovieFone, the one depicted in 'Scent of a Woman' concludes with Al Pacino putting Bradley Whitford in a chokehold.

'Miracle on 34th Street' (1947)

While it's more famously associated with a different holiday, the Christmas classic revolves around the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the catalyst for the whole plot is a sneaky attempt to get an invite to a Thanksgiving dinner.

'Tadpole' (2002)

With apparent Thanksgiving MILF Sigourney Weaver (see also her turn in 'The Ice Storm') co-starring in the debut of a young Aaron Stanford (who'd go on to play Pyro in the 'X-Men' series), 'Tadpole' uses its holiday setting mostly to set up an awkward sex comedy about -- let's face it -- statutory rape.

'Nobody's Fool' (1994)

Most movies that use Thanksgiving to set up introspective family drama follow a pretty basic formula, and 'Nobody's Fool' doesn't deviate much from that standard. It does, however, star Paul Newman and feature scenes of him bantering with everyone from Bruce Willis to Jessica Tandy to Philip Seymour Hoffman to Melanie Griffith, making it easily the coolest of the bunch.

'ThanksKilling' (2009)
Yes, there really is a horror-comedy about a killer turkey taking his revenge on mankind -- meet 'ThanksKilling.' Yes, it's streaming on NetFlix. "Gobble, gobble, motherf***er," indeed.

'She's Gotta Have It' (1986)
While most filmmakers use Thanksgiving as a chance to create an uncomfortable gathering -- say, estranged family members or divorced parents -- Spike Lee, in his directorial debut, went all out: the titular "She" invites all three of her suitors to her apartment for Thanksgiving dinner, and the expected awkwardness ensues.

'Alice's Restaurant' (1969)

If you're fascinated by the story of the remarkable Thanksgiving dinner told in Arlo Guthrie's hippie-era single, but find his "talking blues"-style singing to be insufferable, consider watching the 1969 film spinoff instead.

'Rescue Dawn' (2006)
The Thanksgiving in the Werner Herzog dramatization of Deiter Dengler's capture and escape in Laos during the Vietnam war takes place off-screen. But it's described in rich detail by Dengler (Christian Bale) and his fellow captives (played by Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies).

'Grindhouse' (2007)

The Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez B-movie double feature included a lineup of fake trailers, and the most holiday-themed of the bunch was contributed by 'Hostel' director Eli Roth: 'Thanksgiving,' which Roth insists will be turned into the feature film that 'ThanksKilling' wishes it could be.

'The Big Chill' (1983)

Technically, no, there's not a Thanksgiving scene in 'The Big Chill.' However, there is a very famous deleted scene -- which has yet to surface even on the retrospective DVD releases -- that was set to close the picture. Director Lawrence Kasdan shot a college-era flashback in which the film's reunited baby boomers prepared Thanksgiving dinner with the friend whose death brought them together -- namely Kevin Costner, who otherwise only appears in the movie as the corpse.

'Happytime Murders' Producer Dishes on Brian Henson's Upcoming Puppet Noir

Dan Solomon — 2010-11-15T10:00:00+00:00

The puppet movie-loving public -- which we're certain includes almost everyone who reads Moviefone -- was thrilled to see the initial report that Brian Henson, scion to the house that Kermit built, would be returning to feature filmmaking for the first time since 1996's 'Muppet Treasure Island,' with the puppet noir film 'The Happytime Murders.'

The movie was picked up by Lionsgate and is slated to begin production in January -- and Vulture reports that Cameron Diaz has been offered a starring role. With the film making real progress toward leaving behind its "risky project" description and actually being made, there's also been a lot of speculation about the project based on its one-paragraph synopsis:

"Happytime" takes place in a world where humans and puppets coexist, with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of 1980s children's TV show "The Happytime Gang" gets murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private-eye puppet -- with a drinking problem, no less -- takes the case with his former human partner.

The Internet has mischaracterized the film as a "Muppet noir" -- it isn't, as the Jim Henson Company sold the Muppets to Disney in 2004. Some have also compared the movie to 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and the cult TV show 'Greg the Bunny.' To clarify what 'The Happytime Murders' is really about, Moviefone recently sat down with Dee Austin Robertson, the project's creator and executive producer.

Robertson conceived the script that would become 'The Happytime Murders' with screenwriter Todd Berger in 2000, when the two were undergraduates at the University of Texas. The initial concept sprang out of a short film the two made.

"It was called 'Manifest Destiny,' and it was about this guy who was an alcoholic, and the physical manifestation of his alcoholism was this cute little puppet telling him to drink and drink and drink," says Robertson, 32. "We started developing the idea around this little puppet to use him in a buddy cop film." From there, it exploded into a noir film, which Brian Henson took an interest in.

Despite the fact that the movie will likely be a "hard-R," Robertson says that it's not a huge departure for the Jim Henson Co. "They've been doing their 'Henson Alternative' brand, and started their 'Puppet Up!' show," he says, adding that they've been pursuing more adult-oriented material for a while. "You're not going to see Kermit the Frog in this."

But if they could drop Kermit in for a cameo -- if Henson called Disney to ask if they could borrow the puppet -- would it work in the world that the project takes place in?

"It would be a funny sight gag," says Robertson. "But to integrate it, there's a lot more 'Meet The Feebles' to this project than Muppets."

While it's true that the plot synopsis, on the surface, sounds similar to that of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit,' given that both mix detective noir with beloved children's icons, Robertson's not terribly defensive about that.

"There's the detective element, and the Toons are treated as unequals [in 'Roger Rabbit']," admits Robertson. "But ['Happytime'] is so far from that story and what that film is. While I can see how people would draw that inference, when the film is in the theaters, I don't think you'll hear people say that. And I'm not disappointed if people say that right now, because 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is an amazing film."

So what sort of movies does Robertson think of as being the more active influences on 'The Happytime Murders'? "'Training Day' and 'L.A. Confidential'," he says.

And while Robertson is excited to see what Henson does with the script, he'll admit that when he and Berger were developing the project on their own, he did have his own concept for who should play the human lead. "You know McNulty on 'The Wire'?" he laughs. "That guy."

Actors Who Do Their Own Stunts: Tom Cruise and 8 Other Daredevil Stars

Dan Solomon — 2010-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

Last week, Tom Cruise scaled the world's tallest building while filming his own stunts for 'Mission: Impossible 4.' The idea of a 48-year-old Scientologist peering through the windows at tourists visiting the indoor observation area on the 124th floor is certainly a compelling one, but Cruise is hardly the first big star to perform his own stunts.

Let's take a look at other highly paid actors from recent years who have risked life and limb in pursuit of making things look just a little more authentic on-screen. Keep reading to learn about hardcore stars such as Jason Statham and Chloe Moretz who have elected to take the action into their own hands.

Jackie Chan

Chan, who holds the Guinness World Record for "most stunts performed by a living actor," has to appear first on any list like this. And while his recent fare, such as 'The Karate Kid' and 'The Spy Next Door' haven't been as physically impressive as, say, that bit in 'Police Story' where he uses an umbrella handle to hook onto a speeding city bus, he's still the living master at putting your body out there in order to get the shot.

Jason Statham

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com
The British bulldog of absurdist kicks-and-explosions spectacles since the turn of the millennium, Statham is a former Olympics diver who does almost all of his own stunts -- including the driving -- which is extra impressive given how much abuse his characters in series like 'The Transporter' and 'Crank' take. While he wasn't behind the wheel for the mind-blowing 'Transporter 3' Audi-on-two-wheels-caught-between-two-semi-trucks stunt, much of the bad-ass BMX sequence was all him -- as were about a zillion other things you've seen him do on-screen.

Christian Bale

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com
Bale thrills at the prospect of radically transforming his body as a sort of visual stunt, depending on the role he's playing -- he famously dropped down to 121 pounds for his role in 2004's 'The Machinist', then immediately bulked up to 230 to play Batman the following year. But for the director Werner Herzog, Bale was also willing to put his body at more immediate risk: For 'Rescue Dawn,' he refused to let a stuntman dangle from a moving helicopter in his stead, telling About.com that, "F**k yes, I want to be doing that."

Harrison Ford

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com
There were plenty of things to find unimpressive about 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,' but Harrison Ford's intestinal fortitude on set wasn't one of them. The 65-year-old did "90% of his own stunts," according to costar Shia LeBeouf. While Ford doesn't jump off of motorcycles in his movies, pretty much every time you see Indy take a punch, that's Ford doing the physical stuff.

Viggo Mortenson

Like an American Jackie Chan, Mortenson performed all of his own stunts as Aragorn in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and followed that up with an intense horse-racing period piece, 'Hidalgo,' in which he engaged in high-speed action while on horseback. (According to Internet lore, he was willing to film scenes that even the stuntmen refused.) Meanwhile, in 'Lord of the Rings,' he insisted on carrying a real steel sword for his scenes rather than an aluminum or rubber proxy. After filming 'Hidalgo,' he even bought the horse he rode for much of the action.

Chloe Moretz

The stunts Moretz performs in 'Kick-Ass' may not be as physically daring as, say, those done by Statham in 'Crank,' but for a 13-year-old, she holds her own pretty well. She did nearly all of her own work, except for the part where Hit-Girl scurries up a wall. In the end, according to an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press, she had more trouble with the swearing than the action.

Angelina Jolie

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com
While Tom Cruise was dangling 124 stories up for the 'M:I 4' stunt, he was supported by a full harness with a number of redundant safety wires. When Angelina Jolie walked a narrow ledge 12 stories high for 'Salt,' meanwhile, she had only a single wire there in case she fell. That bit in the trailer where the secret agent (or whatever it is she plays in that movie) jumps off of a bridge? All Jolie, as well. Her motivation? She told 'Entertainment Weekly' that she wanted to do her own stunts to impress her kids.

Cameron Diaz

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com
While filming 'Knight and Day,' Cruise wasn't the only star getting in on the action: Cameron Diaz did much of her own driving for the film's chase sequences. While she did use a stunt double for some of the movie's more unbelievable sequences, she threw her own kicks and punches in many of the action sequences and even took an 'Entertainment Tonight' reporter along with her for a test-drive of the stunt car on-set.

Dax Shepard Talks 'Brother's Justice,' Martial Arts and Burt Reynolds' Junk

Dan Solomon — 2010-10-29T10:00:00+00:00

America -- nay, the world -- has sorely been missing something ever since Chuck Norris became a post-ironic punchline. What is that, you ask? Why, a white martial arts superstar/international sensation, of course!

Luckily, one actor has recognized this void and decided to step in to fill it with a not-so-major motion picture. That man's name is Dax Shepard, and his independently financed movie is 'Brother's Justice.'

You may know Shepard (pictured above) as a series regular on NBC's 'Parenthood'; he has also played the third lead in both 'Employee of the Month' (behind Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook) and 'Idiocracy' (as Luke Wilson's dimwitted guide Frito Pendejo). If those quasi-comedic gigs -- or his pie-eyed love for his fiancée, 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' actress Kristen Bell -- haven't convinced you that he's got the chops to pull off a tough guy role, you're not alone.

In fact, Shepard himself is in on the joke; 'Brother's Justice' -- which Shepard wrote and co-directed -- is a mockumentary, and its very premise rests on the idea that no one believes he'll ever be an action star. Take a look at the goofy trailer, in which Shepard pitches his idea to star in an action movie to a few of his more established pals, such as Ashton Kutcher, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper and Tom Arnold.

The movie, which debuted last week at the Austin Film Festival (read our review here), includes both 'Punk'd'-style interactions with people who weren't in on the gag and improvisations with friends who knew what was up. Its first shots were laid down in 2006, and Shepard -- who spoke briefly with Moviefone before the premiere -- says the impetus behind filming was based on discovering where he placed within the grand scheme of the movie industry.

"As your comedies come out, you quickly learn that no one sees them overseas," says Shepard, 35. "I don't care about that, but when I became aware of it, this idea arose."

Of course, a mockumentary about a comic actor attempting to secure financing for a low-budget action film is unlikely to result in boffo foreign box-office business. But fans of light comedy will enjoy the way he insists with faux-seriousness throughout the movie and during our interview that he actually has the potential to become the next Chuck Norris.

"I'm not big enough, like the Rock or someone like that is, to just lay people out," Shepard tells us. "So I'd have to have some kind of finesse skills, like a martial art."

One of the more outlandish bits in 'Brother's Justice' concerns a trailer for a (fake) aborted Shepard project called '24 Hours To Live'; the clip is made up almost entirely of a series of crotch shots that are intended to be a tribute to Burt Reynolds', um, junk in 'Smokey and the Bandit'.

"['Smokey' features] the most gratuitous shot of his balls, with Sally Field laying on his leg, and they're almost pushing in on it [with the camera]," says Shepard of the ridiculous sequence. "It's overwhelming. So that shot was an homage to Burt Reynolds' balls."

The rest of 'Brother's Justice' is marginally more refined, and even trades on the idea of reinventing oneself in an improbable way, a la Joaquin Phoenix's foray into rap in 'I'm Still Here.' While Shepard stops short of comparing 'Brother's Justice' to that much-discussed recent semi-hoax picture, the Detroit-born actor does boast that he could totally take Phoenix in a fight.

"He grew up in a commune; I'm from the Motor City," says Shepard. "The auto industry versus a hippie commune? He's going to have his hands full."

Will Zach Galifianakis Stop Being Funny? Not If He Follows Our Advice.

Dan Solomon — 2010-10-06T16:45:00+00:00

Zach Galifianakis, take note: Just because everybody -- including us -- thinks you're effin' hilarious right now doesn't mean that people might not get tired of your shtick one of these days.

We'll be the first to admit it: Zach G. is still funny now. Whenever we see him in 'The Hangover' with the baby? Never gets old. The trailer for 'Due Date,' where he's annoying the crap out of Robert Downey Jr. for three minutes, has great comic potential. But in all of these, including the new dramedy 'It's Kind of A Funny Story,' Galifianakis is starting to look a little same-y.

And that's a problem.

For most big-screen funnymen, there comes a point when the gimmick that made them famous begins to wear. Jack Black had an early career trajectory -- beloved indie comedian to buzz-worthy Hollywood hotshot -- similar to Galifianakis's, and though he's still a bankable star, few have flipped over his mainstream work since 2003's 'School of Rock.' Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler and Mike Myers all slipped from their once-lofty comic perches, too.

So how can the bearded buffoon learn from that history and avoid losing his cred? Let's look for some clues as to what he can do to avoid turning into Robin Williams.

Quit Making Stupid Movies
Since 'The Hangover,' Galifianakis has appeared in the direct-to-DVD dud 'Operation: Endgame,' in which he, Rob Corddry, Jeffrey Tambor and Bob Odenkirk are all not funny together. He has a brief appearance in the Michael Cera flop 'Youth in Revolt.' And he stars as Steve Carrell's nemesis in 'Dinner for Schmucks.'

When compared with Jack Black, it's roughly comparable to 'Saving Silverman', 'Orange County', and 'Tropic Thunder' -- movies that did little to endear him to audiences. If Galifianakis can avoid appearing in films that don't adequately showcase his talents or aren't outright money-grabs, his adoring fan base is more likely stay on board.

Stop Playing the Same Character Over And Over
Let's check out what Zach G. plays in the movies mentioned above -- a weird, creepy assassin who lives in his own world ('Operation: Endgame'); a weird, creepy loser who lives in his own world ('Youth in Revolt'); and a weird, creepy IRS agent who lives in his own world ('Dinner for Schmucks'). All of this, and the bearded schlub he plays on HBO's 'Bored to Death' is also very weird and kind of creepy.

Not looking good so far -- and his character in 'Due Date' looks to be a carbon copy of the dude he played in 'The Hangover.' Maybe his part in 'It's Kind of A Funny Story' will break the mold? Well, he plays a weird, creepy mental patient, so ... yikes. Just once, we'd like to see Galifianakis playing the well-adjusted adult surrounded by a bunch of wackos.

Remember What Made Him Funny to Begin With
Galifianakis got super-famous pretty much overnight because his character in 'The Hangover' wasn't just a weird, creepy dude -- he was a weird, creepy dude we'd never seen before. When a guy starts to coast on the persona that made him famous, it's not a good sign.

The part of the 'Due Date' trailer that gets the biggest laugh is when he stares into the camera and says, "You better check yourself before you wreck yourself." But it's also a line that threatens to be his shark-jump moment -- once the thrill of a sloppy, overweight, white comedian quoting Ice Cube wears off, it's only a few movies before he's got his own 'Nacho Libre' or 'Year One' out there, squandering all of the goodwill he earned when everyone thought he was funny.

With any luck, Zach Galifianakis will keep surprising us and reinventing himself in the way still-beloved comic actors like Bill Murray and Steve Martin have over the years. And either way, we're totally seeing 'The Hangover 2.'

Wildlife Filmmaker Chris Palmer Says Nature Documentaries Are Manipulative

Dan Solomon — 2010-10-01T17:30:00+00:00

If you thought that the credibility issues raised by the controversial documentary 'Catfish' could have been solved if they'd opted to abandon the Internet romance and instead head down to the bayou to film actual fish, we have bad news for you.

According to a new book by longtime wildlife filmmaker Chris Palmer, the footage in nature documentaries isn't any more legitimate than, say, Joaquin Phoenix rapping in the studio with Diddy.

Palmer's book, 'Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom,' reveals a number of ways in which animals and audiences have been manipulated by filmmakers. For instance, jellybeans and M&Ms are often placed inside animal carcasses to draw scavengers -- "scary" animals that may, in fact, have been rented from game farms. Another example: One documentary crew buried a whale skull at the bottom of the ocean and then filmed it. Because of such tactics, Palmer says that there are three main problems with nature documentaries: They deceive audiences, they harass audiences, and they sensationalize the truth, all of which jeopardizes the conservation message of the work.

Naturally -- no pun intended -- Palmer's book has antagonized some of his peers, including fellow documentarian Erik Nelson, who Palmer cites as being a pioneer of the "animal attack" genre. Nelson told the Washington Post that Palmer brings "a sort of sanctimonious smugness to his book that sets my teeth on edge."

But as Moviefone has learned in an exclusive interview, Palmer is undeterred by the criticism. Keep reading to learn what he has to say about how long this has been going on, who gets it right, and why you shouldn't live every week like it's shark week.

The History Of Deceptive Nature Documentaries
If you read the headline to this article and thought that it referred to a current problem brought on by the loose morals of today's entertainment industry, you're sadly mistaken.

"If you look back to the history of wildlife films, going all the way to the beginning of the last century, when people started to make them, there's always been manipulation," says Palmer. "The question is just the degree of it." In fact, according to Palmer, things have actually gotten better in some ways. "In those days, there was tremendous cruelty. Animals would be goaded to attack, and then [filmed]. They would put a python and a cougar in a small enclosure to fight.

"We wouldn't do that these days," he continues. "But we do other things now. We use animals that we pretend are free-roaming, but that are actually rented from game farms. Or we have Shark Week -- a program that demonizes sharks and makes them out to be dangerous and menacing man-eaters, at a time when we're trying to preserve them."

Do You Have To Be Crazy To Get Good Footage?
There are two issues at work when it comes to getting authentic wildlife footage: safety and time. According to Palmer, a Distinguished Film Producer in Residence at American University in Washington, D.C., this partially explains why so many filmmakers resort to culling from the game farms.

"Television is a money-driven system," he explains, "And there are tremendous pressures on wildlife film producers to get dramatic 'money shots.' You can only get those by getting close -- you put yourself and the animals in danger when you do that. The animals get habituated to people. You might have a camera, but the next person could have a gun."

In addition to the threat posed to the animals, there's also that to the filmmakers, as well. "Wild animals are unpredictable," he goes on, "And if you get too close, you're asking for trouble."

Consider the case of Timothy Treadwell, the subject of the documentary 'Grizzly Man,' who got tremendous real-life footage of bears in the wild without ever visiting a game farm. Of course, he was later also killed and eaten by those same bears. "Timothy Treadwell viewed bears, to a large extent, as people in bear suits," says Palmer. "He thought he could get close to them, touch them and sing to them. He didn't stage anything -- but he got too close."

Can They Get It Right?
Considering that disturbing wild animals endangers them by habituating them to humans, we asked Palmer if filmmakers were being more ethical to use animals from game farms, who were already tame. "That's a good argument," he says, "But game farms are not healthy places. The cages are small, and the conditions are awful. Predators are right on top of prey. Animals shouldn't be treated that way. If there was a game farm that was incredibly humanely run -- and they don't exist -- but where they were given space to roam freely and so on, then I think you could say that the ends justify the means. It would save you from bothering and harassing a wild animal."

The possibility of an humane game farm is an unlikely scenario, explains Lisa Wathne, a captive exotic animal specialist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "I'd question the possibility of creating one," she says. "It's nearly impossible to create decent, humane conditions for wild animals in captivity. And even if you had them in decent captive conditions, as long as you have people constantly invading their privacy and trying to get the good shot, that's not to the benefit of the animal."

Instead, Palmer -- who praises 'Planet Earth,' a recent BBC and Discovery Channel documentary, as being a rare example of an ethical wildlife film due to it using "very little staging" -- suggests that ethics need to be at the forefront of the film school curriculum. "Just like doctors have training in ethics," he says, "Wildlife filmmakers need to be trained in the ethics of filmmaking."

Game-Changing Technology Breakthroughs and the Movies That Spawned Them

Dan Solomon — 2010-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

When the first trailer for 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' hit, it downplayed the swords, zombies, and Ali Larter-in-the-rain aspects of the film in favor of a technical detail that rarely gets its props: the Fusion Camera System, which makes this the first post-'Avatar' film to have utilized Cameron's invention.

It surely won't be the last, of course -- any time a technological breakthrough is partly responsible for a film grossing almost three billion dollars worldwide, we'll be seeing a lot of it. We took a look at some of the movies that spawned innovations we've since come to take for granted. When the first trailer for 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' hit, it downplayed the swords, zombies and Ali Larter-in-the-rain aspects of the film in favor of a technical detail that rarely gets its props: the Fusion Camera System, which makes this the first post-'Avatar' film to have utilized Cameron's invention.

It surely won't be the last, of course -- any time a technological breakthrough is partly responsible for a film grossing almost three billion dollars worldwide, we'll be seeing a lot of it. We took a look at some of the movies that spawned innovations we've since come to take for granted.

Synchronized dialogue -- 'The Jazz Singer'
'The Jazz Singer' marked the first time that a feature-length film included actual dialogue -- previous pictures only used music and sound effects that matched up to the screen. Various short films had managed to pull off talking before, as well, but we can mark 'The Jazz Singer' as an important and forward-thinking feature ... except maybe for the whole "Al Jolson in blackface" thing.

Technicolor -- 'Becky Sharp'
While 'Gone With the Wind' and 'The Wizard of Oz' both typically get cited as the first feature-length movies shot in full color, that's just because they're the ones that people have actually heard of. In fact, that distinction belongs to this 1935 adaptation of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,' which was poorly preserved for six decades and thus languished in obscurity until a proper restoration was done in 1992 by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. And just because you may not have heard of it doesn't mean it's not any good -- Miriam Hopkins was nominated for an Oscar for her work in the movie.

Polarization 3-D System -- 'Bwana Devil'
Of course, sometimes there's an old movie that was the source of a major technical breakthrough, and it's been forgotten because it's ridiculous. Take 'Bwana Devil,' which was the first American 3-D feature film shot in color. The plot was the same as that of the 1996 Michael Douglas / Val Kilmer thriller 'The Ghost and the Darkness' (seriously), and it seems mostly as though it was made to show lions in 3-D. We will leave you with this quote from noted film critic Hollis Alpert's review: "It is the worst movie in my rather faltering memory, and my hangover from it was so painful that I immediately went to see a two-dimensional movie for relief."

Nudity -- 'Peeping Tom'
Beyond good-and-forgotten and bad-and-forgotten lies a third category: widely-considered-bad-at-the-time-but-later-revered-by-some-as-a-masterpiece, a group which contains Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom.' The 1960 British Hitchock-ian thriller was so controversial at the time of its release that it ended Powell's career; but he got the last laugh, as Martin Scorsese oversaw its re-release in 1978, and Roger Ebert included it in his "Great Movies" column. All of that, and it has the first female nude scene in a major motion picture (albeit for about five seconds).

Computer-Generated Imagery -- 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'
This one's technically a little bit of a cheat -- 'T2' wasn't the first movie to use computerized effects (1973's 'Westworld' owns that distinction), but it was the first to make them really work. Until that point, conventional optical effects (i.e., blowing things up when you needed an explosion) ruled the day. but in 1991, when James Cameron birthed the T-1000, effects ranging from morphing to digital green screen became a mainstay of Hollywood. The film also included 'You Could Be Mine' by Guns 'N Roses as its theme, marking the last time the band would be cool.

Computer Animation -- 'Toy Story'
While most major innovators are of questionable merit as actual movies, 'Toy Story' sprang fully-formed from the head of Pixar like Athena did from Zeus, and you don't need us to affirm its status as a classic. There've been countless computer-animated films and TV shows in its wake, to the point that traditional, 2-D animation has been on life support for years. 'Toy Story' has spawned two equally brilliant sequels, and is best remembered as a testament to the very brief moment in time when Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were both stars of roughly the same status.

Bullet Time -- 'The Matrix'
Hey, remember the time before every action movie featured a climax in which everything got reeeeeally slooooow and the camera moved around to show just how quickly things on the screen were supposed to be happening? We do, kind of, but only because we started watching action movies before 'The Matrix' was released in 1999.

Digital Cinematography -- 'Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones'
George Lucas created a lot of controversy with the 'Star Wars' prequels, but one of the lesser-publicized ones was his decision to shoot the entire second film digitally. Filmmakers, enamored with the first word in their title, were wary of the idea of doing away with the actual "film" part of their work, and the stiff 'Attack of the Clones' probably validated most of their worst fears. Since then, however, time (and budgetary constraints) have steamrolled those concerns, and in 2008 a digitally shot film, 'Slumdog Millionaire,' even won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Presumably this was at least partly because it didn't feature Jar Jar Binks in any capacity.

Meet Jeff Glosser, Michael J. Fox's Basketball Double in 'Teen Wolf'

Dan Solomon — 2010-08-26T13:00:00+00:00

In the pantheon of great basketball movies, 'Teen Wolf' is often overlooked. And that's a shame. After all, it has every bit as much dramatic tension as 'Hoosiers' or 'White Men Can't Jump' -- but it also has a werewolf.

Do 'Hoosiers' and 'White Men Can't Jump' have werewolves? No, they do not. 'Teen Wolf' > 'Hoosiers' and 'White Men Can't Jump.'

Michael J. Fox, of course, has deservedly received nostalgic praise for having brought his boyish charms to the winsome 1985 film about a hirsute young man dreaming of basketball glory. But the movie features another performer whose efforts have previously gone unheralded -- and no, we're not talking about the guy who played Chubby.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of 'Teen Wolf,' let's finally meet the Wolf himself: Jeff Glosser.

These days, Glosser is an assistant principal at an Arizona prep school, but back in 1985, as a freshman at Loyola Marymount University, he was offered the opportunity to be a part of what, a quarter century later, still holds up as one of the finer basketball films ever made, werewolves or no. Moviefone tracked Glosser down in the middle of a workday and persuaded him to tell us about the lone credit on his IMDB page. In the pantheon of great basketball movies, 'Teen Wolf' is often overlooked. And that's a shame. After all, it has every bit as much dramatic tension as 'Hoosiers' or 'White Men Can't Jump' -- but it also has a werewolf.

Do 'Hoosiers' and 'White Men Can't Jump' have werewolves? No, they do not. 'Teen Wolf' > 'Hoosiers' and 'White Men Can't Jump.'

Michael J. Fox, of course, has deservedly received nostalgic praise for having brought his boyish charms to the winsome 1985 film about a hirsute young man dreaming of basketball glory. But the movie features another performer whose efforts have previously gone unheralded -- and no, we're not talking about the guy who played Chubby.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of 'Teen Wolf,' let's finally meet the Wolf himself: Jeff Glosser.

These days, Glosser is an assistant principal at an Arizona prep school, but back in 1985, as a freshman at Loyola Marymount University, he was offered the opportunity to be a part of what, a quarter century later, still holds up as one of the finer basketball films ever made, werewolves or no. Moviefone tracked Glosser down in the middle of a workday and persuaded him to tell us about the lone credit on his IMDB page.

Getting the job
Glosser's not shy about admitting that he wasn't the first choice to play the Wolf. "A week before the movie started filming, the basketball double dropped out," he explains. "I was a sophomore at Loyola Marymount University at the time, and Dick Baker, who played the referee in the movie, knew the basketball coach at the school. He asked him if he knew anyone who was small and could play basketball. I was involved in the sports program there, and I got a call from the athletic office -- 'Some guy wants to see if you want to be in a movie.' We shot around a bit, Michael J. Fox showed up, and we all got along great."

"Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!"
Playing basketball while decked out in the full wolf outfit was a little bit of a challenge, especially for a first-time actor. "We got there at five in the morning, and did makeup until eight," Glosser remembers. "Then we'd film from eight to eight." It wasn't playing in the wolf garb that was hard, he says -- just that he couldn't eat anything while wolfed out.

"For those twelve hours, you could just sip milkshakes, or soup," he recalls. "And it would get hot, too. The first night of shooting, I came down with a rebound, turned, and caught a guy's elbow -- and the whole mask just exploded off of my face because of sweat. Otherwise, the outfit wasn't so bad; it was really just a jumpsuit, and I still had control of my hands."

Hanging out with Michael J. Fox
Glosser's one regret, when he thinks back to the impact 'Teen Wolf' had on his life, is that he lost touch with Michael J. Fox somewhere along the way. "He was a great guy," he says. "For five or six years after the movie, I'd go see him a couple times a year on the set of 'Family Ties.' Then I moved out of L.A., and he moved back east, and I lost contact with him. But we got along well.

"Because I came in so late in the process, they initially spelled my name wrong in the credits -- but Michael J. Fox got me a credit in there, and did some nice things for me that he didn't have to do." Fox even offered to help Glosser get his screen extras card, so that he could do more movies, but he passed on it. "I'm a one-hit wonder," he laughs.

Lasting impact
Glosser was pretty surprised to hear from us -- these days, he doesn't get a whole lot of phone calls asking him about his role in 'Teen Wolf' 25 years ago. "It's been pretty funny," he says, "I work at a high school now, and I ended up becoming a basketball coach." He stresses that he didn't feel the need to mention his 'Teen Wolf' bona fides during the job interview, although that hasn't stopped students and colleagues from figuring it out. "There's a 'Teen Wolf' picture on my bulletin board that a couple of players brought in," he says. "Everywhere I go, when someone finds out, they'll bring it up."

So how does Glosser feel about his brief brush with cinematic and basketball immortality? In the end, he's pretty low-key about it. "For a low-budget film that came out of nowhere," Glosser opines, "we did pretty well to be remembered 25 years later."