BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) MESSIAH KING
(“Wristcutters: A Love Story” - 2007)Will Arnett is a hilarious actor. He’s not had nearly as many lead roles as he should have had, but his supporting roles just about always stand out. He’s dependable on the funny. We could have gone with his supporting roles in “Semi Pro” or “The Rocker” or even his co-starring performance in “The Brothers Solomon”. I might be alone, but I enjoyed all three of those movies a lot. None the less, I’m going with his role as “Messiah King” in Wristcutters. I love this movie a lot and was all into it. Then out of nowhere Will Freakin’ Arnett shows up as an evil cult leader. He gave this surreal drama a kick in the ass and really carried the third act of the movie.
(THREE) JONATHAN
(“Hot Rod” - 2007)Hot Rod is such a great movie. It’s probably in my Top 10 Comedies of the “00’s”. I don’t think it gets a tenth of the worship it should. The movie is about a man-child who does stunts ala Evel Knievel in his neighborhood. He ends up meeting up with his old crush, who just so happens to be with “Jonathan”. He just plays the dick role with perfection here, but still just as over the top as the rest of this very over the top movie. I still laugh to myself over the scene where she leaves him and in result he repeats “Babe!” over and over. It’s a lot funnier than I just described.
(TWO) NELSON BEIDERMAN IV
(“Lets Go To Prison” – 2006)This movie is so underrated it hurts. Arnett costars in this with Dax Shepard. Arnett’s dad is a judge who put Dax in jail all his life. The dad dies, but Dax still seeks revenge so he screws with Arnett. He frames him and gets him arrested. From there it’s all jail jokes. The food, the gangs, not dropping the soap, etc. etc. The premise would seem sorta obvious once it gets going, but it turns out to be a very fun and cohesive movie. Will Arnett does awesome here in a starring role. It’s another snobbish jerk role, but this one is different.
(ONE) STRANZ VAN WALDENBERG
(“Blades of Glory” – 2007)This skating comedy stars Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as two former enemies that come together for one cause… to win medals. Their main obstacle besides themselves is a brother and sister skat duo played by Will Arnett and and his real life wife Amy Poehler. The relationship between Arnett and Poehler is a bit weird, but funny as hell. The stand out scene in the movie is the chase on skate scene. Will is running from Arnett from outside an arena and all the way through the lobby, crowd, and to the ice. I laugh every time the skates get stuck in the escalator. Arnett and Farrell can’t fight at this point so they have a casual conversation about Arnett’s JFK costume. It’s such a silly scene, but sums up the awesomeness of Will Arnett perfectly. Someone give him a bag of money and let him star in a big project already.
|
