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Post by deeconsistent on May 28, 2015 21:11:53 GMT -4
Completely true. It's like luminosa said, the fawning the media do over him is just bonkers. It's completely unearned. I've actually been offended by it at times. Like the Time and Vanity Fair covers,for instance. I think it was in that Vanity Fair article when the interviewer asked him about the press Tom Cruise was getting at the time and George called him "a good egg." It sounded so condescending, like he was talking about an up-and-coming teeny bopper who could only hope to one day make it to George's level of rarefied fame, when, in fact, it was exactly the opposite.
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greekone
Landed Gentry
Posts: 501
Apr 25, 2015 14:49:08 GMT -4
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Post by greekone on May 29, 2015 1:07:28 GMT -4
Completely true. It's like luminosa said, the fawning the media do over him is just bonkers. It's completely unearned. So true. All I can come up with is that Clooney must have a picture of each one of these fawning sychophants making love to a horse. That's got to be it. It makes no sense otherwise.
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Post by Hamatron on May 29, 2015 1:22:46 GMT -4
I'm not that into him, but he's a movie star. He's been in over fifty films. His movies have made almost $2 billion total. He's won Oscars. He has produced some great stuff too. His acting style really works in the right context. His voice and speech patterns are recognizable. He's from a legacy family. We're taking the time to talk about why we don't like him and if he's a movie star. All of this points to star.
I agree that the press is going nuts over him while the rest of us aren't that into it. What people are saying here is dead on. He has a level of media adoration/real people over it dissonance that is right up there with the media's treatment of Gwenyth Paltrow a few years back before they cottoned on that we were laughing/hate reading Goop.
I think the main problem with him right now is the tone of his career. His wedding hysteria wasn't a couch jump, but man, it was tiring and weird and suspicious. His wife is fine, but she's not this amazing iconic person. We hardly know her, damn. Calm down, press.
Side note: Dwayne Johnson seems really cool, but the difference is that he stars in intended blockbusters. He doesn't go for the same levity that a Clooney attempts. He's flying out of airplanes in an exploding car. There's nothing wrong with that, but their careers aren't really comparable.
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Post by deeconsistent on May 29, 2015 4:06:55 GMT -4
He has been nominated and won several Oscars, but I don't think most people would be able to tell you what those noms and wins were for. I don't think most people consider his prestige pics must-see modern classics. I don't think most people associate George Clooney with projects they want to watch. I'm not even saying they're bad, but in terms of star-power, he's not particularly impressive. Quite frankly, the fact that he has been nominated so many times, for me, is as much if not moreso, proof of the power of the Clooney hype machine as it is a statement about the quality of his work.
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Post by kateln on May 29, 2015 6:53:05 GMT -4
I like George Clooney when he owns his smarminess. He was awesome in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" which still has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Otherwise, whatever.
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cancan
Blueblood
Posts: 1,362
Apr 21, 2006 13:01:02 GMT -4
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Post by cancan on May 29, 2015 8:46:20 GMT -4
I like George Clooney when he owns his smarminess. He was awesome in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" which still has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Otherwise, whatever. I don't think a day goes by without quoting that movie. Even today (before I read this) we were discussing what kind of product to put in our long-haired son's hair and I said he was a Dapper Dan man. He was decent in that movie with J.Lo too. Out of Sight? Typically I don't care for either one of them but they were okay in that.
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Post by Neurochick on May 29, 2015 8:54:03 GMT -4
Well, it is the NY Post, which is the brother/sister to Faux News so.... Meaning the NY Post is notoriously conservative, so I don't pay attention to anything they say, as I detest conservative rethuglicans.
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Post by Mutagen on May 29, 2015 8:59:49 GMT -4
The comparison with Dwayne Johnson is an interesting one. To me, they both have a similar quality - the ability to sort of wink at the audience, to own the ridiculousness. It's unfortunate that George has veered into smug territory because I had always liked that he seemed to have a sense of humor about things like Batman.
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tortuga
Landed Gentry
Posts: 971
May 4, 2006 20:18:39 GMT -4
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Post by tortuga on May 29, 2015 9:54:43 GMT -4
The comparison with Dwayne Johnson is an interesting one. To me, they both have a similar quality - the ability to sort of wink at the audience, to own the ridiculousness. It's unfortunate that George has veered into smug territory because I had always liked that he seemed to have a sense of humor about things like Batman. I think my problem is that I've heard one too many self-deprecating jokes from him and all of a sudden I'm like "whoa...he right." See also: That WTF Wedding.
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Post by Hamatron on May 29, 2015 11:01:21 GMT -4
He has been nominated and won several Oscars, but I don't think most people would be able to tell you what those noms and wins were for. I don't think most people consider his prestige pics must-see modern classics. I don't think most people associate George Clooney with projects they want to watch. I don't know about that. I can think of a few flicks he was in that I enjoyed. And it looks like others here can, too. I remember liking Syriana (which he won an Oscar for), Out of Sight, From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Up in the Air, Gravity, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Three Kings, O Brother, and Argo (another Oscar win, for Best Pic). He has a career spanning decades. So, he has done some enjoyable/memorable stuff. In fact, when I come home from Christmas, my dad often pics Clooney pics because for a family of grownups they tend to be a better bet than a hobbit or kiddie movie. It's kind of hard to tell what is going to become a modern classic, but Syriana and Three Kings have had some legs in terms of showing in up in academic film essays. Dusk Til Dawn makes top vampire lists. Out of Site is a movie people seem to really like. O Brother is a Coen classic. I don't know. I also suspect that he will be remembered, which is one criteria I think of when considering someone a movie star. Like Brad Pitt, for example. Some of his movies are really bad, some are good, and there are a lot of them. He had a heartthrob phase (so did Clooney). He's not great at acting, but he can do his thing proficiently. When asked to name stars from the era, our teenage grand kids will probably know who these two guys are, partly because they have been ubiquitous onscreen and in the media for so many decades. ETA: I get that he has a major bomb on his hands right now, which leads to essays about how someone was never a star. He's also waaay overexposed from the wedding, and his PR has been less charming, more weird as of late. AND his "celebrity who thinks he has a shot in politics" schtick is getting old. I find him annoying right now. But looking at the big picture? He does have a memorable career.
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