Recommending the unrecommended
Now listen all you cinemarant devotees…yes, that means both of you. Actually no, now it’s just one of you.
I hear you saying to yourself “my god! Cinemarant has provided me with so much. I have reviews, recommendations, lists, more reviews, more recommendations, and then even more lists. What more could I possibly need?”. Well, I’ve decided to spice up your plate yet some more. I’m not adding a new section to the site, but rather a subsection. The Recommendations section will now be split into two categories: Films and Actors. I’m thinking of adding a Director’s subsection aswell, but we’ll see how that plays out.
Alright, so in the”Films” subsection, it’s pretty straight forward. I recommend films that I think you should all see.
However, in the “Actors” subsection I will be recommending actors who I think you should look into and hopefully appreciate. These will most likely be obscure names, but not necessarily. The main point is to open your eyes and introduce you to some of the people who have contributed a lot to film, often without getting a lot of recognition for it. These people most likely do not have a Bieber-fever fan group following them, hence their names go unrecognised and/or unacknowledged.
There, got it? Sweet. So now, let’s kick off with a woman I love to love:
Aww, she’s so sparkly. I totally didn’t add those lens flares in photoshop, she just looks like that.
Alright, so for those of you who don’t recognise Karen, she was kind of a big deal in the 80’s. Well, maybe not a big deal, but that’s certainly when her career peaked. You can look up her entire resume on IMDB yourself, but let me just say that I most fondly remember her from:
Karen only played a supporting role in this movie, but so did everyone else. It’s an ensemble cast, to which she adds an lot. With so much craziness going on on screen, it’s important to have a sweet, smiley, grounding figure in the group. Who better than Karen Allen to help bring this troop of bizarro characters down to earth and give us something more substantial to believe in? That’s not to say that she’s free of all wackyness herself.
Who can’t enjoy this movie? I mean, really. It’s the original Indiana Jones, and Allen luckily scored a part in it. It gave her a huge boost in her career, and she deserved it. She gave such incredible life, feistiness, beauty, and loveable purity to the character of Marion Ravenwood. She was the perfect romantic counterpart to Harrison Ford.
Starman is Karen Allen’s brightest shining achievement. It’s a gorgeous film with a warm heart and it places her centre stage. The movie rests largely, or even entirely, on the believability and like-ability of her character. She plays a woman who’s husband has just died. An alien arrives at her front porch and takes on his appearance, with intentions of finding a way back to its home planet. Sound ridiculous? Meh, why not? It’s actually very comparable to E. T., except obviously without the same type of creature effects. It’s also not aimed as much for children, but still works fantastically as a film the whole family can watch. And in this one… Karen Allen’s performance will make you cry.
I’m not as big-a-fan of Bill Murray as everyone else seems to be, but I do think he can be funny. However, a lot of his films often aren’t, well…not to me at least. Scrooged is different. Scrooged is funny, and it’s sweet.
Why is it so sweet? You guessed it; Karen Allen! Ok, no, there are more reasons than just her. For starters it’s an 80’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which is of course a classic. Also it has Bobcat Goldthwait in a fairly big role, something you don’t see a lot outside of the Police Academy movies. But of course, Karen Allen steals the show for every minute that she’s on screen. At this point she was most likely being typecast because of her pale “un-corruptable-looking” eyes, but that would only last until…
That photo essentially tells you everything you need to know. A mass murderer is killed and then has his consciousness transferred into a computer network, thus allowing him to continue his killing spree! Wait…what?
You mean that wasn’t obvious? I thought a picture was supposed to be worth a thousand words, and that was only twenty-two. Anyways, it’s your typical haunted-Microsoft movie. Cause, you know, they’re a dime a dozen. It’s full of crappy early 90’s CGI, in tandem with late 80’s practical pyrotechnics. Oh, Karen Allen’s in it too, by the way.
A small part, Karen doesn’t have a lot of lines and she isn’t a very important character. Still, her big puppy dog eyes help you to feel sorry for her as she tries to keep her sailing-boat upright. That’s not a euphemism, she really is trying to keep her boat from flipping over in a storm.
How good was Karen as Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark? So good that they brought her back for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The first Indiana Jones film in 19 years, there was a lot of hype about it. Unfortunately it got slammed by a lot of critics and audience members. Many many people hated it to the core.
Well, I loved it. I loved having Indy back, I loved having the adventures back, I loved having that popcorn-80’s feeling back, and I loved having Karen Allen back. It was the perfect tribute to the cast that started it all, and I thank Steven Spielberg endlessly for going in that direction.
So now, I recommend that you go out and purchase something with Karen Allen in it. hopefully it’ll be one of the films listed above, as they’re the ones I think are the best, but anything will do. We should all try to support great artists wherever possible, and Karen Allen certainly qualifies.
Rant Over!
Cinema Rant 
Karen Allen *is* awesome. I’m happy you showcased her. I need to watch Starman again. And I think you may like Bill Murray if you watch his later films. I particularly like him in Broken Flowers and I just saw Moonrise Kingdom and that was good. I don’t much care for his earlier comedies, although some of the films I like him in may be considered comedy (The Royal Tenebaums or Rushmore).
I saw Cronos, btw. I really liked that one!
I like Groundhog Day, mostly because it’s a funny concept, and Ghostbusters is great of course. I don’t….NOT like Bill Murray. I just don’t understand why people find him so EXTREMELY funny and why he has this reputation as a great comedic actor. I find much of his style to be far too deadpan, to be honest. I haven’t seen Moonrise Kingdom yet but I’ve heard good things about it, so I look forward to that.
That’s awesome that you saw Cronos, a lot more people should see that film. I’m so glad you liked it. 🙂
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thanks lad. gonna watch starman with a mate.