After I saw the remake of The Heartbreak Kid over the weekend (verdict? Meh.) I got to thinking about Ben Stiller's career. It's been a while since he really did anything noteworthy. Put it another way- when was the last time he made a movie I would've gone out of my way to see? Far as I can tell it was 2001, the year of The Royal Tenenbaums and Zoolander. Since then, a whole bunch of junk, with a few good cameos sprinkled in for flavor. What does it say about Stiller's recent filmography that the most I've laughed at the guy in the last six years has been in his cameo in Anchorman and his guest appearance on Arrested Development?
What happened to the guy who was for a while one of the best comic minds around? A guy who gave us the hilarious, doomed sketch comedy series The Ben Stiller Show, with wonderfully bizarre sketches including some of the greatest showbiz parodies ever shown on TV? Or even the guy who gave us this:
Yes folks, that's the entire pilot for the Stiller-directed Heat Vision and Jack, a parody of 80s cheese TV that Fox failed to pick up. It's hard to tell whether it would have worked as a series, but standing alone it's pretty damn funny. And isn't it nice to remember Ben Stiller as the king of hip, knowing comedy on TV? Or to remember Owen Wilson as the mellow, spaced-out dude we grew to love? Or to remember Jack Black as... actually, Jack's pretty much the same as he ever was here, only he hadn't yet made Envy. Which co-starred- well, wouldja look at this- Ben Stiller. *sigh*
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Put it another way- when was the last time he made a movie I would've gone out of my way to see?
Not counting Tenenbaums, in which he was just a co-star, I'd say Permanent Midnight in 1998.
What happened to the guy who was for a while one of the best comic minds around?
$$$
Well, taking another look at his career he really didn't make that many really good ones prior to 2001 either. Still, a lot of those at least had scenes of inspiration. As compared to seeing him on hapless autopilot in Fockers or getting scenes stolen from him by guys in their seventies and eighties in Night at the Museum. Maybe it just feels like he makes more crap now because (a) he's actually top-lining movies now, and (b) we've seen how funny he can be. I'm not asking for another Ben Stiller Show, mind you. Another gas station scene from Zoolander would suffice.
Yeah, Zoolander was hilarious. O Stiller, what you done?
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