I would love for this to be the summer of Jason Bateman, and it's not just because of my dedication to all things Arrested Development. Bateman, with his skilled timing and expressive face, redefined the role of the "straight man" in comedy, making the middle Bluth as screwed-up (and occasionally as much fun to watch) as the loonier members of his family. He's a perfectly good actor, and he's demonstrated it with fantastic supporting roles in movies like State of Play and Up in the Air. The news that not one, but two movies with Bateman in starring roles made me more than a little excited.
Then I found out what the two movies were. And one of them is a body-switch movie.
I don't really object to Bateman making these luke-warm comedies (his kids gotta eat, and besides, what actor hasn't actually made a couple of flops here and there?). I just wish he'd balance them out with something, well, meatier. Now that the Arrested Development movie has been properly announced, we can at least look forward to Bateman's reprisal in his role as Michael Bluth. Hopefully, he'll give us something else to look forward to before long.
Anyway, the Bateman Situation, as I'm calling it, got us to thinking about all of the actors we love that we wish would make better movies. Here's a list of 10.
1. Michael Keaton Sure, we love Keaton's recent work in Cars and Toy Story 3 (he stole the show as Ken), but he lost a lot of cred with Herbie Fully Loaded and First Daughter. His earlier work in Clean and Sober and One Good Cop showed off his real chops.
2. Debra Winger She brought us to tears in Terms of Endearment and Shadowlands (both of which earned her Academy Award noms), but hasn't done much recently (aside from a few In Treatment episodes). We want her back.
