There is a saying that a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link. The saying is true in a
literal sense. A weak link in a chain is
the link most likely to break. When and
if it does, the chain will break. With a
broken link, the chain is useless. Thus,
the strength of the chain is dependent upon the strength of each and every
individual link. This saying has been
used in many different settings as a metaphor for teamwork. The problem is that it does not apply to
every team. Some people on a team are
going to end up being more important than the other members, and their strength
is more heavily weighted when it comes to the overall success. In movies, extras aren’t as important as the
lead actors. Extras can be weaker and
the chain that is the movie will not break and collapse. But the lead actor is the driving force In
terms of performances and is the person tasked with keeping the movie
together. He or she is in the forefront
and is the most important link in the chain.
The lead actor does not have the same leeway to be weak as extras do.
Most of the leading actors who went on to become movie stars
for extended periods of time have been able to turn in good performances. They captivated audiences throughout their
careers by showcasing their talents, or giving the audiences something to
enjoy. They’re just plain interesting to
watch. Look at Tom Cruise, for
example. He is likeable, charismatic,
and dedicated to making movies. It comes
across in each and every performance.
For three and a half decades, he has entertained audiences through his
onscreen appearances. It takes a good
leading actor to be likeable or captivating enough that people will watch them
for decades.
On the other end of the spectrum are leading men and women
who never capture the hearts of audiences.
They made a handful of attempts at becoming a big movie star and never
succeeded at it. I watched one such
failed star a while back. In the late
1990s, Dennis Rodman had two leading roles in feature films. One was in a movie called Double Team, which I haven’t seen in
years. His other shot at movie stardom
(I’m not trying to make a basketball pun by saying shot) was Simon Sez. The performance was so stiff and wooden that
he would never be the star of another movie.
Rodman never really transcended his basketball stardom to become a movie
star.
A common trend, as with Dennis Rodman, was for failed movie
stars to be people who had moved to films from another form of celebrity. Hulk Hogan made an attempt in the 1980s and
1990s to move from wrestling to movies and ended up starring in a string of bad
movies. Paris Hilton tried her hand at
acting after being famous for being famous.
She now has a few movies that she starred in featured in the IMDb Bottom
100. And then there is Pauly Shore, an
MTV personality turned movie star. The
only movie of his that I think anyone fondly remembers is Encino Man. He followed that
up with movies that left people wondering why he was starring in movies at all.
I am not a huge Pauly Shore guy. I have only seen one of his movies and that
was this past week. His personality and
overall demeanor always scared me away from his live action work (I say that
because I might have seen The Goofy Movie
as a child, and he did a voice in that).
Yet, I feel like Bio-Dome, the
movie I watched this week, is a good example of why some people do not make it
as long lasting movie stars. It is a
movie that highlights the importance of a lead actor and a lead character. It also shows specifically why Pauly Shore
fizzled out of the spotlight and why people don’t look back on his movie career
as a good one.
Allow me to begin by telling you a little bit about Bio-Dome in case you aren’t familiar
with it. Bio-Dome was a 1996 movie about two slackers named Bud (Pauly
Shore) and Doyle (Stephen Baldwin) who accidentally get locked up in an
environmental study facility for a year.
The study was being conducted by five scientists who wanted to see if
they could keep harmony within this dome that housed most of the world’s
natural habitats. The two slackers end
up bringing chaos into the study which leads to crazy and wacky antics
happening.
The idea of the movie Bio-Dome
is an interesting one. Within any
scientific experiment or study, there are variables that cannot be
controlled. In the case of the
ecological study being undertaken in the movie, the characters of Bud and Doyle
are the variables. They were unexpected
and cause things to happen that were unexpected to everyone involved. This could easily make for a good movie. The problem comes down to the actors and
their performances in the variable roles.
Bud and Doyle are very unlikeable characters. The way they act is so infantile that it is
quite off-putting to watch. They go out
of their way to cause destruction and antagonize the scientists, all in a way
where they seem like annoying, not cute children. Pauly Shore does well as the character. I will give him that much. But it also seems like a lot of him is in the
character. The way that the character
prances around the scenery, the scene where he shows people that he can put his
leg behind his head, and the sense of humor.
They all fit what I know of Pauly Shore.
It doesn’t work for a lead character that you are supposed to sympathize
with. For the majority of the movie, the
characters of Bud and Doyle are the antagonists to the scientists’ work, even
though the two characters are the ones that we follow throughout the film. When they become the heroes later in the
movie, it is hard to be on their side because of how immature they act for most
of the movie.
If the lead character of the movie is going to be a bad
person, they need to be a captivating bad person. The movie is not served well if the character
is annoyingly bad. The audience wants to
be interested in what is happening. When
the bad lead character is annoying, it is hard to want to watch them. There is nothing that makes you want to
invest your time in what is happening. When
the performance of the lead actor is just as annoying as the character itself, the
audience is simply left irritated. The
performance needs to have weight, or be entertainingly bad for the audience to
be interested. An annoying character
portrayed in an annoying way is just annoying.
When an actor’s character type is not engaging, the actor is
not engaging. In Pauly Shore’s case, he
probably should have remained a supporting actor. Trying to break out as a movie star in
leading roles was never going to work when audiences had to try and relate to
his onscreen personality. Personality is
only one of the reasons that stardom might not happen for someone. The quality of performance and quality of
movie are two other factors that could keep a potential star away from full on
stardom.
Movie stars come and go.
There are a lot of attempts at breaking out as the next big thing on the
big screen. Many times, these attempts
end in failure. One, two, three, maybe
five starring roles before the actor fades back into obscurity. The ones that fail are people who fail for a
reason. Usually it involves not finding
their way into the hearts of audiences.
Audiences are the people who decide who becomes a star and who
doesn’t. They bring in the money. They use their money to decide who continues
to be in movies. They go see who they
like, and don’t see who they don’t like.
And that’s what makes a star. If
your performances do not captivate audiences, or actually turn them off from
seeing your work, you aren’t going to make it.
Simple as that.
There are a bunch of notes that I need to get through for
this movie:
- Bio-Dome was suggested to me by @TheTalkingCan.
- I mentioned Simon Sez in this post so I should link to it.
- Chloe Hult was in Bio-Dome. She was previously seen in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
- The great Taylor Negron (may he rest in peace) was in Bio-Dome. He was also featured in Surf School.
- Then there was Henry Gibson. He was in Bio-Dome and he was also in Monster in the Closet.
- Two people from Bio-Dome were in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3. They were Kyle Gass and Phil Lamarr.
- Jeremy Jordan was also in Bio-Dome. He had a part in The Coed and the Zombie Stoner.
- Finally, Rodger Bumpass was in Bio-Dome. He had previously been featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Santa, Jr.
- Have you seen Bio-Dome? What did you think of it? Did you like the concept? Did you like Pauly Shore? Do you like anything Pauly Shore has done? What do you think helps make a movie star? What do you think keeps some people from being true movie stars? Use the comments below to discuss anything about this post.
- If you have a movie that you would like me to watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can leave the suggestion in the comments, message me on Twitter, or email me at sundaybadmovies@gmail.com.
- Next week’s movie will be Mac and Me, the classic that Paul Rudd loves to show a clip from whenever he is on Conan O’Brien’s talk shows. I’ve seen it before. I remember it being like the Pepsi to E.T.’s Coca-Cola.
No comments:
Post a Comment