This new every-once-in-a-while feature will celebrate the unappreciated character actor. You know, "those" guys you spend half the movie thinking, "where have I seen that guy before?" The patron saint of "those guys" is, of course, Clint Howard -- though now that he's won an MTV movie award he has transcended the label.
This month I choose to celebrate Anthony Michael Hall. It's been an interesting journey for Mr. Hall, from Brat Pack performances in 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science -- he was also the original Rusty in the Vacation movies -- to playing Bill Gates in the TV movie The Pirates of Silicon Valley to a seminal "that guy" performance in The Dark Knight as Mike Engel, the Wayne Enterprises lawyer/accountant who figures out Bruce Wayne's secret and inspires the best line of the movie from Morgan Freeman ". . . and your plan is to blackmail him?"So here's to you, Anthony Michael Hall. Thanks for giving hope to Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and Emilio Estevez (outside of Mighty Ducks 4).
UPDATE: Okay, according to the comments section, I have (1) wrongly indentified the part that Mr. Hall (or is it Mr. Michael Hall?) played in The Dark Knight (he played the reporter who broke the accountant's story) and (2) not credited him for a television role he has played for 6 years on the USA network. So, an inauspicious beginning for this feature. In future posts, I pledge to only get one major thing wrong. You have my word.
5 comments:
Haha! This is good. I'd name some of my own, but I'll wait for "next month."
And I loved Howard in his guest appearance in Seinfeld, the heckler in A League of Their Own, and Arrested Development.
Ummm... Dougie,
Anthony Michael Wall was not the accountant. Anthony Michael Hall was the journalist who was going to interview the accountant. You got his name right, but not the role. The accountant's name is Mr. Reese, and there is speculation about Mr. Reese (read: Mysteries) becoming the Riddler. But Anthony Michael Hall was the journalist, who ended up getting his face painted by the joker and reading the announcement of the hospital bombing.
Peace.
And if you're going to celebrate AMH, you should probably mention his 6 years as star of the Dead Zone, on USA Network
Can you believe Clint is related to Bryce Dallas?!
Post a Comment