Julia Roberts: Classic or Dud?

Believe me, IT DOES. Except I don't really like baseball all that much.

(S.Callow = first, but that's for repeat offences above and beyond. Then Grant obv; then Hannah...)

Extract fr. A Tale of Two Idiots

Erin Brockovich is the only movie she's even been close to decent in, and I think Soderbergh really deserves more of the credit for that than her.

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the end of violence

she holds a place in my heart. a vast place.

i don't know if i've ever seen her anything EXCEPT CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR

where she wasn't great!

but that smile.

whose smile is bigger: julia roberts or liv tyler?

I don't get her appeal. Bland. Not v. good actress. Not v. prettyor attractive. Dud.

Eh. She's ok. She's not great. She's not shite. Hard to hate on her. Impossible to stand in awe of her.

I would like to say that I have a special aversion to Julia Roberts for reasons I can't quite explain. I don't think she's a very good actress for one.

uh no, i can stand in awe.

look at Samantha's comments above... so vehement!

bimble u crazeeeee

every single trailer for a julia roberts movie must show her cackling with laughter at least once

her trademark

http://i39.tinypic.com/auv1n8.gif

thanks

haha

http://www.hauntedhouses.com/photos-movies/beetlejuice/beetlejuice160.jpeg

eek

http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/74/85/julia-robertsandsona.0.0.0x0.400x400.jpeg

http://www.jackgruber.com/stories/oscars1.jpg

i mean it's literally like half her face

http://www.armadaanime.com/poster-totoro-yell.jpg

this "eat pray love" joint is quite the racket for ol julia... she got paid, what, $16m to go on vacation?

stare at hot guys

eat yogurt

i haven't seen it, but surely she is acting in this film? p sure she could afford a vacay if she wanted one.

I have said this before, but Eat Pray Love is basically American Psycho with a female protagonist.

I don't like all her movies (I liked Erin Brockovich and the thing with the Brief that is on tv all the time) but I think she still looks gorgeous.

ugh she really does

she's like, there's no one else who looks like her. and your right jordan this movie is like a big thing for her.

*you're

http://stylescenes.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/15/actressju_gregg_14979531_600.jpghttp://www.jesus-pictures.net/jesus-pictures/laughing-jesus.jpg

EW: Those rumors had a life of their own.
JR: See, that's what's scary. Others said I was losing my job because I had a problem with drugs. And this started, I can only assume, because I was so thin. And it's just absurd, you know. I don't know how anybody who would do drugs could function. I don't — nor have I ever done drugs — and I guess it's boring to be sort of a young actor in Hollywood and not have a drug problem. Well, then, I'm boring, and that's cool with me, because I've got clear skin and clean arms, and I'm just thin. Period. The end. Quit picking on me, you know.

EW: There was never a drug problem?
JR: No, there were never any drugs. Never. That's why it's so absurd and frustrating. Why should I have to explain something that's never been an issue in my life? But I'm forced to, because every paper in the country is writing that I'm a drug addict.

...

EW: This is a very ''guys'' movie. Except for Maggie Smith and the mermaids and a few others, almost everyone is male. And you were working on a separate stage from everyone else. Did it feel like you were working on a different movie?
JR: I didn't take it personally or anything. But we had fun (on my stage). We had ''whippets.'' I mean, it was just people being stupid.

EW: What's a ''whippet''?
JR: I don't know if you hold it upside down or whatever — but you can spray air (nitrous oxide or laughing gas, actually) from a whipped cream can and it gives you a buzz or a rush or something. All I know is that it never worked right for anybody because they were always spraying whipped cream all over the place.

she smokes weed fyi

(says acquaintance of mine who worked as her nanny)

i can totally see that

she'd have like laughing fits

My first celebrity crush, circa Mystic Pizza.

Money Monster is done with some skill, and it at least made me think of The China Syndrome in passing (mostly the big scene at the end). The improbabilities are so many that they stopped registering at a certain point, lots of sanctimony too, and Jack O'Connell really hams it up. I was going to say that it seemed really late for a film based on Jim Cramer, who I used to occasionally watch with a mixture of amusement and disbelief, but I had no idea his show was still on the air.

Julia Roberts can do no wrong.

You have to be a complete To Sir with Love mush-head, and helplessly in thrall to Julia Roberts, to find yourself moved by Mona Lisa Smile. I don't believe in the idea of guilty pleasures, but I do believe in embarrassed pleasures.

she's very good at what she does

and Erin Brockovich is one of the great star vehicles of the last 20 years, maybe the last.

Still haven't watched it! I think I'm resisting because I love the idealized movie-star version of her...I do know she makes me feel protective. Dominic West from The Wire is her love interest for part of Mona Lisa Smile, and all I could think was "You're just not worthy, guy."

Old ILX was awful.

so, then, julia roberts: classic or dud? or too soon to say?

I heart Julia. She seems really sweet.
― dave q, Thursday, 20 September 2001 bookmarkflaglink

This is a classic post.

wildest post itt is where surmounter admits the only Julia Roberts movie he's seen is ... Charlie Wilson's War???

I watched Pretty Woman for the first time recently and I want to read some long piece about how Roberta’ hair/clothes/makeup are all “THE 90S ARE HERE”, it must have been a big deal, right?

wildest post itt is where surmounter admits the only Julia Roberts movie he's seen is ... Charlie Wilson's War???

I've only seen her in Closer (and, apparently, a cameo in The Player), so I've probably got a distorted image of what she's about.

Get to watching!

Since Justine Bateman is in the news these days too, why not watch SATISFACTION?!?!? Julia R's first movie iirc.

i rewatched Pretty Woman recently having not seen it since first released when i was a teenager — as a teen i thought it was ok but just dumb Cinderella fluff mostly & I also hated Richard Gere bc of how creepily ga-ga my Mom & all moms & female teachers were about him

As a late 40’s grownup I really enjoyed it and found it had more depth than i could have appreciated as a teen <3

Also *highly* recommend Katrina Longworth’s analysis of this film in her You Must Remember This podcast. (It’s the reason why I rewatched it)

How much of your appreciation of the film was based in Julia Roberts and what she brought to the role she was given?

my favorite Julias are Mystic Pizza, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Erin Brokovich (theyre called BOOBS, Al), Pretty Woman and Ocean’s Eleven (she has such good chemistry w Clooney)

and Steel Magnolias
(BLUSH AND BASHFUL)

xpost - i would say most of it? and Gere too. They both made those roles far more interesting with their performances imo

Over the last year or two, I've seen a few Julia Roberts movies that never interested me when they were originally released but I have more time for now. Even when the narratives are dumb -- My Best Friend's Wedding and Notting Hill come to mind -- she's a fun, charismatic screen presence.

How much of your appreciation of the film was based in Julia Roberts and what she brought to the role she was given?

This is thr nature of starpower.

I agree. The C/D distinction for an actor like Roberts is mostly asking does she make the grade as an A-list movie star. I'm not wholly smitten with her, but she definitely brings A-list chops to what she does and has undeniable screen presence.

i think what Julia at her best is doing something similarly skilled as what Meg Ryan does - they both bring this ineffable charm & rhythym & style to the roles, qualities so subtle it’s dismissed as just them being themselves in these “womens movies”. but the thing is NO ONE ELSE can do what they do in these wholly artificial settings. They make it all seem so perfectly natural - their humanity, their willingness to ugly-cry, to pratfall or do dumb faces or be unlikeable in addition to incredible natural beauty - that is their skill.

CLASSIC

VG: you've probably seen it, but if not, highly recommend The Pelican Brief. Roberts and Washington together pretty much define star magnetism for me. I just wish they'd gotten (been allowed to get?) romantically involved in the film--they walk right up to the edge of that and go no further.

(Maybe that's written into the Grisham novel and my parenthetical's reading too much into that.)

Will definitely check that podcast out, thanks VG

have I SEEN The Pelican Brief?? sir.

yeah its great, and they do have pretty electric chemistry, i agree!

Comfort viewing for me--six times at least.

Just the other day I read that Denzel Washington's character was white in the book and was meant to be played by some bland 90s white dude (so bland I can't even remember who was chosen) but Roberts insisted that Denzel be cast. He wasn't a big enough star for that role yet in Hollywood thinking, but her plan worked!

Things I have liked her in:

Notting Hill, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven, Duplicity, Homecoming, Leave The World Behind (dumb but enjoyable enough)

Probably my favorite performance by Roberts, which I haven't seen mentioned yet, is in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind.

Drew Barrymore's best by a huge margin, too, give or take the opening of Scream.

guys americas sweethearts guys

I thought for sure this revive was related to the recent Bandsplain about the Happy Mondays which mentions Julia hitting on Bez and he didn't know (or care?) who she was.

Cecil DeMille leading lady america's sweetheart

aka Mary Pickford

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Mary_Pickford_1916.jpg/440px-Mary_Pickford_1916.jpg

Excellent in Homecoming, yes.