06-08-2006
Who does this guy know? Ryan Reynolds, who didn't really burst onto the scene in "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," and who hasn't made any waves since, will soon be seen in trailers very similar to the ones you think you may have seen him in (but didn't care enough to investigate) several times before, over the last few years.
This time he's headlining in "Definitely Maybe," a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy from Universal, written and directed by Adam Brooks. For most, they'll maybe see the trailer and maybe recognize Reynolds, but the chances are good that this definitely won't be the one to raise the Ryan Reynolds flag of fame--most people still won't know who the hell this guy is.
It's a little bit funny (and a whole lot not funny), this particular actor's ability to find himself at the center of so many studio productions, despite never really being qualifiable as a celebrity. People don't cheer loudly when he goes out on talk shows, like, say, for Orlando Bloom. They have the, "Hey, I think I've seen that guy," reaction--and the odds are, they saw a trailer.
In "Van Wilder" (going by the trailers, because I never saw it), it looks like they wanted to put Reynolds in the John Belushi role, and launch his career that way. Then "Van Wilder" bombed, and no one really knew what had happened, or who the actor involved was, but it's like Hollywood closed its eyes and decided to pretend "Van Wilder" had been a huge success, and Reynolds was a hot phenomenon.
And yet, despite that he usually appears in multiple films a year, and continues to make many underwhelming showings as a talk show guest, he remains "that dude from the trailers."
Ryan Reynolds is like a fruitcake Hollywood keeps sending us that we keep putting in a drawer.
As an actor that continues to be aggressively employed (maybe he's a "nice guy" or "gets the work done" or something) with complete disregard for the desires of moviegoers, the only solution is to make him the permanent leading man in Paul W.S. Anderson films; Milla Jovovich optional.
It really doesn't matter if he's a "nice guy" or "gets the work done," or anything like that. There are millions of nice guys out there--they all shouldn't be in films.
This guy sucks.
