Speaking Truth To Power

Mark Wahlberg, on why he passed on Ocean's Twelve:

“People tell George Clooney it's great, but we all know it sucked,” the Boogie Nights star said. “I made two bad movies instead — Planet of the Apes and The Truth About Charlie — but doing that was better than sitting with Brad (Pitt) and George, telling the press how great everybody is! ‘We were in Europe, George was funny, then we had some wine ...’ — that's not for me.”

Okay, it isn't quite the Clint Eastwood-Spike Lee throwdown, but I'll take all the bashing of Clooney's too-cool-for-school mystique (as opposed to Clooney's acting, which is often really good) that I can get.

Comments

Oh, Ocean's Twelve was perfectly fine. Don't know why everyone considers it to be such a failure.

Posted by Joe Marier | June 17, 2008 4:09 PM

Jealous much, Ross?

Posted by Ross' Only Reader | June 17, 2008 4:10 PM

Goodness gracious, the trolls are out in force today!

Posted by Joe Marier | June 17, 2008 4:13 PM

Ross, I'm in a agreement that George is very talented, but when exactly has his acting been "really good"? I'd say he was very good in from Dusk 'til Dawn, Solaris, and O Brother but in most of the rest of the stuff that he's in he's the same insufferably smug, self-absorbed person he is in all of his interviews.

Think of his character in ER, The Ocean's films, Perfect Storm, Out of Sight, Three Kings, One fine Day, Peacemaker, Batman & Robin.

As I said he's tremendously talented and capable, but I still can almost never get through one of his movies.

Posted by Mark B | June 17, 2008 4:19 PM

Oh, Ocean's Twelve was perfectly fine. Don't know why everyone considers it to be such a failure.

No, it was terrible. Way, way too meta. But of course, Wahlberg turned down the role before the first one, which pretty much everyone degrees is damn good.

I'll take all the bashing of Clooney's too-cool-for-school mystique (as opposed to Clooney's acting, which is often really good) that I can get.

His mystique and his acting are both pretty great. It's his politics that are obnoxious.

Posted by right | June 17, 2008 5:06 PM

Agreed that Ocean's 12 wasn't that good - should've cut out the whole Julia Roberts look-alike thing.

But I did like Michael Clayton. And this criticism is coming from Marky Mark.

Posted by Ferrell | June 17, 2008 5:20 PM

Clooney rocked the under-appreciated Three Kings pretty dadgum hard. As did Marky Mark, it should be noted. (Although neither rocked as hard as Spike Jonez).

Posted by ed | June 17, 2008 5:49 PM

While I'm all for honesty in star interviews, Clooney actually has admitted early & often that Ocean's 12 sucked. That was a main reason (besides the easy cash, I'm sure) he said they made Ocean's 13 -- they couldn't end the series on such a crud movie. So Wahlberg is not saying anything Clooney wouldn't agree with, except maybe Wahlberg realized before the movie was made that it would stink and Clooney realized afterwards.

Oh, and for good, acting by Clooney:
Out of Sight, Three Kings, O Brother Where Art Thou, Good Night & Good Luck, Syriana -- he's a good actor.

Posted by Rob Pollard | June 17, 2008 6:02 PM

I'm guessing Marky's still feeling slighted because Clooney didn't laugh at his racist jokes.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | June 17, 2008 8:22 PM

I'd add the underrated Intolerable Cruelty to Rob's list, as well.

Posted by Jeff | June 17, 2008 8:58 PM

What's funny here is the Whalberg just headlined a movie that has been pretty much universally panned and that Clooney's last big flick ("Michael Clayton") got him an Oscar nomination.

Posted by Mike P | June 17, 2008 11:25 PM

Three Kings is much underappreciated.

Posted by Mike | June 17, 2008 11:42 PM

I don't see where Mark Wahlberg is dissing Clooney- he's worked with Clooney several times, he likes Clooney, and he may well work with Clooney again one day.

His problem was with "Ocean's 11" and the way it was pitched to him. Clooney wasn't telling Wahlberg, "Come work with me on this movie, it's going to be great." He was telling Wahlberg "Come work with me on this movie, we'll hang out, we'll party. Oh, the movie itself probably won't be any good, but WE'LL have a great time."

Wahlberg chose to make some other movies that he thought (wrongly, we now know) would be better, rather than signing on to an uninspired franchise just because it would give him the opportunity to hang out in Vegas or on the Riviera with some of his pals.

Posted by astorian | June 18, 2008 11:21 AM

I think there's a case to be made for the "everybody having a great time" style of moviemaking. A couple of examples...

Much Ado About Nothing
A Fish Called Wanda
The Meaning of Life

Posted by Joe Marier | June 18, 2008 12:54 PM

And how many Oscars have you been nominated for exactly? Clooney is this generation's Carey Grant and he's a liberal. Hard to stomach I know.

But then some of us think movies are better in an era where married couples don't have to sleep in twin beds and black folks aren't all butlers.

'Ocean's 12' sucked. I'd say that's Steven Soderbergh's fault, not Clooney's.

Whalberg is a nice guy, but it is not hard to imagine his latest movie 'The Happening' sucking a whole lot less if George Clooney was in it instead of him.

Posted by Richard Bottoms | June 18, 2008 1:48 PM

Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" didn't strike me as the work of guys who were having a ball together. Quite the opposite! It seemed like the work of six guys who didn't much enjoy each other's company any more, who were largely out of creative gas, and had to do an atrocious amount of padding to turn a handful of great sketches into a 90 minute movie.

But there are definitely actors out there who pick their parts to get paid vacations. Michael Caine has admitted doing the godawful "Jaws 4" and the semi-amusing "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" solely because they gave him an excuse to spend a few months in the Caribbean and the Riviera, respectively.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. I'd probably jumpt at such chances, if I had any talent as an actor! So, if Brad Pitt and George Clooney want to get together for a few months and have a blast while making a forgettable movie, I don't begrudge them their fun. But neither do I blame Mark Wahlberg for deciding to look for better material (though it doesn't appear he found it).

Posted by astorian | June 18, 2008 4:07 PM

I had to google Mark Wahlberg to find out who in the hell he is, so any criticism of him of Clooney seem in the jealous category.

Posted by rob | June 18, 2008 4:36 PM

I am shocked, shocked that Ross dislikes an actor known for his liberal politics.

Posted by Mike | June 18, 2008 10:44 PM