TVNow.com

December 4, 2002 12:58 PM

"Pigman is trying to prove the Caine-Hackman theory. No matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV." If only he had TV-Now.com, which exhaustively roams schedules for whatever actor or genre you choose. I'm planning an All-Corey month myself. Call me for the shower scene in Dressed To Kill.
posted by Stan Chin (36 comments total)

Name that movie quote and you get a pony and a gameboy for your major.
posted by Stan Chin at 1:00 PM on December 4, 2002

PCU

One of the better satires of college life.
posted by askheaves at 1:03 PM on December 4, 2002

PCU. And I want my pony brown.
posted by Tallguy at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2002

Tallguy: Sucker :-p
posted by askheaves at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2002

Call me for the shower scene in Dressed To Kill.

DePalma used a body double, Stan. It's not Angie Dickinson
posted by matteo at 1:07 PM on December 4, 2002

I swear one of the Turner channels (TBS, TNT, Turner Classic, etc.) is either playing Shawshank Redemption, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hours, at any given moment!
posted by Pollomacho at 1:08 PM on December 4, 2002

TV-Now promises listings for "4-Star, Scifi, Horror, G-rated, LetterBox, Film Noir, Detective, World War II, Silent, and Foreign movies, plus a list of 1930-1940 Westerns, Comedies and Mysteries" but nothing for T&A? I would imagine their hits would double if they did.
posted by mikrophon at 1:10 PM on December 4, 2002

Does it list the Beastmaster channel? On Christmas day, my family and I would like to watch all of the Beastmaster movies.
posted by crunchburger at 1:24 PM on December 4, 2002

for a cookie, name the movie he found with BOTH Caine and Hackman
posted by Nauip at 1:25 PM on December 4, 2002

After this can we test my Phil Collins theory?

Oh wait, forget it. It's not the early nineties anymore.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:25 PM on December 4, 2002

Pollo Macho: Add Lethal Weapon to that list and you've got them all.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:27 PM on December 4, 2002

A Bridge Too Far

But I cheated and used imdb.
posted by askheaves at 1:29 PM on December 4, 2002

In the immortal words of Billy Crystal - "the man who never met a script he didn't like - Michael Caine..."

OK, Nauip, have racked my brain and can't come up w/anything starring both and the mystery is killing me. Spill, spill - please?

On preview: well, I don't feel so bad - haven't even heard of that one. How was it?
posted by widdershins at 1:31 PM on December 4, 2002

I KNEW I was leaving something out! Thanks Eyeball!
posted by Pollomacho at 1:37 PM on December 4, 2002

That's not fair to Michael Caine. Other than that "killer bees" movie he was in (the title escapes me), what Michael Caine movies had awful scripts?

And Billy Crystal is hardly innocent, given "Analyze That."

The thing I like about Gene Hackman ("Behind Enemy Lines" not withstanding) and Michael Caine is that acting is their job, and they do it well, which is why they're in so many movies. They don't seem to worry so much about whether they're "serving their craft" appropriately.... they just do what they're good at and find jobs that keep them working.

Noone thinks I'm unusual because I have put in thousands of consecutive work days, over the years. Same with Caine and Hackman. They get a project, show up to work, do their job, and move on to the next project. Repeat. Good for them.
posted by deanc at 1:41 PM on December 4, 2002

deanc,

Jaws 4 (The Revenge)
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
Austin Powers: Goldmember

Hey, all sequels! Just keep him away from those, I suppose.
posted by hackly_fracture at 1:47 PM on December 4, 2002

Quite funny - I searched for Michael Caine movies, all set to slay you all with my definitive list of crappy MC movies - and realized there really weren't that many. I didn't necessarily like all of them, but beside hackly's list above I didn't find any that were truly awful. Well. I'd make a case for the Get Carter remake, but I'll leave it alone...
posted by widdershins at 2:12 PM on December 4, 2002

And deanc, Billy's comment was a throw-away one-liner when he was introducing MC at the Oscars. So I'm sure there was a minimum of malice intended. On the other hand, what's wrong with Analyze That? Kinda looking forward to it myself...?
posted by widdershins at 2:14 PM on December 4, 2002

Reminds me of the time a friend and I tried to see who could find an actor/actress with the most entries in imdb.com. Hackman has 90. Caine has an impressive 133. But this guy leaves them all in the dust with 885!
posted by squidman at 2:18 PM on December 4, 2002

widdershins--"A Bridge too Far" is excellent if you like World War II movies. If you don't, you probably shouldn't be renting it. But its got everyone in it, James Caan, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Elliot Gould, Denholm Elliot (of Indian Jones fame) and a host of recognizable but lesser know British character actors. Plus some brilliant cinematography--really terrific scenes. I think it might have been the most expensive movie every when filmed. Watch it, definitely.
posted by pjgulliver at 2:30 PM on December 4, 2002

And Billy Crystal is hardly innocent, given "Analyze That."

Let us not forget City Slickers II.
posted by rushmc at 3:11 PM on December 4, 2002

yeah, but are voiceovers really acting?

(in reference to squidman above)
posted by grimley at 3:24 PM on December 4, 2002

Did anyone else realize that beefy dumb stoner Gutter was Jon Favreau? The little nerdy guy from Swingers who didn't' understand how answering machines work?

He was also the dotcom millionaire that quit to become an ultimate fighter on Friends?

I was amazed when I realized that after watching Made.
posted by nyxxxx at 4:05 PM on December 4, 2002

voiceovers? VOICEOVERS?!? this is mel blanc were talking about here. the man was a genius, a one-man cast of thousands....
posted by grabbingsand at 4:10 PM on December 4, 2002

This reminds me of Gladney's theory in White Noise that Hitler is always on television, somewhere, at any given moment of the day. I applied it to William Shatner, with distressingly positive results.

Shatner. Think about it. He's Always On Somewhere.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:51 PM on December 4, 2002

new tagline

MetaFilter -- Always On Somewhere
posted by matteo at 4:47 AM on December 5, 2002

I'm pretty sure that if a movie is french, Gerard Depardieu is in it.
posted by crunchland at 4:55 AM on December 5, 2002

I must confess: Michael Caine's my favourite working actor. His ouvre swings from the heights of Hannah and her Sisters to the deep-sea depths of Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and back again - as he's said himself, "I've made a lot of crap... and a lot of money." I find his honesty with regards to the financial motivations for some of his role choices hilarious and refreshing - for example, he explained his reasons for accepting the lead in the atrocious The Swarm thusly: "The movie was doomed, but we didn't notice, especially not me as I was trying to buy a house that I had seen for 350,000 dollars a year before and which was now back at the market for 1,200,000 dollars."

I can't think of a terrible Hackman film off the top of my head (uh, Deep Impact?), but Brian Dennehy, another great working actor, offers a body of work which includes Greenaway's Belly of an Architect as well as a big heap of telemovie dross. Some people call that professionalism, some call it a lack of discernment. Some call it paying off their mortgage. I call it video-store fun.

(Incidentally, I got to talk to Caine last year via a satellite hook-up - I asked him about his books of trivia, Not Many People Know That, Not Many People Know This Either, and Not Many People Know This Is 1988. He was funny and charming and probably the best raconteur I've yet encountered.)
posted by hot soup girl at 5:43 AM on December 5, 2002

Don't talk to me about Gene Hackman.
posted by websavvy at 5:56 AM on December 5, 2002

Websavvy, agreed. We must point to this. Soon to be butchered by this. Which led one actor to do this.

I was kidding about the mel blanc thing. Amazing that he still has the energy.
posted by grimley at 6:30 AM on December 5, 2002

Norton's pretty cocky, but I guess I would be too if I was schtooping Salma Hayek!
posted by Pollomacho at 7:49 AM on December 5, 2002

Norton's really really cool. I saw him introduce a sneak preview of Fight Club a couple years ago, and a bunch of friends of mine, who were involved with the film society at university got to chill with him after the show...apparently he's this incredibly down to earth, cool funny guy. As opposed to Oliver Stone. Who did a similar thing at my university. And apparently is a complete jackass. He was condescending, rude, and lit a joint while eating at the patio of a nice italian restaurant near school with some film society people.....
posted by pjgulliver at 8:33 AM on December 5, 2002

The great Michael Caine is nothing if not self-effacing. In his acceptance speech for winning the Golden Globe for his role in "Little Voice," Michael Caine himself admitted that many of the movies he was in were crap. Personally, I admire his work ethic. BTW, "The Man Who Would Be King" is the best movie ever made.
posted by whuppy at 11:54 AM on December 5, 2002

Kudos to hot soup girl for the actual quote!
posted by whuppy at 11:57 AM on December 5, 2002

What?? No overlaps?? That's bizzare. I thought those two were never apart...
posted by jonz at 10:32 PM on December 5, 2002

I can't think of a terrible Hackman film off the top of my head (uh, Deep Impact?)

Duh. Of course, I was thinking of Robert Duvall.

I am indeed a fool.
posted by hot soup girl at 3:05 AM on December 6, 2002