Cained

August 2, 2007 9:07 AM

Michael Caine is to release chill-out album. Apparantly, it's a compilation of chilled out music that he has been collating for over 40 years. This seems to convenient to be real. But it is discussed on his (rather crappy) website and appears to be real. What next? Danny de Vito's Death Metal Mix?
posted by domdom (100 comments total)

DON'T BE DISSIN THE CAINEMEISTER
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2007

What's the convenient part?
posted by DU at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

he has been collating for over 40 years

he should take a break and do some stapling. then it'll be metal.
posted by quonsar at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2007 [5 favorites]

He's an accomplished singer (mp3)
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:14 AM on August 2, 2007

I think I would like Michael Caine's album. And Danny Devito's Death Metal Mix, too. And reading an interview about it.

Devito: "Dis next one's from Opeth. You know them? Opeth?
Me: (shakes head 'no')
Devito: (Excited hand gestures) "Fuckers rock balls. Totally excellent, m'man. You want a limoncello? "

posted by boo_radley at 9:15 AM on August 2, 2007 [6 favorites]

I suspect it will be cool. Perhaps as cool as he is, if that's possible.
posted by jquinby at 9:16 AM on August 2, 2007

Could anyone (I mean anyone) ever say no to anything Michael Caine asked? I kinda doubt it.

"I wanna record a remake of the 'Xanadu' soundtrack with zithers and ukeleles and a gospel choir." "Yessir, Mr. Caine, sir, Your Potentateship, right away, whatever you wish ..... "
posted by blucevalo at 9:19 AM on August 2, 2007

everybody's a fucking dj.
posted by empath at 9:21 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

nice title, btw.
posted by empath at 9:21 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine is inherently cool, period. Anything he does, it becomes cool, no matter how bad. He's got that magic. I suggest he's the coolest white man of the last 50 years, tied with Johnny Cash.
posted by matteo at 9:21 AM on August 2, 2007

His role in Children of Men was the only part of that film that wasn't competely retarded.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:23 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

(Steve McQueen was pretty damn cool, too)
posted by matteo at 9:24 AM on August 2, 2007

Peter McDermott is retarded. Don't slag the best film of the last 3 years.

Nevertheless, if I was going to chill with someone at the end of the world, it would definitely be Michael Caine's character in that movie.
posted by fungible at 9:25 AM on August 2, 2007

Listen, love, sometimes you need to relax the birds, you know wot I'm sayin'? Pour 'em a nice glass of the top shelf stuff and throw some platters on the hi-fi. They gets to finking, oy, here's a good mate, and before they knows it, you gots their kits off and their knickers are on the radiator and you're dancing a little horizontal mambo on the kangaroo pouch. Then give them a little slaps-on-the-arse and send 'em home smiling, humming a happy tune.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:26 AM on August 2, 2007 [12 favorites]

What next? Danny de Vito's Death Metal Mix?

It worked for Tony!
posted by The Straightener at 9:28 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine is inherently cool, period. Anything he does, it becomes cool, no matter how bad.

Sorry, but Jaws: The Revenge? The man might be teflon, but he ain't King Midas.
posted by condour75 at 9:32 AM on August 2, 2007

I always think of Michael Caine on Conan O'Brien doing Celebrity Secrets...

"I was convinced that the 'MC' in MC Hammer's name stood for Michael Caine. When I found out it didn't, I destroyed his career."
posted by ALongDecember at 9:34 AM on August 2, 2007

"Michael Caine: Back to Mine"
posted by britain at 9:37 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've been into Caine since his Beach House mix of 04. I thought he went too house with his last mix (Ibiza Summer Chill 06), but knowing he's sampling some of J Dilla's new stuff gives me confidence.
posted by geoff. at 9:39 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

His role in Children of Men was the only part of that film that wasn't competely retarded.

I came in here wanting to mention something about this too. OK, I know he's an actor and all, but there was something about his role in that film that set off my freakdar... "He's one of us," I said to myself.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:40 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

What's the convenient part?

I was going to go downtown to buy a chill-out album, and then I had planned to go all the way to the other side of town to pick up a piece of Michael Caine memorabilia. It is too convenient to be true.
posted by jiiota at 9:41 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Michael Caine is inherently cool, period. Anything he does, it becomes cool, no matter how bad.

Well MC is one of the most pleasant actors to watch, but it seems like he says yes to every script. Here is a questionable film I can think of, just offhand.

PS Look who directed it! He's gone downhill ever since.
posted by Mister_A at 9:44 AM on August 2, 2007

I am Michael Caine.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:45 AM on August 2, 2007

His sarf London Tory boy act in the 80s put me off, and Terence Stamp was probably the cooler flatmate, but you must submit to the talent when all's said and done.
posted by Abiezer at 9:46 AM on August 2, 2007

I always felt Children of Men was the Hollywoodized version of Shawn of the Dead - without the ass-hattery, but about the same level of intellectual stimulation.
posted by phaedon at 9:49 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine is inherently cool, period. Anything he does, it becomes cool, no matter how bad. He's got that magic. I suggest he's the coolest white man of the last 50 years, tied with Johnny Cash.

From a marketing perspective, you're dead on; whether or not it's really music he personally chose really isn't important -- he's just going to take advantage of the cheese/cool factor to make some bucks.

There have been worse ideas.
posted by davejay at 9:49 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine is to release chill-out album. Apparantly, it's a compilation of chilled out music that he has been collating for over 40 years.

Yeah, okay, but what's it all about?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:49 AM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]

Well MC is one of the most pleasant actors to watch, but it seems like he says yes to every script. Here is a questionable film I can think of, just offhand.

Michael Caine: "I have never seen [Jaws: The Revenge], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:53 AM on August 2, 2007 [9 favorites]

WTF, Mister_A??? That movie is a fucking classic.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 9:54 AM on August 2, 2007

Bravo, Alvy.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:56 AM on August 2, 2007

Danny DeVito might actually put together a pretty good indie rock mix.

On preview: do you really want to know what's it all about, Alvy?
posted by turaho at 9:57 AM on August 2, 2007

I <3 Michael Caine. I <3 chillout music.

Is it my birthday?
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:58 AM on August 2, 2007

Yea AA, definitely good work if you can get it. And somehow the stink of failure doesn't latch onto him like it does some other actors. For instance, did Lou Gossett ever recover from that movie where he has Dennis Quaid's alien baby, or from Jaws 3D? No. But Caine, you see him in a movie like that and you say, "ahh, he must be buying a boat."

As an aside, I actually saw Jaws 3D in the theater. There were like 8 people there, and it was very much a MST3K experience. After we got bored we snuck into this classic film.
posted by Mister_A at 10:01 AM on August 2, 2007

Maybe it is just me, but it seems funny that this is happening at the same time that EJ says the internet is destroying music.
posted by cgk at 10:09 AM on August 2, 2007

The remake of “Sleuth” which I did earlier in the year with Jude Law...

WTF? Is nothing sacred?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:10 AM on August 2, 2007

I remember when he put out a couple of books of the weird facts he had collected over the years. Apparently he used to go around at these fabulous celebrity Hollywood parties & go up to people & say things like "In 1864 in India there was a storm with hailstones so large that they killed seven Indian elephants belonging to the Maharajah of Guakmandak. Not many people know that." Apparently this was so incessant, that Peter Sellers developed a typically uncanny impression of him doing it.

Not many people know that.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 10:17 AM on August 2, 2007 [6 favorites]

I'm glad Michael Caine has become supercool while he's still alive (unlike Reagan). I've always given him an indulgent pass - and warmly agree with his curious redemption of "Children of Men."
posted by Jody Tresidder at 10:20 AM on August 2, 2007

I heard The Magus was supposed to be one of his worst, but I liked the book so much I went out and bought it on eBay. Although not quite MST2k caliber, the 'I dare you to watch this film...' review on IMDb is pretty accurate.
posted by MtDewd at 10:23 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine: "I have never seen [Jaws: The Revenge], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"

I thought that was a joke, but he apparently really said that. So awesome.
posted by malphigian at 10:33 AM on August 2, 2007

Henry, I'm working on an uncanny impression of you right now.
posted by davejay at 10:33 AM on August 2, 2007

The remake of “Sleuth” which I did earlier in the year with Jude Law...

WTF? Is nothing sacred?

Seriously. Alec Cawthorne's performance in the original can't be bested. Why bother trying?
posted by juv3nal at 10:42 AM on August 2, 2007

davejay, I do this impression of the way white people walk, and then I contrast it with the way black people walk... hilarious!

Anyway, Jody Tressider, I am confused - do you think Reagan has achieved a state of posthumous supercool, or are you lamenting his lack of cool, both posthumous and prehumous? If the former, I would ask "WTF?"; if the latter, I would ask "WTF?"
posted by Mister_A at 10:44 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd like to say right now that I think this is almost certainly a spoof that Caine is in on (although for what purpose, I can't imagine). I feel comfortable saying this, because if I turn out to be right, then I am good at predicting things and will win the respect of my peers; if I turn out to be wrong, then I will get to buy a Michael Caine chillout album. It's win-win.
posted by flashboy at 10:44 AM on August 2, 2007

There doesn't seem to be a way to anti-favorite a post, so I just favorited everything other than Peter's comment instead.
posted by Simon! at 10:48 AM on August 2, 2007 [7 favorites]

I really like Michael Caine as an actor, but after seeing The Weather Man, I have to reluctantly add him to my small but growing list of British actors that can't quite do American accents. So far the only others I can think of at the moment are Jude Law and Ewan McGregor (but only in Black Hawk Down).
posted by good in a vacuum at 10:56 AM on August 2, 2007

Michael Caine is the single most awesome man in the universe.

(A Shock to the System was fabulous. And the man has long said that he enjoys acting and doesn't really care that much what he is acting in.)

All I know is if something can chill out Caine, it will almost certainly kill me.
posted by maxwelton at 10:58 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Goodnight you kings of Moog... you princes of Downtempo.
posted by basicchannel at 11:04 AM on August 2, 2007 [4 favorites]

His American accent was good enough to for him to win Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:09 AM on August 2, 2007

I remember an interview with him where he was discussing all the bad movies that he has been in and how he picks a script and he said something along the lines of "If I get a script that calls for me to jump out of a moving car or get punched in the face or march through a jungle, then I pass. If I get a script that calls for me to stand on a balcony, dressed in a tuxedo and sipping a martini, then I do the picture."
posted by ND¢ at 11:14 AM on August 2, 2007

list of British actors that can't quite do American accents

I'm not American but even to my ears, Rachel Weisz always sounds pretty poor at American. What do American speakers think?
posted by biffa at 11:17 AM on August 2, 2007

His American accent was good enough to for him to win Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules.

Yea but Marisa Tomei also won an Oscar and her American accent sucks.
posted by Mister_A at 11:18 AM on August 2, 2007

Biffa, when I saw The Fountain (which I loved, incidentally), I totally thought it was Rachel Weisz's BRITISH accent that sounded fake. Whoops.
posted by hermitosis at 11:30 AM on August 2, 2007

My favorite part of his announcement "I was having dinner with Elton John at his house in Nice......." Sheesh, Michael!
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:33 AM on August 2, 2007

Yea but Marisa Tomei also won an Oscar and her American accent sucks.

Let's add Nicole Kidman to that list while we're at it.
posted by blucevalo at 11:56 AM on August 2, 2007

Ruprecht, do you want the genital cuff? Or shall I make you listen to my chill-out album?
posted by three blind mice at 12:08 PM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]

His role in Children of Men was the only part of that film that wasn't competely retarded.

I kind of liked the guerilla battle scene. Very chaotic and thrilling in its way.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:29 PM on August 2, 2007

Danny de Vito's Death Metal Mix?

Actually, I hear he's a big Mike Patton fan. Less crazy than you might think.

Also, Michael Caine is totally awesome and I support this endeavor.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:53 PM on August 2, 2007

I'm not American but even to my ears, Rachel Weisz always sounds pretty poor at American. What do American speakers think?

Yeah, the accent's off, and to be perfectly frank, I only like her when she's playing unlikeable characters (such as in The Shape Of Things). I loathed her in The Constant Gardener and The Fountain.

Also, in Enemy At The Gates, there's an unintentionally hilarious shot where Rachel Weisz is in some sort of military hospital and she's supposed to look fairly banged up, but instead they make everyone around her look banged up, while she apparently has only a slightly scuffed professional makeup. She then beams into the camera, as if to say "somehow I wound up around all these wounded people!" and I snicker at her plight.

In conclusion, I am writing a twenty book story cycle on how I don't think she's that great of an actor. I am going to get angry emails from Darren Aronofsky now, and I'll respond to each email by mailing him a copy of the film Envy with an attached note reading "YOUR WIFE DROPPED THIS."

...

Funny thing about Children Of Men: Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Michael Caine are all excellent actors who can't quite nail an American accent.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:04 PM on August 2, 2007

I think I was Bruce Lee
I might have been Michael Caine
posted by Kwantsar at 1:05 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Michael Caine's so cool. "Put you foot down. Put your foot down, we'll lose 'em easy."
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:08 PM on August 2, 2007

I love Michael Caine, and the album should be called "Blow The Bloody Doors Off", but maybe he should keep that name in reserve for his metal compilation.
posted by biscotti at 1:27 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

What could be cooler than Mr Caine adding his voice to the eponymous Madness song: "I, am Michael Caine."

The man's always had taste, as well as a healthy ego.
posted by dash_slot- at 1:28 PM on August 2, 2007

“First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.”

"I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop. "
posted by blue_beetle at 1:36 PM on August 2, 2007

I love Michael Caine, but let's not forget he's been in more than his share of stinkers; The Swarm, Hurry, Sundown, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, The Island, The Hand, Blame It On Rio, The Holcroft Covenant, On Deadly Ground….and especially Jaws: The Revenge. Which did, at least, result in one of my favourite celebrity quotes ever when someone asked Caine about it;

"I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:41 PM on August 2, 2007

Shit, I missed Alvy's recounting of that particular anecdote...ah, well.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2007

Re. Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, and Ewan McGregor's accents: In several early "American" roles, those actors have hypercorrected badly. It comes across to my ear as a certain "emphaticness" of speech, with some phonemes over-emphasized. Some never get it, some turn it to their advantage. Kate Winslett in Eternal Sunshine... made that emphatic speech an aspect of her character -- maybe the director coached her to that, if so, bully.

I have a theory that it's more common in people who have a "natural" access to accents, because they don't get coaching. Mel Gibson did it for years (ironic, that, since he was born in Queens).

I also feel that nobody does fake accents better than the Australians. They must have the best fucking dialect coaches there. Simon Baker? Portia diRossi? Judy Davis? Guy Pearce or Russel Crowe?

The British? Not so much. Maybe they get cocky.
posted by lodurr at 1:54 PM on August 2, 2007

FFS, Michael Caine used to share a flat with John Barry. The man knows chill-out.
posted by Hogshead at 2:16 PM on August 2, 2007

I also feel that nobody does fake accents better than the Australians. They must have the best fucking dialect coaches there. Simon Baker? Portia diRossi? Judy Davis? Guy Pearce or Russel Crowe?

The British? Not so much. Maybe they get cocky.

I'd add Naomi Watts and Rachel Griffiths to the list. They're dead-on.

My pet theory is that it's easier to be a British actor with only a British accent than an Australian actor with only an Australian accent. Besides, almost any major motion picture is going to be in either American or British English.

If you want to get any international roles other than Crocodile Dundee, you're going to have to train yourself - luckily, almost every time you turn on the TV, you have an opportunity to do so, even from the comfort of your own home.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:18 PM on August 2, 2007

Wanna talk about American actors doing British, Irish and Scottish accents now? Like nails to a chalkboard that is. Ugh.
posted by dabitch at 2:19 PM on August 2, 2007

Wanna talk about American actors doing British, Irish and Scottish accents now? Like nails to a chalkboard that is. Ugh.

I can only imagine, although I hear Alexis Denisof is relatively inoffensive.

Which American actors are the least incompetent at non-American accents?
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:21 PM on August 2, 2007

Whah choo talkin' bout guv'nor? I learned erryting I know about British accents from Ick Van Icke in Mary Poppins an I tawk in an English accent just spiifily. Bobs yur uncle.
posted by ND¢ at 2:21 PM on August 2, 2007

Oi. I should have mentioned how violently I shudder when I hear Natalie Portman doing a british accent. It's almost as violently as I shudder when I hear people praising Natalie Portman's British accent.

Yep, we do some nasty dialectin', we do. And we do it to our own, too. If I had a dime for all the truly, deeply awful "southern" accents I've heard...

(I've never heard him use it for more than a few sentences while cutting up in interviews, but John Cleese can do a fantastic American.)
posted by lodurr at 2:39 PM on August 2, 2007

My pet theory is that it's easier to be a British actor with only a British accent ...

Sure, sure, but what's teh instrumentality? Market forces alone can't explain it: They have to have a means to exceed the Yanks and Brits. I still say they must have the best damn dialect coaches. There are just too many Australian-trained actors who are fantastic at teh Yank.
posted by lodurr at 2:41 PM on August 2, 2007

It comes across to my ear as a certain "emphaticness" of speech, with some phonemes over-emphasized.

Evidence: Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, reciting Mr. Anderson's name.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:41 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hugh Laurie as House is pretty impressive. Kinda blew me away when I found out he was a British star.
posted by fungible at 3:58 PM on August 2, 2007

Blazecock Pileon writes "Evidence: Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, reciting Mr. Anderson's name."

I'm pretty neutral on the Matrix (don't love it, don't hate it), but for some reason I positively loved the way Agent Smith talked. I didn't realize he was a Brit trying to sound American, but maybe that was the reason.

(Annoyed the heck out of my wife when one day for some reason I said everything in an Agent Smith voice).
posted by bugbread at 4:38 PM on August 2, 2007

Hugh Laurie as House is pretty impressive.

Yeah, I think that's the gold standard. I knew him as the upper class git in the Blackadder and was amazed by the natural quality of his american accent in House. lodurr has it right that no matter how good a British actor is they're usually given away by overemphasis on the "R"s and other things. Which is not a criticism, as our ear for language probably has an evolutionary basis, as a means to distinguish friends from foreigners, so it is very finely honed. I can spot a Canadian abroad in a couple of sentences, even without the "eh"s, but I couldn't really tell you why.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 4:42 PM on August 2, 2007

I'm pretty neutral on the Matrix (don't love it, don't hate it), but for some reason I positively loved the way Agent Smith talked. I didn't realize he was a Brit trying to sound American, but maybe that was the reason.

I had thought that Hugo Weaving was an Aussie, but according to his IMDB biography his youth was divided between Nigeria, Great Britain, and Australia. Hunh. Well, he attended NIDA, so take that. Either way, I'm pretty neutral on the first Matrix myself, but Hugo Weaving is pretty excellent in all the films. Best part of the whole series is when we get multiple Agent Smiths running around in the third movie.

And yeah, I'd always assumed his hyperprecision was intentional, but then again, I don't think I've ever seen him play a straight American.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:55 PM on August 2, 2007

I suggest he's the coolest white man of the last 50 years, tied with Johnny Cash.....
(Steve McQueen was pretty damn cool, too)

Elvis, Keith Richards, Robert Mitchum and Joey Ramone would like a word with you.
posted by jonmc at 4:56 PM on August 2, 2007

yeah, and Lou Reed. but with the exception of Mitchum* they're all less cool in my opinion -- Elvis loses because of the obscene bloated impacted-shit pill-popping corpse he dragged around the world in his last years, Richards because heroin-chic is old news and kinda lame frankly, Ramone was very very cool of course, but about as cool as Lou Reed, and they're both inferior to Cash and Caine for me.

obviously the coolest man, period, was Miles Davis, that's why I made clear it was a chart of the coolest white men.

but then we all have our list don't we.

* oldtimey Hollywood actors don't count because too many of them were off the charts insanely cool.
posted by matteo at 5:18 PM on August 2, 2007

As long as we're talking about accents: holy crap Hugh Laurie. I would never know he wasn't American from just watching House.
posted by flaterik at 5:33 PM on August 2, 2007

On the flip side of Laurie, is John Cleese (ordinarily a very funny man) in Meaning Of Life. Worst. American Accent. Ever.
posted by jonmc at 5:41 PM on August 2, 2007

What could be cooler than Mr Caine adding his voice to the eponymous Madness song: "I, am Michael Caine."

The man's always had taste, as well as a healthy ego. posted by dash_slot- at 1:28 PM

Well, first things first... I beat you to that little reference, my friend. Woo hoo! I win the internet!

Secondly, it wasn't egotistical at all, quite the opposite. He did the song for his daughter & didn't charge Madness a cent:

Eclectic British band MADNESS had no problem persuading actor SIR MICHAEL CAINE to feature on their 1984 single MICHAEL CAINE - even though the GET CARTER star had never heard of them.

The group, famed for their silly videos, didn't even have to pay the film icon to record the line "My name is Michael Caine" in a gentleman's club, because his daughter was such a big fan of the BAGGY TROUSERS troupe.

Saxophonist LEE THOMPSON says, "He did it out of the love of his heart.

Frontman GRAHAM 'SUGGS' McPHERSON adds, "He didn't know who we were, but we didn't have to pay him anything. "He did it about five times in a row and at the end he goes, 'I think we got it there, don't you?' so we used that at the end of a different song."
posted by miss lynnster at 5:43 PM on August 2, 2007

Wow, I never really considered how much I appreciated Michael Caine's work , but after a long shitty day, I have to say this long chain of laughs has just set the day right.
posted by cavalier at 7:56 PM on August 2, 2007

I also feel that nobody does fake accents better than the Australians

And no accent is harder to fake well, cf Matt Frewer in Eureka and Meryl Streep in Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark) and that godawful woman in Kalgoorlie in the Lost season 1 episode 'Numbers'. There are some Aussies giving cringeworthy American - Alan Dale is pretty bad, and Jacqueline McKenzie (who I love, love, love) is awful in 4400, so there are some exceptions to the rule.

Michael Caine is great. People don't get much more chilled than he, so this makes sense. I'll be acquiring it.
posted by goo at 7:58 PM on August 2, 2007

I can spot a Canadian abroad in a couple of sentences, even without the "eh"s, but I couldn't really tell you why.

I can. Hoose, aboot.
posted by goo at 8:07 PM on August 2, 2007

Anyway, Jody Tressider, I am confused - do you think Reagan has achieved a state of posthumous supercool, or are you lamenting his lack of cool, both posthumous and prehumous? If the former, I would ask "WTF?"; if the latter, I would ask "WTF?"
posted by Mister_A

I think I blew my own bloody doors off with my earlier comment, Mister_A.

It was a real mess. Sorry.

What I meant was that unfortunately Reagan has been disinterred as a kind of icon of B-list cool (as actor and the cipher in the White House) by some annoying people. Affected affection for the dead Gipper. I rather hate it and I don't really get it.

The other (garbled) point was simply that I love the idea of Caine being really quietly chuffed at HIS iconhood now.

Because he was never your standard heart throb. And adorably oddball stars like Caine are usually dead before we get around to properly appreciating them.

Probably not a point much worth making anyway.

WTF indeed!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:52 PM on August 2, 2007

You're big commenters, but you're out of shape. With me it's a full-time job. Now behave yourself.
posted by Abiezer at 11:09 PM on August 2, 2007

Don't slag the best film of the last 3 years.

Are you 'avin' a larf?

As BP rightly points out, the cinematography -- particularly the action sequences were fine -- but the plot and most of the acting were diabolical.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:43 AM on August 3, 2007

And my own fave Michael Caine movie:

Little Voice
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:46 AM on August 3, 2007

I reckon if Hugh Laurie from House met James Marsters from Buffy/Angel they would cancel each other out.
posted by Molesome at 4:16 AM on August 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

knowing he's sampling some of J Dilla's new stuff gives me confidence.

I know it never stopped Tupac, but there's a small problem with waiting for J Dilla's new stuff...

Christopher Guest's english accent is pretty damn good in my opinion.
posted by bifter at 4:49 AM on August 3, 2007

On some radio show once, I heard Guest explain that he just naturally shifts back and forth depending on how the people around him are speaking. He said that when he flies from NY to London (or vice-versa), 'something happens somewhere over the Atlantic and I come out the other side sounding like I belong there.'
posted by lodurr at 5:17 AM on August 3, 2007

Evidence: Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, reciting Mr. Anderson's name.

O the Caine T, of course, but: I will add to the mix of folks opining that Smith's hypercorrected diction is intentional. I think Weaving pretty much does things on purpose. Think about the interrogation scenes in V for Vendetta -- first time through, I literally did not catch on that it was him. I thought they might have tricked us with doubles, but on subsequent viewings I convinced myself that it really was him all the time.

Apparently we narrowly missed Viggo Mortensen as Smith. I'm not a Matrix fan, but I love Weaving's Smith (I think what little lasting philosophical interest the films have rides entirely on Smith), and I just don't see Mortensen bringing the same sense of menace to the role.

Hugh Laurie -- I think he does something similar to what I hear from Kate Winsett's character in Eternal Sunshine...: He is hypercorrecting, but he hides it behind character mannerisms. IOW, he's aware of it, and rather than expending a ton of effort to nail the dialect, he crafts an aspect of his performance to compensate for the weakness -- quicker, more cost-effective -- the kind of thing you might do if you've got to nail a performance on stage, night after night. To me, that's perfectly good craft.

How do the Brits feel about Jackman's British? I think his American is pretty darn good. Christian Bale used to hypercorrect a bit in his early American dialect roles, but he's pretty much got it nailed these days.
posted by lodurr at 5:35 AM on August 3, 2007

Smith's intonation is meant to sound like the captain of the Holoship on Red Dwarf. No, seriously...
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:29 PM on August 3, 2007

I know it never stopped Tupac, but there's a small problem with waiting for J Dilla's new stuff...

I knew he was dead, but I just got a copy of The Shining and assumed it was released more recently than it had been a la Tupac. In fact I think Tupac still has like 10 albums left to be released.
posted by geoff. at 7:58 PM on August 3, 2007

I have to ask myself, in this situation, what would Oscar-winner Michael Caine do?
posted by SeanMac at 8:46 PM on August 3, 2007

The man is so great that he can give a stellar performance while acting with Muppets.

I can't wait to see the music video.
posted by kyleg at 2:20 AM on August 5, 2007

I was watching Silent Hill yesterday (yes, I'm a fool to myself) and Sean Bean's American accent was atrocious, it's like he was talking Yorkshire but with a bit of American intonation on the end of the sentence, and a few Goddamn's thrown in for effect.
posted by biffa at 2:20 AM on August 6, 2007

Dominic West and Idris Elba (McNulty and Springer Bell in The Wire) are both British. Just sayin'.
posted by Hogshead at 4:37 AM on August 6, 2007