I love Leonard Maltin’s story about his cameo in the sequel. When he started out as a film critic he vowed not to make friends with directors/actors to not cloud his judgement on movies. But in the early 80s he struck up a friendship with Joe Dante. He ended up disliking the original Gremlins, citing it as too mean-spirited. So when Dante wanted to make a more meta-humor sequel, he had Maltin cite verbatim his original review of the first movie before being killed by the gremlins.
22 Jump Street works so well because it literally lampoons the idea of unnecessary sequels. It does something entirely different from the first one by intentionally copying it, I honestly think it's a brilliant movie
I don’t think Jesse Eisenberg is a good actor. He actively annoys me in everything I’ve seen him in and not in a “he’s supposed to be annoying so it works” kind of way.
Eisenberg is the best at that typecast, though. Imagine the next in line, Michael Cera, leading The Social Network. It would be entertaining but not pretty.
He’s one of those actors where literally any middle of the road white guy could do as “good” as him. Like, he’s so bland and just there.
I can’t imagine anyone doing Zuckerberg as good as Eisenberg. His posture, tone, and chemistry with Garfield sold the film apart from the editing and soundtrack.
He was excellent in The Art of Self-Defense. I remember thinking he was very good in Louder Than Bombs but it's been a while
Jesse is clearly good at playing pretentious dicks because he is one but I still enjoy seeing him in things
I like Eisenberg quite a bit. The Social Network, End of the Tour, Squid and the Whale, and Art of Self Defense come to mind as particularly good. He definitely has a “type” but always puts enough variation around the core idea to keep things interesting.
I’ve never seen anyone else mention Louder Than Bombs! He was great in that and it’s super underrated as a whole. He was also very good in The Squid and the Whale. Perfectly captured a teenage boy following his father into toxic behavior and misogyny without realizing how or why.
The only films that I haven’t enjoyed Eisenberg in are BVS and Cursed, and both are atrocious even without his poor acting.
The Social Network and The Squid and the Whale are great but Louder than Bombs was bad. Eisenberg, like many modern movie stars, is very limited but can shine in the right role.
I don't find him a pretentious dick at all, but he seems to come off that way. He just seems like a very quirky individual
Adventureland also ruled and while we’re on the subject, Ryan Reynolds should play more serious, darker characters like the one in that than just playing Ryan Reynolds in every movie.