Julia Child’s life is partially depicted in the new foodie film Julie & Julia, and while it’s as much fun to see Meryl Streep portray the famous chef as it was to watch Dan Aykroyd and Bill Cosby do her back in the day, we can’t help but wish the real Child had lived long enough to star in the film herself. We also wish the whole movie was based on her autobiography, My Life in France, rather than share-adapted from both that book and Julie Powell’s blog-turned-memoir Julie & Julia.
There’s a reason Child was a hugely popular TV personality and there’s a reason why Powell was an Internet writer. Just as you’d rather only watch Sean Penn as Gene Shalit in a movie and not bother with Michael Pitt’s portrayal of lowly film blogger Christopher Campbell, you could probably do without the Amy Adams as Powell stuff in Julie & Julia.
Outside of playing herself as a foodie heroine in a chick flick, what other kinds of movies could Child have acted in? Given her OSS background, we would have loved to see her fill in for Judi Dench in the Bond films as M. Alas, that will never happen, but if our gastronomical dreams come true, perhaps we might see one of the following TV personalities in his or her own blockbuster film someday:
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Last year, following the SXSW premiere of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, I had an interesting chat with John Cho, Kal Penn and Neil Patrick Harris about the ethnic stereotype humor in that sequel, as well as their thoughts on movies focused on the discussion of race in general. In a way, I think the first two Harold & Kumar movies did as much as is needed in terms of making fun of racism — and, more broadly, any kind of stereotyping or racial profiling — so my first thought after learning that a third installment was in the works was that it should just be a simple stoner comedy with little or no concentration on the ethnicity of the two main characters.
However, now that this third film has a title, and that title is A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, I’ve changed my mind. Sort of. Instead of playing the race card, I hope that writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg go for religious satire. After all, it’s set during the holidays, and considering most ignorant Americans would assume that Harold and Kumar aren’t Christian (they may or may not be), the movie could tackle that sort of stereotyping. Then again, I would love it more if they actually went with the “Harold & Kumar Babies” idea that Cho proposed last summer.
Anyway, while I spent the day dreaming of my ideal White (Castle) Christmas movie, everyone else was wondering how Penn’s Obama administration job will affect the making of this sequel. Check out other bloggers’ thoughts on AVH&KC after the jump:
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Comic-Con begins this week, not with a bang, but a blaze. Sony’s eagerly awaited next installment in the train that is Judd Apatow continues barreling down the track with multiple word of mouth screenings of Pineapple Express this week, including one in San Diego during the massive weekend of the Con. It’s worth trying to get into one just for the Huey Lewis and the News song that rolls over the end credits.
I was lucky enough to see the flick last night, and it was excellent on all counts. It’s over the top, violent, and very funny. And while Danny McBride’s Red character threatens to outfunny both Seth Rogen and James Franco, it’s Franco who brings us back the loveable movie stoner that we’ve missed so much.
People have been smoking pot in movies for decades now, but where Knocked Up just gave us useless layabouts who light up all the time, there’s actually a long line of lovable movie stoners who have handed off the torch to Franco, and he continues their tradition in glorious fashion. Here’s to those who helped pave the road.
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