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Actors and Their Niches 2: James Marsden – Lover in a Love Triangle

Posted on September 29, 2012 Written by ripitup

James Marsden — Image via awardscircuit.com.

This is part 2 in the Actors and Actor Niches article series, where Part 1 covered Robert De Niro.

Now, as talented and diverse James is, and as many as different kind of scripts he has picked, he seems to end up in love triangles a lot.

This hadn’t really occurred to me, until I read this blog post about Marsden being a part of a love triangle in the X-Men trilogy. Then I remembered all the movies James had handsome male rivals…and voila! Discovered his niche. But I have to point out, he is one of my favorite actors- and I do like the movies I covered here.

X-Men: James Marsden vs. Hugh Jackman for Famke Janssen

x-men-3-the-last-stand-movie-poster — Image via coolpapae.com.

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is in love with Jean (Famke Janssen). And this is a very tricky situation for Jean, as she is married to Cyclops (James Marsden.)

Hugh Jackman vs. James Marsden…Now, that’s dilemma I’d have loved to be a part of.

Now, even though Jean has some feelings for Wolverine, they don’t get dangerous until the 3rd movie where weird things have happened to her…

The Notebook: James Marsden vs. Ryan Gosling for Rachel McAdams

The Notebook movie poster. Image via wikipedia.

The first movie I saw Ryan Gosling in was the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Notebook, and even though I loved how he portrayed his character and how much in love he was with Rachel McAdams’ character, I was rooting for James Marsden too.

While Noah (Ryan Gosling) was Allie’s first and biggest love, class differences and her mother (Joan Allen) drove them apart. Then she met the lovely Lon (James Marsden)- and frankly, after that, I wasn’t rooting for Noah. Not just for Noah anyway. Because Lon was also a great guy- sweet, lovely, fun…and very good-looking. Oh, and as a perk, he had money. He was also very easy-going, and he truly loved Allie. And I’m not a big fan of the fighting is a sign of passion theory.

And I’d have to imagine your guy being adored by your parents can’t hurt a relationship either.

Yes, Noah gets the girl. Oh, come on- even if you haven’t seen the movie, it is Ryan Gosling on the cover, not Marsden.

Enchanted: James Marsden vs. Patrick Dempsey for Amy Adams

Enchanted-movie-poster-(2007) — Image via posters555.com.

Fairy tale prince (James Marsden)’s relationship with his bride-to-be Amy Adams is endangered when his evil stepmother (Susan Sarandon) sends her to earth to separate them. That’s where she meets the lovely but cynical divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey). Then he follows her there to save her and complications ensue…

27 Dresses: James Marsden vs. Edward Burns (sort of-see below) for Katherine Heigl

Cynical wedding columnist Kevin Doyle (Marsden) meets the too-often-bridesmaid Jane (Katherine Heigl) during a wedding and is instantly amused by her attitude to weddings. When she leaves her significant notebook behind, he calls her. She doesn’t even realize how cute Kevin is, however, as she is too busy being in love with her handsome boss George (Edward Burns)- who is instantly smitten when he meets her sister Tess (Malin Akerman).

Talk about a mess when Kevin comes to cover the wedding of Tess and George.

* Even when it is not exactly him vs. the other guy, somebody complicated his relationship, or he complicated somebody else.

Straw Dogs: Alexander Skarsgard vs. James Marsden about Kate Bosworth

Straw Dogs movie poster — Image via movietaxi.com.mx.

Successful novelist (Marsden) goes with his wife (Bosworth) to her hometown only to realize her ex (Skarsgard) and his gang may not be so welcoming to strangers who don’t live according to their rules. And by complications, we mean serious threats and violence here.

24th day: Scott Speedman vs. James Marsden – on Scott’s dead wife

The-24th-Day — Image via freecodesource.com

Marsden is a carefree gay player who couldn’t care about the lives of his conquests. But one day one of them captures him, quite willing to him. As it’ll turn out, Scott cheated once, with Marsden. He now has AIDS, and it is wife his wife died from. Marsden won’t likely survive if he’s the one who gave it to her. This can be my favorite Marsden movie. Great script, killer performances and solid ending. What more would you want?

Love Triangle or not, Marden is a joy to watch.

My recommendations for his niche movies are (in order):

24^th Day

X-Men Trilogy

27 Dresses

Enchanted

(*Straw Dogs: Not a great movie. But wouldn’t be a total loss to watch it.)

Recommended Non-Niche James Movies:

Gossip – a gem of a mystery/drama/thriller co-starring Lena Headey, Joshua Jackson & Kate Hudson

Hairspray – a very entertaining musical starring Michelle Pfeiffer, John Travolta & Christopher Walken

Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road – weird, but cute road comedy/drama feat. Gary Oldman

Looking Forward To:

Red Machine – action thriller co-starring Piper Perabo & Thomas Jane

The Loft – thriller co-starring Karl Urban & Wentworth Miller

2 Guns – action drama co-starring Denzel Washington & Mark Wahlberg

What are your James favorites?

Straw Dogs starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard & James Woods

Posted on December 30, 2011 Written by ripitup

Straw-Dogs-2011-Movie-Poster — Straw Dogs starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård & James Woods. Image viaa whysoblu.com

Straw Dogs- Plot Summary

The review part has spoilers. For the unspoiled version, please read the preview.

Actress Amy (Kate Bosworth) and her screenwriter husband David Summer (James Marsden) go to her hometown so that he can have a writer’s retreat. It’s a beautiful lake house, and things are supposed to be just productive and romantic.

Unfortunately their peace is short-lived as their roof needs repair and David unknowingly hires Amy’s ex, the former football-star Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård) and his crew. To call them bullying, ignorant and intolerant and hypocritical rednecks would be an understatement. They are quick to hate David for being rich(er), being married to the town hottie, for being a city boy…

To make matters worse, Charlie he is also still obsessed with Amy, and the rest of of the town folk aren’t any smarter or more open-minded and Amy is acting like she is still in Los Angeles…

Review

That’s right. This is your plot. Now, I didn’t see the original Dustin Hoffman version, and I only had the trailer and the plot summary to make my guesses about the film. It seemed like it’d be a decent thriller, and I really like James Marsden. And while it ended up disturbing and thrilling enough, it was disappointing to have two of the stupidest female characters in the history of movies.

Let’s see:

Ideally, Amy wouldn’t have come back without telling her husband what the men can really be like. Ideally, she would have never come back.

So she absolutely had to go? She would have to hire a few men like John Reese (see Person of Interest). Do you think I’m being paranoid? I don’t care how trusting people are in that town- it is a remote house where the cell phones don’t get reception. Non-paranoid people shouldn’t be allowed to live there.

Amy walks around half-naked around perverted and horny men. And when her husband suggests that she could wear a bit more, she flashes to these men. Men who would have been tempted enough if she was wearing sweatpants and the ugliest, baggiest jumper the universe had to offer.

She provokes the men in more ways than one. No, I’m not saying she would have been safe had she been smarter. But as a viewer, her stupidity and provoking really pisses you off. And it is funny how she switched from “We don’t lock our doors around here” to “They killed our cat, let’s sleep with a gun!”

They should have left when the cat was killed.

Yes, of course the husband shouldn’t have ever, ever left her alone in the house. But he certainly didn’t see that they were psychopaths.

As for Janice (Willa Holland), she was even stupider than Amy. She repeatedly went after, tried to seduce and flirted with the town’s big man/little brain Jeremy (Dominic Purcell). Yes, she knew his father (James Woods) would kill the guy if he was ever seen with her. She knew there was an incident where another girl was hurt. And the funniest thing? She got killed by him- not because he was trying to hurt her, but because he got so scared when he was trying to hide from her father. And her disappearance is what finally caused the ultimate battle between the Summers and the rednecks.

Oh, never mind the Sheriff who tries to calm a group of rednecks – where one guy is a well-built 6’4”, and the other one is a crazy, alcoholic father- by himself. Right. That is of course smart. I don’t care how safe they claim their town to be. Guns+ alcohol+ hot blooded men don’t equal safe, and it is not a one-man job!

So yes- the characters act like they have read a book called “How to Be Extremely Stupid” and lived by it. Yes, the villains were disgusting, and had nothing to redeem them. The victims set a new low for being idiots.

The hypocrisy? Oh yes. According to our villain Charlie, it is rude and not nice to walk out on a sermon- but it is completely OK to rape his ex, and then watch while another friend rapes her too.

But I don’t rate movies on the intelligence of characters alone. The movie was nicely-shot, the actors did a good job, and I love a good old fighting-back sequence when the “victim” finally gets rid of the villains one by one.

Rated at 5.6 on IMDB, Straw Dogs is underrated. But I won’t give it a 7 when the victims make the villains’ jobs so much easier. 6.5 from me. It could have been a bit shorter, and could have repeated some stuff a lot less.

Other James Marsden Movies & Articles

The Box starring James Marsden, Cameron Diaz & Frank Langella

Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts (Hairspray features James Marsden

Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey & James Marsden

Movie Reviews of 4 Nicholas Sparks Adaptations: A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle and The Notebook (The Notebook co-stars James Marsden)

Gossip starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson & Joshua Jackson

The 24th Day starring James Marsden and Scott Speedman

Looking Forward to: Straw Dogs starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard

Posted on May 28, 2011 Written by ripitup

Straw Dogs 2011 - starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard. The remake of the 70s's Straw Dogs is coming to the theaters in September, 2011 - hence the lack of a proper poster. Image via fragman.web.tr

Hollywood loves the idea of a city couple/family to move to the country, only to have something terrible happen to them because of their house. It has been the theme of many movies (and this will be a whole other post), and this time we have (the remake of) Straw Dogs.

What makes Straw Dogs attractive to me is (apart from the cast), is that this time the house isn’t haunted. There are no *Supernatural (see below the movie still for the related Supernatural episode) elements here. The villains are very much human. From what it seems, these villains are not even scary convicts or threatening strangers. They were born and bred in that town – a town Amy Summer (Kate Bosworth) boasts of being so safe that “they don’t even lock the doors”. It is with that great, safe town in mind that they move there, and hire the locals (led by True Blood’s Alex Skarsgard) to repair their roof. But the locals turn out to be bullies, and they decide that they want to play by their own rules, and not their employers’. Of course David Summer (James Marsden) tries to fire them, but guess what? They really don’t take no for an answer, and turn the Summers’ lives into a living hell. So who do you think will win?

I always find that human villains make for creepier, more thrilling movies. And if the story isn’t that far-fetched – if you feel like this could be you- then you are in for a treat.

I don’t know if Straw Dogs will deliver, but the trailer looks really promising. And it is better when James Marsden doesn’t just play the cute romantic lead, because he has a knack for playing darker, or at least, grayer characters. Check out 24th Day to see what I mean.

Adapted and directed by Rod Lurie. The problem? Straw Dogs has got to live up to the original Straw Dogs, a 1971 movie starring Dustin Hoffman. Straw Dogs is based on the novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, and the 1971 movie script written by Sam Peckinpah & David Zelag Goodman.

Coming to the theaters in mid-September. Link to the youtube trailer:

Still from the 2011 movie Straw Dogs- James Marsden & Kate Bosworth. Image via usmoviereviews.com

* Supernatural: Ofcourse the TV show Supernatural has a “haunted” episode where a family relocates to the country to solve their problems, and it is not long before the kids get to meet the “ghost”. But is she acutally a ghost, or can the non-supernatural be much more terrifying than any supernatural element?

Also on Kate Bosworth:

21 starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey: It’s Vegas, baby!!!

Also on James Marsden:

Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey & James Marsden

24th Hour starring James Marsden & Scott Speedman

James Marsden Trivia

Gossip starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson & Joshua Jackson

Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts– feat. Hairspray with James Marsden