Hollywood Rant #4: Is Will Ferrell The New Ben Stiller?

Need I remind you? I do not think so.


It has to be asked. Because for the life of me, I can't figure out why this guy is in so many movies. I remember in the late 90's early 2000's , it became kind of a running joke that Ben Stiller was in absolutely every film, and he pratically was. Check it out:

Meet the Fockers
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Envy
Starsky & Hutch
Along Came Polly
Duplex
The Royal Tenenbaums
Zoolander
Meet the Parents
Keeping the Faith
Mystery Men
The Suburbans
There's Something About Mary

That's a list of all the major films Ben Stiller appeared in Theatres between 1999 and 2003. Seriously, he was in absolutely everything. You'd be hard pressed to find a single film Ben Stiller wasn't in like you'd be hard pressed to find an unused condom in Ron Jeremy's bedroom. I mean, fuck, the only good movie in that whole list is Tenenbaums. Fucking Philip Seymour Hoffman, possibly the greatest actor alive, was in Along Came Polly and he couldn't save it. That says quite a bit. It says that he needs at LEAST one good actor to play off of. Without Gene Hackman, Stiller probably would have ruined Tenenbaums, so when you take an actor who can only work well with good actors, throw in Hoffman who needs a solid lead actor, and then throw in Jennifer Aniston, you've got less of a prayer than the 49ers of winning the Super Bowl this year.

But this isn't ABOUT Ben Stiller, it's about his mid-decade replacement in the "Sweet mother of God he's in every single movie" department, Will Ferrell. Let's look at how many movies Will Ferrell has been in.

*Deep Breath*

Stranger Than Fiction
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Curious George
The Producers
Winter Passing
Wedding Crashers
Bewitched
Kicking & Screaming
The Wendell Baker Story
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie
Melinda and Melinda
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Starsky & Hutch
Elf
Old School
Zoolander
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
The Ladies Man
Drowning Mona
Superstar
Dick
The Suburbans
A Night at the Roxbury

That's 1999 through 2006. And about 10 of those films were filmed in the course of the same year.

When the fuck does this guy SLEEP?

Okay, I'm with most of you, I used to think this guy was REALLY, REALLY funny. When he was on saturday night live, I laughed along with the best of them. I loved Celebrity Jeopardy. I adored Harey Carey. I loved his speech to Tina Fey about Voice Immodulation. I needed more cowbell. But here's the thing. This guy got WAY too popular way too fast. Comedy genuises that leave SNL (Like Tina Fey more recently, in the past Bill Murray, John Belushi, etc.) develop film careers or TV careers to some extent, but the sheer voracity with which Ferrell has taken off after leaving SNL a few years ago is nothing less than staggering. He is EVERY where. He has almost constant television guest experiences on every popular show, new films coming out every single month...hell, I'm half surprised he hasn't tried a record contract yet.

Do you remember what Dave Chappelle did after the second season of Chappelle's Show took off to Heaven and Back. He ran away. He suffered a practical nervous breakdown and high tailed it to Nairobi, or some place in Africa to get away from people because the fame was slowly driving him crazy. Alot of people questioned this move at the time, but the practicality of this move cannot be put into question. Dave was getting too famous too fast. If you asked practically anyone BEFORE Chappelle's Show took off who Dave Chappelle was, they probably couldn't tell you, because all he had was some standup noteriety and appearances in Robin Hood Men in Tights and Half-Baked (which coiincidentally, got a special edition after the success of his show that featured him collossally more prominent on the cover). Dave had the right idea though. Just get away from everything for a while before the fact that you're everywhere people look starts to drive you insane and make the public increasingly tired of you.

Will Ferrell needs to follow this advice. I think everybody thought he was funny at first, but the problem is he lost his appeal to about 50% of his audience (a.k.a. The counterculture) when he left SNL and started to do EVERYTHING.

Will, We love you, and I'm saying this in the nicest way possible....


PLEASE....FOR NOW....JUST GO AWAY....