comment #1

Undercover Brother says ...

Fine. Be done with the kiss-ass pieces. Write a smear piece if it makes you happy. Write about Man Toruble and Mars Attacks and The Two Jakes if you need to. Jack isn't perfect. I mean, didn't he tag along with Sandler in a movie just a few years ago? Every legend has handful of stinkers that should be aired out. Obsess over those for a while.

comment #2

jeffmcm says ...

I like Mars Attacks.

comment #3

transmogrifier says ...

Looks like Jack has made The List.

comment #4

Eddie says ...

I like Mars Attacks too.

comment #5

Arran says ...

And I like The Two Jakes...what, just me? Ok...

comment #6

Drew says ...

Actually, I can totally see Jeff's point on this. No one's added anything new to the conversation on Jack in decades, ever since he became an Uber-Icon. We all know it. We all get it. We're all aware of his whole history. There's no escaping it.

So it does feel redundant and regurgitated when we read the 50th puff piece that says, "Man, wasn't EASY RIDER awesome? And remember CUCKOO'S NEST? And can you believe he was in BATMAN, too?"

comment #7

Larry says ...

A large amount of writing on celebrities are puff pieces, but lay off Jack. I'm not even that big a fan, but, unlike most of his contemporaries, he's still relevant, he's still a star and he still keeps trying new things. What more do you want?

comment #8

Nicol D says ...

I like Mars Attacks and The Two Jakes.

comment #9

Rich S. says ...

I just think it goes back to the fact that Jack is one of the few remaining legitimate "stars." The star system is in its last throes and the press is desperate to keep it alive because of the glitz and glitter it represents. Warhol was right; in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. But there's a corollary to that. In order to feed the beast with the next big thing, people are now famous for ONLY fifteen minutes. The fact that Jack has been an icon for nearly 40 years is a rare thing indeed.

comment #10

Sergio says ...

Yeah, I know what Jeff means. Just look at the Oscars with Nicholson always sitting in the front row with those damn shades on and the hosts up on stage tripping over themselves praising him. What gives? I have this theory on why Nicholson gets all these kiss ass reactions and I think it's because guys are envious of him because he's lived his whole life the way most guys wish they could if they didn't have all these goddamn responisbilities to deal with. You know like a wife and kid, a morgage, a lousy boss, and all the other things that make life such a pain. Nicholson is what now, 70 or so, but he still lives and acts like 17 year old kid. No wife (had one years ago but now forgotten), dates only young women, smokes, drinks and still does drugs (I guessing...) just lives a wild carefree life that guys wish so much they could experience. if I didn't have this ball and chain attached to my foot or who is suing me for more alimony and child support

comment #11

T. S. Idiot says ...

The problem isn't Jack but the general mediocrity for what passes as entertainment journalism. These writers rarely seem to have read earlier interviews so that theirs can have different slants. The ones in the British newspapers are much better than ours. Though a huge fan of Jack and T. Burton, I found Mars Attacks numbingly boring.

comment #12

Josh Massey says ...

Same thing goes for Clint Eastwood. I LOVE Eastwood, but nothing new has been said about him for over a decade. And while "journalists" love to focus on the Spaghetti westerns and his post-"Unforgiven" resurgence, when was the last time somebody brought up "City Heat," "Pink Cadillac" or "The Rookie?" Hell, most folks probably aren't aware that he actually had a resurgence.

comment #13

jeffreywells says ...

Wells to Sergio: You're PRECISELY right...exactly. "Nicholson is what now, 70 or so, but he still lives and acts like 17 year old kid. No wife (had one years ago but now forgotten), dates only young women, smokes, drinks and still does drugs (I guessing...) just lives a wild carefree life that guys wish so much they could experience." That is totally & absolutely the case.

comment #14

RoyBatty says ...

Here's the thing about all this genuflecting at the alter of "Jack" - name the last time he gave a truly original, tic-free performance.

For anything that doesn't smack of his BATMAN/WITCHES OF EASTWICK Devil-incarnate-scenery-chewing you pretty much have to go back to AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Even his radically different turn in ABOUT SCHMIDT that starts so surprisingly fresh (Nicholson actaully playing his age!) started getting into "Jack" territory at the end.

It's why I look forward to seeing THE DEPARTED because the trailers suggest he is actually playing the part as written and not another "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!!!!" role. That and Scorsese also might be back in top form.

I think Rich S. sorta got it right, but is missing the main thing about Nicholson's appeal to many men: he is what we could be as a movie star if looks didn't matter. Given his talent with our own everyday faces, we too would run hog wild with unapologetic hedonistic pursuits. Christ, look at him back in his youth - the is one average looking dude. Or even greasy, like in CUCKOO'S NEST.

He is the American male id come to life.

comment #15

Craig Kennedy says ...

Jack's about all we have left that can genuinely be considered Hollywood royalty and bless him for that. Men continue to want to be him and women continue to want to do him. Jack rules.

But Jeff is absolutely correct about lame movie marketing disguised as entertainment journalism. And puff pieces are just one slice of the urinal cake. Stumbled on one of those ET/Insider Gossip/Hype fests lately? Argggghh! I know ET was never exactly a repository for Pulitzer Prize winning journalism, but for a few moments, my soul actually fled my body and I was overcome with a powerful urge to jump into the abyss and just end it all. Awful.

All the more reason we need people like Jack who couldn't be bothered to pick chunks of punks like Billy Bush out of his stool after eating him for breakfast the day before.

comment #16

Devin Faraci says ...

I am sort of curious who will be the first to break the 100% fresh streak THE DEPARTED has on Rotten Tomatoes.

comment #17

Movie fan09 says ...

"I'm getting a little tired of these kiss-ass articles that journalists always write when Jack Nicholson has a film about to come out. They all say the same damn thing, which is that Jack is an exceptionallly talented wild man and a kind of Hollywood force-of-nature." "Not to say Nicholson isn't one of the very greatest -- his imitation-of-a-rat bit in The Departed automatically ranks alongside his hold-the-chicken-salad- between-your-knees diner scene in Five Easy Pieces -- but I've had it with these suck-up pieces." "I've been reading them for 25 years."

I love this site.

comment #18

Sergio says ...

Sergio to Jeff: Hey, when I'm right, I'm right!