feeling listless

Film One of the joys of Hollywood film in late eighties / early nineties were the James Earl Jones moments. For example, you're watching Sommersby (not a great film) and suddenly Jones appears as a judge. You're watching 'Sneakers' and he appears at the end as the man who needed the secrets and can grant wishes. He's Terry Mann in 'Field of Dreams'. He has the ability to lift any film -- could you imagine that scene in Empire if Dave Prowse had kept his West Country accent? 'Naaa ... aaahm yrrr faaathrrr.'

It hadn't occured to me until now, but now that Jones seems to have gone into semi-retirement, Sam Jackson has taken over the mantle. You're watching 'Out of Sight' and he turns up at the end to give a speech. Or 'The Red Violin' were he turns out to be the modern guy after the instrument. It turns out he likes it that way:

Unlike many actors, Jackson has no directorial projects or production companies to attend to. 'I'm pretty passionate about acting right now - I've got no plans to direct just yet,' he says. And he rarely plays the lead in most of his films. In fact, he occasionally demands that his name not be used in the marketing of a film so that audiences can discover him for themselves.

Actually, I think they missed a trick when the first action figure to come out 'The Phantom Menace' was Sam's character, Mace Windu. Imagine how we'd have felt at that moment in the film first time around if we'd suddenly noticed Jackson sitting next Yoda ... I think I'm going to hire 'The 51st State' finally this week. The kilt ...