Tag Archives: Christopher Walken

The Set of 400: #10 – My Favorite Waste of Cocaine

Today! Because Max is a good name for you, Max –

Annie Hall (1977)

Director: Woody Allen (x12)

Starring: Woody Allen (x9), Diane Keaton (x6), Tony Roberts (x3), Paul Simon, Carol Kane (x5), Shelley Duvall (x4), Christopher Walken (x3), Colleen Dewhurst, Janet Margolin (x2), Marshall McLuhan, John Glover (x5), Truman Capote (x2), Jeff Goldblum (x6), Johnny Haymer, Beverly D’Angelo (x2), Tracey Walter (x4), Sigourney Weaver (x8), Hy Anzell

The twelfth and final Woody Allen film on this list, Annie Hall has experienced the most precipitous fall of any movie on this continually updated countdown in recent years. Sure, it is still clinging to a spot in the top ten, almost out of sheer memory for how much and how long I’ve enjoyed it, but as I’ve mentioned many times on this list, my relationship with Woody has changed dramatically in recent years, and this beloved classic is taking the biggest hits.

You may wonder how that can be, considering it’s still in 10th – well, for the longest time, this was a top four movie of mine, maybe three on occasion. If the wife and I could be said to “have a movie” – like normal couples have songs or, I don’t know, pizza toppings – our movie for over a decade was definitely Annie Hall. It was something we could both agree on, and became a sort of de facto Valentine’s Day thing to watch. This extended to a lesser degree to other Allen films of the era – Manhattan most notably – and being that I was already a big fan of the director, I could bring up his movies as something to watch without worry. We were working on watching them all at one point, working backwards from the present, when this new round of allegations really took hold and the wife checked out for good.

Our standard pizza toppings are half pepperoni/half green peppers, incidentally

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The Set of 400: #134 – My Favorite Balloon Bicycle

Today! Because I’d like to be pimps from Oakland or cowboys from Arizona but it’s not Halloween. Grow up Peter Pan –

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Directed by David Dobkin

Starring Owen Wilson (x3), Vince Vaughn (x2), Rachel McAdams (x2), Isla Fisher, Christopher Walken (x2), Bradley Cooper, Jane Seymour, Ellen Albertini Dow (x4), Will Ferrell (x4), Henry Gibson (x5), Ron Canada, Dwight Yoakam, Rebecca De Mornay, Keir O’Donnell

This drinking and fucking comedy masterwork introduced me to Bradley Cooper (even if he is just the smarmy villain of the piece, and thus I didn’t tie this together with the later Oscar nominated Bradley Cooper we’d all come to know and love for some time) and Isla Fisher (who hasn’t had as great a post-Wedding Crashers run, but still popped up in some solid roles – The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, er, the messy return of Arrested Development), while also giving us one of the better Christopher Walken comedy performances, a great 100% id Will Ferrell cameo, and the best Vince Vaughn character of all-time. Also, if you glance over that resume, this is the last great Vaughn comedy, and the one most directly responsible for so much mediocrity to follow (Fred Claus, Four Christmases, Couples Retreat, our co-starring venture The Dilemma, filmed here in Chicago, etc.).

There I am! I was carrying a coffee mug, but you can’t see it!

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The Set of 400: #205 – My Favorite Microwaved Spray Paint

Today! Because mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it –

Batman Returns (1992)

Directed by Tim Burton (x3)

Starring Michael Keaton (x3), Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito (x4), Christopher Walken, Michael Gough (x2), Michael Murphy (x4), Pat Hingle (x2), Vincent Schiavelli (x4), Andrew Bryniarski, Jan Hooks (x2), Steve Witting, Paul Reubens (x3), Cristi Conaway

A superhero outing aggressively not holding up, Batman Returns was basically my favorite movie when I was 12 years old. I’d been waiting three years for the next Bat-adventure, and where this manner of suspense might raise expectations far higher than a film could reach nowadays, back then it just functioned as a way to excuse a lot of their choices. We finally had another Keaton/Burton Bat-flick! And it had the Penguin! And Catwoman! And…Christopher Walken in a ridiculous wig!

And style-wise, it’s still a pretty cool movie. Between the Christmas setting, the weirder, twistier sets than the first movie, Michelle Pfeiffer’s super dramatic eye makeup, and a marked increase in the Tim Burton-ness of the design, it’s a sequel that takes off in bizarre other directions, while still maintaining the overall gloom and moodiness set in place by the original.

Maybe it’s not so much the make up as all the time spent on that hair!

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