Memphis Beat is Growing on Me

I have to admit, it took me a while to warm up to Memphis Beat. Maybe it's because I still miss My Name is Earl. Lee looks a lot hotter as Dwight Hendricks. But few shows have that quality MNIE had. Outrageous, hilarious, politically incorrect, yet pretty darned heartwarming by the end.

Well, I've finally gotten over it. Memphis Beat is a pretty cool show and Jason Lee is wonderful as the singing detective who won't let anyone mess with Memphis.

Over the past couple of years I've published a bunch of Lee clips here. But now that we have Dwight Hendricks, you've got hours of Lee vid available to you right here:

Full episodes of Memphis Beat on TNT

Meanwhile, I hope to find time to get back to my mission of creating a full vlog of Lee's roles. But I may not be able to find the time, so that oughta keep you all busy for a while. ;-)

Janet

P.S. I recommend the episode "One Night of Sin" which features Giovanni Ribisi.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Probably Kevin Smith's silliest movie. Too bad there's so much EXTREMELY vulgar language or this one might be fun for kids.

Jason Lee and Ben Affleck both get dual roles. Why? Because Jay & Silent Bob were around for all the previous Kevin Smith movies, of course! Lee plays both Brodie Bruce (Mallrats) and Banky Edwards (Chasing Amy). Affleck plays Holden McNeil (Chasing Amy) and - who else? - Ben Affleck.

Got 15 seconds? Here's a cute vid of Brodie singing "Matt Matt Matt" with Jay & Silent Bob:



The trailer is pretty amusing too:



Enjoy!

Janet

Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 movie starring Tom Cruise as a shallow man who learns how to live a better life the hard way. Jason Lee plays his best friend - and perhaps his only real friend - author Brian Shelby. Lee's part isn't very big, but it isn't small either. This was Lee's second film with director Cameron Crow (Almost Famous was the first).

Here's the trailer:



This is an odd film. Seems many people either love it or hate it. It's definitely interesting and, imho, worth watching.

Janet

Heartbreakers

Jason Lee gets to make out with Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers, a 2001 comedy.

If you can get past the creepy premise, Heartbreakers is a pretty entertaining movie.

Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Hewitt) are mother-daughter con artists. Max gets rich men to marry her while keeping the men from - er - enjoying the marriage.

Page then seduces the frustrated grooms, while Max conveniently catches them about to cheat, allowing the pair to split some generous divorce settlements.

When Page wants to go out on her own, there's trouble. Max knows her daughter isn't ready and sure enough, Page falls in love with the first guy she tries to con (Jason Lee as Jack Withrowe).

Meanwhile, Max is seducing the hilariously disgusting, chain-smoking tobacco mogul Tensy (Gene Hackman). To complicate matters, her last victim (Ray Liotta) is looking for her.

This got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman are especially funny.

I did find Max's fake Russian accent annoying. It's not clear why she needs to affect a Russian accent until she tells Tensy she's about to be deported.

Lee's character is pretty bland and it's hard to understand how Jack sees the good in Page, who is really nasty to him throughout most of the movie. While he does get to respond to her nastiness with some good wisecracks a couple of times, it would've been nice to see more give and take when she gives him a hard time.

One more important fact for Jason Lee fans: He looks hotter in Heartbreakers than in any other movie he's been in. Too bad Jack isn't as interesting as some of Lee's other characters. But Jack is sweet. And, like I said, hot.

Overall, Heartbreakers is an entertaining movie, as long as you don't take it too seriously. It's meant to be frivolous entertainment. If you analyze the icky nature of what Max and Page are doing (and Dean does tell them they'll need years of therapy), you'll spoil all the fun.

Here's the trailer:



Janet

Amost Famous

In 2000, Jason Lee was in one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous.

It's an awesome semi-autobiographical Cameron Crowe movie about a teenage music journalist traveling with the not-quite-famous band Stillwater so he can do a feature story on them for Rolling Stone magazine.

In real life, Crowe did something similar, becoming the youngest Rolling Stone journalist.

Patrick Fugit is wonderful as William, the precocious yet innocent, wide-eyed teen. Billy Crudup plays Russell Hammond, the "incendiary" guitarist Willam looks up to. And Kate Hudson made quite a splash as Penny Lane, a band-aid (NOT a groupie) who falls for Russell while William falls for her. Lee plays Jeff Bebe, the lead singer who's tired of being upstaged by Russell.

Frances McDormand is a stand-out as William's overprotective mom, especially when she manages to intimidate an arrogant Russell - over the phone!

Seymour Phillip Hoffman is wonderful as real-life legendary rock journalist Lester Bangs, who helps William realize that neither of them will ever be cool, and that's the way it should be.

Can you tell how much I love this film?

For Almost Famous, you get several videos:

First, a trailer - and it's a good one.



Here's Stillwater performing the song "Fever Dog" on stage. Crowe's wife, Nancy Wilson of Heart, wrote the songs. The band isn't really performing the song, but they learned the moves from Peter Frampton.



Next, a nice scene where they all sing "Tiny Dancer" on their bus.



Last but not least, the plane scene. It's near the end, so if you haven't seen Almost Famous yet, you may want to hold out for the movie. If you have, or if you don't care, it's pretty funny and so worth watching.



One last note: The first thing you hear when the movie begins is the Chipmunks singing their Christmas song. A precursor to a much different role for Jason Lee.

You WILL enjoy these videos!

Peace,

Janet

A Couple of Dicks

Just learned that Jason Lee will have a role in Kevin Smith's new movie A Couple of Dicks, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Michelle Trachtenberg plays Willis's daughter and Lee will play her stepfather. Doesn't sound like a big part, but it's always fun to watch Lee in a Kevin Smith movie. Hope he gets more movie roles now that he's got all that free time on his hands. By the way, Smith didn't write this movie, but he is directing it.

Can My Name is Earl Be Saved?

NBC has been making some bad decisions lately and the decision to cancel My Name is Earl is the worst. Well, okay, it's only my favorite show in the world, so maybe I'm a little biased.

I'm not so sure writing to NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will work. First, NBC didn't tell Earl creator Greg Garcia about the cancellation until 30 minutes before it released its fall schedule.

Then, to add insult to injury, Silverman pretty much slapped the show in the face by claiming they canceled the show because it didn't get the write-in support that Chuck did.

Meanwhile, Garcia said it was hard to be upset about being thrown off the Titanic. Clearly, there's no love lost between those two.

So we may want to rely on the other networks that have considered picking up Earl.

What can we do to help? I'm not quite sure, but I did sign all the petitions I could find. I Googled "My Name is Earl petitions" and came up with this list:

http://www.google.com/search?q=my+name+is+earl+petitions&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS177US228

If you do want to write to Ben Silverman and tell him what a knucklehead he's been, here's the address:

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC
3000 W. Alameda
Burbank, CA 91523

You can also write to

Angela Bromstad
NBC president of prime-time programming
100 Universal City Plaza
Bldg 1320, 4th Floor
Universal City, CA 91608

Thanks to Chicago Tribune writer Maureen Ryan's excellent article on how to save Chuck for those addresses!

One last thing you can do. If you Twitter, follow EarlTwitition (although I've been disappointed at the infrequent postings).

If I find out more we can do, I'll let you know. I'd like to write to Fox and other networks to encourage them to pick up Earl.

Mumford

In 1999, the same year Jason Lee played evil demon Azrael in Dogma, he had one of his best roles: naive computer billionaire Skip Skipperton in Mumford. Sweet Skip is the polar opposite of Azrael.

For the longest time, I could find absolutely nothing on this movie, but someone posted a trailer on YouTube fairly recently:



There's not a whole lot of Lee in this minute-long video, but that's because the movie boasts a wonderful ensemble cast.

Do watch out for the skateboarding computer genius (when you see a guy skateboarding, that's Skip/Lee). And wait for the end - Skip has the last line and it's one of the funniest in the film (although it's funnier when you see it in the movie).

The movie itself is entertaining and enjoyable if you can ignore the ethical questions it raises, then tosses aside. If you're a Lee fan, it's definitely worth renting.

Dogma

In 1999, Jason Lee played the demon Azrael in the Kevin Smith film Dogma. Here's a deleted scene that many viewers, including me, think should have stayed in the film:

Cuisine Americaine

Besides Kissing a Fool, Lee made two other movies in 1998.

He had a starring role in a French film called Cuisine Americaine. Here's a trailer:



This is not an easy film to get a hold of, and I have not seen it yet.

Janet

Kissing a Fool

A year after making Chasing Amy, Jason Lee made the movie Kissing a Fool. Playing Jay Murphy, Lee got to be the kind and gentle best friend to David Schwimmer's shallow, obnoxious Max Abbitt.

This was a nice change of pace for both of them. Schwimmer, of course, was playing lovable nerd Ross on Friends, while Lee was best known for playing the obnoxious best friends in Mallrats and Chasing Amy.

After the bad reviews this film got, I had avoided watching it. What a mistake!

It wasn't perfect (hey, what is), but it was a pleasant little comedy, especially if you're a fan of any of the actors.

I thought Mili Avital was wonderful in this. She has the grace and charm of the actresses of the 30s and 40s. It's easy to believe that both Max and Jay fell in love with her.

Here's a trailer:



Hope you enjoy it.

Janet

Jason Lee Proves Himself in Chasing Amy

In 1997, Kevin Smith cast Jason Lee as comic book creator Banky Edwards in Chasing Amy. While the story is about the relationship between Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), Banky figures in what could be called a weird love triangle.

Banky has a lot in common with Lee's Mallrats character, Brodie Bruce; both are argumentative and obnoxious. But Banky is both nastier and more vulnerable.

Banky's crankiness is evident from the very first scene in Chasing Amy, in which he's accused of being a mere "tracer" for the comic book he draws and writes with Holden (be forewarned, there's a lot of swearing):



One of the things I love about Jason Lee is his ability to make you like a character who, by all rights, should not be likable. Banky is one of those characters.

I think you'll also like this seen (also featuring way too much of the "f" word) featuring Dwight Ewell, who's a lot of fun as Hooper X, a gay black comic book artist who needs to put on a macho black pride persona to sell his comic books.



Chasing Amy is an original and thoughtful, albeit infuriating movie. I wanted to bang Holden and Banky's heads together as I watched them mess things up. But it's definitely worth a watch.

Drawing Flies

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier financed a little-known movie called Drawing Flies in 1996. Smith cast his usual gang. Jason Lee stars as Donner, a guy who convinces his friends to venture into the Canadian wildnerness to his uncle's cabin. Unfortunately for them, he's crazy and there is no cabin.

I haven't seen the movie, but I hope to get hold of a used copy one of these days. From what I've read about it, it's a low-budget, uneven film that's best left to fans of Kevin Smith and the cast (well, that is us, after all).

It's hard to find clips of this movie, but here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Drawing Flies

Janet

Mallrats - Jason Lee's First Big Acting Gig

You can't make a lifelong career out of pro skateboarding and Jason wanted to leave the sport while at the top of his game. So, after appearing in Video Days and the Sonic Youth video, he decided a good career to fall back on would be movie acting. Yeah, he himself admits that was pretty naive.

Yet by 1995 he landed the part of Brodie Bruce, one of the two leads in Kevin Smith's movie Mallrats.

Here's a scene that clearly shows why Rene (Shannen Doherty) could, and should, find a better boyfriend than Brodie:



And a very fun video featuring Jay & Silent Bob dancing to the song "Build Me Up, Buttercup":



There are scenes from the movie in this, but they don't start until well over a minute into the video.

I didn't love the movie, but I do think Jason Lee is awesome in it.

Enjoy!

Janet

Sonic Youth 100% Video with Jason Lee

Jason Lee plays one of the skateboarders in this Sonic Youth video:

sonic youth 100%
Uploaded by get-s. - See the latest featured music videos.

Jason Lee was one of the skateboarders in the video (not surprisingly). He's adorable in this, except at the end, as a guy who is dead. There's some nice skateboarding in this video, which was directed by Spike Jonze. I believe it was made in 1992.

Video Days (a skateboarding video)

In 1991, pro skateboarder Mark Gonzales recruited four more pro skateboarders, including Jason Lee, to film a move called Video Days, directed by Spike Jonze. This was through Gonzales's skateboarding company, Blind Skateboards.

This video shows Lee's part in the video. He's about 21 years old here. And just like in the last video I posted, he's got something goofy to say.



UPDATE: YouTube took the sound out of this video due to some copyright infringement. This seems unfair, as the band that made the song isn't even well known. I'm all for respecting copyright laws, but I don't get how this benefits anyone. If you search diligently, you may be able to find intact clips of Video Days online. Chances are, people will post them, they will get taken down, then people will post more, etc.

If you want a little more background on the video, here's the Wikipedia page:

Video Days Wikipedia Page

By the way, if you like the first song, it's called "The Knife Song" and it's by a band called Milk. I don't know if they're still around.

Janet

P.S. Watch out for the third video, Lee's part in the Sonic Youth video 100%.

Jason Lee Skateboarding as a Teen

I've decided to post a bunch of Jason Lee videos so you can trace his career from teen skateboarder to his first big movie role in Mallrats and on to his new TV career on My Name is Earl.

I think he's a pretty fascinating guy and a very interesting actor. Okay, I think he's cute too, but that's secondary (so I tell myself).

So here is the oldest Jason Lee video I know of. Need I tell you it's a skateboarding vid? He's a teenager here, still amateur.



Over time, I'll post more Jason Lee videos, in order from oldest to newest.