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March 21, 2011
Who's Older?™: Meteoric rises
Russell Brand has had a big couple of years. Hardly anyone in the US knew who he was before Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and now he's starring in movies and saturating late night talk shows (like this Conan clip from a few months ago, which is hilariously manic and infectious.) He's the only reason I want to see Arthur when it comes out in a couple of weeks, and that one also stars Helen Mirren.
Here's who's having a big year now: Michael Fassbender. The first time I saw him was in Inglourious Basterds, then last year's ickily disturbing but good Fish Tank, and this year he's starring in pretty much every exciting director's new movie: Haywire by Steven Soderbergh, A Dangerous Method by David Cronenberg, the new X-Men movie (by the guy who did Kick-Ass), Shame by new-ish British director Steve McQueen, and the directorial debut by Brendan Gleeson. Coming up later he's got Guy Ritchie's Excalibur (!) and Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
It's like every director out there watched Inglourious Basterds and said "that craggy-faced 1940's guy's got something." Entertainment Weekly did a piece about him titled "Meet Your Next Obsession" because of how hugely famous he's going to get this year. Right now, he's playing Rochester in Jane Eyre, and he's really great: blustery, tortured, but still funny. And manly. As IFC News' Matt Singer points out, "Fassbender, with chiseled features and simple, unfussy handsomeness, represents our modern ideal of what masculinity used to be, before it was screwed up by dorks like me."
He definitely looks like a man. The question is: how old a man?
It's time to play Who's Older?™!
To play, pick which one you think is older, then click on their names to see if you are right.
categories:
Celebrities, Movies, Who's Older?
posted by amy at 11:33 AM | #
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Comments
Glad that Who's Older?™ has helped to hone your crinkliness-detection skills!
I was pretty freaked to realize that Michael Fassbender is significantly younger than we are. But now I really want to see one of his movies from last year that I hadn't heard of, Centurion, largely because of the "History is Written in Blood" tagline and still shots like this:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4264919040/tt1020558
Posted by: amy at March 22, 2011 12:09 PM
Thanks for the link. I had to know why that guy was being chased by a Klingon, so I booted up Netflix to watch Centurion during lunch.
I won't spoil too much of the first half hour, but did you know Detective McNulty is in this? As a Roman General? He's definitely stealing Fassbender's limelight so far, for better or worse. No Omar, though.
Also, there's a pretty funny deathblow montage about thirty minutes in that's comically overextended, imo. William Tell Overture-worthy, for sure.
And Fassbender looks kinda his supposed age in the movie. I guess his bio could be telling the truth.
Posted by: ORStylee at March 24, 2011 5:52 AM
Yeah, Det. McNulty sure does have a formidable side career in classical-era battle-fantasy movies--he was in 300, too. My favorite role of his is when he was Steel Dragon's guitarist in Rock Star.
http://i.listal.com/image/551722/500full.jpg
Posted by: amy at March 24, 2011 9:59 AM
All my years of playing Who's Older?™, and I never could guess correctly twice in a row. Until today! Yee!
After verifying my winning pick, I realized that I've only seen one movie from each of these actors. I would not care to name either of them out loud.
Your game this round, though, is a bit of a wake up call for me to get back into movie-watching shape. A little more Inglorious Basterds, perhaps. And a little less Spartacus: Sons of the Arena.
Thanks, Amy!
Posted by: ORStylee at March 22, 2011 5:42 AM