On one hand it’s kind of awesome to realize that Carl Weathers has been keeping his acting career going as much as possible when you realize that he had a part in Arrested Development that was recurring and allowed him to stick around. On the other hand you’ve got to admit that watching him be a mooch and a horrible acting coach was a little painful next to the performances he’s handed in throughout his other appearances. I mean come on, this was the guy that pounded in Rocky’s face for two movies before becoming his coach in the third and then getting beaten to death in the fourth. He’s the guy that stood toe to to with Arnold Schwarzenegger before later on getting disarmed, literally, and then gut-checked by the Predator. And he’s also the guy that managed to stand Happy Gilmore for more than an hour in order to teach him the sport of golf. Watching him be a mooch and a rather pathetic version of himself was a little cringe-worthy for the mere fact that it was like watching the Mona Lisa pick her own nose. Yes, yes I did say that. Carl Weathers is a great actor even if he hasn’t done much in the last several years, and it’s worth saying that it’s always preferable to see him in a role that is either specially designed for him or is at least able to be something that he can step into and look awesome in.
Of course comedy being comedy it’s not as bad as all that either. When you realize he’s doing a spoof of his own personal character you can kind of lighten up and accept the fact that for a show like this he was kind of perfect since taking on the role as an acting coach, and a horrible one at that, isn’t much of a stretch. Before you get all twisted and think that I’m ragging on the man read on. Carl Weathers is an action star, an ACTION star. Everything that made him great has been an action movie, and those movies that weren’t action at least had him in a role that he was suited for and could accomplish with relative ease. Putting him in a role like this is almost like the attempt to put stars like Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo into the roles they played for movie To Wong Foo. Okay so it’s not quite the same but it was a decent analogy anyway.
Action stars get typecast along with everyone else when it really comes down to it. They tend to stick to action movies even if they don’t act as the main star since it’s what they do and what they know. As he’s gotten older though Weathers has definitely stretched his acting muscles a bit more and for a film like Happy Gilmore it worked immensely, but for Arrested Development it was the kind of performance that makes you scratch your head and wonder why he bothered taking it. To be honest it wasn’t absolutely horrible since he played his part and made it work, but it was still enough to think that he could have gone on to do something else somewhere else and found a lot more fitting role that would have treated him a little better. The fact that he got to play a parody of himself was interesting since it’s not something that he’s done a lot in the past, but it’s still enough to think that he could have gone to another show and been just as great playing himself and perhaps reliving the glory days when he was still young and fit and was considered a big star. Nowadays he and a lot of other stars from that era are growing old and either taking what they can get or showing the world that they’ve still got it when their best years are behind them.
Take Sylvester Stallone for instance, a guy that Weathers has a lot of history with. He’s been on a tear trying to make as many movies as he can and packing as many individuals into them as he can. Why couldn’t Weathers have been considered for one of those films? Or how about with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s also been back making films? He couldn’t possibly star in any of the Predator movies since it’s never been established that there’s anything but some mild continuity between the films. But there’s plenty he could still do as far as action films, even if it just amounted to being a character that never swung a single punch or even lifted a gun. It’d be something to see him on the big screen again, that’s all. Until then these moments will seem to be what we have to remember his greatness by.
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