https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx8Atds3HXA
The M:I 2 parody that Ben Stiller did for the MTV Movie Awards is still hilarious no matter how you look at it. What would you do with an extra on the set that no one really wants there and yet won’t go away on his own? Ben Stiller is a great comedian that’s capable of playing roles in which he’s about the biggest annoyance you’ve ever seen. Mission: Impossible 2 was a thrill ride that had the advantage of coming on the tail of the original movie and being something so completely different that it was still possible for it to become a popular film without having to lean on the first film for notoriety. In fact I think the second film could have taken the place of the first and people would have understood.
But huh boy, had they had a stunt man like Ben Stiller parodied I would almost feel sorry for anyone on the set. It doesn’t seem that John Woo would have really minded since he would have just old the guy to go away and then run some ‘stunts’ in which the glorified extra would get his butt whipped. You did notice the grin on Woo’s face when Stiller was getting pounded right? I get the feeling he enjoyed that, at least the parody part. But really think about it, how many actual stuntmen out there are like this?
I would hope none since they’re in a position to help make a movie look more authentic and to entertain the masses. Any stuntman that starts acting like this likely wouldn’t have a job for very long since they’re there for one reason essentially, to help make the actors look good. Tom Cruise however does a lot of his own stunts and therefore kind of doesn’t need a stuntman. This guy that Ben Stiller parodies would be a glorified stalker that they tend to put up with. It’s funny anyway.
When you think about it though stuntmen and women have a pretty rough job. They lend their bodies to all sorts of abuses that a lot of actors don’t take on either because they don’t enjoy the possibility of pain or they don’t want to ruin their health. Some stunts are very dangerous and require a great deal of physical training to endure, while others are still just dangerous enough that some actors aren’t physically fit enough to handle it. Those actors that do their own stunts however are quite impressive. Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan kind of top the list when you think about actors that do their own stunts since both men have gone through a lot trying to make a movie look good. Jackie Chan has likely endured a lot more injury to his person throughout the years than Cruise has, but that doesn’t take much away from Tom since he’s had a wide array of movies that he’s performed in and not all of them have included death-defying stunts like Jackie Chan.
Hey, even Ben Stiller’s done one of his own stunts before. He had a safety cord attached but it was still kind of dangerous. Remember The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
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