It’s amazing how a person can show up in so many movies and even on TV and still be relatively unknown by name. Joel David Moore has been around since the 90s and has managed to create several notable characters that people should be able to remember since he’s been quite noticeable quite often. While not every character is going to be memorable to everyone, there are some that stand out more than others either because of the movie he was in or the character that was created. It’s been pretty normal to see Joel as kind of the geeky, nerdy type throughout most of his movies since he’s not exactly a big, muscular guy that’s built for action movies, but he’s been in a couple of them. He’s also not someone that a lot of people could see as a leading man, but he’s been a great supporting actor over the course of his career, and he’s been someone that’s fun to watch since the interactions that his characters have had with the rest of the cast tend to be pretty comical as well as integral in some cases given that he’s usually playing the part of someone who is valued by those around him. He’s definitely not much of a loner character in a lot of movies, but he has played that part as well.
One movie that definitely shows his goofy side is Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. Joel plays the character of Owen, an Average Joe’s employee that is kind of dim-witted in a way but is still a valued part of the team since he’s an employee and someone that has been around the group long enough to be seen as important. In terms of the actual gameplay though Owen doesn’t take a huge role until the final game, which is after the Joe’s have lost their coach and are playing against the Globo Gym Purple Cobras. At that point, though he’s already met and fallen in love with the Cobra’s female teammate, Fran, who is one of the most horrendous women ever, but in real life is a knockout, and can’t bring himself to strike her out of the game. She hesitates as well and they’re both eliminated, but at the end of the game, they manage to hook up in a display that’s kind of odd and a bit disgusting but is still counted as a win. The movie is one that was popular for a while but kind of faded into the background after a bit.
Another great movie to watch with Joel playing a noticeable character is Grandma’s Boy, which features Allen Covert as the lead character. Joel plays the role of J.P. the prodigy of gaming that created his first video game when he was just a kid. The unfortunate part about success coming at such a young age was that J.P. didn’t really grow up after that, and throughout the movie, it shows. This is one of those extreme cases that’s parodied in a way that is meant to make people laugh since J.P. is a horrible character that has no respect for anyone, especially the game testers that are working on de-bugging his game in order to make it marketable. When he tries to steal a game shown to him by Alex, played by Covert, he crosses a very dangerous line and in what can only be called one of the funniest portions of the movie, J.P. has to play Alex’s grandmother, who was introduced to the game by Alex, where he ends up losing and is found to be a fraud. The character is definitely one that’s over the top but is still pretty funny since Joel took it to the edge and continued to run with it.
His role in the Avatar movie by James Cameron gave him a chance to toughen up a bit since as Dr. Norm Spellman he starts out as an individual that’s not really the physical type and is more intellectual, but eventually, he does get the chance to fight. The thing with Norm however is that initially he was excited about the chance to walk in another form since he and Jake were being plugged into the project by connecting with the native bodies that had been grown in accordance with their DNA. But Norm did get a bit jealous of Jake for a while since as a Marine, Jake was able to take on challenges that Norm couldn’t, and he did feel left out. But after a while, Norm did accept this and started teaching Jake what he needed to know about the Na’vi in order to help him survive and learn more about the species.
All in all, Joel has done quite a bit when it comes to his career, and it’s a hope that he’ll stick around for some time to come.
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