7. Jack Black
Last Great Movie:Bernie (2011) There was a time when anything and everything that Jack Black said or did would result in the laughter of millions. That time was somewhere around 2003, when movies like
School of Rock confirmed that a fat dude with an awesome voice and genuine comic chops were all we really needed to make it through the hard times. And yet nowadays it's all, like, "Where's Jack Black?" I mean, I'm genuinely concerned about him. Where is this guy? Why isn't he being funny anymore? Has he lost his mojo? Can he even be bothered right now? The answer is: I don't know, although I do need to mention the movie
Bernie before I keep going on about how not-good Jack Black is.
Bernie, a movie about a mortician, came out in 2011, and was directed by Richard Linklater, who also directed movies like
A Scanner Darkly and - yes -
School of Rock. Black was great in it (he was nominated for a Golden Globe), but nobody saw it, and so in the eyes of the entire movie-going world, Jack Black is still "that guy who was funny, like, 10 years ago."
Gulliver's Travels? Awful.
The Big Year? Awfuller. Please, somebody find a way to make this man amusing to me again - his career hangs on but a knife's edge!