Classiccameos Videos

Last month, I was out of town for my little brother's wedding and stayed in a hotel room. You know how it is in hotel rooms -- late at night, you watch things on TV that you wouldn't bother with at any other time. My husband and I ended up watching part of Eurotrip, a rather lame comedy from 2004 about a couple of guys who travel to Europe so one of them can make nice with his longtime (female) pen pal. I fell asleep fairly quickly, but not before watching a memorable scene with a cruelly comic song that reveals the main character's girlfriend is cheating on him. The song is called "Scotty Doesn't Know," and since the main character is named Scotty ... you get the idea. The lead singer looked oddly familiar, but it wasn't until later that I learned it was Matt Damon. Admittedly, Damon's singing voice is dubbed by the real lead singer of the band performing the song, Lustra. Also, we don't usually see Damon with a shaved head, chin piercing and a tattoo on his neck. An IFC article about Damon's numerous cameos in film claims Eurotrip was shooting in Hungary while Damon was there for The Brothers Grimm, and the Eurotrip filmmakers convinced him to appear in their film too.Filed under: Comedy, FandomContinue reading Classic Cameos: Matt Damon, 'Eurotrip' Permalink | Email this | Comments

People always seem to sneer at Mel Gibson's Maverick, but I've always had a special place for it on my DVD shelf. As television remakes go, Maverick is pretty slick and clever, and gently spoofs the Western genre while remaining true to its 1960s roots. (If you own the special 2-disc copy of Unforgiven, you need to go watch the Maverick episode that's included as a bonus feature. It's hilarious! Also, James Garner was a dreamboat.) Nevertheless, Maverick threatened to be too silly for its own good when it decided to capitalize on Richard Donner's friendships and franchises, and invite Danny Glover in for a cameo. (There's also a Goonie making a cameo in his gang, see if you can spot him.) This is the kind of wink-wink-nudge-nudge joke that should completely annoy me, but it doesn't here. Maybe my love of Lethal Weapon runs too deep, or maybe I get too into meta-references and expanded universes, but I think it's a fun parody. Sure, parts of it are eye-rolling and obvious ("I'm getting too old for this sh*t!"), but they could have been really lame and cast Glover as a straight-laced sheriff or Texas Ranger. Instead, they let him play on the other side of the law, and it's a nice touch to let Glover set off a bomb for once, and let the explosion mirror the smoke and debris that the loose cannon cops always leave behind. I also love how Glover's look of greed upon beholding Geoffery Lewis' stuffed pocketbook mirrors the scene in Lethal Weapon 2 when Riggs and Murtaugh find the Alba Varden cache. It's a classic cameo, if only for the delightful implication that Riggs and Murtaugh have run into each other throughout American history. Filed under: Comedy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and ClipsContinue reading Classic Cameos: Danny Glover in 'Maverick' Permalink | Email this | Comments

I think our original idea behind the Classic Cameos series was to pick one memorable cameo from a movie. However, The Muppet Movie is a long string of cameos, and why should I have to highlight only one? So many people pop up throughout the 1979 film -- my favorites are James Coburn, who owns the El Sleezo nightclub; Carol Kane's very silly "Myth? Yeth?" running gag; Mel Brooks in what's really more of an actual role than a cameo, as the mad scientist; and Orson Welles at the end of the film. If that sounds like enough cameos, I've barely started. The Muppet Movie also has appearances from Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Telly Savalas, Paul Williams, Cloris Leachman, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen (and Charlie McCarthy), Elliot Gould and Big Bird. Director James Frawley supposedly appears onscreen briefly, but I'm not sure I'd recognize him. I've included two YouTube clips of cameos after the jump: Richard Pryor as a balloon salesman who gets Gonzo in a lot of trouble; and Steve Martin as -- what else? -- a rude waiter. The Muppet Movie sometimes gets a "cameo for cameo's sake" feeling after you've seen two or three of them that have little to do with the plot and aren't that funny. As the years go by, however, I do get a warm sentimental feeling from watching various performers who are no longer with us -- including, of course, Jim Henson himself as Kermit the Frog. Filed under: Classics, Fandom, Family FilmsContinue reading Classic Cameos: The Muppet Movie Permalink | Email this | Comments