What Happened To You, Jay Baruchel?
Jay Baruchel in Tropic Thunder
I’ll admit I came late to the Undeclared party. But I was able to catch up on Judd Apatow’s second television series that featured Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Carla Gallo, and guest stars like Martin Starr and Ben Stiller. And the star of the show was Jay Baruchel.
Cut to 2007 and Baruchel had hit the big time. He had a memorable role in the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby and was a member of the Knocked Up ensemble. And Baruchel was about to join another ensemble when Tropic Thunder started filming late that summer. At the Knocked Up press conference Baruchel talked about being honored to join Ben Stiller’s platoon and even dropped the names of a couple of the very famous costars (and close personal friends of Ben Stiller), Owen Wilson and Tom Cruise. Those two names were not reported widely, though we here at the Tribute had the first online reporting on that casting (really!). Of course, a few weeks later Wilson was out on his own accord.
And, you have to say, Baruchel really held his own in Tropic Thunder. Someone had to be the “voice of reason” amidst all the wacky characters and Baruchel’s Kevin Sandusky was it. The kid stood toe to toe with the biggest egos in show business (both within-the-movie and in real-life too). Next up was a great cast-against-type supporting role in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and a cameo in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
So, what does 2010 hold for our boy?
A load of crap, that’s what.
He’s the main human voice of How to Train Your Dragon for Dreamworks. I happen to think that film looks really stupid and unfortunately it’s the best thing for Baruchel in 2010. Don’t believe me? Just check out the trailers for She’s Out of My League and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I really have a hard time determining which of these is worse.
She’s Out of My League
Opening March 12, She’s Out of My League casts Baruchel as the lovelorn puppy (or “moodle” as the trailer takes pains to explain). He plays an airport security guard (opposite Andrew Daly from Semi-Pro and Eastbound and Down) who meets a very pretty girl through a ridiculous “meet cute” scene featuring an iPhone and the girl’s very, very annoying friend. Then the girl somehow starts dating Baruchel’s character and faster than you can say “Knocked Up meets The Big Bang Theory” we see the girl’s ex-boyfriend (Geoff Stults from The Break-Up). Sure looks like Dreamworks wanted Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen to play the friends because they act just like Baruchel’s more famous but former costars. As it is, all the characters in this movie look bland, boring, or both.
The one saving grace for this film is the R rating. Maybe the scene of meeting the girlfriend’s father with a boner in your pants will be funnier in the film than it is in the trailer. Maybe…
Filed under “it seemed like a good idea at the time” Baruchel gets Mickey Mouse’s role in a loose remake of the most famous section of the animated classic, Fantasia. Unfortunately we’re not stuck in a castle with guy who looks a little bit like Walt Disney. Instead, it’s a crazy CGI-driven piece with Nicholas Cage doing the crazy thing (rather than the goofy thing that he’s much, much better at). Stuff blows up. There’s a hot girl. Jay looks afraid and worried. Ho hum! At least the Depeche Mode song was used in a cool way. Of course, I bet that won’t be in the finished film that is scheduled for release in July.
I can only hope that these movies are “source for good” for Baruchel’s career and allow him to get some plum roles in the future. But, I suspect I’ll be rooting for the bad guys in 2010. Come home, Jay Baruchel. Surely there must be a role for you in the next Apatow production.
Happier Times...
I think both these movies look pretty cool, I laughed out loud a few times at the She’s Out of My League trailer.
I don’t think How to Train Your Dragon looks stupid.
She’s Out of My League looks even worse than those made-for-video American Pie sequels.
Hopefully the script Jay’s writing with Evan Goldberg is good enough to wash away this trash
She’s Out of My League, will bomb badly or will surprise but that’s like a 5% chance of that happening. If you want to see Jay Baruchel at his best rent “Real Time”. It’s a great film!
[...] We gave Jay Baruchel a hard time about his upcoming 2010 roles, particularly his starring role in She’s Out of My League. A new red-band trailer has surfaced and gives us an insight into the R-Rated humor of the film. While I am still very skeptical, I have to say there are more than a couple laughs here. So, I am officially changing my position to “maybe I’ll see it.” [...]
I thought they were all good movies. Have any of you idiots seen How to Train your Dragon? No. Most of you saw the trailer and deemed it the worst movie in history. If people saw half of these movies, they would proabably love them. As for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, it had amazing special effects, I loved the story line, and I thought the acting was pretty good. “Jay looked afraid and worried.” What a general statement. Did you write why? No, of course not. For She’s Out of My League, I loved it. Graet movie, it was funny. What do you want from a comedy? When theres a good comedy out, its “too funny” and when theres a good drama out its “too serious”. Make up your minds and stop complaining. Jay Baruchel is a good actor, I’ve seen almost every movie hes been in and I’m impressed. I don’t really care if you disagree becuase its my opinion. Have a nice day.
Lauren,
I stand by reaction to the Dragon trailer, and while I did think the movie was overall “good” I do not share the sentiments of many that it was one of the best films of 2010.
As for She’s Out of My League, I did give the film 3/5 star and sort of issued a mea culpa from this post from early 2010. But you’re not going to convince me to see Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
This post was an editorial. Baruchel can act in whatever he wants. *I* would just rather he stick to quality material like Tropic Thunder, Million Dollar Baby, or Knocked Up.