In 1971, she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for her career achievements. Despite being better known for her film work, she was also accomplished on stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972. During her later years, Gish became a dedicated advocate for the appreciation and preservation of silent film. She also did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s, and closed her career playing opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film The Whales of August. Gish also had major supporting roles in Portrait of Jennie (1948), A Wedding (1978) and Sweet Liberty (1986). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the former. Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), La Bohème (1926), and The Wind (1928).Īt the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film infrequently, including well-known leading roles in the western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955). This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Gish was called " The First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. Her film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. If given the opportunity to choose between Project X and 21 Jump Street, I think it’s safe to go with the funnier, smarter movie of the two.Ĭritics Review(according to Rottentomatoes.Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director and screenwriter. There are a variety of jokes to be found here, mostly inappropriate, but that hasn’t stopped teenagers from seeing that kind of stuff before. Maybe the only bad thing about this movie is that it tries very hard to establish drama between the characters mid-movie, which, given all the jokes, just doesn’t seem all that necessary.Īlas, this comedy is a hit, and not a miss. There are even some very witty cameos, which I won’t spoil here. Rob Riggle, Dave Franco(James’ little brother) and even Ice Cube all have supporting roles in this movie, and are all hilarious, each character gets their own unique traits to carry throughout the movie. He plays dumb really well, and as a result, he gets some of the best laughs in the whole movie. Channing Tatum is very suprising here, having just come off of the pseudo sequel to The Notebook, The Vow. Jonah Hill, who co-wrote the script alongside Bacall, is no stranger to vulgar humor, something which this film does a great job of displaying, and his punchlines are great. This is probably helped by the genius performances given by this great cast. There are some really great pop culture references, especially to the high schoolers of our generation, and they’re actually more or less spot on (In one scene, Channing Tatum slams Glee for making high school seem very happy.).Īll of the jokes in this movie somehow stick their landing. If you haven’t caught on by now, 21 Jump Street is the codename of a mission where these cops must infiltrate a high school in order to stop a drug ring from spreading to other high schools.There are a bevy of jokes to be found in this movie, that range from absurd sight gags(look for the billboards), humor involving the side effects of drugs, and, of course, references to the original show. It centers on two doofus cops, Schmidt(Jonah Hill) and Jenko(Channing Tatum, or “C-Tates” as he’s called these days), who, as a form of punishment, and due to them looking like high schoolers, get sent to a special division of the Police force: 21 Jump Street.
21 Jump Streetis a remake of that old TV show from the 80’s that aired on Fox, you know, the one that launched that guy Johnny Depp’s career. I bring this film up because it shares the same screenwriter(Michael Bacall), as this week’s comedy, 21 Jump Street, which, at it’s core, isn’t very similar to the other film at all. You have movies like Project X, a movie that makes no effort to befriend it’s audience and instead alienates it by doing some of the most heinous things and saying some very ridiculous words, although then again, some people like that kind of stuff. Comedies these days are often hit-and-miss.