Ever walk through the video store and accidentally comes across an old movie that you haven’t seen in YEARS and suddenly have flash backs of certain scenes that just absolutely made you HOWL? Yeah, well Johnny Dangerously is one of those flicks for me (and probably the ONLY half decent movie Joe Piscopo ever appeared in). For some reason, as a young kid, it just made me laugh my fool head off. The best part about it was the fact that it introduced me to one of the more interesting players in Hollywood: Michael Keaton.
Yes, before Dangerously there was the huge hit Mr. Mom and even the moderately successful Night Shift, but it was Dangerously that stuck in my head.
From there Keaton went on to do what even some of the best actors of all time haven’t done… gone on to appear in solid comedy AND dramatic roles. For a short kinda awkward looking guy he managed to show amazing versatility. From Pacific Heights, Clean and Sober, One Good Cop, My Life, and the ENORMOUSLY underrated Desperate Measures to lighter comedy/fantasy/thriller stuff like Batman, Beetle Juice, Gung Ho (which I loved as a kid) and The Dream Team Keaton could take just about any genre, any film and just make them work. How many other actors can you say that about? Answer: Not Many.
However, Keaton started making some bad decisions about which films he appeared in. Multiplicity and Jack Frost are just a couple that come to mind. Then for the longest time Michael Keaton just sorta quietly dropped off the radar. Popping up once in a while in small cameo roles in a couple of films (like Out of Sight), but that was about it. Now, slowly, Keaton is starting to appear again and has a darn good looking horror on the horizons that marks his first serious leading role in a while… White Noise.
From what I can piece together, Keaton plays a guy who is desperate to make contact with his dead wife, but in doing so opens the door for something far more sinister to come through and start doing naughty things. Yes, the premise does sound a little like Stir of Echoes, but take my word for it… the trailer looks pretty darn snappy.
So it looks like Keaton may finally be back. I for one am glad to see it.
