Oh, that is a cute one, too! That and the Portman/Kutcher both did reasonably well so I'm not sure what convinced studios to stop making them.

He doesn't like to be called that.

FFJ didn't even do average-for-a-Streep-movie-in-August business. Barely outgrossed Ricki and the Flash.

"I WAS IN HELL! CONFINED THERE BY YOU!"

That's one of my favorite lines and line readings ever and I THINK I remember hearing somewhere that it was a Kline ad-lib.

That makes more sense, doesn't it.

Wait, I'm lost. Was a girl you were dating friends with Kevin Kline? Or one of the Kline-Cates children??

That would be a good one! But I did Tony Scott in the fall, with Denzel, so it'll be a while before I'd think about circling back.

I'd count Silver Linings Playbook as a romcom, and as a good one. I also loved the little-seen Sleeping with Other People (and have written perhaps too much on it).

After years of absorbing an increasingly toxic reputation, I was surprised by how decent it was when I saw it, though it has some missteps.

I like Dave a lot — maybe more than any of these Kasdan movies — but though it is a comedy, Kline isn't playing as much of a broadly comic role in it. He's more of a Jimmy Stewart type, IIRC — endearing, goodhearted, regular guy played with humor but not really doing comedy shtick. It's still kind of an exception, but…

I generally like Meg Ryan but she really tests the limits in French Kiss — she has all of these neurotic tics that the movie plays up and tries to make cute but it mostly crosses the line into cutesy. There's almost an arrogance to it — "you SOBs will love Meg in anything, right?"

I admit I expected to like some of these Kasdan movies more upon revisiting and/or watching them for the first time. BUT I should be clear, I adore Kline. I was just surprised, going through these Kasdan movies, how I realized my favorite performances of his are mostly in… other movies.

I've never seen The January Man and had not heard great things. It's worth checking out, then?

Don't the examples above test the rule, though? They test them by having Kline play a comic role without facial hair, and then he winds up playing a second role with facial hair. Or are you saying the expression actually means the exact opposite, that the "exception that proves that rule" is actually one that puts the…

That's as cogent and fairminded a defense of them as I've heard! I think I tend to be bothered by folks who take what they say as gospel and parrot their jokes incessantly. Which of course isn't really the RLM guys' fault. I guess I'm also surprised by the seeming popularity of online video reviews of stuff in…

You sound a lot more thoughtful than I picture the RLM folks being. I'm sure they're nice guys and like movies and all that, but

Oh man it would be awesome if he got an Underworld, even though they tend to go a little lower-grade than even the director of Doomsday.

Lest anyone think I have no standards because I kind of like Underworld movies, I fucking hated Ultraviolet.

It felt weirdly appropriate, though, because Speedman plays a corpse for a decent portion of the … second movie, I think? I've forgotten already.