Richard Grieco Art

I've written before about Richard Grieco's painting, so this is going to be a short post.  I'm revisiting today because Richard has revamped his painting website and it's worth checking out even if you browsed the old site. 

In addition to better showcasing of his artwork that makes the texture much clearer, the new site includes some photos of Richard painting, a new bio specifically related to his artwork, videos and links to a number of articles about his painting and gallery show.

Always makes me wish I had tens of thousands of uncommitted dollars lying around. 

Richard Grieco on WSDI Chicago

Chicago DJ Steve Benz (he's kind of a cutie himself, hm?) has been chasing Richard for a while now, trying to nail down a call-in to his afternoon radio show.

They've finally worked out a date, and Richard will be on the show at 3 p.m. Central/4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, May 1. 

If you're not in the Chicago area, you can listen live online at http://wsdichicago.com/

You might want to follow Steve on Twitter, too.  He gives Richard a lot of press and chats with a lot of celebrities from the past, and he's pretty funny, too.  You can find him at https://twitter.com/steve_benz

UPDATE: If you missed this show live (and the rebroadcast) or just want to hear it again, the recording is now available at: http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-45008/TS-743840.mp3

Current Richard Grieco Movies

First, an apology to regular readers: much of this post will be a re-run for you.  I have a good reason, though--in the past week, we've had more than 500 brand new visitors.  That's a lot of people looking for information about Richard, and I want to make sure that his current projects are easy to find.

So first, a quick recap of current/upcoming Richard Grieco films (click titles to view trailers):

AE: Apocalypse Earth has Richard and Highlander star Adrian Paul battling for survival on a strange and hostile planet.  It's available on DVD May 28, and you can pre-order it now through Richard Grieco's official website store.

After Midnight is a paranormal mystery from Fred Olen Ray, also starring Tawny Kitaen.  No release date/information seems to be available for this one yet, but it is slated for later this year.

A House is Not a Home remains a bit of a mystery to me, even after watching the trailer.  It's about a family that moves into a new house and is driven to move past their problems with one another and work together when they're haunted.  I think Richard is the thing that's haunting them (or one of them), but it's tough to tell for sure.  One thing that caught my attention about this one was that Richard is listed as a co-producer.

In addition to those three movies that are slated for release this year, there are two kind of floating around in the sea of uncertain futures right now.

Cats Dancing on Jupiter was apparently completed in 2011 and has done the festival circuit, but not been more widely release as yet.  It appears that the producers are holding off on a DVD release in hopes of a theatrical release, and I'd love to see that.  The movie also stars Amanda Righetti from The Mentalist, former Disney star Annalies Van der Pol and once-upon-a-time teen heartthrob Rex Smith.  The storyline involves two young women whose seductive games don't end as their targets hope--unless that poor slob at the bar really wanted to end his night being dismembered in someone's barn. Side note: Richard has some very interesting blond streaks in his hair in this one, probably because his character appears to be a pretentious ass.

The other wildcard is called Coachella Massacre, and appears to be a horror movie set at the Coachella music festival.  Other than that, this one remains a complete mystery: it's still classified as "under development," the usual sources don't offer up much (read: any) information and the few casual inquiries I've sent out to people involved have netted no response. 

I saw a Tweet this week that said "I wish #RichardGrieco played in more movies," but that isn't really the issue:  I think what we all wish is that Richard's movies were better promoted so that fans weren't sitting around wishing he'd make a new movie when he's actually cranking them out lately.

Side note: It's not just about the movies!  If you've been out of the loop for a while, you really should check out Richard's artwork.  You may know that he's been painting for most of his adult life--he apparently started developing his current genre on the set of If Looks Could Kill--but in the past few years it's become much more than a hobby.  He's done at least one gallery show and is selling paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. 

Regular readers:  I'll be back with something new in a day or two.  I'm gathering information on the likelihood that Richard will appear in the second 21 Jump Street movie and how we may be able to help make sure that happens.

Marker on DVD

Sorry if I got your hopes up.  Marker isn't available on DVD, at least not that I've been able to find.  But I've always wanted to see the series (well, you know, ever since I learned that Richard Grieco existed back in late 2012) and all the more so since I learned today that Richard actually sang on the show.

Here's a YouTube clip of the final episode, in which he performs "Please Let it Rain."  But, you know, I want more.  I can't be alone in this.  I'm starting a forum thread about getting this series released on DVD--if you'd like to see it, pop over there and add your voice.

In the meantime, here's the clip where Richard performs with a bar band in the final episode. Interestingly, this was posted not by one of the usual fans who provides us with old TV clips but by a local who had the opportunity to hang out with Richard on the day of filming.

Is Richard Grieco Blushing?

Pretty poor video quality here, so I can't tell--but I promised this one yesterday when we were looking at Richard's abs.  The interviewer says he is, while she's thanking him for changing his shirt in public.

All in all, this is a cute video: Richard is looking good and I wish the picture were clearer.  If anyone knows of a better version, please leave a link in the comments.

Richard Grieco Abs - 1989-2012

21 Jump Street 1989

We've all been pretty focused on actual news lately: trailers and release dates for upcoming Richard Grieco movies, talk about his artwork, links to other sites with photos and information, etc. 

I thought it was time for a break.  Also, I pay attention to my search reports and I know what y'all are looking for.

So...

today we have a retrospective on Richard Grieco's abs.

The photo at the left, from the 21 Jump Street days, reflects the abs we all memorized and love remember, but if you haven't seen Richard strip down lately you might be surprised by how well he's held up. 



I know now why that reporter at the 2012 Grammy party thanked him for changing his shirt (in case you haven't seen that interview, I'll share it tomorrow). 

Meanwhile, enjoy the view as you scroll through 23 years of Richard Grieco shirtless.



Tomcat: Dangerous Desires 1993

Final Payback 2001



Dead Easy 2004

 




Painting in 2012

I especially like this one even though it's not a great pic because it's clearly unposed. In those movie shots, you can never be entirely sure how much work went into making him look like that. In this shot...well, if a guy is willing to be photographed with his hair like that and paint on his nose, you have to think that he's looking pretty natural.

So...apparently this is what 47 looks like. 






Richard Grieco on Pinterest

I'm not a big Pinterest fan, but Susanne seems to be a woman after our own hearts. She's collected quite a few photos of Richard spanning quite a few years.  I've seen most of them before and you probably have, too, but there are a few new shots.

And honestly...are you really tired of looking at the old ones?  I didn't think so.  Check out her Richard Grieco Pins here.

After Midnight Update and Trailer

The trailer for After Midnight, the new Richard Grieco movie I mentioned a couple of weeks back, has arrived.  It does appear to include a supernatural element, which shouldn't come as a surprise--I should have known better than to buy into early hints that made it seem more like a straight mystery.

 

I'm looking forward to this one.  And I appreciate that Horror-Movies.ca opened its introduction to this trailer with "One thing you can take away from this trailer is that Richard Grieco has a fantastic voice."

I know, right? Have you heard those commercials where...

Oh, wait. We're talking about After Midnight, right?  No word on a release date yet, but it's slated for this year.

AE: Apocalypse Earth Trailer

It's only a little over a month until AE: Apocalypse Earth is available on DVD, but in case you need something to hold you over (or to help you decide whether or not you want to pre-order the movie), here's the first official trailer.

Fresh off of viewing Almighty Thor, I'm happy to report that Richard Grieco plays one of the humans in this film...

 

The Asylum's Almighty Thor

Honestly, Almighty Thor wasn't high on my list of Richard Grieco movies to watch. I'm not a big fan of sci fi, mythology or knock-off movies and Grieco has been in so many films that there are several I haven't seen that interest me more.  Fish Don't Blink, for example.  And I assumed (correctly) that Richard wouldn't be at his most attractive as a deteriorating demon god.

But my options on Amazon streaming video were limited the trailer was kind of interesting, so I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. 




Honestly, the movie wasn't great: I had a hard time taking Cody Deal seriously as Thor, even before he pulled out the semi-automatic weapon.  I'm not sure whether it's a positive or negative to say that I had far less trouble taking Richard Grieco seriously as a demon god with giant, lizard-like beasts for pets.

All in all, I found the movie relatively entertaining, though I was sometimes unsure whether the things that were making me laugh had been intended to do so.  If you're a Grieco fan and haven't seen it, it's worth watching.  (If you do and you come away with an understanding of why he starts the movie looking pretty much like himself and is as white as The Joker by the end, please come back and share.)

While determining whether or not to watch this movie, I also learned some very interesting things about The Asylum, which is also behind Richard's upcoming AE: Apocalypse Earth.  The fact that both of these movies appeared to be created specifically to capture an audience created by a closely-related box office film initially put me off, but the more I learned the more interesting their business model became.

Apparently these knock-offs, often referred to as "mockbusters," are all The Asylum does.  And, that was apparently a conscious decision and one that's paid off. Sure, they get sued from time to time.  Yes, they may have had to change a name here and there or been restrained from releasing a movie for a while.  But from what I've read, it appears that the company has never lost money on one of these relatively low-budget movies. 

The more I learned, the more I shifted from thinking of The Asylum as a company that makes crappy rip-off movies to thinking of it as a company that knows exactly what it's doing, has accepted that it's not a blockbuster sort of operation and is having fun and making money doing its own thing.  Which, from where I'm sitting, looks like a pretty good fit for the guy who put on 40 pounds to mock himself in A Night at the Roxbury.

Pre-Order AE: Apocalypse Earth Now

Just a few days ago, AE: Apocalypse Earth's official Facebook page informed us that the film was "essentially complete"--and the movie is now available for pre-order on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

I'm pre-ordering through the store on Richard's official website simply because I like to see as much of the revenue as possible actually go to the people who make movies what they are.

And, of course, you can wander afield and order any of a number of movies and television shows Richard has appeared in while you're there. Not that anything like that happened to me.

Buyer Beware

Is it just me, or do these two "hand signed" photos from the Marker era look an awful lot alike?

Sure, they could have signed a whole batch at once, but...ever seen that done? I have, and usually the person doing the signing isn't so careful that each signature is not only identical, but ends up in EXACTLY the same spot on the photograph and at exactly the same angle. 

I'm not saying either of these sellers is trying to put something over on buyers--one of these photos may well be the original.  Or not.  It's tough to tell from an online image, and possibly even in hard copy.  But it's worth noting that there are a lot of autographed items out there that...aren't.

Booker Was Never Really My Type, Anyway

A few weeks ago, I posed the question, "Is Richard Grieco still hot in 2013?"  I asked the question because reactions on the Internet seem so widely varied, and because...let's face it...no one in his late forties looks like Richard Grieco did in 1989.  Hell, the vast majority of men in their twenties don't come close to looking like Richard Grieco did in 1989.

I'm officially withdrawing the question.

Well, not technically. The little poll is still down there in the lower right-hand corner and you're free to respond, but I no longer consider this an opinion question.  See, yesterday I found this:

So...that settles that. 

I found this in a post from on the Huffington Post blog; it probably doesn't say anything you don't already know, but it has a couple of other nice pics I hadn't seen before (all taken by Richard's sister, Laura).