Can Richard Grieco Act? Part I

I know I said yesterday that my next post would assess this burning question, but I'm not ready to make my own analysis yet.  I decided that I simply haven't seen enough of Grieco's work.  I ordered a few more movies yesterday (Amazon Trade! I'm not spending money!) and and am going to hold off on my own assessment until I've seen them.  Of course, since I wanted to maximize the number of films I'd seen, I went for the cheap ones, so that may skew things a bit.

Before jumping into what I think, I decided to check out what others have to say. Thus far, it's a very mixed bag.

I read reviews on both IMDB and Amazon across a range of time and genres. 

Raiders of the Damned (2007):

"Richard Grieco gives the worst acting performance of his life, and thats saying something as I've seen him in a film about giant spiders."

"Richard Grieco was terrible."

"If Richard Grieco isn't on drugs, then he needs to be. His performance was terrible. I hope he ran to the bank to cash his paycheck before the producers demanded it back."





Dead Easy (2004):

"A minus is Richard Grieco, who walks through his role like he's sedated."

"The two main leads (Richard Grieco and Joanna Pacula) were okay but for me the best acting was done by Thandi Puren (Kate Johnson)."

"I'm not sure Richard Grieco ever has or ever could play anything other than Richard Grieco and that's all he is in this film."

"In any case, if you're a Grieco fan, give this one a shot. He's purty and he does a good job."



Fish Don't Blink (2002:

"Richard Grieco is good in this, as a nice, sensative, and all-around good guy. His chemistry with the "girlfriend" and Lea Thompson, makes this movie worth seeing."

"The performances are a mixed bag, Grieco and Duncan are solid..."

“I thought Grieco and Thompson brought a lot to roles that weren't written to be as deep or shaded as they could have been."

“I'm ashamed to say that I did not recognize Richard Grieco, who plays Pete in the movie. I know him now, and already have his films on my must see list."

Mobsters (1991):

"I must say I was very impressed with the performances of Richard Grieco and Lara Flynn Boyle. Richard clearly shows he can do a lot more than just being the pretty boy. He was probably the best choice for the part. Violent and sensual. He even manages to do a quite funny scene, when his character gets angry, because someone tells him he does not kill with style. I did not know what to expect from him, as I had only seen him in "21 Jump Street", but give him a chance, because he will not disappoint you."

"Richard Grieco as Bugsy Siegel is very good, you can see the genesis of Warren Beatty's character when he played Siegel in his film, Bugsy."






The way the reviews break out suggests some things to me, but I'm going to hold off on commenting until I've seen a few more films for myself.

I know if you're reading this blog, you've seen more of Grieco's work than I have, so please..share your thoughts!

Dead Easy...Was

Last night (thanks to my Best Buy gift card and enhanced search efforts), I watched Dead Easy.  The reviews I'd read conflicted, and it seemed that whether or not someone liked this movie depended entirely on whether or not that person was a big fan of either Richard Grieco or Joanna Pacula.  One IMDB user review said, "Was it bad, not at all.  Was it good, not at all."  I think I could go along with that.

I honestly didn't care much about any of the characters except Grieco's, and although he was a more fully-developed and somewhat sympathetic character than his wife or his mistress, I can't honestly say whether I'd have formed any attachment to him if he'd been played by an unknown. 

One of the viewers who reviewed this movie said that they didn't like it because the message seemed to be that crime paid.  I don't think that was the intended message of this movie.  I think the intended message was "people in their late thirties and forties can still be hot".  Grieco's Jump Street six pack was in pretty good form (and I don't think they were spraying them on in 2004) and Joanna Pacula, at 47, was a beautiful woman.  But that's pretty much all this movie conveyed to me.