Don't Call it a Comeback

Earlier this afternoon, when I should have been fixing my garden or ironing my curtains, I decided instead to watch a little Saturday afternoon tv. Which really means I decided to take a nap.

When I woke up, tv still blaring, there was a movie with Ray Liotta and Kurt Russell and this long-haired Jane Seymour person, except it wasn't Jane Seymour. I just googled the movie and found out the name is Unlawful Entry. In the part I saw, Ray Liotta plays a crazed cop, and Kurt Russell and Jane Seymour, I mean Madeline Stowe, play a married couple who are being stalked by Ray Liotta. I don't know why he was stalking them, he just was. Presumably, that all was revealed while I was sleeping.

But, as I was watching the movie, I was thinking how that Madeline Stowe person was in a lot of movies in the 90's, but now I couldn't even remember her name. Also, what was the last movie Kurt Russell was in? Or Ray Liotta? I'll always remember Ray Liotta from Goodfellas. (Okay -- really, I'll always remember Ray Liotta from Corrina, Corrina.) Why don't people put him in movies any more?

I think his problem is that he's too good of an actor for a comeback. Putting Tony Manero, nee Vinnie Barbarino in Pulp Fiction as a hit man was a random genious move, given Travolta's prior work. (Xanadu, anyone?) Similarly, Mickey Rourke was so far down the road to Crazyville that when he showed up in The Wrestler, it was such a pleasant surprise. (Of course, it was like the part was made for him and the years of plastic surgery.) But, Ray Liotta is not such a crazy or superficial actor that putting him in a movie would seem brilliant or even ironic. Which is unfortunate, because I really would love to see him in a movie about the tragic downfall of a retiring professional wrestler. Or retiring ultimate fighter. (For that one, I suppose we'll have to wait for the comeback of Ed Norton.)