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Carrie writes in: “I don’t know if you watched Conan last night but Jesse Eisenberg was such a good interviewee. You should do a post on that segment because I think Vgummers want more opportunities to talk about who is better: Michael Cera or Jesse Eisenberg (Jesse Eisenberg is better).” ORLY? Watch Eisenberg here. Debate Carrie in the comments.
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Jesse Eisenberg was in Adventureland, which was great, sure, but Michael Cera was in Arrested Development. Game, set, and match.
I agree with Walrus Parade. Cera’s impression of Ann eating a hard boiled egg eclipses most actor’s entire bodies of work. However, Eisenberg has worked with Fred Durst.
Whats the comparison? That they are both white? Racists!
is the question how is better at being Michael Cera? It’s a tough call…
Jessie Eisenberg is the poor man’s Cera. He’s funny, but every line he says would be that much funnier coming from Cera. I just feel bad because I can picture Michael Cera still playing a teenager in 10 years.
Interesting that you say that. Post-arrested-development, Michael Cera has struck me as a fast food version of Jessie Eisenberg. I mean, this is a guy who chooses to be in horrible movies like Year One and Nick and Norah and Juno — while Eisenberg has actually done some decent things like Adventureland and Squid + Whale.
please explain how adventureland was decent. thank you.
did you see it?
Is this a troll thread?
No. But they will: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/adventureland?q=adventureland
I agree. I just saw Adventureland a few days ago for the first time, and I was not impressed. A few good jokes.
I feel like giving Michael Cera a lot of credit for being in Arrested Devlopment, and ragging on him for Year One are flipsides of the same noncoin. He was great in Arrested Development, but he didn’t create or write that show, and I’m sure Year One looked great on paper (and Michael Cera wasn’t what was bad about it, but I don’t know). If I were an actor with the experience/resume of Michael Cera, I probably also would have chosen a movie that sounded cool with Jack Black and directed by David Wain. Michael Cera wasn’t a star when he “chose” Arrested Development, so I have a hard time believing he was on that show because it was the best script in the stack he was choosing from, knowwhatImean? I would say the same for Eisenberg about Squid and the Whale. Do people get my point? I’m long-winded. All I’m saying is, the two of them are young enough (or were young when they were in the critical darlings mentioned) that I don’t think we should measure their worth by their choice of role, because how much of “choice” did they really make?
(Yes, I replied to my own comment)
Like, as an example (albeit a bad one), Mark Wahlberg and Sam Rockwell are two 30sish actors who have some level of choice in the roles they play, and I prefer the choices that Sam Rockwell makes over those of Mark Wahlberg. That doesn’t also mean that I don’t appreciate one of Mark Wahlberg’s performances (on rare occasions) or dislike one of Sam Rockwell’s performance regardless of how bad or good the particular movie may be, right? No? Should I reply to this comment, too? Or maybe I’ll just die of downvotes for saying I might like a Mark Wahlberg performance? It was a hypothetical…
i get your meaning, brother.
i’m picking up what you’re laying down.
i thought mark wahlberg was great in ‘boogie nights’ and ‘i heart huckabees.’ he’s not a guaranteed win, obvs, but he has a little bit of capital in the bank to drawn from, as far as i am concerned. sam rockwell is fantastic and the best and i’m even gonna give him a pass for being a voice in ‘g force’ since so many good people were in it and other really wretched looking films.
re: jesse vs. michael, i can’t judge. i’ve never seen curly sue here in anything, and i’m a big fan of the one role that michael cera always plays, so i’m not impartial enough. curly sue was charming in his interview with conan, though, and that goes a long way.
Is this the right place for this?
Eisenberg hasn’t been in anything as shitty as Year One, yet. If he has, it wasn’t as well publicized.
A related question, with all the promising movies this weekend, what will the Videogum Movie Club see? We’ve got:
Zombieland
Invention of Lying
Capitalism
Whip It(?)
A Serious Man
Was that email written by Jesse Eisenberg’s publicist? Who talks like that?
“Neither. It’s Robert Pattinson.” On board! The express train to DownVoteVille is leaving in 5 minutes. First stop: Forks, Washington!
i want to make out with r. pattz. i do not feel the same way about the other kids, who are sexless.
this isn’t really related to anything. i just don’t feel we should have secrets from each other, monsters.
Leaving aside the genius that is AD, I think that overall Eisenberg has done way better movies than Cera and does a pretty great job in all of them, particularly Roger Dodger for me. Eisenberg has more depth and range than Cera, who is way more susceptible to becoming typecast in my opinion.
I agree. Michael Cera has found success by playing [pretty much] the same funny character again. I don’t know if that’s how he really is or what, but he doesn’t seem to have much range.
JE has showed consistent depth in his acting, much more so than Cera. But he is running the risk of facing more Cera-type backlash since they have both basically only played one character (and played it well) for their entire careers to this point.
I’ve only seen Adventureland and Squid and the Whale and he plays the EXACT same character in both. Where can I see this depth exhibited?
depth, not breadth!
I disagree. Just look at their attitudes towards women in those two films; they are almost completely opposite — one is naive and generous and forgiving; the other is exploitative and self-absorbed. Like, when Adventureland-Character tells the story about having an opportunity to have sex with his girlfriend right before he’s about to break up with her, and he doesn’t do it. The Squid/Whale-Character would obviously be all over that.
My guess is that you found the character’s endearing “dorky intelligence” in Adventureland insufferable and boorish — which is what his character in Squid/Whale is SUPPOSED to be, like when he describes stories by Kafka as “Kafka-esque.” In any case, I don’t see the resemblance.
The characters are written differently, but as an actor Eisenberg takes them in the exact same direction.
I signed back in just to give this all my (just the one) upvotes.
I just watched Adventureland a few days ago and was thinking that Jesse Eisenberg is like Michael Cera if he weren’t bordering on self-parody, trapped in Andy Samberg’s kid brother’s body.
That clip was a classic example of the transfer of nerves. I had to stop watching because it was making me too uncomfortable. Breathe, Jesse, breathe!
I appreciate how Jesse Eisenberg has transitioned into the role of “Ashely” on Top Chef.
Eisenberg is like a more Michael Cera version of Michael Cera.
I just watched the Conan interview. Does he seem like a sane Crispin Glover to anyone else? If that ill-advised Back to the Future remake ever happens, I nominate Eisenberg for George McFly.
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I am VERY interested, Lindas. Do I have to be a millionaire tho before I can make friends with other ethnicities?
The only time I’ve seen Cera with range was in Youth in Revolt, and I’m pretty sure that’s only because he had a fake mustache on and smoked cigarettes. (I’m easily impressed.) I think I like Eisenberg more because, as you can see in the clip, he’s not really faking the awkward, anxious act and I always sort of assume Cera has the potential to be kind of an asshole. (I have no actual facts to back up this assertion.)
Did you see Youth in Revolt at a film festival, or do you have a short range time machine? Inquiring monsters want to know!
Oh, sorry. That made me sound like a huge asshole. I got tickets to a free screening at the NY theater on 3rd Avenue a few months ago. I get really excited about free things and also movie things, so I’m still riding the high from that one. Anyway, the movie was really funny and he was actually pretty amazing in it. I didn’t know if he could pull off being a French badass but he did it, and I was actually sort of attracted to him for a minute! Such a weird feeling. Anyway, Jess still wins because of Adventureland.
Didn’t mean to call him Jess. Despite my constant votes in his favor in this really important debate, we aren’t THAT close. (Yet.)
ugh. he is like Michael Cera meets Woody Allen in the worst possible way. Also, why do you bother wearing a tie if your’e not going to tuck your shirt in?
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okay, i take it back. i just watched the conan interview and he is actually Quite likeable. I guess its just the roles he plays that are Highly unlikeable. (squid and the whale? yuck, adventureland? double yuck)
still, Michael Cera must be the world’s most likeable prebusent adult male after the terrible slew of stuff hes been in the paspert few years post superbad i still LIKE him, i want to drink milkshakes with him and pet his hair.
I don’t know if Carrie has been in the Monster’s Ball yet… But inspiring a whole post discussion (a step up from a tip). NICE WORK?
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And here I thought Superbad was one of the most overrated, mindless movies ever created: one big grade-school wee-wee joke with some nonsensical moral about growing-up tacked on at the end. Well, there’s no accounting for taste.
SuperBad was a movie about dick jokes with a “coming of age” story sprinkled in there (sprinkling of cum pun definitely intended) while Adventureland was a “coming of age” story with some dick punches sprinkled in.
Weird. I tried to reply to this comment (trying again!) comparing Superbad and Adventureland and it replied to an earlier comment you made comparing Adventureland and Squid/Whale. Lawnmower Man strikes again.
Guess so, since I think Superbad is an underrated masterpiece. That film has genuine heart and is genuinely funny. The two main characters feel like real people to me whereas Squid and the Whale is some pseudo-intellectual uptown Manhattanite’s fantasy about how hard it is to be a pseudo-intellectual uptown Manhattanite. There’s a reason Wes Anderson’s movies started sucking after he hooked up with Noah Baumbach. The guy has no idea what a real story with earnest emotion is. Watch Squid and the Whale again and notice how every scene ends before anything of any depth happens. Or, try and sit through his next film, that piece of garbage that I think is on Gabe’s WMOAT list.
Squid and the Whale is pretentious, but that doesn’t mean it’s not bad. Sometimes overconfidence comes from legitimate skill. Kinda like Kobe or Kanye.
Adventureland is just a flat out great movie.
UGH. meant to say “doesn’t mean it’s not good.”
I just thank both of these outstanding actors for reminding me how very, very difficult it is to be a white person. I had forgotten!
Aaw, He’s so adorably cute!!
(Jesse) I don’t care much about Micheal Cera though.. but I am going on cuteness factor!
* Hmm, I actually meant to say: adorably nervous…
Notice how they’re never in the same room at a time? Cue Law and Order chimes! Anyways, I’m on the Jessie side because of the movies he chooses to be in. They just seem to to pull more of the character given the situation whereas Cera phones it in. Year One is a prime example, he was just George Micheal version 1 (because version 2 hadn’t been born yet technically speaking…?)
My head hurts now.
I’d like to bring a dissection of Anton Yelchin’s oeuvre to the fold. He seems like the Jessie Eisenberg of all Michael Ceras. (But with, sorry to say, better movies than both of them).
Ha, so many tweenagers to choose from.
On his imdb page, he’s credited as “Boy in the Park (segment “Brett Ratner”)” in New York, I Love You. Gross times a million, Anton Yelchin.
Cera is better only because I can’t stand to listen to Eisenberg talk.
I think the real question should be why haven’t these two been cast as best friends in a stoner movie? It could be called Pineapple Express pt. 2: Paranoid and Nervous!
When I first saw the trailer for Adventureland I thought to myself “I guess they couldnt get Michael Cera” and assumed Eisenberg was the poor man’s Cera. Then Michael Cera decided to play the same role over and over and getting boring. When I saw Adventureland Eisenberg came off as a lot more intelligent. In the interview he is nervous, but still seems more genuinely inelligent… so I don’t know, I think what I am trying to say guys, is that they don’t really seem all that similar to me anymore. I’m just waiting for George Michael to play another role that isn’t so George Michaely.
New thread: Which — Cera or Eisenberg — is most likely to pull an Anthony Michael Hall nerd to overblown roid freak transition?
Carrot Top.
Is anybody watching this channel this week? Can we morph into a Zombieland Movieclub thread? I just became a giant fan of Jesse Eisenberg.
Whoops if someone already mentioned this but I remember from the Superbad dvd commentary that Jesse Eisenberg was offered the Evan role before it went to Michael Cera.
Anyway, MIchael Cera can do his same shtick for the entirety of his career for all I care. Like this generation’s Woody Allen. Eisenberg on the other hand gets to be a little annoying for some reason like Larry David.
All talk is useless. Eisenberg wins. Get Real was spectacular.
i don’t know, i just saw Zombieland last night and loved it, but the whole time I was just thinking of how this had to be written for Cera. And other than the Adventureland previews, i’ve never heard of the dude. Sorry, but there is no debate. Cera came first, therefore Eisenberg is making a career out of being a clone. Plain and simple.
Jesse Eisenberg is WAY funnier in interviews than Michael Cera. But I really love them both. They don’t pose any threat to eachother. Eisenberg is a bit fresher right now but they are both AMAZING. Zombieland is one of the greastest movies I’ve seen in a long time. Arrested Development is one of the best TV shows ever. Sounds like they are doing well for themselves.
i care just enough to relay how bad i think jesse eisenberg sucks. very much.