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Until I looked up her bio on IMDb, I had no idea Rene Russo was 18 years older than me.  There’s your fun fact for the day!

This list was inspired by a recent rewatch of Get Shorty, but once I got into it, I was surprised that I’d seen so few of her movies. I was once again struck with the difference between “an [ACTOR] movie” and “a movie that has [ACTOR] in it.” We’ll get to that more on a couple of these.

10. Outbreak (1995) – I’m well aware that this movie is better than a #10 spot, but any time you’re talking germs and how easy it is to spread them, I’m knocking you down a bunch. I am already aware of how fragile my not-being-sick state is, thank you very much.

9. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) – Rene has been in movies with a lot of “major leading men,” and she has always held her own/exceeded them, in my opinion. There’s a confidence to her, a look that lets you know she’s in on it, she knows what’s going on, and she’s not in any way intimidated. That’s mostly what I remember from about this movie, which I haven’t seen in a long time.

8. Tin Cup (1996) – Several of these movies on the list are ones I have a mental rating for but don’t remember much about. This is the “Kevin Costner and golf” entry on the list.

7. Major League (1989) – Many people I know absolutely love this movie, and I barely remember it.

6. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) – I liked this movie way more than it deserved to be liked, and it’s mostly because I love the original cartoons. I ain’t ashamed!

5. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)/Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) – The Lethal Weapon series averages out to be pretty good, but nobody remembers 3 and 4 much. Rene was a good addition, but the overall movies weren’t as good as the first two.

4. Get Shorty (1995) – One of Travolta’s best, which is a weird thing to say on a Rene Russo list, I know, but it really is.

3. In the Line of Fire (1993) – The flirting between Clint Eastwood and Rene always seemed a little weird to me.

2. Thor (2011) – This is in no way a “Rene Russo movie,” but I really really like it and she’s in it and what are you going to do about it anyway?  She plays Thor’s mom, and it took me a little while to figure that out the first time I saw it.

1. Big Trouble (2002) – This little-seen movie is not only my favorite Rene Russo movie, it might be in my top 20 of all time. Top 50 for sure. It’s based on a Dave Barry book that I absolutely loved (I literally could not go two pages without laughing out loud), and it’s got a great cast. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

To answer your question, yes, I do think it’s weird I’ve never seen Ransom.

 

Tags: Tuesday10

Written by: Mark