Farley, as a sort of slobbish Daniel Boone character, joins forces with Perry, playing a foppish, glory-seeking "explorer" who's trying to lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean before Lewis and Clark get there. Lewis and Clark had a two-week headstart, so our "almost heroes" have to figure out how to make up for lost time. They decide to paddle up-river, against the current, to accomplish this. Because they're dumb. I'm tellin' ya, if they weren't dumb, they wouldn't have done that. Man, that was dumb.
God bless you, Chris Farley. You single-handedly managed to salvage this rather dire journey, just by simply being your hilarious self and (sorry) almost manages to save this. Sure, it's literally nothing we hadn't seen you do before, and it sure as shit wasn't worthy of being ya final starring role, but, you were never not funny to me. In fact, I'm inclined to dub you the funniest comedian that I've ever seen (sorry, Larry David.) But, I think anyone that can make the one food that I detest more than anything (eggs) gut bustlingly crack me up I think more than deserves this noble honor. In the brief moments that you are absent here, the film suffers.
This film marks the last leading role for Chris Farley who died five months before the film released. However it is not his last film appearance as he had a cameo for the film Dirty Work (1998) released later that same year.
Film critic Gene Siskel had a passionate dislike for Chris Farley and his starring vehicle Black Sheep (1996) was one of only three films he walked out on in 30 years of reviewing films. Since this film was released five months after Farley's death, he and his partner Roger Ebert were prevented from reviewing it and Dirty Work (1998) in which Farley had a cameo, released the following month after this film out of respect for Farley's family and friends in the entertainment business who were grieving over his passing. They felt his review and comments about Farley would be negative and they were not emotionally prepared to deal with this in light of his untimely death. Ebert on the other hand liked Farley's work on Saturday Night Live (1975), and felt that Farley had just not found the right film script worthy of his talent and felt Farley had potential in movies if he was given the right screenplay.
Matthew Perry and the late Chris Farley, for example, might not have won Oscars for Almost Heroes (1998), which scored an 8 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes, while filming on location in Northern Humboldt. Still, the scenery shines in the goofball period comedy in which the pair race Lewis and Clarke through the American frontier, especially when they reach their goal, the Pacific, at Trinidad State Beach.
I first saw this movie about 4 years ago when I was 23 and I was sick on an ice fishing trip. I had too much rum and I was stuck in the cabon because I kept on drinking the tainted tap water everytime I chucked. Well they only had one station and it played this movie over and over. I hated this movie so much I HAD to buy it and ever since me and my friends have seen it at least 70 times whenever we drink.
Anywho, the funniest part has to be when he goes up and gets the eggs....his facial expressions....priceless.
is there an almost heroes support group? I have to be up there on the most times watched this movie....I have actuallt kept track and I am at 76 now.
Powell previously worked as costume designer on the adventure Grayeagle (1977) and as costumer on the science fiction comedy Back to the Future Part II (1989, with Maurice Palinski), the horror film Arachnophobia (1990, with Elaine Maser), and the adventure Far and Away (1992, with Maurice Palinski and David Page). In 1995, Powell worked as costume designer on Tommy Lee Jones' television western The Good Old Boys. Further credits as costumer include the drama Dead Man (1995, with Susie Money and Abram Waterhouse), the action film Volcano (1997, with Philip Maldonado), and the comedy Almost Heroes (1998, with Christine Heinz and Dennis McCarthy).
What did Jacob Chestnut like on his pizza? Did John Gibson like rock 'n' roll music? We don't know the answers to these questions, nor should we. They're intimate life details. But we know almost nothing about our fallen heroes.
It was a splendid tribute to allow the two officers to lie in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor normally reserved for the most public American figures. The flags flew at half-staff and Congress canceled business for two days out of respect for the men killed by a gunman in the US Capitol. The president lauded them for "quiet courage and uncommon bravery." We bade farewell to these men with almost every honor our society can give. And yet, we still know little more than sketchy details about the men we've laid to rest with such profound respect.
Compare our knowledge of Mr. Gibson and Mr. Chestnut with our knowledge of Russell Weston Jr., the alleged shooter. We've learned more about him than we have about the officers we deem heroes but treat as unknowns. We've seen Mr. Weston's Montana home on television, seen his childhood photos, and heard from his parents, neighbors, and friends.
As a child, I hung a wanted poster for Jesse James in my room. I played with a plastic John Dillinger. With childhood innocence, I considered them heroes. Even later, when I decided life was about catching the bad guys, I read books and watched documentaries about Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Lucky Luciano.
We're attracted to the macabre because it's unusual. We lampoon the media for giving us just what we want - a look at the dark side. Yet, when we see it, we're repelled and complain. We beg to hear about heroes like Chestnut and Gibson but quickly get bored with their stories, because they're ordinary people.
Gibson and Chestnut remind us that, behind every badge, there's a human being with a story. We should know something about the people we call heroes. We should wonder about Chestnut's pizza preference and Gibson's music.
To do that I think we're going to have to develop a cadre of analysts. If I go to an S.A.C. meeting or a SAC meeting, what they tell me they need almost more than they need agents are analysts. When I talk to Mr. Constantine, he and I are trying to figure out how to get analysts hired. When I talk to chiefs, they say, I need analysts. Let's develop a cadre across this country that can help us identify what the facts are so that we can make informed policy and operational decisions. Let's bring them together, and let's share in a global information network that can provide the appropriate security, but provide the proper exchange that will permit us to come together and plan through accurate information, through current information that can inform the directions we must take to keep that crime rate going down.
But there are new issues, in ways not new, but with technology and science we present new issues that we must face together, united and indivisible, so that terrorists don't tear us apart. We have seen the forces of terrorism at work in the bombings at the World Trade Center and at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. These bombings demonstrated the absolute worst in humanity but also the very best in local law enforcement, the local police, the firefighters, the rescue squads who first responded. They were the heroes.
It was through you that we, as a people, experience the horrorof this crime. It was through you that we witnessed the triumph of thehuman spirit. It is through you that I daily, every day that I'm in myoffice, am reminded of what happened for there is the picture of a childalmost one years old, who is not with us anymore.
First of all, I remember almost from the outset, stories I heardfrom the police and fire crews who said that they had to ask youngstudents to act as runners to pass messages from one site to another.
Imagine spending your whole life wanting to be President andbeing told time and again that you could be. The favored child,you get the master bedroom. Your teachers call you a diamond inthe rough. When you make mistakes, you charm the facts and thelanguage into doing your bidding, and like magic, the problemgoes away. You can have whatever you want. And when you reach thecrowning glory, Hail to the Chief, you find that your luck andtiming are so peerless that you get to preside over the mostpeaceful, prosperous era in the country's history. You dream ofgreatness, statues, monuments, your name next to your heroes',maybe even your face on a coin someday.
Gitlin and other journalism scholars are hard-pressed to rememberany other story that has triggered such furor. It has forced somehealthy choices, a necessary filtering reaction to theinformation age: so much is available around the clock thatviewers and readers become editors themselves, making judgmentsnot about what they can find out but about what they want toknow. "The general discourse had been getting cruder and cruder,"observes Judith Martin, a.k.a. Miss Manners. "Privacy anddiscretion had almost disappeared from the general public usagebefore the scandal. Now that the salacious nosiness has beencarried to this logical conclusion, there's been a reaction onthe side of propriety. Now, this is a society that has hadnonstop television confessions for 20 years, people vying to geton and reveal everything they can. With this story, what apleasant surprise--people are reacting by saying, you know, wereally shouldn't be discussing this."
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