Pajiba

Just sayin'.

Carl Weathers played football for the Raiders before acting.

Alex Karras used to play for the Bears before becoming George motherfreaking Papadapolis.

Maybe Oldman shouldn't generalize when he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Acting (like singing and writing) is something that all of us engage in to some degree pretty much every day of our lives. We all possess a certain minimal level of skill that makes it easier to achieve competency in a far shorter period of time, if we choose to take the "craft" seriously. Basketball, on the other hand, is a very specific set of skills that do not normally get practiced as part of your normal life.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that a basketball player could be competent at acting and hold their own with professionals. Not true the other way around.

I loved him as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves.

Now now- Kareem was brilliant in Airplane. Surprised You left OJ out of the mix. I am sure you had your reasons, but no one can say he was a bad actor, that is for damn sure.

Why has there never been a movie made about Robeson?! He was a total badass. Has anyone snatched up the film rights or written a script? Sheesh. Wikipedia it!

Because it would take 5 different actors to play him.

Please take His Airness off this list.

Don't forget Chuck Connors. The Rifleman was awesome.

Wow, I had no idea. Basketball AND baseball.

Shaq was actually pretty good in "Blue Chips" with Nick Nolte, IIRC. Of course, he was playing a basketball player, so it wasn't much of a stretch.

If you want to see a lot of basketball talent wasted in an absofuckinglutely terrible movie, watch "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh."

Ever see Just Wright? Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Rashad Lewis, and a whole bunch of other NBA players playing themselves -- and still wooden as fuck. All the same, I give Patrick Ewing as the Angel of Death in Exorcist III a pass, simply because all he had to do was sit around in a hospital gown and a pair of wings and look ponderous, which he did fairly well. And also because I liked the inside joke of a former Hoya making a cameo in a movie set in D.C. at Georgetown.

Johnny Weismuller & Sonia Henie?

Gary Oldman is the kind of crazy I'd love to have in my family, as opposed to the batshit currently defecating in the gene pool, but seriously, he looked like he's trying to pass a triceratops in that pic.

Then I guess you've never seen him in The Professional - on more than one occasion he looks like he's trying to pass an entire HERD. No one brings the batshit crazy like Gary.

How dare anyone insult Kareem's brilliant performance as Roger Murdoch? That reaction to the kid going "...but my dad doesn't think you work hard enough on defense" kills me every time!

Kareem was BUILT into that part, dammit.

Sorry Oldman, but Shaq and Kareem both have NBA titles to their names which is the ultimate prize any athlete strives to achieve. You on the other hand haven’t reached the pinnacle of acting achievement because if you did you’d have an Oscar. So stick that up your ass motherfucker, and by way, you sound like every other asshole actor that takes themselves to serious by using the word “craft” to explain what you do. I would think a motherfucker that had to check himself into an alcohol rehab center would be wise enough to avoid insulting people that never did a goddamn thing to you.

He did Sid and Nancy. The Academy can STUFF their little gold statues. He is BEYOND them.

No shit. Gary Oldman is brilliant in everything he does, and the fact that he didn't even get nominated for Sid and Nancy, much less win, shows that the Oscars are rigged. Julia Fucking Roberts has go one, but not Oldman? Screw that shit.

*got

While an NBA title is cool, I don't think ALL athletes are on the hunt for it, or they are wasting their time playing other sports.

Pookie, I understand your indignation at the skit. It is ostensibly inflammatory. Also the writer commits the fallacy of equating verbosity with intelligence in Oldman's line about players having a hard time grasping English. Yet, there is some merit to the skit. If you noticed after his rant Oldman does the business with his right hand, connotating that the rant was just a "scene." The point being that just as he could never aspire to play one on one against King James or even Jeff Van Gundy they on the same hand cannot hope to reach the heights of theatre that Oldman has demonstrated. Oldman meets us halfway by showing the audience his skyhook at the end. It is simply a jest,although implicitly racial on the surface, speaks on another level about Professional courtesy and respect for "craft" whether it be upstage or at the charity stripe.

Little...wound tight, are we? Have a snack, Pookie. You are one angry teddy bear.

Wow, you are the worst. Gary Oldman is undoubtedly one of the most talented actors working today. If you disagree, you've obviously never seen "True Romance" or "Leon: The Professional." No one has more range and can make you forget he's acting like Oldman.
Do everyone a favor and stop commenting if you're going to make completely insane comments like that.
Also, go back to 4th grade and learn how the English language works. That post was one idiotic grammatical error after the next.

I suspect he was drunk when he wrote that. Ah, sweet irony.

Back the fuck off of Pookie. This time anyway, he's on target. Batkinson and Mr. West, parse this: take your dictionaries, thesauruses, and Revenge of the Nerds IV posters and up your buttholes shove them.

All the other comments to Pookie and you decided to target mine with "back the fuck off." I'm flattered.

Sorry, still getting used to the new comment system f'malDeHyde. 'twas directed towards the others. buttholes.

Pookie - are YOU really calling someone out for being insulting?

But did Wilt Chamberlain do a better job than Arnold?

I mean, who's to say really.

True. Arnold is just an athlete who doesn't move. Does posing count?

HOW DARE YOU INSULT KAREEM?!?!

What's Oldman's opinion on hot chicks who think they can act? Or know they can't but just don't care?

I choked on air watching that.

If you didn't play the Paul Robeson clip, you're missing out. That man's voice was fantastic.

I want to remake that movie "SHAZAM" where Shaquille plays a genie, and I want to get it right!

That would be "Kazaam", friend.

Gheorghe Muresan's work alongside Billy Crystal in My Giant is much lesser known and rightfully forgotten. If you squint at him, it's almost as if Andre the Giant came back to life.

I recently heard an interview with the creators of Airplane...Kareem literally did that part so he could buy an expensive Oriental rug. He is obviously reading off cue cards the entire time.

File under "weird conversations had while clinic escorting": a couple weeks back my fellow volunteers and I decided that if any movie is just crying out for a remake, it's Space Jam. But with a whole new generation of basketball stars! Let's face it, having Lebron interact with cartoon characters may be the only way to make him sympathetic and relatable.

Jeebus, Space Jam sucked. But I upvoted you for clinic escorting. Respect.

You get a point just for being a clinic escort.

Knowing how much the NBA and referees in general protect Lebron though, there won't be any adversity for him to overcome in the movie. It'd be the Aliens versus the refs, Lebron, and the Looney Tunes characters.

Why, do they not like Beethoven?

I love you Joanna, but BACK OFF SPACE JAM.

Rodman's Double Team must be on this list too. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...

oooh, that's a guilty pleasure. i actually went to theatre to see it.

In fairness, a talentless hack won't make it in the NBA by looking cute, having sex with the right people, having a connected parent, and/or pledging ones soul to Xenu. Whereas one cannot say the same for Hollywood. I'd rather watch Shaq deliver a few lines badly and laugh at himself than watch James Caan's son strut around the place embarrassing himself by thinking he's actually acting.

Rosie Greer! Roman Gabriel!

And Fred Dryer. Ed Marinaro. Jim Brown. Merlin Olsen. Alex Karras.

Bas. Ket. Ball.

Chuck Conners.

Abdul Jabaar was also in that Bruce Lee flick. Game Of Death? What about He Got Game?! Really though just watch any soccer/basketball game for five minutes. You'll see people flopping like epileptic fish after not even being touched by someone a hundred pounds lighter than them. Ahem. Worst. Acting. Ever.

Football players are generally more adept than basketball players because more of the former have experience with blocking.

Oh praise God this was wonderful! Gary Oldman's been my inspiration for a few years now; clearly, now that I've seen this video, we belong together.

"I was a medium-level juvenile delinquent from Newark who always dreamed about doing a movie. Someone said, 'Hey, here's $7 million, come in and do this genie movie.' What am I going to say, no? So I did it."

No shame in that

I've never held that movie against Shaq. The guy's always been completely transparent about taking the paycheque and doesn't pretend to be an artist. If you're going to sell out as shamelessly as Metallica, the least you could do is embrace it.

Also, Space Jam rules.