Sunday night at Barking Mad About Films HQ is movie night and this week was the turn of Mrs Barking Mad to choose (I went there =) she chose Box
She chose Box Office smash 50 Shades of Grey, the ‘naughty’ romantic drama to put it lightly. Now who should pop up as Christian’s sister, singer and talent show judge Rita Ora
Whilst the film just about kept my attention, my mind has wandered since on other films with pop stars and boy do they range from good to bad.
I’m not including the ever increasing popumentary that has been brought out by the likes of One Direction and Justin Bieber of recent years , I’m talking about when they act!
These are some of the ones I’ve been subjected to, Ice Cube in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars; Meatloaf in Fight Club; Justin Timberlake in Friends with Benefits and The Social Network; Tone Loc in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective; Michael Jackson in Moonwalker; David Bowie in numerous films from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to Labyrinth; Sting in numerous films including Quadrophenia & Dune; Alice Cooper in John Carpenter’s under-rated Prince of Darkness, as well as playing Serial movie monster Freddy Krueger’s dad; Serial offender Kylie Minogue with the worse being Street Fighter, I guess the director of this years San Andreas, saw it and cast her to give her a horrible demise in it =)
The idea of Pop Stars in their own movie harked back to Elvis and The Beatles but sometimes their experimental films can be a little too odd, the Monkees in ‘Head’ and the Pet Shop Boys in ‘It Couldn’t Happen Here’ come to mind
The pop star story can also be excellent viewing, Prince did a great job with Purple Rain, shame he had to follow it with black and white oddity Under the Cherry Moon and more recently Eminem, a musician I’m not really a fan of did a fantastic job with Eight Mile, a gritty drama of his rise that is well worth a watch.
Some are quickly forgettable or fall into that So bad, they are good category, S Club 7 movie Seeing Double and Spiceworld starring the Spice Girls may do that for you!
Sometimes the casting is down to the star singing on the soundtrack, Alice Cooper in Dark Shadows/Waynes World; Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello in the Austin Powers Franchise;
It can be a quick cameo for singing the song, Huey Lewis in Back to the Future; Prince in Batman; Bobby Brown in Ghostbusters 2.
Sometimes it could be to appeal to the singer’s fan base for animated films, Katy Perry as Smurfette in the Smurfs movies; Avril Lavigne in Over the Hedge; Rihanna in Home & Taylor Swift in The Lorax
I myself saw the Robert Carlyle film, Face as my favourite musician Damon Albarn of Blur was cast as a gangster in it.
With the ever elaborate music videos it is no wonder they can do some acting, and shows no chance of letting up but I say let the actors act and if they are to be in movies, be my like one of my favourite bands The Subways, who played themselves rocking out in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla
So what is your favourite musician in a film role, we’d love to know below
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