Is Shia LaBeouf the New Michael J. Fox?
In 2007, a dapper young star named Shia LaBeouf appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair next to an interesting caption: "Can Hollywood Turn 21-Year-Old Shia LaBeouf Into the Next Tom Hanks?" Provocative. Of course, LaBeouf's career shifted from that of a Hanks-ian, potential Oscar nominee to the domain of a de rigueur action star. The youngster may not have followed Vanity Fair's wish list since starring in the first Transformers film, but maybe he scored a more interesting feat -- becoming our generation's Michael J. Fox.
Comparing stars new and old is a tricky exercise in star-power genealogy (as we learned last week with Cameron Diaz and Goldie Hawn), and these gents' diametric reputations establish them as distinct entities. However, it's easy to trace similarities in three key areas that all concern product, not personality.
Squeaky-clean TV beginnings
Nearly three decades later, the memory of Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties resonates for one major reason: perfect casting. Though Fox picked up three Emmys for his role as the plucky young Republican, it's fair to say his performance on the show solidified his promise as a Hollywood player. Granted, no one is still talking about Even Stevens eight years after its last episode aired, but the same could be said about LaBeouf's stint on the Disney Channel series. Both shows proved their stars could sell self-deprecation, comic timing, and a comfortable command that outshone their hypothetically more bankable co-stars.
Befuddled action trilogy star
Back to the Future may be a considerably more beloved trilogy than Transformers -- at least critically -- but both series riff on teenage wonderment with explosive sci-fi empowerment. As Marty McFly, Fox sputtered dialogue at his co-conspirator Doc (Christopher Lloyd) with essential groundedness. In the first Transformers film, LaBeouf equipped himself with an incredulous stare and gawked at the rise of the howling machines. They weren't quite Indiana Jones or Jason Bourne; they were audience projections with ideal instincts and a gift for hopeless gulps.
'50s throwback protagonism
Teen Wolf and Disturbia dredge up '50s conceits (I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Rear Window, respectively) and add an element of youthful, au courant angst. If Back to the Future is better than Transformers, surely LaBeouf wins this round with Disturbia's superior suspense. As the house-bound delinquent Kale Brecht, LaBeouf summons the voyeuristic gall of Jimmy Stewart's old Hitchcockian protagonist L.B. Jeffries, who overcame exasperation to sell a murder theory to his confidantes. As Scott Howard in Teen Wolf, Fox works that championship-hungry basketball star charm (which smacks of Anthony Perkins in Tall Story, if we're staying on the Hitchcock star beat), a definitively '50s characteristic catapulted to the '80s.
Clearly, these are two old-fashioned stars working retro cachet, but are they proper kinsmen? Who's your choice for Shia LaBeouf's cinematic forebear? Robert Downey Jr.? Michael Keaton? Ryan O'Neal? Surprise us!
[Photos: Getty Images]
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Comments
i imageine Shia Labeouf the next Keeanu Reeves but who can act.
You guys are way off. While comparing LaBeouf to Fox might be a stretch, it's not a terrible stretch. This idea that LaBeouf is a bad actor is ridiculous. Go watch "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints." Wonderful performance. See "Holes." Fudge. See even "The Battle of Shaker Heights," a bad movie, but LaBeouf is great in it. Steven Spielberg's not an idiot. He casts him in these flicks because LaBeouf has an inherent likability that most actors don't have. You guys are coming down on him because you sense that and you feel you're being pandered to. And maybe you are. But that doesn't mean Shia's not one of the most compelling movie stars of his generation. He is.
Have you seen him lately? Shia lost all his young charm. Now he looks gross and stinky. Transformers is not about Shia or Megan. It’s about robots. And if there wasn’t this 3 part then we would have forgot about Shia at all. Now that Transformers have ended Shia will just dissapear. I don’t think we will remember who that was in 10 years.
So, moving on> Is Ed Helms the next Fred MacMurray?
Well, you could compare MacMurray's work on My Three Sons to that of Helms' work on The Office -- though, MacMurray was the outright star of My Three Sons, which ran for a quite impressive 12 seasons.
Though, Helms is about 83 movies behind MacMurray. And MacMurray starred alongside Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Humphrey Bogart. Helms' last co-star was Anne Heche.
I had just seen a film on TV with a VERY young MacMurray and was startled by the resemblance between him and Helms. The same "I'm just a normal guy" but with spiked eyebrows and a strange wicked glint in the eyes. Let's see if Helms will ever do his own "Double Indemnity" and then we will know....
In his defense, he hasn't exaclty starred in movies with that built-in fanbase.
Putting aside my like of Michael J. Fox and strong dislike of Shia LaBeouf, it's a fair comparison. To summarize this article in one sentence, both made their fame with young audiences as young actors in popular sci-fi trilogies. Michael J. Fox's career had peaked by the early 1990s, and I think it's fair to say LaBeouf, at the end of his trip on the Transformers gravy train, has peaked as well (though he doesn't seem to know it yet.)
So... you receive approximately thirty comments saying you're wildly off base, then finally someone kind of agrees with you, and you highlight that comment as being the best of the thread?
Oh dear, movieline.
Frankly, it _is_ the best of the thread. I love a good disagreement if/when it's from someone who's attempted to even see it from the opposing point of view. Instead we've got a bunch of firebreathers, trolls, jokers and haters. That "sam" agrees or disagrees with Louis is immaterial. That s/he clearly read the post, digested it and responded like an adult is to be commended.
"Both made their fame with young audiences as young actors in popular sci-fi trilogies."
Um, nah. Fox was already famous - like, household-name famous - thanks to his role on Family Ties. He certainly went supernova playing Marty McFly, but that was not a fame achieved "with young audiences", it was just flat-out stardom right across the board.
And for reason. I remember watching "The Philadelphia Story" with my dad and, marvelling at the sharp dialogue and great performances, saying "they don't make 'em like that anymore". He laughed and said "they didn't make 'em like that then either". Some films are one out of the box, and I think BTTF is in that company - *far* too well-constructed to be classed only as "teen entertainment, beautifully performed, a class act all round, and Michael J. Fox was a big part of that (witness his utter un-Stoltzness). It's a genuine A-grade family film, *extremely* hard to make and exceptionally rare, and it ain't nostalgia talking because - well, because it was immediately obvious *then*.
By contrast, the Transformers series is like three "Back To The Future 2"s in a row, and even that's an insult to BTTF2. Utter multiplex cardboard. "The first one's kinda good" is that series' version of a ringing endorsement.
"I think it's fair to say LaBeouf, at the end of his trip on the Transformers gravy train, has peaked as well (though he doesn't seem to know it yet.)"
Oh, yikes. I thought the legitimacy of this article was predicated on the notion that we were about to see the start of the good Shia stuff, like, he's done his time with schlock and now he's gonna begin his Career. And you're suggesting that's it?
He isn't yet as widely famous (and certainly nowhere near as celebrated or, let's face it, decent) an actor as Fox already was in "Family Ties". He's gotta get that big, then nail a film role like BTTF - oh, shooting nights while still shooting the TV show during the day - and retain the kind of humility that allowed Fox, upon accepting Best Actor at the Emmy podium, to say in delight "I feel four feet tall".
No, Shia can't be done - he has so dreadfully far to go.
By the way: "audience projections with ideal instincts and a gift for hopeless gulps" is a compliment when applied to LeBeouf's Transformers performances, and an outrageously reductive insult when applied to Fox's BTTF work.
Oh! I didn't answer the original question!
Mark Hamill. Shia is the new Mark Hamill.
No, even I think that's unfair.
I guess I didn't answer the original question either...
I'd probably say he's the new Michael Keaton.
NO NO NO!!!!! THERE NEVER WAS IS OR WILL BE SOMEONE WHO IS AN EQUAL TO THE ONE AND ONLY MICHAEL J. FOX!!!
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