The Value of Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm in Lesser Material

It is often noted in the press that we are in an era in which "movie stars don't much matter anymore." Exhibit A is all the younger stars in the Marvel movies: they are now multi-millionaires not necessarily because any of them are stars in their own right but because their superhero CHARACTERS are.

It has also been said that "movie stars have never been paid so much yet meant so little." WAY back in the 40s, people came to Humphrey Bogart pictures to see ...Humphrey Bogart. Usually in a drama or mystery...no special effects, no action. The STAR and the story brought them in. Modernly, with an international world-wife marketplace, the effects and action ARE the main draw.

Still, clearly we have some movie stars these days(late 2024 as I post this.) I haven't seen the latest list, but figure Leo's on there, and Brad Pitt -- though his Wolfs with George Clooney -- and HE is not much of a movie star) just went straight to streaming. Matt Damon's stardom is inexplicable beyond the Bourne series -- he looks like a lot of guys. Tom Cruise has hung on for years on one franchise -- Mission:Impossible -- broken up only by one standalone sequel -- for now: Top Gun Maverick. And so forth and so on.

Still, certain actors -- whether major movie stars or not -- have managed to carve out a level of stardom based on a handful of performances and when they are cast in streaming productions of mediocre material-- they prove worth their weight in ...ratings?

I give you..Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm in Landman.

Hamm first, because he got his stardom -- more "pay TV than movies" (like where he played a supporting part in Top Gun Maverick) from one extremely well-written, intelligent, almost novelistic show: Mad Men. He was what the role required: tall, handsome, square-jawed -- but with reservoirs of moodiness and danger to the man and the character. And a great voice.

Around the time Mad Men ended, Hamm found he could convert his looks and manner into comedy. A few times hosting SNL, a few sitcom guest bits...he became multi-talented.

But Mad Men made him because it was one of the best dramatic series of all time, at a rarefied level of writing(always the key to the highestlevel of dramatic entertainment).

Landman? Not so much. But Jon Hamm trails the prestige pedigree of Mad Men with him into the show and it FEELS somewhat better.

Plus Jon Hamm did a villainous season long turn last year on the Fargo TV series..which had begun, some sesaons earlier, with an even BETTER villainous turn from Billy Bob Thornton. Yep, for these two stars of a certain magnitude..Fargo apart leads them to Landman together.

And that's enough to watch the show right there.

And what of Billy Bob Thornton? In 1996, he put himself on the map and won a Best Screenplay Oscar -- for Sling Blade, where he contorted his face (with no make-up) into an unrecognizable "mentally disabled" man.

But it was in the 2000s that Billy Bob established his best -- and now current -- persona: irascible, a reprobate, a misanthrope -- though NOT a misogynist(chicks always dug BBT and sex came easy to him) . He locked that personality in in Bad Santa(2003), brought it back years later in Bad Santa 2(2016) intact..while in between polishing it a bit in a Bad News Bears remake (Billy Bob's version of deadpan reprobate was a nicely appropriate new take on what Walter Matthau had done in 1976 -- middle-aged macho). And he was GREAT doing that thing as the more criminal of two criminals(opposite John Cusack) in The Ice Harvest of 2005.

Whereas Jon Hamm never really became a movie star, Billy Bob Thornton got to be one for a short while and then lost it...his characters were perhaps TOO nasty minded..but cable and streaming awaited. Fargo. For both of them. And now Landman. For both of them.

And I'm damn sure Billy Bob and Jon Hamm are being HANDSOMELY paid for their performances saying lines that just aren't the level of what they've done best in the past.

Oh, yes -- Demi Moore's in it(in the middle of a decades-long comeback from 90s stardom) and some other hot chicks of all ages.

But let's face it...its the male leads that Americans like to emulate AS men and watch as women. And Billy Bob and Jon Hamm have star power. So Landman can end up "beneath them" -- and soap operish, and broadly written. But they make it BETTER.

Side note: Billy Bob Thornton is 69 years old as I post this(2024.) That used to be an "old man". But early on in Landman he got a sex scene (of sorts) with a naked Ali Larter (as his voracious venal sexpot of an ex-wife ) and ...I'd say every 69-year old man in America watching the show could only dream of such retained virility. Its another key to Billy Bob's success...he's Liam Neeson for the sex fantasies of the late middle aged male.

Which aren't necessarily fantasies....