The Rundown: Let’s Make Randall Park A Huge Star

Netflix

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items will vary, as will the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday and we are here to have some fun.

We, as a people, are capable of some pretty amazing things. We can overthrow governments. We can push large, seemingly immovable institutions into action. We can cancel any quasi-celebrity we want. We have power when we can all agree on something and put our collective energy behind it. It’s good to remember that sometimes. We should use this power more often, for good. We should make a list of things that need doing. And somewhere on that list, preferably up near the top, we should pencil in “Make Randall Park a huge star.”

You saw Always Be My Maybe, yes I hope so. It’s a perfectly nice romantic comedy and you probably need something like that every now and then to shake off the cynical 2019 cobwebs. Everyone in it does a fine job. I mean no disrespect to the rest of the cast by singling out Randall Park. Ali Wong is great in a role — high-achieving female business-type — that can sometimes come off a little cold in lesser films. I’m sure Keanu Reeves will finally catch his big break someday. But Randall Park steals that movie from beginning to end.

He does that a lot, too. Have you ever seen Randall Park not be awesome I don’t think I have. He’s great in Fresh Off the Boat in a big role and he’s great in Ant-Man in a small role. I get legitimately happy whenever I see him pop-up in a movie or television show. He brings this infectious energy to everything he’s in. He takes pretty straightforward material and makes it charming and fun. He’s the best.

Let me give you an example. In Always Be My Maybe, there’s a scene early on where his character bumps into Ali Wong’s character something like 15 years after a high school backseat hookup and an ugly falling out. It’s a scene you’ve seen a million times. One of those “Oh… hi… it’s you… my ex… great… cool” scenes where everyone tries to drive home the awkwardness with all the subtlety of a frying pan to the cranium. It’s not that these are poorly written or poorly acted, it’s just that we’ve all seen them so many times that we know all the beats and need something extra to move us. Usually, the “extra” people opt for is more like way too much.

Enter Randall Park.

This screencap doesn’t do it justice but he’s so good in this scene. It’s almost his specialty. He does flashes of self-doubt as well as any comic actor out there. His delivery of “Wassup” at a different point in the scene cracked me up. Randall Park is really good. That’s what I’m saying.

That’s also why we should make him a huge star. Put him in everything. Leads of more romantic comedies Sure. Co-star of some fun action-comedy like Spy Hell yeah. Some adorable animated kids movie that makes like $1.5 billion at the box office and spawns four or five sequels If he desires! Let the man do whatever he wants. There are far less deserving people doing far bigger things. We can change this. We can create balance in the universe. We can make Randall Park a huge star.

I vote we do it.

I am very pleased to bring you the trailer for Frozen 2, the sequel to the movie every child you know has seen between 10 and 50,000 times. I am not pleased, however, to inform you that it is terrifying. Some of this is a personal terror, as the ocean (in general) and large unrelenting waves (specifically) are two things that haunt me. There’s something cold and unfeeling about both, these massive moving bodies of water that are filled with prehistoric monsters with sharp teeth.

It’s not just the ocean of it all, either. It’s also the underwater ghost horse. The underwater ghost horse. Explain yourselves, Disney.

“In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen 2, Elsa encounters a Nokk — a mythical water spirit that takes the form of a horse — who uses the power of the ocean to guard the secrets of the forest.”

Hmm. Interesting. How does an underwater ghost horse to guard forest secrets I think I’m even more confused now. I guess the lesson we should take away from all of this is to stay on dry land at all times. Can’t be too careful. Elsa knows what I’m talking about now, if she didn’t before.

Hey, speaking of fictional stories about the trials and tribulations of wealthy children born to powerful figures…

Oh heck yeah, my awful and conniving Succession boys are back, baby. Look at them in there, just being terrible and mean and perfect. Logan is cussing and calling people snakes, Kendall is staring out the window with his patented “Welp, I might puke” face, Shiv is looking at people like they have three heads. It’s all there. Even my sweet boy Cousin Greg. Oh, Greg. You kindhearted gangly prince. Between Cousin Greg, NoHo Hank, and Richard Splett, HBO has been doing truly impressive work lately in the field of charming and endearing doofuses. I love them all and would very much like to see their reactions to that underwater ghost horse from Frozen 2.

First, an apology. I am hopelessly behind on 9-1-1, America’s finest program about firefighters who never fight actual fires but do respond to emergencies in which, for example, a waitress at a chain restaurant gets her nose lopped off by a mistletoe-carrying drone. I have excuses. Lots of them. But who cares The main thing here is that I flipped it on out of curiosity this week and whooooooops some guy almost drowned in a vat of chocolate.

Some notes about this scene:

And the whole thing is set to the song “I Want Candy.” 9-1-1, still a tremendously weird and enjoyable television program.