Why Jay Mohr Should Play The Riddler

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Arkham City’s Riddler and Jay Mohr

If you thought Ben Affleck playing Batman was weird, wait ’til you get a load of this. I think the Verona, NJ-born comedian Jay Mohr should play The Riddler. Yeah, not shitting you. If you can see beyond his dead-on-balls accurate Christopher Walken impressions, continue reading to see where I’m going with this.

Obviously there’s almost zero chance of seeing The Riddler appear in 2015’s Man of Steel 2, but down the road I think this would be such an unexpected casting win.

After looking at his film and TV career, you’d be surprised at how many different projects Mohr has taken on. He’s proven his comedic and dramatic acting chops, but more importantly, this is the type of role I could see him really getting into. As The Riddler, I see Mohr being able to infuse a multifaceted approach to the villain. Previously in the Bat-films, we haven’t really seen The Riddler get sadistic, or even sympathetic, and these are traits that Mohr would be able to deliver intensely on the big screen. Think about it, Jim Carrey was totally over the top and glammed out as The Riddler in Batman Forever, while The Riddler we saw in Batman: the Animated Series lacked any element of Carrey’s bombastic take on the character. We’ve yet to see a live action version of the Riddler depicted in the video game Arkham City, nor have we seen a live action take on The Riddler from 2004’s animated series, The Batman voiced by Robert Englund.

The Riddler in Arkham City can be obnoxious and narcissistic, two idiosyncrasies that Mohr is a bit of an expert at. In the TV series Ghost Whisperer, his character Professor Rick Payne has been described as annoying, abrasive, rude, yet still quite amusing. Mohr is also known for playing heelish characters in movies such as like Jerry McGuire, and Suicide Kings.

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As an actor Mohr’s got a quirky sensibility, but he gives the impression that beyond his smart ass exterior, he’s somewhat dark and twisted. Alot of my reasoning for this left field casting choice comes from the element of his personality revealed in the 2000 slasher, Cherry Falls. Starring Garden State Playmate and one of my all time biggest crushes Brittany Murphy, Falls was marketed as another in a long line of Scream knockoffs, but when looking back on it, it actually was pretty original ahead of it’s time in some respects. The film dealt with gender themes as well as tinkering with horror tropes such as the intent to murder virgins rather than the typical promiscuous teenagers.

Cherry Falls gets a bad rap and I personally don’t know many fans of this film, but I dig it. Underrated isn’t quite the best description for the film, because I think if more people knew of it and saw it it would easily be more widely regarded as one of the better horror films to come out of the early 2000s – a time when tons of shitty horror movies were getting released. It’s not necessarily a “scary” film, but definitely kind of effed up. It was never released in theaters and had a bunch of issues with the MPAA. Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-Dread Central said “…it remains an enjoyable example of post-Scream carnage – save for a terrible performance by Jay Mohr…”

If you could imagine The Riddler a bit more sick and twisted, either like the Arkham Riddler pictured above or even more like the Marilyn Manson-esque version in the 2004 animated series The Batman, Jay Mohr is the man for the job. Sure there will be an insane Batfleck style backlash on Twitter in the extremely minuscule chance it happens, but if we’re being told to believe in the proprietor of Fashionable Male as Batman, then is this such a stretch? What do you think?

*IMDB says that Mohr is a New York Jets fan, so he already has an affinity for green, which means we’re halfway there.

Brittany Murphy is December’s Garden State Playmate

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The Sexy Armpit was extremely saddened by the recent death of actress Brittany Murphy. Although she was born in Georgia, she grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Murphy attended Herbert Hoover School in Edison, NJ and the Verne Fowler School of Dance in Colonia, NJ. At only 32 years old, Murphy was too young to die, but thankfully she left us with many memorable performances which may only receive the credit they deserve now that she’s not with us anymore. Life is kind of f-cked up isn’t it?

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Many of us remember Brittany Murphy as Tai in 1995’s Clueless, but prior to that she appeared in Drexell’s Class, an episode of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, as well as an appearance on Kids Incorporated among many other shows. Standout performances in Don’t Say a Word, 8 Mile, and Sin City finally helped garner Brittany Murphy some much deserved credit. You can say what you will about Just Married, but I saw it in the theater when it came out just based on her starring in it and I actually enjoyed it. She was dating her co-star Ashton Kutcher at the time and it definitely showed on screen. (Upon learning of her death, Kutcher tweeted “2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine…” and “see you on the other side kid.”) Since then Murphy continued acting in addition to lending her voice to Happy Feet, King of the Hill, and Futurama.

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If you happened to see Abby Elliot do an impression of her on Saturday Night Live about a week before she passed away, then you know that Murphy was one of a kind and quirky. In many of her roles, Murphy evoked an innocent, loveable quality similar to Drew Barrymore’s demeanor while still being undeniably sexy. What’s most disappointing about her death, is that she won’t be able to celebrate the premiere of The Expendables, one of the most anticipated films of 2010, starring a who’s who of action stars. If the film is a success, her stock in Hollywood may have went up.

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Back in 2005, everyone I knew was buzzing about how Brittany Murphy came back to Edison for the tree lighting ceremony and was given the key to the town. The NJ.com article reporting her death also mentions this event.

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