Why Art Matters: Wesley Snipes

Fringe!

 

One weekend in December I was assaulted seemingly from all channels over the course of 48 hours by movies that featured actor Wesley Snipes. And much to my surprise, he was the best thing in them.

The first movie in question was the so-bad-it's-still-bad Demolition Man with Sandra Bullock (who was awful) and Sylvester Stallone (who was worse). Snipes plays Simon Phoenix (last name intended to hit you over the head with a plot bat), a criminal whose prison sentence was to be cryogenically frozen. While in deep freeze, he is subconsciously trained in secret to become a super-criminal. Snipes is a completely believable baddie, delighting in the advances in society and putting his real-life martial arts into play. Even though Stallone's character wins in the end, Snipes one-ups him for the entire movie.

Second was Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, the ensemble movie where he stars as Noxeema Jackson, a drag queen intent on teaching Chi Chi how to be more than "a boy in a dress." With a cast featuring Stockard Channing, Patrick Swayze and John Leguzamo, there was a lot of star power, and a lot of comedy spiced with drama and heart. While Swayze and Leguzamo were more believable as drag queens, Snipes brought a level of New York attitude along with a ton of maribou.

Last one in the Snipes Film Festival was Major League, where he shined as the Willie Mays Hays, a brash non-roster guy who just shows up to play and makes the team based on his penchant for base stealing and swagger. A favorite among baseball fans, this movie is on heavy rotation no matter the time of year.

A fight with the government has created a gap in Snipes' resume as he served time for tax evasion, but now that he is out, he is expected to appear in The Expendables later this year.