John C. Reilly should be cast in a lot more movies

This weekend, somewhat randomly, I was treated to two terrific John C. Reilly performances in two polar opposite movies, and both experiences reminded me that he is one of the most underrated and underused character actors in Hollywood.

The first film was an old favorite of mine, P.T. Anderson's first major film -- the slow boiling crime drama Hard Eight -- from a little over twenty years ago and the second, his most recent movie, Kong: Skull Island.

Reilly has been a strong character actor for years -- he's popped up in movies like Casualties of War and The River Wild when he was very young, but didn't breakthrough until he teamed up with Anderson, first with Hard Eight, and even more notably in Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Now, he is widely recognized, but partially because of his earnest, honest delivery and unconventional looks, he has found more success in comedies, namely as Will Ferrell's partner in crime in movies like Step Brothers and Talladega Nights and as the iconic Dr. Steve Brule from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

He's been Oscar-nominated only once, for a small but poignant turn in the ensemble musical Chicago, and even that recognition may have had as much to do with what a juggernaut that movie was back in 2002 (even Queen Latifah was Oscar nominated for it).

But it's roles like Hard Eight that demonstrate what is so unique and captivating about him. He's not afraid to play dumb characters; not stupid in a silly way, but woefully naive in a painfully realistic way. In Hard Eight he plays John, a hard on his luck loser who gets taken in by savvy aging gangster played to perfection by Philip Baker Hall.

John C. Reilly in Chicago

He manages to be both hilariously funny but also pitiful in a heartbreaking way throughout the movie. And in almost everything he's in, he elevates the material, whether its the first Guardians of the Galaxy, where he played a small but pivotal role and yes, Kong: Skull Island.

I watched this film on a plane, and I can say its one of the rare films that's probably ideally viewed in that setting. It suffers from all the usual flaws of a modern-day blockbuster behemoth: It's got no reason to exist, it's overlong and it is stuffed with too many characters and subplots (Tom Hiddleston, so fun as Loki, is a bore in the wannabe Chris Pratt role, and Brie Larson is even more wasted as a plucky photographer with no qualms about taking exploitative photos of the problematically ethnic locals who worship Kong).

At least the 2005 version of King Kong from Peter Jackson tried to imbue the ape with some inner life via the marvelous motion capture performance of Andy Serkis, but in this film the big guy is simply ready to rumble and while the movie has some undeniably great B-movie moments it secret weapon is a truly wonderful eccentric performance from Reilly that steals the film from its ostensible leads and makes it worth watching all the way through.

Reilly plays a World War II fighter pilot who crash landed on Kong's Island and has had to survive for the next twenty years alongside the native population. Not only did he miss out on American culture of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, but he's also started to lose a bit of his mind as well.

Sporting a gargantuan bushy beard, a leathery complexion and spouting dialogue which genuinely sounds improvised, he gives a corporate product like Kong: Skull Island what it desperately needs -- unpredictability.

And in a summer movie season stocked with the now routine litany of sequels, reboots and franchises, we could at least use some more unconventional casting to keep things from being too stale. It's what made Robert Downey Jr. such an inspired choice to play Iron Man, so why not give John C. Reilly a chance to headline a surefire hit?