James Corden has been doing a rather admirable job of picking up the mantle of The Late Late Show host from the inimitable Craig Ferguson, who had made the post-Leno-Letterman time slot a fruitful comedic arena on weeknights as well as the weekend. He's more of a heart-on-sleeve personality than Ferguson, as anyone who saw his endearing reaction to Stevie Wonder singing his catalog on the show will attest, and his ability to get scrappy and inventive with his guests (not unlike Jimmy Fallon) has become a trademark of his program. And such was the case last night when Matt Damon, who has been doing a press push for Ridley Scott's The Martian, which comes out this weekend, visited the show and did 8 minutes of acting out his biggest film roles with Corden.
Check out the 8-minute clip below:
The routine involved famed scenes and scenarios from obvious choices like The Martian, the Ocean's films, Good Will Hunting, the Bourne films, The Departed, and Saving Private Ryan, but it also included some nods to some of his more off-beat and frankly far better work, such as his post-Ocean's work with the great Steven Soderbergh in The Informant!, Behind the Candelabra, and the out-and-out brilliant Contagion. There was also a rather hilarious nod to his small role in School Ties, and his work with the Coen brothers (True Grit) and Clint Eastwood (Invictus). (I was a little surprised to see that they didn't get to touch on Gerry, Damon's notorious sole partnering with the great Gus Van Sant, but the jokes to be made about that drawn-out exercise have been made already.) The bit ends with two scenes from the late Anthony Minghella's amiable The Talented Mr. Ripley, taking on two major scenes Damon did with Jude Law, and in ending on the "Americano!" scene, they perfectly reflected the exuberant showmanship that Corden has been increasingly bringing to the Late Late Show.
