Looking through some old blogs...

It's amazing to me the things that I have promised to write blogs about in the past. I did kinda promise to fulfill my duty of writing about all these topics, but instead I'm going to attempt to jot down just enough about them to keep them interesting while not going overboard. Don't get me wrong, some of the stories are pretty classic, but having happened so long ago I either don't fully remember what I wanted to say, no longer care about what I wanted to say, or have told the stories so many times orally that I am sick of even thinking about what I wanted to say. I will however try my best to satisfy my most loyal readers.

One topic I wanted to get out of the way immediately is a recent remark about the movies that I've seen since I last blogged significantly. One was the 40 Year Old Virgin, as mentioned in a very recent blog, and the other was Million Dollar Baby, the big winner at this year's Oscars. I'll start with Million Dollar Baby.

Overall, I left the movie satisfied that I hadn't been cheated out of my no more late fees Blockbuster Video rental fee. The film unquestionably does some things very right, but what I'm most concerned about in this blog is pointing out the flaws. A very blatant one appears only moments into the film when Hilary Swank's character approaches Clint Eastwood to ask him to train her. Here's the problem: she claims to have been the undercard on the fight that was just won by Clint's prized fighter, a fighter whose next fight would be for the world championship in whatever weight class he belonged to. That's a pretty damn important fight I'd say, yet she got the gig without any training, management, or connections in the boxing world? Seriously, how could this have happened? You may be saying, "Well, you don't know the deal, maybe that's not that rare," etc etc, but the rest of the movie basically makes it clear that this scenario is completely absurd without any need for background information. It does this by showing that she had no basic boxing knowledge, had never even spoken to any form of management, and most convincingly makes a big deal when she's the undercard for some lame European fighter's championship defense somewhere overseas. How was that fight so much harder to get than the aforementioned huge America fight that led off the film? It makes absolutely zero sense. I challenge anybody to offer me a reasonable explanation.

There are several other issues with the film that also require brief mention in relation to realism. For one, how does a gym with such a reputation look like such total shit, with one old dude as the only visible employee, with several jokes relating to their inability to collect dues from their many fighters. This ain't Rocky anymore, I watch highlights of championship boxers training on ESPN when a big fight is previewed - it looks like they're in a Bally's or something with nice equipment and clean white walls and everything. Also, without being too much of a spoiler (if you want to avoid the spoiler entirely because you plan to watch the film later skip ahead), how does he conveniently sneak drugs into her little community (hospital? who knows) late at night without so much as a security guard checking him at the door. Lastly, how on Earth could she have lost the championship fight when the dumb bitch blantantly broke the rules on video tape? If Tyson pulled that shit he would have lost his liscense in every state and probably also be in prison. Makes no sense...

The last issue I have with the movie being so hailed with awards is the fact that although they work on many levels and have very distinguishable characteristics...hate to say it, the characters in the film for the most part are just over the top and formulaic. The skinny white kid from Texas for instance, I compare his relevance to the film to that of Jar Jar Binks in Episode 1. Jar Jar was advertised to the public as a simple ploy for comedic relief, and was eventually hated for this role, while this guy in MDB is similarly annoying and competely out of place. Also, the mother of Swank's character is so beyond trailer trashy bitchy that it's just not believeable at all. Every time her character was on screen I was just like give me a break. Lastly, this black championship fighter she takes on with the late blows after the bell and tough rep is just ludicrous. Aspects of the movie are comparable to the thought put into a cartoon. All of the things mentioned above were huge disappoints to me.

Moving on to 40YOV, what a great comedy to go see in the theater. I loved it because while there were obviously numerous out of control moments, they never seemed completely out of the realm of reality, unlike the Wedding Crashers. The true beauty of the movie was that while the plot alone allowed for endless comedy from the entire excellent cast it didn't account for the completely random side stories that would evolve from a scene out of nowhere. There were many occasions where the scene seemed over and then a joke would come out of nowhere with no relevance to the film whatsoever, but they worked time and time again. I must say that I hope that this film leads to more Steve Carell on the big screen.

Alright, as is always my sign off "that blog went on a little longer than I had planned." You should feel honored that I spent that time for all of you. I think my next blog will start off with the 2 AM pool party from about a month ago, but only the resolution that gave me a few laughs. I might try to squeeze in something about going on a friendly canoeing trip, but that may be lost from the blog's content list forever. Ok, hope to hear from y'all soon.