- Am I the only person to notice that there are tons and tons of British actors that can come off as Americans, but not vice versa? For example, most of the actors in Band of Brothers were British, yet I would've never been able to tell until I either checked the IMDb or saw them in another role. Lt. Winters, Lt. Welsh, Sgt. Martin, Liebgott, all British. (I saw the guy that played Liebgott in a making-of documentary, and I thought I needed subtitles. And this from a guy playing a Jewish cabbie from San Francisco.) Same with Apollo from the new Battlestar Galactica. (He was also in Band of Brothers.) You'd never be able to tell this guy was British. But how many people can think of any Americans playing British roles? Supposedly Brad Pitt only played the Gypsy in Snatch because he couldn't pull off a London accent. Angelina Jolie sounded horrible trying to pull off a British accent in Tomb Raider. But did you know that Cary Elwes is British? Sam Neill? Bob Hoskins? Yes, Eddie from Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a limey. Boy, these guys are good.
- What is the media's fascination with pretty blond white girls? Let me just say up front that yes, I think they're hot, and if I had my choice of a woman, it's be a blond, but why do their travails dominate the headlines? And I'm not just talking about Paris Hilton, or newly blond (and ugly) Lindsay Lohan. News about this blond from Alabama that disappeared in Aruba has been on the front page of CNN.com for days now. Yes, it's tragic, but I don't see how a missing tourist is front page news. And remember Jessica Lynch? She had all the press, she even had a damn TV movie made about her, yet no one remembers the black girl that was rescued with her. Where was her book? Her TV movie? I can't even remember her name off the top of my head. (Shoshanna something? Am I close?) If you guys know me, you know I'm the last person to cry racism, but I hate double standards, and this is a double standard.
- Speaking of double standards, what's with the fascination with Danica Patrick? Yeah, she's kinda hot. Oooh, she got fourth place at the Indy 500. Put Shaq in a WNBA game and try to hold him below 60 points, I dare you.
- So I'm flipping around the channels, and Court TV is running a show on the Branch Davidians. They're interviewing this ATF guy, and he's throwing around words like "ambush" and "murder." Meanwhile, you see footage of guys in full tactical gear, scaling ladders and firing into windows. When you assault a compound wearing body armor and carrying MP5s, and people decide to shoot back, then I don't think you can call that an ambush. And when ATF agents die under those circumstances, as tragic as it may be, I wouldn't call it murder. The ATF guys were acting as if they walked up to the Davidians front door and politely asked David Koresh if he would accompany them downtown for some questions, and they got shot at.
- I've been working insane hours at the office, and I don't know why. This past week, I must've put in between 55-60 hours (while getting paid for 40.) I've never been one to stick to a schedule, I usually leave when I feel the job is finished, but even when the job is finished, and just can't bring myself to leave, and next thing I know, it's 11:00. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been able to apply myself to anything since graduating. Maybe it's the sense of accomplishment when a finish a job that I don't get anywhere else. Maybe it's better that I work long hours so I can resist the temptation of going on a vigilante killing spree. I honestly don't know what it is.
- Sylvester Stallone has plans to do Rambo IV. Now you guys know how influential Stallone has been on my life, how I've watched Rocky IV and Rambo II a billion jillion times since I was eight. Well, let me just say: don't. Sly, please don't do it. Remember how people hated Rocky V? Or Godfather Part III? Don't take it too far. How many other franchises have gone almost two decades between installments, not counting prequels and first sequels? Again, remember how people HATE the Godfather Part III? And Al Pacino can actually act! And that was coming off Godfather Part II, a great movie. Rambo III was so-so, not nearly as good as Rambo II. So the franchise is already on the decline. Now, if you want to remake First Blood and restart the franchise, like they're doing with Batman, fine. But do I really want to see a sixty year old Rambo? Not really.
- Speaking of remakes, how about a remake of the Dirty Dozen? No necessarily even a remake, but a true sequel, rather than the made-for-TV Dirty Dozen: the Next Mission. (see above on what I said about waiting too long to make a sequel.) You can recast all the parts, or you can cast someone in a different role, but with the same mission of turning twelve convicts into commandos and going on a suicide mission. It doesn't even have to be World War II. You can set this in almost any war. Here's one that'll keep you up nights: who do you cast?
- Allow me to rant on Dirty Dozen: the Next Mission briefly. For those of you who don't know, this movie was a made-for-TV movie produced by Turner television. Watching it, I got the impression that Ted Turner, who obviously loves the movie so much it's on a Turner station at least once a week, sat down with his people and said "Boys, I love this movie, I own the rights, and I want a sequel. Get on it." To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have minded a Dirty Dozen sequel, so long as it was close to the original in every respect. But they didn't. Instead of the contempory equivalents of Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Jim Brown, They cast the who's who of TV actors in 1985, and that's it. You had the guy from Wiseguy, the white guy from CHiPs, the guy that played Chuck Cunningham ever-so-briefly, and you had the guy that played Billy in Predator. And they brought back Lee Marvin, Richard Jaeckel and Ernest Borgnine. Which wouldn't have been that big of a problem if they hadn't waited almost twenty years to make the sequel. Remember now, the first movie ended on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. That meant that there was less than one year before V-E Day. That meant that in order to go on another mission, Major Reisman had to completely recover from the injuries that he sustained in the first movie, and train a new group of convicts, all in less than 11 months. So they don't have much of a window to work with. So they bring it Lee Marvin in what would be his second to last role, looking OLD, but pretending that it was only months from the last one. Sorry, too much of a stretch. Next, they know they're going behind the lines to assassinate a Nazi general, so they bring a black guy. Let me repeat: they're bringing in a black guy to go behind GERMAN lines. I can go on and on. Please, give us a true sequel. Please!
- My AMC sucks item: AMC had Staying Alive on this week, but not Saturday Night Fever. Even VH1 has the rights to Saturday Night Fever. And they don't claim to be a channel for movie classics.
- What is the media's fascination with pretty blond white girls? Let me just say up front that yes, I think they're hot, and if I had my choice of a woman, it's be a blond, but why do their travails dominate the headlines? And I'm not just talking about Paris Hilton, or newly blond (and ugly) Lindsay Lohan. News about this blond from Alabama that disappeared in Aruba has been on the front page of CNN.com for days now. Yes, it's tragic, but I don't see how a missing tourist is front page news. And remember Jessica Lynch? She had all the press, she even had a damn TV movie made about her, yet no one remembers the black girl that was rescued with her. Where was her book? Her TV movie? I can't even remember her name off the top of my head. (Shoshanna something? Am I close?) If you guys know me, you know I'm the last person to cry racism, but I hate double standards, and this is a double standard.
- Speaking of double standards, what's with the fascination with Danica Patrick? Yeah, she's kinda hot. Oooh, she got fourth place at the Indy 500. Put Shaq in a WNBA game and try to hold him below 60 points, I dare you.
- So I'm flipping around the channels, and Court TV is running a show on the Branch Davidians. They're interviewing this ATF guy, and he's throwing around words like "ambush" and "murder." Meanwhile, you see footage of guys in full tactical gear, scaling ladders and firing into windows. When you assault a compound wearing body armor and carrying MP5s, and people decide to shoot back, then I don't think you can call that an ambush. And when ATF agents die under those circumstances, as tragic as it may be, I wouldn't call it murder. The ATF guys were acting as if they walked up to the Davidians front door and politely asked David Koresh if he would accompany them downtown for some questions, and they got shot at.
- I've been working insane hours at the office, and I don't know why. This past week, I must've put in between 55-60 hours (while getting paid for 40.) I've never been one to stick to a schedule, I usually leave when I feel the job is finished, but even when the job is finished, and just can't bring myself to leave, and next thing I know, it's 11:00. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been able to apply myself to anything since graduating. Maybe it's the sense of accomplishment when a finish a job that I don't get anywhere else. Maybe it's better that I work long hours so I can resist the temptation of going on a vigilante killing spree. I honestly don't know what it is.
- Sylvester Stallone has plans to do Rambo IV. Now you guys know how influential Stallone has been on my life, how I've watched Rocky IV and Rambo II a billion jillion times since I was eight. Well, let me just say: don't. Sly, please don't do it. Remember how people hated Rocky V? Or Godfather Part III? Don't take it too far. How many other franchises have gone almost two decades between installments, not counting prequels and first sequels? Again, remember how people HATE the Godfather Part III? And Al Pacino can actually act! And that was coming off Godfather Part II, a great movie. Rambo III was so-so, not nearly as good as Rambo II. So the franchise is already on the decline. Now, if you want to remake First Blood and restart the franchise, like they're doing with Batman, fine. But do I really want to see a sixty year old Rambo? Not really.
- Speaking of remakes, how about a remake of the Dirty Dozen? No necessarily even a remake, but a true sequel, rather than the made-for-TV Dirty Dozen: the Next Mission. (see above on what I said about waiting too long to make a sequel.) You can recast all the parts, or you can cast someone in a different role, but with the same mission of turning twelve convicts into commandos and going on a suicide mission. It doesn't even have to be World War II. You can set this in almost any war. Here's one that'll keep you up nights: who do you cast?
- Allow me to rant on Dirty Dozen: the Next Mission briefly. For those of you who don't know, this movie was a made-for-TV movie produced by Turner television. Watching it, I got the impression that Ted Turner, who obviously loves the movie so much it's on a Turner station at least once a week, sat down with his people and said "Boys, I love this movie, I own the rights, and I want a sequel. Get on it." To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have minded a Dirty Dozen sequel, so long as it was close to the original in every respect. But they didn't. Instead of the contempory equivalents of Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Jim Brown, They cast the who's who of TV actors in 1985, and that's it. You had the guy from Wiseguy, the white guy from CHiPs, the guy that played Chuck Cunningham ever-so-briefly, and you had the guy that played Billy in Predator. And they brought back Lee Marvin, Richard Jaeckel and Ernest Borgnine. Which wouldn't have been that big of a problem if they hadn't waited almost twenty years to make the sequel. Remember now, the first movie ended on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. That meant that there was less than one year before V-E Day. That meant that in order to go on another mission, Major Reisman had to completely recover from the injuries that he sustained in the first movie, and train a new group of convicts, all in less than 11 months. So they don't have much of a window to work with. So they bring it Lee Marvin in what would be his second to last role, looking OLD, but pretending that it was only months from the last one. Sorry, too much of a stretch. Next, they know they're going behind the lines to assassinate a Nazi general, so they bring a black guy. Let me repeat: they're bringing in a black guy to go behind GERMAN lines. I can go on and on. Please, give us a true sequel. Please!
- My AMC sucks item: AMC had Staying Alive on this week, but not Saturday Night Fever. Even VH1 has the rights to Saturday Night Fever. And they don't claim to be a channel for movie classics.
posted by J. Yeh | 00:35
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