"Parlez-vous Olympics?!" and RDJ

Good day,

I realize I haven't' updated this in awhile... probably because I haven't watched any movies lately. (Gasp!) No... like most of the world, I was watching the Olympics for the past couple weeks. They've been over since Sunday night and I'm only just getting back into my normal TV/movie watching routine... I plan on seeing "Hamlet 2" sometime this weekend, so that should be entertaining, to say the least. Steve Coogan is a funny, funny man.

But before I spout off about the cinema, I'd like to put in my 2 cents about this year's Summer Games. I love the Olympics. Like whoa. But, I really only get into the Swimming, Diving, Gymnastics and Track & Field. This is probably because that's all that NBC shows in the evening hours when I'm free to watch TV. I would have liked to watch some soccer, baseball, softball, etc..., but network television doesn't think that the general public is interested in that. Well, we are. Instead of watching all of the NBC affiliates at all hours of the night, my sister looked up on-line who won all of the non-NBC televised events.

As we all know, the Games turned in a Michael Phelps a-thon... which I was okay with. I really enjoy watching amazing swimmers because I like swimming, but I'm not at all awesome at it. It's great that he won his 8 gold medals... but really, no one else but a swimmer (or a very, very, VERY talented Men's gymnast who could manage to get team gold, all-around gold, and then a gold on each of the 6 events) could get 8 golds in 1 Olympics. Michael Phelps is a phenomenal athlete who seems to have respect for his teammates and his mom. (BTW, his mom was the highlight of the games... it was almost more fun to watch her cheer on her son and his relay team than actually watch the event itself). He's supposed to be hosting SNL on September 13th... let's hope he is as entertaining out of the water as he is in the water.

Gymnastics were good to watch... it was interesting to see the Men's team be so psyched about winning bronze and how sad the Women's team was that they got silver. Cheer up chicas, you beat out hundreds of other girls to get the silver! You should be proud. I won't even get into the whole "Those girls from the China team still look like they are in elementary/middle school" debacle... But some of them did look quite young...

Closing ceremonies were all right. I enjoyed the fireworks and those women who had all the bells on. I really liked those guys that were strapped to that tower... that was awesome. How they ran up the sides of it... and then the dudes in the middle of the human flowers who were running on air. So cool!

I'm looking forward to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. My sister wants to go... and so do I, but let's be realistic... that probably costs a ton of $. And in this economy, with my paycheck, that ain't gonna happen. Thank you America... once again I'll be enjoying the Olympics from the comfort of my home/cardboard box (hey, I don't know where I'll be in 2 years).

As mentioned above, I will be getting back into my movie-watching habits now that the Games are over. First stop, Hamlet 2... I've seen the trailer, I saw Steve Coogan on Conan. I am 100% convinced I am going to laugh out loud and thoroughly enjoy the film this weekend.

I haven't seen a movie in a couple weeks. The last thing I saw was Tropic Thunder (in which Coogan co-starred). I did a one-time-only lift of my own personal lifetime boycott of Tom Cruise/Ben Stiller movies to see this film (Mel Gibson is the other person on my lifetime boycott list...).

Honestly, the only reason I saw Tropic Thunder was because of Robert Downey Jr. If he wasn't in the film, I would have avoided it like the plague. He made the film funny. Tom Cruise is getting a lot of hype for his part, but he creeped me out. Like this was some excuse for him to dress in a fat suit and curse a lot and do lewd dance moves. I saw through your guise, Cruise, and you still make me wretch.

But back to Robert Downey Jr... I am so very glad that he is back in the limelight (for a positive thing...). I have been a RDJ fan for many, many years. Even in high school/early years of college, I watch a bunch of RDJ films and realized what a talented actor he is. Chaplin... SO BRILLIANT! And even earlier this summer, in Iron Man, RDJ proved that he can do the action movie but still keep his sarcastic edge in tact. He's funny, but vulnerable and relatable at the same time.

In Tropic Thunder, RDJ took a huge creative risk. Playing a character who goes beyond black-face to play a part in a movie is not exactly politically correct and could offend a lot of people. But, RDJ's character is not making fun of black people... his character is so Method, that he doesn't know of any other way to get into character unless he "gets into character"... from the outside and the inside. He's so wrapped up in himself, that he gets knocked down a peg or two throughout the film by his cast mates. The arc of RDJ's character is the most interesting one in the film, and it's really fascinating to see him dig further and further into his Method hole and then crawl back out and learn some "Life Lessons". (BTW, I'm not knocking Method Acting... I completely respect an Actor and his/her craft/process. The use of it in this film is just extreme and is meant to be laughed at).

Now - if only they would make "Satan's Alley" into a real movie... starring RDJ's character and Tobey Maguire. That would be PRICELESS.

Well, I should get going... maybe watch a movie or something (?)

Have a fantastic day and I'll cya at the cinema :)