What I'm Watching / Reading:
Jon took Brenden to the drop zone Sunday Night so I finally rented Tropic Thunder. I was laughing my ass off, which is a major accomplishment for any film if I'm watching it by myself. It's about the biggest group of pampered, insecure, prima-donna actors appearing in an overproduced, on-location Vietnam war movie that's about to get its plug pulled because it's way over budget. The director decides to get the movie filmed guerilla-style (or Blair Witch style if you please) by taking his actors deep in the Southeast Asia jungle and having them act it out while making it back to their camp. Things go bad fast.
It reminded me that Ben Stiller can have a very sharp eye for satire (he wrote it). Robert Downey Jr. stole the movie as an Australian method actor who goes a wee bit overboard with the method acting. Tom Cruise (!!!) is insane in this movie, too. Tropic Thunder did its very best to inflame and assure my worst prejudices and suspicions about Hollywood.
Hey, am I the only person who remembers that Downey got his start on Saturday Night Live? Then he was in Back to School, where he thought football was a neo-fascist metaphor for nuclear war. I always wanted to point out to him that football is a metaphor for conventional warfare, but that's not really important.
I've been reading John Scalzi's blog for a while, after being directed there by another blog to view a picture of a cat with bacon taped to it. I finally started reading one of his books over the holiday weekend, and I ripped right through Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. I finished The Android's Dream this morning. His books are right up my alley: science fiction, war, adventure, sympathetic characters, and screamingly funny (and sad - I was boo-hooing at the end of Ghost Brigades). They're also zippy reads, which is a refreshing change from all the Dan Simmons and Neal Stephenson I've read lately.
Oh, speaking of cats, we may have a new family member in a week or so.
A Word From the Boss
8 years ago
3 comments:
Ha - I love Back To School.
New family member? What's this?
I have to correct Sandy just a bit about RDJ's acting start. He was a child actor and was in two of my all time favs prior to SNL...
"Weird Science" and "Tuff Turf".
I would actually like to forget he was ever on SNL... he sucked.
... and you are getting a new kitty???
A
I sit corrected, and yes, we're getting a new kitteh. Maybe two.
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