Waiting for spring

Doug:
Do you think it makes me a bad American to confess that I have no desire to see the movie Lincoln?

 

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Mike:
Personally, I couldn't give a rat's ass, but your Tea Baggah buddies may stop inviting you to Chick-Fil-A Day.

 

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Doug:
The thing is, it's not just Lincoln but movies in general.

 

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Doug:
I've grown increasingly less interested in seeing human beings pretend to be characters, and at some point, I started to find it actively annoying.

 

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Mike:
Yeah, this is why we are drawn to live sports ovah movies.

 

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Mike:
And it's what the late great Baht Giamatti was getting at when he wrote of the athletes strive to perfection.

 

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Mike:
The athlete, out of that congeries of emotion, choice, strategy, knowledge of the terrain, mood of spectators, condition of others on the team, secret awareness of injury or weakness, and as nearly an absolute concentration as possible so that all externalities are integrated, all distraction absorbed by the self, must able to change the self so successfully that it changes us.

 

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Mike:
Watching the athlete at play on the field "re-creates" in a way that the film actor nevah can and nevah will.

 

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Mike:
And therein lies your disinterest.

 

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Doug:
Well, that and the fact that Tom Cruise is at least a foot too short to play Jack Reachah.

 

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Comments

[cmdrflake]

Only a 5'6" guy can get that pissed off. Kevin Garnett could be Jack Reacher very effectively. Jus' ax 'Melo!

[El Jefe]

And why John Wayne wanted to be Ted Williams...

[Bob]

I find great actors to be like umpires; they're at their best when you don't notice the "acting." Daniel Day Lewis is going to win the Oscar, but I sure did notice his acting in "Lincoln."

[Bob]

Oh, and if Lincoln's voice was anything like the one bleated by Daniel Day Lewis, I don't understand why he wasn't stoned (by rocks, not weed) at the debates.

[Natalie]

I love going to the movies- (saw both The Impossible (good) and Zero Dark Thirty (excellent) this weekend)- but I know Doug's feeling: sometimes with certain actors all I can see is the actor, not the character (looking at you Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, George Clooney). And I too cannot bring myself to see Lincoln, mostly because Spielberg has gotten so bloody EARNEST with his movies (e.g. War Horse) I cringe at most of the "emotional" scenes...

[buckner was framed]

Bart's kid is usually pretty effortless in his acting, though. He's worth watching

I also find my self saying "Yeah, RIGHT!" a lot at some unbelievable plot points- as with an episode of "Breaking Bad" that I saw recently that hinged on the DEA's ability to track down our hero by using LoJack, allegedly because every 2 bit minor drug hack would shell out $600 to protect their pimped out rides... couldn't tell if it was bad product placement or just bad, period

[buckner was framed]

on a humorous side note, I received an email from the Sox today offering me season tickets: at a cost of $348 per seat per game, full season only, multi-year commitment.... That's $56K in ballsiness to those of you keeping score at home (assuming the lovely Mrs Buckner wished to accompany me)

[COD]

I did see Lincoln - with my son the history major. He was relatively ok with the historical interpretation in the movie. He thought they trumped up Grant's role a bit to much though.

What was more fun was when we watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and he was educating on the actual historical basis behind some of plot points in the movie.

[Natalie]

buck- who is Bart's kid?

[pablo in nh]

Think he means Paul (not Pablo).

[buckner was framed]

yes, sorry Nat- I was picking up on Mike's reference to Baht Giamatti in the strip, and assumed everyone knew what I was thinking :-)

Paul Giamatti it is

[cmdrflake]

The quality of movies long ago led me not to go out to a theater for a movie. I wait, and see it PPV@home for less with beer*, fresh popcorn, weed, more popcorn... (* or Johnny Walker on the good ship Cutty Sark...) Oh, to the Narcs scanning my junk, I was being facetious, just making a point....

[SAC]

Spending the day in self-flagellation for being so un-uhMercan as to posit that the CIA dude in ZD30 was far too kind in his interrogatory technique.

[dustbunny44]

For my 2c, Lincoln was surprisingly good if you can stand active violence (but not in-your-face) that's limited to the well-spoken word only. Biggest surprise is how many of the nation's values and issues still exist over 150 years later.

[Robert]

Given its support for lefty causes, I see no need to contribute to Hollywood's income.

Yeah, I know — thanks to my actions, the industry's tottering on the brink of collapse.

But my one-person boycott works just fine for me!