The Actor You Love to Hate

The last time I was on a business trip, you'll recall I "discovered" the incessant TV ads for The Amazing Snuggie! Since then, I've seen numerous other blog posts re: The Amazing Snuggie!, and I've even seen one of my friends on Facebook post a picture of her wearing one. Well, the version of The Amazing Snuggie she was wearing, she insisted it was called a Slanket, not a Snuggie. Whatever.

This time, the hotel I'm staying in has HBO, and they actually played a movie about which I was just interested enough to watch. The movie was the 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben & Jerry Stiller (sounds like they should be making ice cream), the precocious Malin Akerman, and the still very attractive ex-Tom Brady squeeze Michelle Monaghan. She was great opposite Robert Downey, Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), which I briefly mentioned in my blog post on film noirs.

The Heartbreak Kid remake was a decent enough movie, if you consider that the Farrelly Brothers really were recycling two older Hollywood films, not one. The first, naturally, was the 1972 original "Neil Simon's" Heartbreak Kid*, starring Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd. The other film was one of their own, the very entertaining and quite good There's Something About Mary (1998). Mary still is one of my favorite of more recent comedies, and perhaps is the reason why I have a higher Ben Stiller Tolerance Factor** than most of my friends.

* Why don't movie directors, writers, or producers put their names in front of their movies any more these days? Neil Simon and Blake Edwards did it a lot, and who can forget the Albert R. Broccoli 007 films? Seems like a quaint old Hollywood tradition that went by the wayside several decades ago.

** On a somewhat related note, I always talk about reaching the FDA-approved Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) any time I watch a Sam Neill movie. When we went to see Jurassic Park (1993) on an IMAX screen, I must have overdosed several times over on my Sam Neill RDA!

Watching this remake of Heartbreak Kid, I was struck by how similar it was to Mary, and I do wonder whether the Farrelly Brothers are running out of ideas. I was happy to see the movie for free, essentially, in my hotel room*. It was a good movie, but it naturally contains all of those irritating Ben Stillerisms that annoy people so greatly. Like I said, you have to build up your Tolerance Level if you want to enjoy a Ben Stiller movie. It's like alcohol that way, only you really don't want to have to keep ingesting ever higher amounts of Ben Stiller movies in order to achieve the same buzz you once had watching a single episode of "The Ben Stiller Show."**

* Side note: Another movie that is good to catch for "free" -- Fool's Gold (2008) with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson -- just finished playing on HBO tonight.

** Actually, did anyone ever think that show was funny? No, I didn't think so. I just couldn't think of a better analogy.

I won't get into some of the better parts of The Heartbreak Kid, since that's really not why I'm writing this post. [At this point, I always think of Albert Brooks telling Holly Hunter in Broadcast News (1987), "How do you like that? I buried the lead."]

No, the real reason why I wanted to write a post about watching the remake of what is probably an equally cringe-worthy 1972 Neil Simon movie is because the original starred Charles Grodin, The Actor You Love to Hate. See? I told you I buried the lead!

Grodin actually has some decent chops as a comedic thespian. The Grodin humor touchstones for me are two of his newer films, and I'm not talking about Beethoven (1992) or its sequel. He did a very funny buddy movie of a very different sort with Robert DeNiro in Midnight Run (1988). DeNiro was a bounty hunter charged with bringing Grodin's accountant character in, and as he tried to do so, hijinks ensued. That's about all the plot you really need to know on that one.

The other Grodin movie I love to watch any chance I get is Taking Care of Business (1990), which still ranks as the all-time funniest Jim Belushi movie. Sure, Belushi was in The Man With One Red Shoe (1985), but that was a Tom Hanks vehicle. K-9 (1989) was OK, and Mr. Destiny (1990) was the movie that came closest to matching Taking Care of Business, but for my money, I stop and watch Business any chance I get. Even if that means coming across the movie half-way through it, I'll watch the rest of it. I don't do that for other Belushi movies.

There is just something about Grodin's character in Business (and in Midnight Run, for that matter) that can drive a person crazy. He makes the viewer actively start to root against his character, and in both of those movies, bad things happen to Grodin. I sincerely think that's a large part of why I like those two movies. The longer Grodin snivels and whines his way through the performance, the more you want him to suffer. He's a perfect comedic foil for the good guys of DeNiro and Belushi.

I also love that Belushi plays such a die-hard Cubs fan that he sneaks out of his minimum-security prison to attend a Cubs World Series game (I know, it's a complete Hollywood fantasy), catches a home run (shown on the TV broadcast, but not noticed by the prison warden, played by Hector Elizondo), and then he sneaks back in to prison so he can be paroled the next day. You do have to suspend disbelief, but that's all part of the fun! Oh, and there is the very cute Loryn Locklin in a black bikini; how could I not post a pic of that?!

Of course, I am aware that the two actors that brought me to this post, Stiller and Grodin, share some of the same qualities in their acting methods. They both can be really freakin' annoying! They just might be the actors we all love to hate for a given generation. And yet, Stiller continues to get new acting gigs all the time.

I haven't seen Night at the Museum (2006) yet, but I continue to hear good things about Tropic Thunder (2008). That might have to be another Ben Stiller movie I put on my Netflix list.

It's a very good thing I've built up my Ben Stiller Tolerance Factor throughout the years.

Best Blog List

I'll bet no one expected a follow-on post to my last one! It's like getting two, two, two posts in one! I would link to a Flying Circus video on the Spanish Inquisition for the first reference, and a gum ad* vid for the second, but I don't want this to go on forever.

* That was a gum ad, wasn't it? Now everybody uses that catch-phrase ("...it's two, two, two __ in one!") for other purposes.

So, after taking a hiatus from blogging (and unplugging from e-mail and the Internet in general) over the Thanksgiving break, I came back to discover that one of my oldest* friends gave me a Superior Scribbler Award. Awww, thanks! His blog is called "beyond assumptions," which I think is terrific. All too often, people stop with what they assume to be true, without examining events, situations, or press releases (or fill in your own blank) for deeper meanings. True, without mistaken assumptions, we wouldn't have Jack Tripper moments, but it was some guy who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

* Please note I did not say eldest.

Now, I do have a sneaking suspicion that this award was created (and very recently, too!) with the intention of giving props to little-known and obscure bloggers toiling away in anonymity. You know, people just like me. Why? Just to make me (us) feel better about the time we spend on these posts. Lord knows we're not getting paid for this.*

* There was a very funny multiple-strip segment recently drawn by Doonesbury's Gary Trudeau when his intrepid reporter of integrity, Rick Redfern, was downsized from his newspaper job. What was Rick's only alternative? Joining the ranks of the 35+ million strong blogosphere, where about 97% of the people do it for free, with no expectation of actually being paid for their words.

What is the Superior Scribbler Award, you ask? The rules are below, and they spring from the original post from "The Scholastic Scribe" on 18 Oct 08. Like I said, it's recent. Oh, and I'm #426 on the Mr. Linky List, if you're checking.

Here are the rules as I understand them:

* Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

* Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

* Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this Post, which explains The Award.

* Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

* Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

So, I'll play along and try to be nice. It can be hard to do sometimes. Once you let the cat of cynicism out of the bag, he can be hard to pop back in! Hmm... "cat of cynicism." I like that! Maybe I'll trademark it. It's already copyrighted by appearing here. Yowza! Gotta love those Internet IP rights rules.

Since I'm limited to just a top five list, I've been wracking my brain for blogs that would truly fit my top five. I'd love to include my Dad's blog, but it's so far out there, I never visit it. I figure it's enough to have his blog near the top of my links list on the right side of my blog. It's a similar story with my sister's blog; I link to it, but I'm not going to list it in my top five. My brother's site is also linked, but his website is less of a blog than it is a merchandising site with bloggy characteristics on the news feed.

I also thought of all the websites I've visited in the past that would more qualify as blogs, but which I no longer visit or have been taken down. I thought Drew Curtis' FARK website was hilarious for a time, until I realized that it was just a news aggregator with snarky comments. The PhotoShop contests are way cool, but you can get in trouble with NSFW links.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I regularly followed the LT Smash website. He was an Army Intel Reservist (I think!) who was supporting the troops marching on Baghdad, and his insight into OIF was very enlightening, even for those of us who are prior military. After rotating back to the U.S., he changed the blog to be Citizen Smash, and now I think that's been taken down.

I would have loved to follow Bat Girl for two reasons: 1) she had undying love for the Twins, and any baseball fan who is that dedicated and knows her stuff is worthy of admiration. 2) she regularly did baseball game scene recreations with LEGOs, which were pure genius! Alas, she took her blog down several years ago.

I never really got into "Faith and Fear in Flushing", a NY Mets blog from two guys who wrote The Daily Fix column (later converted into a blog) for the WSJ Online, mostly because I'm not a Mets fan. I always liked the name, though. It sounds like a sly reference to Hunter S. Thompson, and I'd love to know the etymology behind naming a town Flushing.

I also never got into "Deadspin", which might be heresy for sports fans who want a different opinion than what is being offered up by the MSM, which in the case of sports, means ESPN. I did see H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger tear into Will Leitch via YouTube (since I don't get HBO, so could not have seen the Bob Costas Show), and that was revelatory. That diatribe was also the source of my comment tucked away within my profile paragraph on the right side of this blog.

Having said all of that, and because it would smack too much of nepotism or paybacks to name Steve's "beyond assumptions" blog in my top five, here are my top five. Currently. They're always open to change in the next week, month, or year. Keep in mind that several of my top five are written by professionals, which again probably goes against the intent of this Superior Scribbler Award. What do I know? It's not my award idea, so I'll pass it along to whomever I feel is most worthy.

• Joe Posnanski is a professional sports writer currently working for the KC Star and Sports Illustrated. His wonderful blog is writing he does on the side, so he probably doesn't get paid for it any more than the rest of us do. I discovered Joe's writing because The Daily Fix kept linking to his Star columns, which were terrific. When I discovered his blog, I was hook, line, and sinker. Only then did I find out he's originally from Cleveland, OH! So he definitely makes the list. I need to pick up his book about Buck O'Neil, and can't wait for his upcoming book on the Big Red Machine circa 1975.
  
• The Fantasy Football Librarian is a blog I discovered when I googled for "fantasy football draft prep kits" one day. I'm happy I did! Sara mostly posts links to other FFB content like start/sit lists on other sites, but hers is a very good news aggregator for FFB-ophiles. She also is willing to answer crazy e-mails from me, so that's a plus.
• I hate to say it, but there are excellent blogs being written on a regular basis at WSJ Online. Again, I'm giving more kudos to people actually being paid to write their blogs, but gosh darn it, they do it so well! Two I'd like to highlight from the Journal are "The Juggle", which is all about highlighting topics on the struggle to find work-life balance, and "The Daily Fix", which highlights the best sportswriting on the web every week day. Sorry, I just couldn't avoid listing those two in one space. I am sad that so many of the personal finance columnists I enjoyed reading so much on a weekly basis seemed to depart the WSJ shortly after Rupert Murdoch's News Corp took over, but perhaps the timing was just coincidence. The Juggle and The Daily Fix remain solid blogs, but I do miss "Buzzwatch", which kept track of what was hot on the Internet, Internet memes, and related information age currency.
  
• I almost didn't want to include this one, since I am restricted to just five top blogs. Anne doesn't update her "The Agile Mind" blog very often, but when she does, it's great stuff, especially because it is often relevant for my work in the Federal Government technology arena. I could have listed several others in this space that are also relevant to my work, such as GovExec's NextGov "Tech Insider" blog, or "The Danger Room" from WIRED magazine. Wait, have I busted the top five limit? Sue me.
• OK, last one. I just discovered this blog, so perhaps it is too early to be listing Jonathan Turley as a top five favorite. However, I used to check out the WSJ Online's Law Blog for many of the same reasons why I like Turley's blog. He tends to focus on crazy happenstances in legal cases, which sometimes smacks of News of the Weird. All too often, however, the cases Turley highlights are sad examples of authority figures overstepping their bounds in employment or termination decisions. Yes, I did link to that post just so I could link to the photos of the teacher's bikini pics. Seriously! Why do you think I found Turley's blog in the first place?! Sheesh!
• Exception: If you disqualify the Turley blog as too new, then I would throw in a blog written by a woman with whom I went to B-school. Eliza hadn't been writing much in times past, but now she's on the bandwagon along with the rest of us. She doesn't get many comments, so perhaps this little nod will bump up site traffic for her. One can hope!

So there you have it. My top five list actually comes out closer to a top ten. It probably should be a top ten list, because then I could throw in other blogs I've visited in the past but not so much now. That would include "A Million Shades of Gray" (which I like the content, but she hardly ever updates it!), "Life Family et al" (which has been taken down, apparently), "Recovering Straight Girl" (which is kinda fun, but what does it have to do with me?), the "McCain Blogette" (which hasn't been updated since John McCain's concession speech, for obvious reasons), Mike Florio's "ProFootballTalk" Rumor Mill (which really has some of the best NFL scoops on the Internet, veracity be damned), "Because I Said So" (Dawn is the mom of Ebay Pokemon card pack fame, and has been called the "Erma Bombeck of Our Generation" -- how do you fight that? But I've had too much trouble subscribing to her feed via google reader, so I quit trying), and a group blog called "The Sports Economist" (which I still want to get on their author list, but haven't found the time to write anything worthy of their attention).

I'm not even including some of the more spurious pseudo-blogs out there, usually done more for humor's sake, like "The Cold Hard Football Facts", "The Borowitz Report", "The Sports Pickle", and "Drivl.com". Have I provided enough links to keep you busy today? Enjoy!