Dream Girl

I was watching this movie the other day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a good movie I must say, not exactly a family friendly mix, with a fair share of trash talking and nudity, but that doesn't take away from it the fact that it was a good story with commendable acting not only from both the leads, Robert Downey Jr. and Michelle Monaghan, but also Val Kilmer who plays an excellent supporting role of Gay Perry. I admit I had to mention his character, because he played it so well, he does make an excellent Gay man, no offence. 

 So I was watching the movie and there came a point in it when Harry Lockhart (Robert Jr.) realizes that his Dream Girl (Harmony Faith Lane- Michelle) wasn't the Girl he thought her to be. He had this delusion that she was this amazing girl with the perfect life, with the perfect character, only she had gone wrong in this wicked world and need to be forgiven for her wrongs. Which he did most of the time, he overlooked all her wrongs and tried to make amends when she came off on a wrong foot, but he still refused to see the truth. He was the Dumb-ass who believed in it only because that is what she said she would be...An Amazing girl. 

His rude awakening comes after all the chasing and praising when he finally gets to be with her. She is not who she said she would be...she is not the amazing girl, his dream girl. 

Now he wasn't the perfect judge of character, infact not even a decent one, or else he would have foreseen who he was dealing with. But then this begs the question as to who is?  We all like to fancy ourselves as master readers, who can assay a person in no time, but are we really? Even if we are that good, and we do realize who is who and whats what...love is blind, what can be done about it? 

Not everyone faces this problem, and not many who face it, own up to it, after all there is no personal glory in admitting it. But for just a moment, sit back and contemplate, what would you do if in his place? What if your Dream Girl isn't who you thought she would be?

-Sad But True

What happened to macho movie star?

I saw a ridiculous film called The Expendables some time back. Such movies are saved, if they're saved at all, by the quality of the action scenes (which was not very high in this case) and the charisma of their stars. The stars of The Expendables were mainly fifty- and sixty-somethings, their faces warped and twisted by time, steroids, and an overdose of the good life. Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li (who's just short of 50, and doesn't have a warped and twisted face, but looks more like a banker than an action hero).
And I asked myself: what happened to the macho Hollywood star? Which actors today could carry a franchise like Rocky or Terminator? The last one was probably Vin Diesel, though he never became a megastar in the Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis category. This summer's blockbusters told a depressing tale. The star of two major franchises is a five foot six inch former coke addict called Robert Downey Junior. Now he's a fine actor, one of the best of his generation, and therefore manages to fit the roles of Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, but macho he is not. The youngest of the stars of The Expendables is Jason Statham, who did a series called The Transporter. But he's a Brit. We had the Aussie Russell Crowe playing Robin Hood. Crowe had his macho moment in Gladiator a decade ago, and is now too fat and too old for the job, though, like Mickey Rourke and Robert Downey Junior, he's a good enough actor to seem almost right for it.
The top action star right now is Matt Damon thanks to the Bourne series; Matt Damon, remember, the pretty boy of Good Will Hunting, the cerebral, pacifist, left-winger. No wonder the producers of the biggest budget action flick of this summer, The Prince of Persia, felt the sensitive, brooding Jake Gyllenhaal could make the action hero cut. Next year, we'll have Ryan Reynolds playing the Green Lantern, which is going to be like Ben Affleck playing Daredevil.
Speaking of pretty boys in action films, one mustn't forget Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean, alongside a fey Johny Depp. Keira Knightley was probably the most macho thing in those films. It's not surprising the makers of Salt, a role written for a male star, felt able to substitute him with Angelina Jolie in the spy thriller.
(While mourning the death of the macho star, I should add parenthetically that I much prefer the Bourne trilogy to the Rambo movies).