Pursuit of Happyness, Sopranos, et. al.

Aloha from Sidney,

We recently watched The Pursuit of Happyness on the big TV. I don't know if I liked it or not... I hate movies like that. The movie spent most of its time just being kind of depressingly sad, with moments of Will Smith brilliance.

Also, and I didn't realize it until just recently, the kid in the movie is his actual son. I think he did a fantastic job. Normally, kid actors suck - not their own fault, it's hollywood and idiot directors who want to turn every kid into "Little Miss Sunshine". In this movie, they made the kid pretty believable.

There was one really powerful moment when Chris (the main character) and his son stay the night in a public bathroom. If you've ever been poor, you can really feel for the guy. I have no doubt that most of the people who see the movie will be well-fed, white people who just can't understand poverty or homelessness. Even so, for parents, I think it will affect them pretty deeply.

That said, the rest of the movie was just kind of depressing, though tempered by the fact that you know that, somehow, everything would work out in the end. The biggest problem I think I had with the movie, when all was said and done, is that 99.99999% of the time, the decisions that Chris made would have ended up just screwing his life up even more. The fact that this one time everything turned out for the best is a bad example to foolish dreamers everywhere.

Also, I think that Thandie Whateverhernameis (the mom) is one weird-looking chick. She looks like a preying mantis or something. Well, a preying mantis with boobs, I guess. The point is, she looks like a bug - and she's always pissed in every movie I've ever seen her in. She was in that movie Crash - the black woman who was basically felt up by Matt Dillon. She was also the power hungry Necromonger Dame Vaako in the Chronicles of Riddick. She REALLY looked like a bug in that movie!

Now, on to the Sopranos: What the fuck ??

I spent the last 6 or 7 years watching this show and loving pretty much every minute of it. At the end of every season, somebody integral to the show gets "whacked" in some generally interesting way. I was always like, "Whoa! I never saw THAT one coming!!"

But this finale was pathetic. I was sitting there with the wife and we're watching the last 5 minutes and just literally on the edge of our seats waiting for it to happen. The whole time, we're trying to guess how it's going to happen, and who's going to be doing it.

We were suckers...

Eventually, the screen just went black. This was especially frightening for me because I thought something was wrong with my big TV. The wife looked over and said (with some heavy sarcasm I might add) "What's wrong with the Tivo??"

After a minute or so, I started to get up to check the cables and such, when suddenly the credits start rolling with some faggity music playing. I even rewound it a little just to make sure I didn't miss something.

Nope - It was over. 6 years of my life, wasted.

The way this show ended was a lot like that season of Dallas, where the chick wakes up only to discover that the entire season was just a dream and her husband was still alive, yada yada yada. That sucked too.

This was worse... I expected better from this show. I guess all I can say is "boo".

My next blog entries will be political - probably not as humorous as my normal stuff. I'm guessing tightly controlled rage and disgust.

Now, go out there and buy my house, dammit!