A fun game for liberals and conservatives alike

While you're all waiting anxiously for Part Two of my post below...

Honestly, people, don't you have anything better to do?

While you're all waiting anxiously for Part Two of my post below, here's a game for us all to play.

Over where the shit has hit the fan, Scott Lemieux has found a conservative movie (cough cough) critic who isn't looking forward to a new movie about the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl because Angelina Jolie's been cast as Pearl's wife.

Scott thinks the guy doesn't have a grasp on the concept of acting.

But it seemed to me that he also can't stand Jolie. He doesn't say why, if he does. Might be he's just miffed that she threw him over to chase after Brad, I don't know. But it gave me the idea.

What movie starring an actor or actress whose politics or personality you can't stand do you still enjoy anyway?

For a conservative, this question could be phrased as What movie starring George Clooney or Tom Hanks do you watch over and over again?

A liberal might answer it with one or all of the Die Hard movies.

But both liberals and conservatives can treat it non-politically and admit to liking something starring Gary Busey.

Mel Gibson is another possible answer for anybody regardless of their political leanings.

This being my game and my blog I get to set a few ground rules.

First, for liberals, no John Wayne movies, unless it's The Green Berets. Too easy. But, I will allow Wayne as the answer if it's his personality or personal life you despise. It's your job to make the distinction clear.

Second, again for liberals, no movie Clint Eastwood directed after he made The Bridges of Madison County. Besides the fact that Eastwood's politics are apparently complicated, idiosyncratic, and evolving, he's been growing remarkably as an artist and to say you like Unforgiven or Mystic River despite Eastwood's politics or personality is to be fatuous.

Also answering a variation of the question---What actor or actress whose personality or politics you dislike do you stil enjoy watching whatever they do?---is encouraged.

Another variation: What movie whose politics or social attitudes you find retrograde or otherwise objectionable did you enjoy anyway? For this one, Gone With the Wind is out of bounds for being too obvious.

Any of the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedies would be good answers. If you think the ending of Woman of the Year is hard to stomach, think of how hard it must have been for Hepburn to play it with a straight face.

I'd answer this one with The Philadelphia Story. Great dialogue---"Doggone it, C.K. Dexter Haven, either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me!"---and what a cast! But its attitudes towards the rich, the working class, women and their roles in society and marriage, journalists, and, well, just about everything except sailing are appalling if you think about them. Fortunately, the movie doesn't give you a chance to.

My answers:

The Year of Living Dangerously depsite what Mel's devolved into.

Major Dundee and Ben Hur and when I'm watching I don't care what Charlton Heston ever had to say on behalf of the NRA.

I'd answer the original Rocky, but I can't stand to watch it anymore, not because of Stallone the man, but Stallone the writer and director---all those godawful sequels have ruined it for me.

And he's making another one!

Your turn.

Friday, August 18, 2006 in Now Playing at Cine 1-1000 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBack (0)