Thoughtful Thursday ~ Theater & Thespians ~ 10-15-20

Oranges!! Because Thursdays are Orange!!...

Thursdays are also Crimson...Thursdays have a secret life...Yes, I know that I'm deranged. :)

Theater ~ Beloved Movies ~ Armageddon

I've been startled to find that many of my favorite movies either were panned by critics, bombed at the box office, or both! Armageddon rocked it at the box office, but got intensely panned by critics, and at Rotten Tomatoes, it scored a 38% with them, which is pretty damned low!

Generally, Tomatoes is very effective at illustrating excellent movies that idiot critics hated. This was a classic case, as the "Audience" portion gave it a 73%!

The movie was tremendously entertaining, a deep and talented cast of characters projected engaging depth, the drama was played out beautifully, and the emotion was explosively intense, without being overly done. The writing was crisp and very humorous, and the climax to the movie was one of the best that I've ever seen. I'd score in the 90-95 range.

Thespians ~ Beloved Performers ~ Peter Stormare

One of my favorite aspects of Cinema is when Performers work together in multiple movies, and with dramatically different relationships. And one of my very favorite such cases is that of Stormaire and Steve Buscemi, who worked together in the legendary Fargo in 1996.

In that remarkable Movie, their characters enjoyed a few light moments, together...

...but ultimately came to a parting of the ways, as it were.

2 years later, they're in Armageddon together, which I strongly suspect surprises a lot of people, even if they've watched both movies! Buscemi played RockHound, the hideous, horny genius. Stormare played the Russian Cosmonaut, Lev Andropov, and absolutely crushed it. Not that Buscemi didn't play his role well, too, but Stormare was tremendous, and also had one'f my favorite lines of all: "That's why I told you: touch nothing. But you're bunch'f Cowboys."

I couldn't find a still shot of it, but I've always been bemused ~ semi-spoiler alert ~ that after RockHound loses his shit and gets tied up and gagged, it's Andropov who rips his gag off, a small but kindly gesture...one in sharp contrast with the legendary WoodChipper scene!

He also played Serge, a rather horrible Husband, in Chocolat, an absolutely beautiful Movie. His character was important, and, as always, he played it subtly and well. Stormare usually plays supporting roles, with not much exposure or many lines, which are roles that are hard to play well, without overplaying them. At this, he excels, yet even as subtly as he plays them, his impact tends to be disproportionately large, often because of his understated presence.

Bonus: It also turns out that he's close friends with Stellen Skarsgaard, an extraordinary and remarkably adaptable Performer, himself, which I find quite awesome, indeed!

Random Political Thoughts

It's pretty hilarious that the Lefty Loons accuse anyone who agrees with Trump of being his bag boy. Trump had to work harder to overcome all of our preconceptions of him than any President ever has. Me, I'm a Libertarian who didn't vote for'm the first time around, but he won me over immediately with what he's done for Americans on every front. Ironically, no rational human being would ever vote for an evil, deranged, demented pervert like Biden. It therefore undeniably follows that only the most blindly obedient cool aid guzzlers would do so.