Wendell Cooley

Anyone else think Stevie Richards' buffoonery in ECW was an influence on Edge and Christian's characters?

I also rewatched Casino recently and found it a bit of a slog. It takes an awful long time for the story to get going and all the characters are thoroughly unpleasant. I didn't enjoy watching Ginger screaming constantly even if it was great acting from Sharon Stone. I was sure before I started watching that it was on a par with Goodfellas but now I'm convinced it's not and that boring old received opinion is true.

The remake of Maniac is very good. It does the Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up POV gimmick but it works well. A guy who works in a mannequin shop kills women and scalps them. That's pretty much it, but it looks great, the gore is convincing, the violence brutal, and it's the second best film to put Goodbye Horses by Q. Lazzerus on the soundtrack. Recommended for fans of Henry and, of course, the original.

What's wrong with Gatsby, then? I love the book and I'm going to see it tomorrow, damnit.

The new Jason Statham film, Hummingbird is pretty good. Statham is a former soldier, now a homeless alcoholic in London who ends up taking a rich guy's identity and using his army training to do some good deeds, albeit in a violent manner. He gives a more subtle performance than usual and the film as a whole is an interesting character study that dangles close to Mike leigh's Naked territory in parts, without becoming too arty and still delivering the expected moments of face-smashing when required.

Maybe one day he'll get to be Dixie Carter's "big surprise".

I reccommend the overlooked L.I.E to Brian Cox fans. It's about the relationship between a vulnerable boy and a charismatic older man (Cox) which turns nasty. It also uses Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man on the soundtrack to sinister effect, much like Zodiac which also features a stellar turn by big Bri.

So few of the current WWE roster are capable on the mic I can see why they don't bother writing juicy material for them. It's a catch 22.

WWE will never be able to compete artistically with Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, though. Not with a live 3 hour show that has an ad break every 5 minutes. Wrestling fans don't want complex plotlines, anyway. They want large, charismatic men threatening each other in a theatrical manner before the goodie gets redemption.

Of course he'll turn heel one day. It's wrestling. They just have to find someone who can replace him first.

Cena has the strongest, most well established and developed, real, consistent character going.

 

Indeed he does but not 100% of the time, no-one in wrestling has managed that. Cena's bad days are maybe so glaringly obvious to me because he is that good.

 

Bret Hart.

 

Maxwell, I can understand why Cena wouldn't appeal to someone, he doesn't massively to me particilarly. I do however, find his evolution, the evolution of his character and how it's been handled quite fascinating. I actually think what Cena is and represents was the inevitable next top guy in WWE following the 80's and 90's booms.

Do you mean it's inevitable he wouldn't create another boom period? He's had 10 years in which to do so.

For such a perfect human being, Cena's not very good at giving other wrestlers the rub of his stardom. Edge maybe benefitted from his feud with Cena, but he lacks that Flair-like ability to make the latest challenger seem like a credible threat to his title because he usually treats everything like a joke. When he is intense it's great but far too often he indulges in shit comedy to the detriment of all. He's not an idiot, he knows how to get heat, so it's baffling that he still wants to make rubbish jokes to no response.

Why did Meltzer bring up the Jimmy Snuka murder rumour again in the last Observer? He didn't provide any new facts or analysis, did he? He just seemed to rehash it for no apparent reason, unless I'm missing something?

I'm in the pro-Kill List camp. I don't think there's been a flim that changed directions/genres so abruptly and adeptly since From Dusk Till Dawn - it threw me for a loop which is something I always welcome. That scene with the hammer is one of the nastiest pieces of screen violence I can remember, too. Just horrible. Up until it goes cuckoo at the end I liked the mysterious nature of their assignment coupled with the realism of the dialogue and characters. The climactic chase through the tunnels was exciting, so so what if it was a bit Wickermanish? It's not a bad film to be influenced by, nor did Kill List shamelessly rip it off.

Speaking of the Wicker Man, has anyone seen The Wicker Tree? Now there's a curate's egg of a film. Fine in theory, a bit rub in practice.

Spring Breakers sounds nutty - can't wait to see it.

As for Larry Clark, I liked Kids at the time but haven't watched it for ages so I don't know if it still stands up. Bully is great, though. Besides the lovely, lingering camera shots, it has a plot and good acting and all that stuff that people tend to like.

Why did you find it distasteful, Loki?

What about it, Dingbat?

Cheers, air_raid.

What did he say about him?

Three decades worth of lying and leaving his wrestlers either crippled or financially destitute has really damaged Heyman's reputation.

Hard to believe a wrestling promoter would ever be less than forthcoming with the truth. Which wrestlers were left crippled and financially destitute?

I hadn't thought of it like that before. Hopefully she fucked him and murdered the young Benoit-in-waiting in his sleep afterwards.

But! But! Ally Sheedy's transformation in the Breakfast Club from sassy weirdo to bland 80s teenager is absolute shite.

It's a very good film, but incredibly overwrought and unconvincing in places. It was crying out for a sequel.

As a guy who's watched Pretty in Pink more than any rational person would, I've come to like the ending. It's a proper swerve that does make you think at first that it's fucked up but it's probably what would realistically happen. It's not as if Duckie gets completely shafted, either. You can only be the nerdy best friend in life for so long. James Spader is fantastic in that film. I can think of few other actors as adept at playing decadent, slimy scumbags. I like to think his character in Wall Street is Steff in later life.

Not as good as the Breakfast Club? That film had some brilliant bits and others that are just awful - the dancing, Judd Nelson's "paint in the garage" speech etc. Pretty in Pink is more well-rounded but not as quotable or as much fun, perhaps because Hughes was only co-director and had some of his excesses reigned in.

Surely the deathmatch style could contribute in a case like this?

 

Perhaps it's drugs to deal with the pain? Drugs because of depression due to $25 payoffs and being skint and having to borrow Ian Rotten's Pizza Oven? Depression due to blunt head trauma? Look at Mike Awesome, I refuse to believe that his style had nothing to do with his suicide.

Why do you refuse to believe it? Anything could have caused him to be so glum. Maybe he was frustrated that he wasn't more popular. Or maybe he'd run out of Bovril or something.

The Short Films of David Lynch is worth watching. If you like David Lynch. "The Cowboy and the Frenchman" is hilarious.

As mentioned earlier, Kenneth Anger is a master of the medium. Scorpio Rising, particularly, is great if you like gay satanic bikers and ironic usage of rock'n'roll songs.

Shane Meaddows has a good one about wrestling, which is an extra on one of the DVDs. Apologies for vagueness.

In what way did Jericho "suck off Jesus on every page"?

He never stops banging on about his faith. If I want to read about religion I'll buy a Bible.