First off let me tell you I�m sorry for how big this picture is, but if I shrunk it anymore things will get to blurry to be comprehensible. And for you curious type my character in that screen shot is Marisin. And for those of you who can�t read what it says there my character is the one in the middle with the purple and red cape, wielding the big ass sword, and standing toe to toe with the biggest guy in the room.

Yeah I�m all like bad ass and shit in that picture.

And because I�ve playing this game obsessively for more hours then I care to mention because it�s sad I�ve been playing it for that long in only three days. I haven�t had anything to mention in here other then stories of the game, my completely fucking my sleep schedule, and coming dangerously close to playing this game so much I�ll start dreaming about it.

Not really much to talk about it unless you play the game now is it.

Now to get off the subject of obsessively playing online computer games and on to something more real world. Tonight I was flipping through the channels and came across a nugget of good luck when I caught the very beginning of �The Goodbye Girl� on Turner Classic Movies.

First off, before I go into my little rant, let me state my absolute favorite line in a movie filled with many unbelievably good lines.

To give you a little bit of back story so you understand what is going on in this scene. Richard Dreyfus�s character is an up an coming actor making his off Broadway, New York City debut in a rendition of William Shakespeare�s Richard the III.

Now the director of this play is one of those directors that is desperately struggling to be considered a genius of immense proportions. A director who takes an old classic, like Richard the III, and tries to put a whole new spin on the interpretation. Venturing a guess believing that because he is taking a spin on the story in a way never done before he would be celebrated for his genius and insight into this character.

But in reality he is so blinded by the dreams of getting the proverbial pat on the back and people worshiping at his feet for his stupendous genius he doesn�t understand how completely horrendous his interpretation of this classic is.

So Dreyfus�s character is forced into a situation he is completely unhappy about. Finally he gets a chance to play Richard off Broadway, but in such a way that he believes it will end his career. Which later turns out not to be true, but still it was an exceptionally bad piece of work.

Opening night of the show Dreyfus�s character playing a flamboyantly gay, limping, and hump back Richard didn�t fly over so well. In fact it does so horribly and gets such bad reviews the show then gets canceled the next day.

Dreyfus�s character so depressed at how bad it was and people walking out half way through the show sends him out to get completely sloshed after the show.

Thus we come to the scene where he is stumbling drunkenly around the apartment and the costar and love interest played by Marsha Mason tries and help him to his bed and feels a need to ask him.

Marsha Mason: I thought your body was a temple and you didn�t put impure things into it.

Richard Dreyfus: I don�t. I was putting them into Richard. I was trying to kill the son of a bitch.

Now that I have that out of the way let me ask you this.

What ever happen to movies like this?

Movies that are purely acting and plot driven. Movies that are not about sticking the prettiest people you can find, and who cares if they can act decently or not, and slapping them in a poorly written and blatantly obvious script.

When did romantic comedies turn into a farce of what they where before?

Now don�t get me wrong there are movies that come out today that are perfectly good. Plenty of them I absolutely like and adore, but a movie with this much character is almost a lost art form in today�s movies.

Now about eighty percent of the time they find people are the most physically appealing and shove as many of them as they can find into a film. They completely bombard you with pretty people that it over loads your brain and some how convinces you that hey�that one, pretty actor #5,352, is one hell of an actor.

No not really they just look really good, but there acting in its purest sense is completely lacking.

And personally when I think about this complete manipulation of my good sense and tastes by utilizing the standard human reaction to physical attraction in any form rather then relying on my said sense and taste. It makes me wonder how many actors and actresses out there do I like because they are amazing actors or because I find them physically appealing?

It gets kind of confusing when you think about it seeing as a natural human reaction is to be drawn to pretty things. So knowing that, it kind of clouds your mind and sometimes the only true test on seeing if an actor or actress is good is to see how they stand the test of time.

Ok now this doesn�t hold true all the time. I mean it�s a seriously flawed theory since there are quite a few actors who have been going on for so long, but still really can�t act.

Like take for an example a somewhat long timer in acting, Jennifer Lopez. Now she seems to have done a lot of movies and is now big enough to be handed scripts left and right, but does this mean she is actually good?

Well hell no it doesn�t it means people are easily manipulated into thinking someone pretty can act when in reality they are completely horrible.

Then again, playing devil�s advocate, this isn�t necessarily a bad thing.

Not talking about J-Lo�s career in moves because that is a bad thing.

What I mean it�s not completely a bad thing that pretty people are put into movies just based on there physical appeal despite there weakness in acting. I mean we all very much enjoy being able to look at some that arouses our libido.

I mean what else is going to fuel our masturbatory fantasies?

Sure I might find a painting to be beautiful or a piece of landscape or architecture that is particularly breath taking, but I don�t feel a need to whip it out and proceed with the �me� time.

So I guess it comes down to it if you can stand the pretty person�s weak acting or if we are lucky they are pretty and actually a good actor. Then I guess in the end its all good.

But still does it mean we can�t have purely character and plot driven movies too?

Is that to much to ask for?

It's about time - Wednesday, Jul. 07, 2004
An Honor for Chrome - Friday, Feb. 20, 2004
A great loss - Monday, Oct. 20, 2003
a terrible announcement. - Tuesday, Sept. 09, 2003
Chrome speaks: - Friday, Sept. 05, 2003