Incompetence: It's The New Competence

"...general competence is on the fucking decline."
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis ,Page 322

I saw "The Machinist" (a.k.a. "El Maquinista") over the weekend. It starred Christian Bale, (who also played Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho"...I thought that the film was a good supplemental to the novel...and as we should all know, Bale was recently the new Batman - a.k.a El Hombre Murciélago)...Anyway, it was pretty unsettling to watch "The Machinist" due to the content and the real-life fact that Bale lost an incredible amount of weight for the role of Trevor...

So basically, Bale went from this:

"Amercican Psycho", (2000)

to this...

"The Machinist", (2004)

then back to this...

"Batman Begins", (2005)

in a relatively short period of time...One cannot help but consider this while viewing the film. But despite this distraction, it was a good film. It had elements that reminded me of "Memento" (which coincidentally was directed by Christopher Nolan, who directed Bale in "Batman Begins"...) in the sense that Trevor is trying to piece together everything that is going on around him as his mind and body deteriorate...(It reminded me of other films in other respects, but I don't want to give too much away)...So, the thing that bugged me a bit was the hype surrounding Bale's physical transformation...Admittedly, it was part of the reason that I wanted to see it myself...But the film delivered...(I've seen most of Bale's films anyway...so I'm sure I would have seen it at some point regardless)...It wasn't just hype...Stallone gained a bunch of weight to be in "Cop land" which he did for "...a mere $60,000..." (It is said that he did the film to play a serious role and escape his action hero cast type) ...De Niro was rewarded with an Oscar for his immersion into the role of Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull", (1980)...The late great Marlon Brando showed up way overweight for his role of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now", (1979) ...but he was awesome ...Renée Zellweger gained and lost weight for the "Bridget Jones" films...Sadly, her once-cute face has never fully recovered... and the over-rated Gwyneth Paltrow wore a "fat" suit in "Shallow Hal", (2001) ...which was pretty disappointing despite the presence of the great Jack Black, who may or may not have bulked up for the film...But you can read the following in her bio on imdb:

As part of research for her role as an obese woman in "Shallow Hal", Gwyneth wore the 200 pound latex "fat" suit she used for the film to a bar where people refused to make eye contact with her and treated her rudely. She then said that this experience made her saddened by the injustice faced by overweight people in society.

Poor Gwyneth...I can imagine Charlize Theron scoffing at this because she totally transformed for her award-winning performance in "Monster" (2003)...Then I can further imagine the "average woman", who has struggled with weight and body issues her whole life, watching as a back-to-svelte Ms. Theron accepts her award...She calls her a bad word in between mouthfuls of fried chicken...

I am anticipating Kirstie Alley's return to being slim in the near future...She'll most likely write a book about what it was like to live as a fat person...It was obviously just a social experiment...(Hopefully she's able to do it without cocaine this time)...I have watched several episodes of "Fat Actress" and I like it...Alley is quite funny...

What's next for Bale, I wonder... Perhaps he will undertake a role that requires him to gain a lot of weight...That might be interesting to see...(Nicolas Cage impressed me with his work in "Adaptation"...he made up for some of his less-than-impressive performances in recent years...). Bale seems cool, but I am still thrown by the fact that he does interviews with an American accent when he plays an American character in a film...Does this seem odd to anyone else? I mentioned it when he was doing the press junket for "Batman Begins"...he did the same on the extra features of "The Machinist" DVD...

But what does any of what I've discussed thus far have to do with incompetence?...I was just getting to that...

One Man's Incompetence is

Another Man's Bread and Butta

Another overly-hyped fellow, in my opinion, is that "50 Cent" character...His claim to fame seems to be that someone shot him 9 times and failed to kill him...Though the shooter did score a head (face) shot, he must not have been familiar with the Special Forces motto that there's no such thing as overkill... Now I don't really have anything against "Fitty" per se, but I just don't think that glamourizing pimpin' and being a gangsta is the way to go...for me anyway...Sure I've turned a few bitches out...but that was back in the day...(Not really...Like Howard Stern, I too was raised like veal, to be honest...I was just seeing if I could pull it off ...Was that misogyinistic enough?)...I guess the kids today need more "Gangsta-Pimp" role models... Anyway, "Fitty" was supposed to be a guest on Stern this morning, but he couldn't make it...no reason given...I wanted to listen to him today before making my comments...Oh well...

(This post contains a lot of shirtless dudes...I should probably balance it out with some topless gals...but I won't)...

What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

If you have time, check out this interesting article about Dan Rather's beating several years ago, the R.E.M. song, "12 Monkeys" and closure to the story several years later...(It is truly amazing...and it is possibly related to the idea behind "12 Monkeys"...I wonder if maybe William Tager might have seen the film "La Jetée" (1962) and then incorporated this idea into his bizarre fantasy-world...Or perhaps he really was born in 2265 and travelled back in time...You decide).

Ape or Artist?

Letterman has this bit called "Ape or Artist?" in which he and Paul have to determine whether the painting in the studio is the work of an ape or a human...So far they've all been the work of "apes"...

Also...

I found this image of a "Cyborg Ape" action figure...Pretty cool, huh?

I think that's it for now...

Until next time, remember: take care of yourselves-and each other...

Your Pal,

Zambo.