That man makes my elbows sweat.
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Anyhow, where were we? Oh, yeah, the daily writing of the stuff for the blog...
Being a huge history buff, as well as a big fan of Ridley Scott, I've been meaning to grab a DVD copy of the straight-to-video flop Gladiator 2... er, Kingdom of Heaven. There's been a lot of 'net chatter over why this movie was such a box office dog, especially given the fact that it made use of plenty of the same swordfights-in-snowy-northern-forests and skies-full-of-fiery-catapult-projectiles footage that was such a hit for Ridley in Gladiator. Given the overt similarities between the two costume dramas, the second should have been as much of a slam-dunk success as the first, yet it bombed miserably.
I'm going to take a differing view from those who've stated it had something to do with the sociopolitical commentary on the Crusades, and instead suggest that it was due to putting Orlando Bloom in the alpha male lead role. I'm sure Orlando's a swell guy and all, and he did a great job as the slightly-androgynous Legolas in LOTR, but after seeing him on the small screen, you want to take him home and feed him milk and cookies. After watching the legate Maximus, on the other hand, you need to disassemble your monitor and wipe off the testosterone that's been smeared all over the inside of the screen. That's the difference between the two films in a nutshell.
4 comments:
Heartily enjoyed Gladiator. Being a hetero male, I don't quite share the feelings for Crowe you have, though! :)
Kingdom of Heaven ... bought recently, haven't watched yet. Will look forward & try to disregard the political slantings.
BTW, nice photo of you & the 1917 Enflield. I had one myself, a while ago. How about color?
take care! :)
" Heartily enjoyed Gladiator. Being a hetero male, I don't quite share the feelings for Crowe you have, though! :)"
At least I didn't use my usual line: 'My ovaries were singing Ave Maria." ;)
"BTW, nice photo of you & the 1917 Enflield. I had one myself, a while ago. How about color?"
I need to get Oleg to take some new pictures of me; I've shed quite a bit of avoirdupois since the photo I use in my profile was taken. For some reason, though, I always seem to be happier with the way I look in B&W. Maybe I should have been born back when that rifle was, back when the whole world was in black and white.
There are some roles that require someone with a huge ego (like Crowe) or someone who's just naturally over the top (like Charlton Heston) for the movie to work.
Tam, you are always welcome at the studio or by the beer cooler...you just have to show up! I'll take them photos once you are in range of my lenses.
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