1) I was watching a few minutes of one of my favorite movies of the '90s LEGENDS OF THE FALL. It made me think that I need to do a Top ten list of either Brad Pitt performances or Brad Pitt movies. (It would not be the same list.) But here's my real thought: At some point shouldn't someone have gone to Susannah (played by Julia Ormond) and said,
"You know, this is already a family in crisis. They moved to Montana for unknown reasons, and Momma Ludlow didn't come with. That should tell you something. And now you go from being with one brother (Samuel), jumping to the other one (Tristan) as soon as Samuel dies, and then marrying the third (Alfred), even though everybody knows you still love Tristan! Susannah, sweetie, this can only end bad for all concerned."
Of course, if someone had gone to her and said that, we would have a movie.
2) On a similar subject, I'm sadly closer to concluding that Julia Ormond belongs in the ever-growing group of actors who really only have one great performance in them. I've written about this before, with respect to Stephen Baldwin and Freddie Prinze Jr., and I call it my Broken Clock Theory; basically that every actor out there can get it right at least once.
the more I think about it, the more I think that Julia Ormond had one great flash in the pan with LEGENDS, and since then she's been overmatched by the roles. Her performances in FIRST KNIGHT and SABRINA don't hold up at all, and since then she hasn't really been cast in anything of note. Hollywood is a strange place, but you wonder if Movie Executives came to this same conclusion. It's too bad, since she's so wonderful as Susannah.
3) On this same subject, I'm just about ready to move Sarah Michelle Gellar into the same list. The girl is phenomenal as Buffy; totally the role of a lifetime. However, facts are facts. When she was overpowered in CRUEL INTENTIONS I passed it off as the wrong part for her. SCREAM 2 and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER were the requisite "paying your dues in a horror movie," and overlook those parts as they could make anyone look bad. But now we have to add SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, SCOOBY DOO and THE GRUDGE. At some point we have no other recourse than to presume it's her. This doesn't make me happy, people. I'm on record as averring that Buffy at it's best is the most epic storytelling possibly in TV history. It pains me that the appealing star may not have anything else to offer.
Sigh. At least we got her for that.
4) I leave you on a conundrum: Which of the following is more frustrating: watching a DVD that has to be returned soon, and there are no other copies, and it starts acting up. You back up and try the spot again, but to no avail. You take the disc out and clean it up; give it another go: zilch. You end up spending half an hour trying to save the five minutes (always crucial to the plot) that you're missing, before moving on.
But it doesn't end there. Twenty minutes later the same thing happens, and you're ready to kill an entire industry.
or....
You're trying to do something on the computer and can't get it to work. Maybe you're designing a web site, or maybe you're just trying to get something to print. Use your browser, pull up Word: it can be anything. The computer slows down. It locks up. You try to be patient. You tell yourself there is nothing you can do.
But you're dying inside.
I can't decide which is worse, but I bet a mouse could starve on the difference.
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