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Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Coward on 30 Aug 2008, 14:33

Title: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 30 Aug 2008, 14:33
Alright, this might sound a little strange but bear with us.

I was speaking to a young lady the other day about films and, once said lady had asked me for a short list of DVDs to recommend, it became apparent that:

(http://www.bradpittwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/tylerdurden.jpg)

Brad Pitt

and

(http://strifeysporncache.com/top25brunettes/clive_owen_97.jpg)

Clive Owen

kept turning up in them. Now I'm a strictly hetero purveyor of pork-swording, however, I had to admit that my fascination with the above two actors' respective works did border on obsession beyond simple fandom. This amused the young lady quite a bit. I was wondering if any other gents here had come across this sort of thing themselves and who with.

Perhaps a touch random.

Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Surgoshan on 30 Aug 2008, 14:47
Well, when you're really good looking at your job, it's ordinary that people would totally gay out over you appreciate your work.

Actually, have you seen Mr and Mrs Smith?  Pitt is excellent in that.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 30 Aug 2008, 14:53
The two parts that stand out vividly in my mind from that film are:

1) where Pitt and Jolie take turns to kick each other behind the sofa.

2) where they compare 'scores'.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Surgoshan on 30 Aug 2008, 15:04
After they confront each other following the failed Benjamin Danz mission, and John is running through back yards, when he trips into a fence and his gun goes off, shooting Jane's windshield... that was a mistake, and his reaction ("Oh dear God") were ad-libbed.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 30 Aug 2008, 15:12
If they're good actors, I will talk about their movies. I will also try to see as many of their movies as possible. Is this what you're getting at?
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 31 Aug 2008, 00:13
Yes and no. Allow me to take a step back and clarify.

I mean have you ever only considered yourself to be a fan of an actor (because you think they're a good actor like you mention) only for someone else to point out your fandom borders on a, to borrow a phrase, 'semi-homosexual' obsession? Think Christian Slater at the start of True Romance where he's talking about Elvis and action stars and the bird who's flirting with him becomes more and more wierded out.

In fact that's pretty much the conversation I had that sparked this thread, except swapping Mr. Pitt and Owen for Elvis. By the end of the week I'll have had my eye shot out...
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Johnny C on 31 Aug 2008, 02:01
If you don't know what he's talking about ask yourself this:

Have I ever seen a Bruce Campbell movie?
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: nobo on 31 Aug 2008, 07:14
Lately i've been on a Mark Walhberg and Vinnie Jones stint.

most of them are by-the-numbers action movies, but thats what i like
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Surgoshan on 31 Aug 2008, 07:45
I think the term you're looking for, Coward, is "guy crush". 

Quote from: Urban Dictionary
When a guy really admires another guy, but not necessarily in a sexual or romantic way.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 31 Aug 2008, 08:45
I guess maybe not in that capacity, then.  I'll say things like "Bruce Campbell is the man", but I don't go bonkers obsessing over everything he's been in.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: imagist42 on 31 Aug 2008, 11:43
I feel this way about Matt Damon.

A lot.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 31 Aug 2008, 11:49
I think the term you're looking for, Coward, is "guy crush". 

Quote from: Urban Dictionary
When a guy really admires another guy, but not necessarily in a sexual or romantic way.

Whilst not a response that adds an awful lot to the discussion: Woot. Now I can give a lable to that otherwise incomprehensible sense of fascination.

I feel this way about Matt Damon.

A lot.

Really? I think he's a good actor but there's nothing that makes me immediately sit up and say 'damn, he's slick'.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Leinad on 31 Aug 2008, 12:16
You have described exactly how I feel about Teddy Bruschi, Tom Brady, Lendanian Tomlinson, and Rashad Mendenhall.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: imagist42 on 31 Aug 2008, 12:19
It's more that he just happened to play in several widely acclaimed movies (Saving Private Ryan, Good Will Hunting) and then appear in a handful of my personal favorite movies ever (Finding Forrester, The Bourne Trilogy, Ocean's Eleven) and because of that I have investigated a great deal more of the other movies he's been in and found them to be quite good as well (The Majestic, The Brothers Grimm, The Legend of Bagger Vance, even his voice in Titan A.E.) so I have developed a natural guy crush on him as an actor. I used to feel the same way about Robin Williams because of Dead Poets Society and Patch Adams (two more of my personal favorite movies ever) until I actually watched stuff he's done more recently and man is most of it terrible.

Also, Damon is ridiculously good looking (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/sedaritastic_the_unedited_version).
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 31 Aug 2008, 12:27
Touche.

I must say everytime I see one of the Bourne films I want to run around a major Western city, suspiciously looking over my shoulder.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: imagist42 on 31 Aug 2008, 12:30
Seriously! And I want to fight a dude with a rolled-up newspaper, or chase someone across roofs and through buildings in Tangier.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 31 Aug 2008, 12:49
You see, the only downside to this cunning plan is that we'd both have to be shot and left for dead in the sea. Still, it'd get me out of the house.

Briefly flashing back to the original point, I've just recalled Matty boy killed Owen's character in the first Bourne film. Bugger. You're dad may as well have just beaten up mine or something.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: imagist42 on 31 Aug 2008, 12:52
Oh God, is this thread going to devolve into that one about action-adventure/sci-fi badassery? Because that would be pretty terrible.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 31 Aug 2008, 12:57
Well, that or some sort of Damon/Owen slash-fic...
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Alex C on 31 Aug 2008, 13:12
I just wanted to mention that Patch Adams is probably my least favorite of any film I have ever seen. To the point that I don't even care if this post is transparent trolling. I just hate it so much.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Tom on 31 Aug 2008, 13:44
Oh God, is this thread going to devolve into that one about action-adventure/sci-fi badassery? Because that would be pretty terrible.

'Cause we all know who'd win.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: imagist42 on 31 Aug 2008, 17:10
I just wanted to mention that Patch Adams is probably my least favorite of any film I have ever seen. To the point that I don't even care if this post is transparent trolling. I just hate it so much.

Doesn't seem like trolling to me. You're not trying to tell me it's an objectively bad movie and I'm not going to say it's an objectively great movie either so hopefully we can respect each others' opinions about it.

I think I am just a sucker for being tear-jerked because the surprise deaths in both Dead Poets Society and Patch Adams are affecting and believable that I feel the tug at my heart-string-things every time I watch either one of them. Very few movies get the same honor, really.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: WriterofAllWrongs on 31 Aug 2008, 19:02
Did someone say "guy crush"?

(http://images.askmen.com/specials/2007_top_49/men/stephen_colbert.jpg)
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Surgoshan on 31 Aug 2008, 19:13
I really liked Colbert after the first time I saw one of his Reports.

Then he went and kicked all sorts of ass at the correspondents' dinner, and I fell in love.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Nodaisho on 01 Sep 2008, 13:22
How about Christian Bale? Batman, Equilibrium, The Prestige, I heard he was great in American Psycho as well, though I haven't seen that one.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: beat mouse on 01 Sep 2008, 13:45
Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Toshiro Mifune, Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman. Bill Murray, Colin Farrel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr.

uh, yeah i know what you mean, I'm a big gay over actors.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: KvP on 01 Sep 2008, 14:05
Aaron Eckhart.

Also, John Goodman.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Liz on 01 Sep 2008, 14:29
Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Toshiro Mifune, Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman. Bill Murray, Colin Farrel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr.

uh, yeah i know what you mean, I'm a big gay over actors.

This is a very good list, but I am a lady so it is significantly less gay that I like all of these dudes.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Leinad on 01 Sep 2008, 14:47
Anyways stole the words out of my keyboard. Colbert is simply da bomb.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 01 Sep 2008, 14:51
How about Christian Bale? Batman, Equilibrium, The Prestige, I heard he was great in American Psycho as well, though I haven't seen that one.

Bale gives an incredibly good performance in American Pyscho, plays a very convincing psychopath. However, he has a disgustingly good physique in it which just inspires massive jealousy.

Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Toshiro Mifune, Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman. Bill Murray, Colin Farrel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr.

uh, yeah i know what you mean, I'm a big gay over actors.

You know, I was bimbling down Oxford Street, in London, last week and I swear I walked past Cillian Murphy. Now this sounds wierd to say, but his eyes were striking.

Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Toshiro Mifune, Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman. Bill Murray, Colin Farrel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr.

uh, yeah i know what you mean, I'm a big gay over actors.

This is a very good list, but I am a lady so it is significantly less gay that I like all of these dudes.

But your avatar is of a man! That's against the rules surely...
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 01 Sep 2008, 16:31
Cillian Murphy, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Downey Jr, Gary Oldman

Okay, maybe I do, a little.  I don't really obsess over any of these guys (Really, I don't.  I've only seen 3 of Mifune's, 2 of Cilian's, and maybe 4 of Downey's.  And most of Oldman's.  But the reason I've seen these wasn't because the actors were in them, but because I was told that such and such was a good movie.  Having any of those guys star is like icing on the cake.), but I will fight anyone who speaks lowly of them. 
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: RedLion on 01 Sep 2008, 17:14
I have a thing for Pierce Brosnan. Or at least I did when he was younger.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Liz on 01 Sep 2008, 17:25
But your avatar is of a man! That's against the rules surely...

My avatar is a dude that also posts on these forums. Some may call him... Tommydski?
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: 20 jazz funk greats on 01 Sep 2008, 19:39
Did someone say "guy crush"?

Why is anyone posting after this?

seriously. i don't usually say things like "you've officially won the thread", but that guy totally did.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 02 Sep 2008, 11:46
But your avatar is of a man! That's against the rules surely...

My avatar is a dude that also posts on these forums. Some may call him... Tommydski?

A slightly confusing practise perhaps, but who am I to say otherwise?

Did someone say "guy crush"?

Why is anyone posting after this?

seriously. i don't usually say things like "you've officially won the thread", but that guy totally did.

Well, I guess that ends this particular exploration of male fascination.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: tuna ketchup x on 02 Sep 2008, 11:49
Girls get these too. I had crushes on Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Darlene Conner from Roseanne and to a certain extent Roseanne herself, Marla Singer from Fight Club (movie and book), etc. It wasn't like I wanted to make it with them (though under the right circumstances... perhaps), more like I wanted to be as cool as them and paid attention whenever I saw them in the media. Hetero crushes FTW!
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 02 Sep 2008, 12:43
Helena Bonham Carter: the second reason I watch fight club...
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Leinad on 02 Sep 2008, 13:34
Yeah, she is definitely amazing. I watched that movie for the first time ever the other day and basically it totally rocked. I had no idea what to expect from it, and was expecting a simple movie about a bunch of guys beating the hell out of each other. I was blind-sided in a wonderful way.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: WriterofAllWrongs on 02 Sep 2008, 16:21
Helena Bonham Carter is like, the best looking actress behind Cate Blanchett, and that's only because Blanchett's cheekbones could cut through cheese. 
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Oskik on 02 Sep 2008, 19:11
Fight Club (the movie in which Bradd Pitt is above shown) was AMAZING and I reccomend the book to anyone who hasn't read it. I'm also a fan of Pitt's counterpart in Fight Club, Edward Norton. (actually I think it was the other way around)
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Surgoshan on 02 Sep 2008, 19:37
Fight Club and Snatch are, together, responsible for a fitness movement among several brothers in my fraternity (back when I was in college... I'm old).  They wanted to look like Brad Pitt.  They screamed "BPITT!" a lot.


That's also when I started working out.  Coincidentally.  Like seriously.  BPITT!
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: 20 jazz funk greats on 02 Sep 2008, 20:43
Well, I guess that ends this particular exploration of male fascination.

by all means, feel free to continue exploring  :wink:
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Jackie Blue on 02 Sep 2008, 21:01
Christian Bale in American Psycho is fantastic.  He's fucking hilarious.  One of the best book-to-films ever made, up there with Bright Lights Big City (which is a lot like American Psycho only, like, without the Psycho).
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 02 Sep 2008, 21:37
I still have not seen Fight Club.  I do not much like Edward Norton, and I feel like I'd be setting myself up for a letdown.  Everyone whose opinion I trust has said it was as better than average, but not the godsend everyone says it is.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Jackie Blue on 02 Sep 2008, 21:43
I really think that Fight Club has something for just about everyone, and I can't imagine finding it below average or unenjoyable when taken as a whole.  It's a very well-made film in its presentation, regardless of its thematic content, so it can be enjoyed just as something to watch because it has a string of great moments or scenes (much like American Psycho, in fact).
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 02 Sep 2008, 21:59
I'm basically trying to either watch it alone or avoid watching it with someone who thinks it's the greatest thing ever.  That, and I have a long list of movies I'm trying to watch, and that's pretty low on said list.

I'm not saying that I am expecting it to be bad or unenjoyable, I'm trying to lower my expectations until I think I'll enjoy it.  What I'm worried about is that it'll feel like American History X and Requiem for a Dream, in that it didn't reach it's full potential.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 03 Sep 2008, 05:23
The film of Fight Club is one of a rare breed that actually surpasses the book it was based on. For my money it is one of the best films ever made because I feel it covers pretty everything a man subconsciouly wants to see: insecurity, self-discovery, anarchy, revolution, violence, and, of course, sex. In a day and age where masculinity is thought by some to be eroded away in favour of 'metrosexualism', as the press like to call it, it's an entertaining demonstration of one particular way of being a man.

I highly recommend it to you, at the very least to bump it up a few places on your 'to-see-list'.

Plus, you know, Helena Bonham Carter gets her norks out in it.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Inlander on 03 Sep 2008, 06:39
My problem with the film of Fight Club is that it's an excellently directed, designed, and acted film, so much so that I've seen it about four times, and yet I really hate the  male stereotypes that it perpetuates, which are fundamentally at odds with my own view of masculinity.

For the record, I haven't read the book. However I find it interesting that I've encountered more women who are ardent fans of the book, than I have men.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 03 Sep 2008, 07:27
It also doesn't help that the 'big twist' was spoiled for me quite some time ago.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: WriterofAllWrongs on 03 Sep 2008, 07:32
My problem with the film of Fight Club is that it's an excellently directed, designed, and acted film, so much so that I've seen it about four times, and yet I really hate the  male stereotypes that it perpetuates, which are fundamentally at odds with my own view of masculinity.


Yeah, same here.  I really dig the story itself (Thanks, Palahniuk), and everyone involved acted their parts excellently, and it was a crazy stylistic film, but the "Men are imperfect cavemen who can only solve their problems with violence" subtext that's provided is a bit annoying.  Personally, I'm a physically slight dude who solves my problems with moping and talking, so I'm probably not the target audience of the message itself.  But it doesn't really stop me from getting a bit agitated when my friends say shit like "It shows a philosophical aspect to the idea of masculinity", when really it seems like it is more showing the problems that can come out of such an extremely physical and political mindset.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: benji on 03 Sep 2008, 08:06
It's been a long time since I read the it, but I seem to recall that Palahniuk makes it slightly clearer in the book that he thinks the philosophy espoused by the club is a bad idea in the end. The point, as I took it, is that our commercialized, detached society is pathetic but exalting a primitive macho vision of masculinity isn't going to solve the problem, just create different problems. Or maybe that was just my response to the book and not what it actually said?
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Dimmukane on 03 Sep 2008, 08:17
That's something I can get behind, though.  Anyone else seen Football Factory?  That was shit.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: WriterofAllWrongs on 03 Sep 2008, 08:25
It's been a long time since I read the it, but I seem to recall that Palahniuk makes it slightly clearer in the book that he thinks the philosophy espoused by the club is a bad idea in the end. The point, as I took it, is that our commercialized, detached society is pathetic but exalting a primitive macho vision of masculinity isn't going to solve the problem, just create different problems. Or maybe that was just my response to the book and not what it actually said?

Well, see, I like the story much more.  My problem with the movie is that it doesn't get that across.  It embraces the idea instead of making it something of a cautionary tale.  It exalts all the violence and the sex and then shows you that whoa, the main guy was really embracing the masculine beast inside and that made him all he wanted to be.  If you're paying attention, you'll notice that's not what the film wants to say, but it's still not really getting it across entirely well.  The film is excellent otherwise, though.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Jackie Blue on 03 Sep 2008, 11:23
Actually, I felt that the film got across the point that all the macho bullshit was just that - macho bullshit - quite well.  And I saw it before I read the book, so.

In fact, before I saw it, I didn't WANT to see it because of the kind of people I noticed who were big fans of it.  I was like "Ugh, great, a movie about dudes homoerotically beating each other up, RAD" but as long as you pay attention it is actually pretty anti-dude.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Nodaisho on 03 Sep 2008, 19:29
Yeah, it struck me as showing the characters rebelling against commercialization and demasculinization, but going too far in the other direction, there are better ways to accept one's mortality than pouring lye on your hand.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 03 Sep 2008, 20:23
That's woman-talk, get 'im fellas!
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Coward on 04 Sep 2008, 13:24
I'm tempted to peel off with a separate 'Discussions' thread about masculinity now, especially after a few posts on the 'Gun Control' and 'Military' threads respectively. Anyone think this would be useful and/or entertaining?
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: Vendetagainst on 04 Sep 2008, 18:43
There's already one about femininity already, I say go for it.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: The extra letter on 06 Sep 2008, 03:19
I've got to admit that I really "admire" Edward Norton (there's that Fight Club reference again), Clive Owen (funnily enough), Cillian Murphy and David Tennant (though he's a TV actor). I'll openly admit that the word "man-crush" might be freely used, but I'll also admit that Cillian Murphy's eyes are a bit scary lookin'.
Title: Re: One for the gentlemen, although ladies may wish to look in.
Post by: 3Z3VH on 07 Sep 2008, 03:04
I have to say... I'd go gay for John Cusack.