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[Coward]

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:



Brad Pitt

and



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.

[Surgoshan]

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.

[Coward]

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'.

[Surgoshan]

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.

[Dimmukane]

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?

[Coward]

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...

[Johnny C]

If you don't know what he's talking about ask yourself this:

Have I ever seen a Bruce Campbell movie?

[nobo]

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

[Surgoshan]

I think the term you're looking for, Coward, is "guy crush". 

When a guy really admires another guy, but not necessarily in a sexual or romantic way.

[Dimmukane]

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.

[imagist42]

I feel this way about Matt Damon.

A lot.

[Coward]

I think the term you're looking for, Coward, is "guy crush". 

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'.

[Leinad]

You have described exactly how I feel about Teddy Bruschi, Tom Brady, Lendanian Tomlinson, and Rashad Mendenhall.

[imagist42]

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.

[Coward]

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.

[imagist42]

Seriously! And I want to fight a dude with a rolled-up newspaper, or chase someone across roofs and through buildings in Tangier.

[Coward]

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.

[imagist42]

Oh God, is this thread going to devolve into that one about action-adventure/sci-fi badassery? Because that would be pretty terrible.

[Coward]

Well, that or some sort of Damon/Owen slash-fic...

[Alex C]

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.

[Tom]

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.

[imagist42]

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.

[WriterofAllWrongs]

Did someone say "guy crush"?

[Surgoshan]

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.

[Nodaisho]

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.

[beat mouse]

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.

[KvP]

Aaron Eckhart.

Also, John Goodman.

[Liz]

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.

[Leinad]

Anyways stole the words out of my keyboard. Colbert is simply da bomb.

[Coward]

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...

[Dimmukane]

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. 

[RedLion]

I have a thing for Pierce Brosnan. Or at least I did when he was younger.

[Liz]

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?

[20 jazz funk greats]

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.

[Coward]

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.

[tuna ketchup x]

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!

[Coward]

Helena Bonham Carter: the second reason I watch fight club...

[Leinad]

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.

[WriterofAllWrongs]

Helena Bonham Carter is like, the best looking actress behind Cate Blanchett, and that's only because Blanchett's cheekbones could cut through cheese. 

[Oskik]

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)

[Surgoshan]

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!

[20 jazz funk greats]

Well, I guess that ends this particular exploration of male fascination.

by all means, feel free to continue exploring 

[Jackie Blue]

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).

[Dimmukane]

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.

[Jackie Blue]

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).

[Dimmukane]

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.

[Coward]

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.

[Inlander]

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.

[Dimmukane]

It also doesn't help that the 'big twist' was spoiled for me quite some time ago.

[WriterofAllWrongs]

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.