Logging

Film: Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

Gyllenhaal on the down low becoming one of my favorite actors - he's following the model of Denzel or perhaps even Tom Cruise - bringing a level of intensity and craft to tried and true genre pictures for men. This movie is much better than most in the genre. And the first 30 minutes are pretty incredible. At some point, I'd like to watch it right next to the Hurt Locker. But the story suffers a bit from essentially being split into two separate movies. Not quite epic enough to pull it off. And the two pieces don't quite fit naturally - in fact, they may be too similar?

TV: The Bookie Pilot 

I really like this comic, Sebastian Maniscalco but boy this pilot is lame. I guess Chuck Lorre saw Curb and thought to himself: I can do that. He can't. Referencing Two and Half Men throughout this was quite painful to see. 

As a side note, Ray Romano has a little bit in here as a sad sack gambler. Romano and Seinfeld are an interesting contrast in how they handled their post sitcom-world triumph. Seinfeld became the flaneur, the man about town always glad-handing with the elite - the man above the fray. Romano seems to have gone in the opposite direction - playing the "loser" in tiny bit parts, content to be a struggling working man. Let's not forget Romano is worth upwards of 200 million dollars.