I've been watching movies these last two days. 61* and Wonderboys.

61* was financed by HBO films and probably shown on HBO because it wasn't rated. I liked this movie. I only rented it because someone in my screenwriting class said it would be a good movie to watch as research for my screenplay. I found the characters very engaging and since it's a true story, very engrossing. The guy they got to play Mickey Mantle was very cute, which is an added bonus for any movie I'm watching. But honestly, I really liked the movie.

A great sports movie and still pretty current considering it was supposed to take place in 1961. There was Mickey Mantle, a Hollywood gorgeous bad boy, drinking and whoring around who came from a pool family in Oklahoma. A seeming victim of too much fame too soon since he joined the Yankees as an 18 year old and didn't even go to college. There was Roger Maris, the stoic family man who just wanted to play baseball and didn't know how to handle the press. If you get anything at all from this movie, and there's alot to get, it's if you become famous you had better learn about media/press management. There's the media who hyped both players either up or down, depending on how much either player sucked up to them. After watching this movie, I am convinced more than ever that you can't believe anything you read in the media.

Listening to Jim Rome show again and they're playing the Mark Madsen tape about him thanking his LA supporters in spanish. I've listened to this tape so many times. I think I like it as much as the Jim Mora meltdown after a football game he coached.

Anyway, then there are the owners, who wanted the players to do anything to get the fans to come to the stadium. And you wonder why we have a steroid controversy in major league baseball right now.

61* goes to show you that real life is always so much better than fiction.

Then I watched The Wonderboys, which reviwers really liked in 2000 when it came out. It's also one of the Marina hottie boy's favorite movies, you know, the marina hottie boy I used to have a crush on. I've been meaning to watch this movie, and Marina hottie's comment, made me rent it. I don't know. Maybe because I watched it late at night, but honestly the movie made me sleepy. It was so slow moving. Some of it was really funny, I'll grant you that, but those funny moments seemed far and few between. And then the ending just got so stupid.

Michael Douglas' character reminded me of too many guys I've dated. Middle aged, stoned, angst ridden, white male, bitter and drifting through life, wondering what went wrong when in their youth they were superstars. BORING!!! And probably boring, because I've dated these types before. Hell, the ex husband could have stood in for Michael Douglas' character and I've owned a pair of red cowboy boots since I was 22 years old.

I read the NY Times review of the movie and I agreed with them. It's a great movie idea but somehow it's a dud when watching it. The NY Times reviewer said that the screenwriter, who adapted the movie from Michael Chabon's novel of the same name, lifted dialogue right out of the book. And you could tell too. That part where Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire are talking are so boring, so stilted, and not how real people talk at all.

I guess I could see how the reviewers liked it, because you hardly see this kind of subject matter made, but still. I don't know. Maybe it's because I watched Wonderboys the night after I watched 61* and the reality of 61* just seemed more real than the fiction of Wonderboys.

61* was so much more engaging about men and how they view and handle life. Wonderboys had too many made up plot devices like the dog dying, Tobey stealing the Marilyn Monroe jacket, etc. to make this movie very believable. I think Wonderboys was supposed to show the poignancy of a middle aged man, who needs to be rescued by some straight talking same age female. Michael Douglas' character came across as such a loser to me. He was a whining baby boomer, probably draft dodging male, who was wallowing in his own self pity.

The LA Times, sometime in the 1980's, had a article about the psychology of men who avoided the draft and went to college instead. The article said that these men suffered from middle class guilt about not going to war and had problems with commitment and avoided conflict and choice at all costs. Michael Douglas' character reminded me of this article.

What's probably true about Wonderboys is that there are many men in that baby boomer generation walking around like him. Like maybe some of the reviwers who liked this movie? Interesting theory huh?

God, do I really want to watch another movie about a seemingly privileged man freaking out about his life, which has all been a result of his bad choices? Rush Limbaugh would call Wonderboys, I think, the Oprahization of male movies. I mean, all the Oprah books were about women who made really bad choices in their life for obviously no good reason, at least the books never gave you really good reasons for why they liked fucked up their life. And Wonderboys is like an Oprah book, only it's a man and not a woman. But where Oprah books don't get a lot of respect, Wonderboys is considered a good movie. What gives?

Maybe I need to write the book, which reviewers said, is a tired old plot rescued by being very well written. Maybe not. I can't forgive a well written book if the plot is stupid. For most people, I know, it's the opposite. They won't put up with a badly written book even if the plot is good. I will.

As a writer of fiction, I am dishearted by what I'm discovering. Real life is so much better, so much more entertaining than a fiction book any day.