28 replies to this topic

[SDG]

Christian, on 08 July 2011 - 07:15 PM, said:

SDG, on 07 July 2011 - 06:26 AM, said:

Last week there was Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 3 living with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, on the rebound from Megan Fox in the earlier films.

Shia LeBeouf is a "schlub"? I thought he was considered a sex symbol, or a "hottie," or whatever. Maybe I just haven't seen him lately.

If he's a hottie, he's a girly-man hottie. The movies deliberately emasculate him, making him an unemployed, insecure whiner threatened by his super-hot girlfriend(s?), who is/are clearly neither threatened by nor greatly impressed with him. In T3 both Shia and Huntington-Whiteley call him her "boy-toy." This hilarious review about nails it:

Quote

Michael Bay understands that summer movies are about two things: male anxiety, and pure id. That's why he casts Shia LaBoeuf, that supreme avatar of pure male inadequacy, in the lead role. LaBoeuf projects a pathetic, wall-eyed dorkhood, when he's not babbling like a tumor removed from Woody Allen's prostate that somehow achieved sentience. I imagine the DVD of ROTF will include a whole disk of outtakes where they had to stop filming because LaBoeuf was drooling on camera. As it is, the film includes several extreme closeups of LaBoeuf's dazed stare.

[Greg P]

Darren H, on 08 July 2011 - 09:54 AM, said:

For the record: a photo of Kevin James and his real-life, super-hot wife. Hollywood always has been and always will be a magical land of male wish-fulfillment.

Good. God.

I can't decide whether I want to high-five him for impeccable taste in women or slap him for being such a doughy white boy in cheesy streetwear

[John Drew]

It's not very recent, but another Kevin James movie comes to mind where he gets the girl out of his league... Hitch.

I have to say that I really like Kevin James, especially in stand up. I'm not too sure many directors know what to do with him. At least in Hitch he got to have moments of realistic physical comedy (as opposed to over-choreographed). He's extremely good at expressing a lot through body language. This is one of my favorite bits from his stand up routine.

Edited by Baal_T'shuvah, 08 July 2011 - 10:06 PM.

[mrmando]

Nezpop, on 08 July 2011 - 07:00 PM, said:

Jerry is playing a fairly successful comedian on the show. So he falls into the "Rich and famous" category.

But then there's George.

[MattPage]

Is he though? He has regular gigs, but he's not on tv. And a lot of those women who find him irresistible do so before they know he's a comedian.

And there's also Kramer

Matt

[Thom Wade]

George is played as inexplicable though...I mean, the show repeatedly points out he should not manage to get dates with some of the women he gets. It also makes it clear he is undeserving. People seem to forget... you are supposed to think the four are losers. Kramer is the same...it's treated as inexplicable as to why any woman would be interested. Both characters are repeatedly lampshaded.

Jerry the character has appeared on television. He's at worst a mid-level name. He gets offered a TV show. Everyone may not know who he is...but he is not some poor schlep living off of others.

Seinfeld is highly different than, say, the Honeymooners or King of Queens.

[NBooth]

Den of Geek has a rant up on this very subject.

Quote

It's universally understood that the Hollywood film industry is a deeply conservative one, and takes decades to catch up with the attitudes of the rest of the world. But in the arena of attraction, it's still stuck in the 19th century. That we should constantly accept that beautiful women should fall head over heels in love with jowly men isn't in the realms of science fiction (I frequently look at my better half and marvel that she doesn't mace me in the face every time she sees me, let alone occupy the same house), but what's most insulting about these kinds of movies is that we never, ever see the reverse happen.

We never see a desperately average woman being gallantly accepted by, say, Colin Farrell because of her sparkling sense of humour. We never see a woman who's somewhat heavier than the Hollywood average become the sweetheart of Gerard Butler because she's good at writing vampire rock operas. In mainstream cinema, it simply never happens.

And yet, I, for one, would love to see this happen in a romantic comedy.

Edited by NBooth, 14 July 2011 - 09:32 AM.

[Lauren Wilford]

NBooth, on 14 July 2011 - 09:31 AM, said:

Den of Geek has a rant up on this very subject.

Quote

It's universally understood that the Hollywood film industry is a deeply conservative one, and takes decades to catch up with the attitudes of the rest of the world. But in the arena of attraction, it's still stuck in the 19th century. That we should constantly accept that beautiful women should fall head over heels in love with jowly men isn't in the realms of science fiction (I frequently look at my better half and marvel that she doesn't mace me in the face every time she sees me, let alone occupy the same house), but what's most insulting about these kinds of movies is that we never, ever see the reverse happen.

We never see a desperately average woman being gallantly accepted by, say, Colin Farrell because of her sparkling sense of humour. We never see a woman who's somewhat heavier than the Hollywood average become the sweetheart of Gerard Butler because she's good at writing vampire rock operas. In mainstream cinema, it simply never happens.

And yet, I, for one, would love to see this happen in a romantic comedy.

So I know this thread is old and I just stumbled upon it, but it occurred to me while reading the above quote that this void of "men out of the woman's league" is the premise of the Twilight series. Yeah, Kristen Stewart's pretty, but she's no Megan Fox, and Bella in the books constantly characterizes herself as, well, "desperately average." But she cannot peel the men off of her, the two main contenders being exaggeratedly gorgeous. These movies are marketed based on male sex appeal, and the story is about two men fighting over a female character with not a lot of discernible appeal (aside from K-Stew's inherent movie-star glow).

So, basically, the out-of-my-league fantasy exists for women too. Not often, but when it does, they come in droves.

[NBooth]

Lauren Wilford, on 10 December 2011 - 04:58 AM, said:

So I know this thread is old and I just stumbled upon it, but it occurred to me while reading the above quote that this void of "men out of the woman's league" is the premise of the Twilight series. Yeah, Kristen Stewart's pretty, but she's no Megan Fox, and Bella in the books constantly characterizes herself as, well, "desperately average." But she cannot peel the men off of her, the two main contenders being exaggeratedly gorgeous. These movies are marketed based on male sex appeal, and the story is about two men fighting over a female character with not a lot of discernible appeal (aside from K-Stew's inherent movie-star glow).

So, basically, the out-of-my-league fantasy exists for women too. Not often, but when it does, they come in droves.

Good point--I had a couple of students in a discussion group I'm leading make a similar point just yesterday. It leads me to wonder how much of the contempt that gets poured on the movies is motivated by a resentment of a woman having the same sort of fantasies. Not here, obviously, but generally speaking.