Bendable Blog

I finally got around to cancelling my World of Warcraft game account today.  I forget all about it until I get my credit card bill, which unfortunately is sent out the day before the subscription is charged.  This means the statement I’m looking at is the charge from December 15, and I’ve already been charged for January 15; I’ll get that statement in a month.

When I finally got out of playing Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, and Anarchy Online I figured I was done with persistent MMORPG titles that require a monthly subscription and never end.  Then Jason got me into WoW with their free trial account.  I spent two years playing WoW, I started about a month before the first expansion pack came out, and stopped about a month after the last one came out.  I just stopped having fun playing it, and what’s the point of a game if it isn’t fun?  The problem is you get talking with other people, and it becomes something you do for them instead of with them.  This is basically the feeling you get when you help a real-life friend do something that you would rather not, but instead of having the benefits that come with helping out friends, there are no real-world reciprocity in online games.  With real friends, you would feel bad if you decided to not hang out with them anymore, but I don’t about these online friends (really more like acquaintances).

Right now I’m enjoying playing games that have an end (of sorts), I just finished Assassin’s Creed, I’m halfway through Mercenaries 2, and now I have plenty of time to try out different games because I’m not spending all my free time playing WoW.

I had the fortune to see The Wrestler on the weekend, it’s absolutely fantastic.  I used to watch “professional” wrestling back in the 80s with Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Andre The Giant, etc. and then again in the mid 90s with groups like Degeneration-X, the Hardy Boys, etc.  I went to Wrestlemania X8 (I have the fold up chair to prove it) in the 5th row at SkyDome (now The Rogers Center) and shortly after got a bit disenfranchised with it.  I don’t think it’s the kind of thing you watch alone, and since I moved to Toronto right after that, I didn’t know anyone else who was interested in it, and I just lost interest.

I think coming from that background – I know what a shoot and a spot are, I know who is the face and who is the heel, and I know what is real and what is fake – that I enjoyed The Wrestler even more than someone without that knowledge.  The movie doesn’t talk down to the audience, if you don’t know what those things are, you will have to figure it out.  Not having the typical “new person” who has to be shown the ropes and basically serves to explain the world to the audience, it feels way more real.  This could have been the real life story of any of the big 80s wrestlers, who just sort of disappeared.

This is the story of a fictional version of one of those hugely popular wrestlers who gave everything in the 80s when there wasn’t any money in it, and then fell on hard times as they got older.  Mickey Rourke is flawless in his portrayal of the protagonist Randy “The Ram” Robinson.  Set in 2009 after nearly 20 years of obscurity that followed his biggest pay-per-view event, he struggles to find the things the mean the most in his life.

There are several parts in this film that (unless you are the manliest of men, like me) you will shed a tear or well up, it’s really that powerful a story. Marisa Tomei is fantastic as the older stripper that Randy has a crush on, the scenes of stripper life is dead on (uhh, from what others have told me) and she is smoking hot.

Rating: If you have ever watched wrestling you will probably love this movie, if you thought it was all stupid, this movie should open your eyes to what you were really seeing.  Go see it.

I just finished watching JCVD, which is a fictional movie about Jean-Claude Van Damme, which stars him as himself.  This is a fantastic movie, the kind I hope he continues to make.  Well crafted, interesting story that is transferred to the screen in a very interesting way.  The basic plot is that Jean-Claude is going through some rough times with movies being taken by Stephen Seagal, losing custody of his daughter, and not getting any good film roles.  This leads him into a bank in Brussels which is being held up, and the hostage situation where the cops think he is the criminal.

I can’t say enough good things about this movie, and it includes some real moments that are touching and insightful.

Rating: Definately see this movie if you have any preconceived notions about Jean-Claude, I think this will change them.