Football, RolePlay, A History of Violence

I've been wanting to play touch football badly for the past week. So badly that I actually went out last weekend and bought a football (youth-sized, but a football nonetheless). My enthusiasm was enough that I actually managed to drag Katie out twice this weekend to toss the ol' pigskin around.

On Saturday, we were going to play in the light drizzle in Gesling Stadium at CMU only to discover that there was a football game going on. CMU was playing and getting trounced. It was 0-21 in the fourth quarter and in the five minutes we watched, CMU dropped a kickoff and threw an interception. Either way, a football game? At CMU? Using Gesling stadium? Come on!

We got to toss it around on Sunday - this time on the astroturf - in nicer weather, anyway. I know next weekend is homecoming for all those unlucky enough to still be going to school, but who wants to play a pick-up game on Sunday afternoon?

I'm going to quickly review RolePlay and A History of Violence today, and I'll have a review for Shadow of the Colossus soon.

Katie and I went to see RolePlay at the Pittsburgh Public last Tuesday. Let me begin by saying that although I have no personal grudge against the Public, the shows they tend to do always have irked me as somewhat overly theatrical. The actors usually seem like they're "acting." That said, RolePlay seemed like a breeding ground for this type of acting, which turned me off a bit.

The plot of RolePlay is relatively simple: a newly engaged couple is having a dinner party where their parents will be meeting for the first time. They're both software engineers and the guy will be announcing the engagement. All of a sudden, a scantically clad lady falls onto their balcony. She is quickly followed by pounding on the door from an armed bodyguard/thug of her's. Chaos (and hilarity?) ensue.

Almost every character seems to be a caricature of a real character. The actors are almost all over the top. For most the play, I felt like the young man, who just can't believe the incredible things happening around him, who can't believe what a nut his father-in-law-to-be is, who can't believe what a horrible person his own mother is, who just wants to desperately believe that the events of that evening are not actually occurring. It didn't help that the audience around us (almost all of them double my age) were laughing like hyenas. Did I not get it? Am a just a huge snob who thinks that over-the-top characters don't make for humor by themselves? Or was RolePlay just that mediocre?

Katie brought up a good point: it's hard to imagine, with a script like RolePlay's, how the director could make it less farcical and more believable. That said, I think Ted Pappas (the Public's Artistic Director and director of RolePlay) didn't really try to take it that direction. He invited the ridiculous in, and for me that didn't work. Judging by the audience reaction, however, I may be one of a minority.

On Friday night, we went to see the movie A History of Violence, starring Aragorn and that Cristof guy from The Truman Show. The runtime for this movie is clocked at 96 minutes, which is short for a live-action movie these days. About 50-55 minutes of this movie is riveting. The remaining 41-46 minutes of it is either Aragorn making a variety of people bloody in different ways or Aragorn having sex with his wife Maria Bello. It's a bit much, in other words. The story is well told, the movie is well shot, and the pace of the actual storytelling is almost perfect in my eyes. Katie thought Viggo/Aragorn was a bit wooden, but I think his acting was decent enough.

This movie, however, requires a lot of patience. Most of the movie seems to be waiting, and the payoff at the end is what you make of it. It's not a movie where your waiting will be rewarded with a huge lightsaber battle, but if you invest yourself in the first half, the second half will hit you with enough to make you come away satisfied. Or you could go see it if you like blood and sex.

Seriously, though, folks. Football next Sunday? What thinks you?