Conversation With a Dog

Hey over on the VANITY FAIR "web" site this writer Bruce Handy makes a convincing case for Steve Carrell as the newest sad clown (to be specific, Handy calls him a "sad-sack, moist-eyed-clown") and you know how interested the "blog" is in sad clowns. I only bring it up because - well, I bring it up for the sad clown thing, but the other reason I bring it up is I watched as much as I could stand of CRAZY, STUPID LOVE on TV the other night and that was the only movie I have ever not liked. It was one of Steve Carrell's sad clown movies as catalogued by Bruce Handy. You know the "blog" is relentlessly cheery and I hate to talk about things I don't like, but there it is. I mean, I was even enjoying EDDIE MACON'S RUN, the bits and pieces of it I saw on TV last night. When I tuned in, Kirk Douglas was doing push-ups and having a conversation with a dog. The cast was crazy! It had the serial killer from MANHUNTER in it, and the captain from LAW & ORDER: SVU, and J.T. Walsh, and John Goodman in what must have been one of his first roles. It also had this guy Jay O. Sanders (pictured), who I think has been in every episode of every variation of the LAW & ORDER franchise. The capsule description said it was about the title character escaping to Mexico with a "bored rich girl," but the so-called "bored rich girl" (who is actually a grown woman) doesn't come in until the last 30 minutes of the movie! So that seemed kind of like a spoiler. Here's another spoiler: Kirk Douglas's character is psychopathically obsessed with capturing Eddie Macon, but at the very end HE SUDDENLY LETS HIM GO FOR NO REASON AS FAR AS I CAN TELL. It would be like if at the end of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Javier Bardem's character just said, "Ah, whatever." As I watched EDDIE MACON'S RUN I thought it was probably based on LES MISERABLES, which made me feel like a real smart guy and I patted myself on the back until I was lulled into a peaceful slumber by my own patting of my own back.