Venus Van Dam Again?

As much as I love the talent of Walton Goggins I can’t help but be surprised to see him reprise his role of Venus Van Dam for a third time in the final season of Sons of Anarchy.

Not that there is anything wrong with the role, in fact I think it shows impressive depth from him as an actor. Still, seeing him do it again and taking it a step farther at that by doing a kissing scene really makes me wonder what Kurt Sutter has on Walton Goggins as leverage.

I thought it was a really funny joke the first time he appeared on the show as a cross dressing prostitute. Fans of Sutter’s last show, The Shield, will remember Walton Goggins in the role of Shane Vendrell whose alias was Cleetus Van Dam. Many actors who had roles on The Shield have appeared in Sons of Anarchy but none in quite the same fashion as Goggins. When I saw it the first time I laughed till I was blue in the face and loved it. The second time I felt like it was a bit of overkill and done just for the sake of being progressive and politically correct.

Last night seemed a bit much but I still enjoyed it. This is the last season of Sons and I think Sutter just couldn’t pass up another opportunity to make Goggins dress up in drag again. Regardless the reason I think Goggins continues to shine in the unlikely role and he deserves some credit for it.

This final season of Sons has been incredible thus far and I cannot wait to see how it all ends. Things have been happening really fast and there are still nine episodes left! It looks like things will come to a head with the Chinese next week so it will be interesting to see where it goes from there.

I sincerely hold out hope that we will see one more Shield cameo before it is all said and done. Obviously we won’t see Julien Lowe in a role as Michael Jace disgraced himself and is currently sitting in jail somewhere. We also haven’t seen Catherine Dent or Cathy Cahlin Ryan either but I am not interested in seeing them and I doubt we will. Of course the one I am talking about is the big dog Michael Chiklis himself. Sutter has said that he hasn’t brought him in because he doesn’t want to take anything away from the character of Vic Mackey, or something like that, but I still hold out hope. This show featuring such a heavy crossover of actors wouldn’t be right without Chiklis making an appearance at least so I continue to hope we see him in some capacity before it’s all over.

Chiklis can be seen in the upcoming season of American Horror Story in a key role but that shouldn’t conflict as Goggins also has a key role on another FX show Justified. In a perfectly written world it would be really cool to not only see Chiklis but to actually see Vic Mackey himself. The way The Shield ended was never good enough for me because Vic Mackey is not a man who can simply be contained to a desk job. One way or another he would manipulate his situation to get back out on the street and I think it would be really cool for him to come into conflict with the Sons in his new position as some sort of ICE agent. The season seems like it will come to a head with a Sons vs. Mayans all out conflict so my wishful thinking would have Vic Mackey getting involved with illegal aliens within the Mayan ranks. Who knows what will happen, but that would be awesome.

Movies By Request

The Great White Hype

Year: 1996
Directed By: Reginald Hudlin
Written By: Tony Hendra Roy Shelton

There are more movies made about boxing than any other professional sport.  I think there is a very good reason for that and it is simple.  Boxing movies are awesome, even if they are all the same. I have said as much before in my post on Cinderella Man but I think deep down we all have an instinctive desire to see fights. The men that choose to spend their lives as fighters always have interesting stories to tell as well.  Yet all boxing movies seem to follow a similar template, and this movie is no different.  It covers many elements of the boxing world that we see in others films, but the redundancy of boxing story lines somehow never seems to be a problem. I often find myself realizing this is the same thing I have seen before but still loving it in all boxing films, and or TV shows in the case of Lights Out. I was a really big fan of that show and disappointed to see it cancelled.  My main point here is that while they all might be so similar they are usually interesting in other ways.

This movie specifically makes fun of the racial element in the sport.  I despise racism but do enjoy the humor that can be found in stereotypes across the board.  We all fall into stereotypes, it doesn’t necessarily always have to be about race, but it is funny so long as it is in good humor.  There is a big difference between making a joke about a stereotype and making a racist joke.  I think this movie made fun of racist behavior albeit in a crude manner at times.  One of the times I laughed the hardest was when Samuel L Jackson accused a reporter of being racist.  He responds by saying he is Jewish to which Jackson then accuses him of being an “Uncle Tom.” The reporter says Jews can’t be “Uncle Toms” and Jackson turned to look at his cronie Jon Lovitz playing a Jewish man and puts the question to him.  Lovitz defensively says “we can be!” and it is just such a funny exchange.  This movie is about race all the way through and I did think it was really funny, but these kinds of films watched by the wrong people always send the wrong message.  I have found in my experiences that racist tend to feel validated by comedies or tragedies about race when in fact they should be humbled by them.  I don’t understand the disconnection but it is a disappointing reality about some people.  Racism at the root is a product of ignorance and people who embrace it are often not clever enough to see the error of their ways.

I remember always wanting to see this movie during my Action Video days but somehow never getting around to it.  So I was pleased when a co-worker brought it in among a stack of other films the other day.  I had completely forgotten about the film altogether and was glad for the opportunity to see it.  I was even happier to have liked the movie as I anticipated I would long ago.  Samuel L. Jackson has a charisma that reaches out to everyone and I am no different.  I have thought he was awesome for almost twenty years now since I first saw him in Die Hard with a Vengeance as an eleven year old. I had yet to see Pulp Fiction, that one was off limits for me until I was old enough to seek it out myself.  Nevertheless I have thought he was great since then and he has done nothing to dissuade me from that opinion.  If anything he has only made his image greater in my eyes as he has now become such a key figure in the Marvel movies as Nick Fury.  As to this film he is what would easily be expected, awesome.  As the key figure of a really large cast he does great with a powerful and commanding presence at all times. He is funny in this movie while playing a really flamboyant and enigmatic boxing promoter; he is exactly what he should be in that role.

Of this large cast that includes many notable actors I think the best one playing a supporting role was Jamie Foxx.  He is another actor that is very charismatic and good in most of what he does.  He plays someone kind of stupid in this movie and pulls it off well.  As a big and lifelong fan of The Shield I also really enjoyed seeing Michael Jace in a movie. He played Julian Lowe on the show and I thought he showed great range as an actor throughout the series.  The rest of this cast is made up of other notable actors who do a great job.  Among them are Jeff Goldblum, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davies (Gimli from Lord of the Rings), Jon Lovitz, and Damon Wayans (the first one).

I am glad that at long last I have finally seen this movie and I really enjoyed it.  It was a fun and funny movie that didn’t let me down after I had waited so long to see it I had actually forgotten about it.  I am grateful that my co-worker lent it to me to see and I would recommend it to anybody looking for a fun boxing comedy to see.