Caddickisms

Agassi’s final 8 minutes on court

Andre Agassi played his last professional match on Sunday, September 3, 2006. Check out the link above if, like me, you were unable to see it live. Also, read this article.

It seemed like Agassi was fighting tears as Benjamin Becker prepared to serve the match-ending ace that would also end Agassi’s career. Despite winning the match and enduring what was (from articles I’ve read) hostility by the crowd, Becker was very gracious and stepped aside to let Agassi have his final moment. Not that the crowd would have allowed anything else — there was at least a four-minute standing ovation as Agassi sat in his chair, tears flowing. His voice broke when he finally stood to address the crowd, thanking them for their support over his 21 year run at the U.S. Open.

From the coverage I’ve read, it seems Agassi was suffering even more than usual from his back injuries as he took to the court today. The pain was so bad that his father (who by all reports pushed Andre into tennis at an early age) asked him not to play to avoid permanent damage, and his coach stated that he wished he could pull Agassi out. In the end, he did play, obviously, but only managed to take one set in the match.

And with that, one of the greatest tennis players of all time has hung up his hat. From young rebel upstart to seasoned gentleman, Andre’s career and talent was one of the most impressive in the game. He will be sorely missed.

Technorati Tags: tennis, us open, Andre Agassi, Benjamin Becker, farewell

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Wow.

I’ve never seen anyone lose that much weight for a movie before. Christian Bale was a walking skeleton in this movie. It hurt to watch the man move. Even Tom Hanks looked healthier in Castaway.

Unfortunately, that was probably the most impressive thing about this movie. It seemed to move too slowly, lingering on shots that didn’t really have a pay-off. It was successful in making me curious about why Trevor, the main character, hadn’t slept in a year, but that’s really all it was: curiosity. I never really cared why he hadn’t slept.

Normally in a movie like this, I’d be going back over it in my mind, piecing together the “reality” vs. the “imagined” sections of the film. As I write this, less than an hour after seeing it, I’ve found that I really haven’t thought much about the structure in that way.

One thing they did very well was make me feel that Trevor was very fatigued, and that anything could have been hallucination. I also felt relief along with the character when he finally gets to sleep (we presume). In the end, though, it wasn’t enough to engage me in the story.

Five stars for Christian Bale’s commitment, two and a half for the movie.

Technorati Tags: Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, hallucination, machinist, insomnia, fatigue, insanity, film, severe weight loss

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I was really hoping this movie would be better than it was. Alas, it wasn’t.

After a promising beginning, dealing with the “death” of Captain America, and setting up some multi-decade intrigue, the movie’s plot devolved into nothing more than, “here’s a character, here’s his/her power, he/she isn’t a team player, now everybody get together and fight something.”

They did attempt a small bit of character development, especially with Captain America and Bruce Banner/Hulk, but it was really not handled well. And the villains were not developed at all! With the promising set-up in the World War II setting, there was a lot of mystery surrounding these guys. The writers obviously wanted to do something with it, but either couldn’t figure it out, or it got cut completely out of the movie. Early on, one character even asks, “Why are they still here?” and the response is all we ever get about it: “We don’t know.” That’s it.

The real answer, of course, is so the good guys have someone to fight. But that’s not really helpful, plot-wise.

It’s a shame, because reading about some of these same characters in the current Marvel “Civil War” event in the comic books, it’s obvious that there is a lot of excellent character development and interesting story to draw from. It’s really disappointing that they chose to make this release so unsatisfyingly formulaic. I’ve seen better story arcs in many of the Marvel cartoons (like the X-Men and Spiderman cartoons that aired on U.S. TV in the 1990’s).

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