Curious? I thought so, and we'll talk about what's on in a second. But first, school hasn't been "discuss it on the site" interesting these last couple of days. We've been starting on the textbooks, figuring out where everybody in the classes is, and generally not making revelations in the field of human thought. It should be noted, however, that Wednesday has become a very hard, but very gratifying milestone in the week.
I work 20 hours every week, and if that seems like part time to you, well, you haven't been teaching. 2 of those hours come on Monday, and I work 6 on Tuesday and 6 on Wednesday. I have one class period off on each of those days. I come to school with the kids at 7:30 and leave with them at 2. It's a lot like being in high school again. I'm not completely sure about whether that's a good or bad thing at this point. Anyway, I only have two hours on Thursday and four on Friday, so things kind of coast after the middle of the week. You can expect fresh, creative things Monday, nothing as I take a nap on Tuesdays and quirky, jovial things Wednesday.
So what's on TV? Well, for the last three months, the movie channels my cable service provides have had a noticable rotation of movies, with three notable classics. Most prominent has been 1986's Child's Cry. A TV movie, it throws aside the need for an article while telling the story of a 6 year-old little leaguer who has been sexually abused. It's not terrible, and the actors do their bit well, especially Peter Coyote, but it's just entertaining in that cheesy way all TV movies are. You forget the tragedy of the story in the melodrama that supports it, and when the coach walk around with this autistic grin on his face most of the time, it just draws a chuckle. Also, it has a lovely little "solving the mystery" finish and a meaningful epilogue. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on DVD, so to my knowledge you can only look for it on Alexandra TV, although it pops up occasionally on some of the other movie channels.
Also showing a lot recently has been the slightly more famous School Ties. Brendan Fraser plays a jewish private high school quarterback who tries to keep his race and religion a secret from asshole Matt Damon and slightly less of a jerk, but still Damon's crony, Ben Affleck. The rest of the rich kids in the high school, upon learning the secret, take sides with or against Fraser as befits there stereotypical type already established in the movie. Interestingly, the nerd is the biggest racist, if you don't count Damon, who's more or less just an avaricious idiot.
Outside of the race "plot," a subplot sees an evil French teacher actually require his students to speak French in class. So high are his expectations for his students' education that he drives one he doesn't particularly like to near-suicide (Oh! If only I had the power!). The subplot of the evil French teacher is suddenly wrapped up when the gang plays a prank on him and his car.
It's an okay movie. Again, not great, and bad enough to be entertaining. Solid football scenes too, I suppose. However, it pales in comparison to another great high school football movie: The Keanu Reeves, Keifer Sutherland, Billy Zane classic, The Brotherhood of Justice.
If you were a big TV viewer then, 1986 was a huge year for you. Child's Cry and then Brotherhood. Brotherhood follows the adventures of a high school vigilante gang spurred on by a stirring address from "that guy" principal Bob "The Groot" Grootemat. The school is in trouble, you see, what with the drugs and the vandalism and the Mexicans hanging around. The Groot sees his seniors as the best hope to turn back the tide and tells them they must "set the example" for the rest of the school to follow.
After the stirring speech, the senior class gives him a standing ovation that The Groot seems to take seriously. Then the top of the class, led by quarterback Reeves ("Johnny Utah, baby! It's Johnny Utah!"), discuss ways to interpret The Groot's meaning. They decide that he wants a vigilante group and in the school weightroom and an abandoned carousel they establish the Brotherhood of Justice, which comes complete with the researching nerd, two brainless jocks, and a crazy Billy Zane. Reeves is supposed to be the noble leader.
In order to make the school a safer place, the gang throws stink bombs around and shoves students into a pool at a late night party that may have alcohol involved. They also beat up a drug dealer, stab a "sleazeball" in the ass, make a perilous journey into the heart of the Mexican part of town, and try to blow up innocent waiter Keifer Sutherland's car before they're all hauled off by the police thanks to a guilty-feeling Reeves. It's the kind of movie that leaves you breathless, and it even comes with "PLACE COMMERCIAL HERE" cards between certain scenes when shown in Bulgaria. Apparently you can get it on DVD.
So that's what's on the movie channels here. It's really very entertaining stuff.
Posted by Rob at September 29, 2004 03:58 PMI remember Brotherhood of Justice they used to show that when i was there. They also showed Teaching Mrs. Tingle and Providence all the time. Providence i s very underrated as it was the Farrelly Brothers first movie and any movie with Amy Smart is a good movie. Keep up the good work. I miss it there. I am taking Japanese now which makes Bulgarian look like childs play.
Posted by: Adam at September 29, 2004 07:24 PM