Peter T. Chattaway
2008-10-16 15:39:27 UTC
Any Electric Light Orchestra fans here?
You may recall that, last year, there were *two* movies in which a single
man's life is changed by the introduction of a child into his life --
either an adoptee (Martian Child, with John Cusack) or a biological child
that the single man never knew he had (The Game Plan, with Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson) -- and in which a montage showing the adult and child
spending time together was set to ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky'.
Last night, I saw a *third* such film: Role Models, with Paul Rudd and
Seann William Scott. This time, instead of adopting or discovering that
their ex-wives never told them they were pregnant at the time of their
divorce, the single guys in question have been ordered by a judge to take
part in a "Big Brother" sort of program as part of their community service
-- and once again, we have a montage set to ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky'.
What makes this even better, in a way, is that Martian Child was shot in
2005 and was presumably originally meant to come out in 2006, but it was
kept on the shelf for a while -- so if they had released that film when
they were supposed to, we would have had one 'Mr. Blue Sky'
adult-bonding-with-child montage per year, for three years in a row.
The three films are very different, of course. The Game Plan is a PG
family-friendly Disney movie, Martian Child is a PG drama for grown-ups,
and Role Models is an R-rated comedy with lots of swearing etc. (It
features a number of actors who have appeared in Judd Apatow films, and it
has his sensibility, but I don't believe he was involved in this one.)
Still, if it takes three to make a trend, I believe we have our trend.
You may recall that, last year, there were *two* movies in which a single
man's life is changed by the introduction of a child into his life --
either an adoptee (Martian Child, with John Cusack) or a biological child
that the single man never knew he had (The Game Plan, with Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson) -- and in which a montage showing the adult and child
spending time together was set to ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky'.
Last night, I saw a *third* such film: Role Models, with Paul Rudd and
Seann William Scott. This time, instead of adopting or discovering that
their ex-wives never told them they were pregnant at the time of their
divorce, the single guys in question have been ordered by a judge to take
part in a "Big Brother" sort of program as part of their community service
-- and once again, we have a montage set to ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky'.
What makes this even better, in a way, is that Martian Child was shot in
2005 and was presumably originally meant to come out in 2006, but it was
kept on the shelf for a while -- so if they had released that film when
they were supposed to, we would have had one 'Mr. Blue Sky'
adult-bonding-with-child montage per year, for three years in a row.
The three films are very different, of course. The Game Plan is a PG
family-friendly Disney movie, Martian Child is a PG drama for grown-ups,
and Role Models is an R-rated comedy with lots of swearing etc. (It
features a number of actors who have appeared in Judd Apatow films, and it
has his sensibility, but I don't believe he was involved in this one.)
Still, if it takes three to make a trend, I believe we have our trend.