MY RANDOM MUSINGS- You've heard the rumors, and, alas, they appear to be true. A deal is apparently in place that would have Sly Stallone lacing up the gloves one more time to play the Italian Stallion in 'Rocky VI' -- something about running a youth center and being roped back in for one more fight. I think what I'm looking forward to most is the inevitable scene where Talia Shires yells, "You're gonna get killed!" Stallone, who did write the screenplay to the best-picture winning original -- 'Rocky' beat 'All The President's Men', 'Network', and 'Taxi Driver' in 1976; think about that for a sec -- is reportedly developing the script. We can only hope the dialogue is as good as his last effort, 'Driven', which produced this gem: "Faith is like a good disease...it's contagious." As a blogger I know I'm supposed to come up with fountains of snarky remarks here -- and I picked this story to comment on just for that reason -- but I can't bring myself to do it. The story is it's own punchline. * I was flipping channels this past weekend and came across 'As Good As It Gets', a film that was nominated for best picture and earned an Oscar for its star, Jack Nicholson, back in 1997. I've caught parts of this movie on TV a few times since seeing it in the theater and I'm always struck by an awful feeling of self-loathing for having actually enjoyed it the first time I saw it. As some CS readers will recall, I ranted about this same subject on my old Iowa City radio show, "Burn Hollywood Burn," earlier in the year, but I just can't seem to let it go. This time I had the pleasure of tuning in to see Nicholson deliver his "Don't knock on my door ever again you little queer speech" to Greg Kinnear. How did I fall for this? How did I find this amusing? And how did Nicholson win an Oscar for such a tedious, ham-fisted performance? His delivery is so protracted as he basks in his "Jack-ness" that the scene becomes interminable. He just seems to be working sooo hard. "Mugging" is probably the best word to describe it, which is exactly what Slate's David Edelstein does when mentioning the performance in his tepid review of Nicholson's latest, 'About Schmidt', which was written and directed by Alexander Payne of 'Election' fame and opens Friday. (See, this post is topical after all.) Sadly, it only opens in NY and LA, which leaves the rest of us with: 'Maid In Manhattan', 'Star Trek: Nemesis', 'The Hot Chick', and 'Drumline'. Ouch. Guess the DVD player will see some action this weekend. 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' comments coming Friday...no really.

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