TV Sucks.

The final episode of the "Wire" has come and gone long ago. There is nothing on television worth watching, at least not regularly. No sports can hold my interest. An occasional "Frontline" might cause me to watch the tube. Instead, I have watched a couple of movies lately. I watched the baby-faced killer, Matt Damon, aka "Jason Bourne" in The Bourne Ultimatum. I like spy stuff but have a hard time believing that Matt Damon can whip ass.

A sleeper in the spy genre is Spy Game with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. I am not a fan of either actors recent work. Redford is not a leading man anymore. He is old and saddlebag wrinkly. He is not believable as a hot-chick magnet. He has to pay for the hot chick. (See Indecent Proposal) What is indecent is this old bag getting any young chippy on screen. Pitt can't act. He is only effective when he is not allowed to say a whole lot, plays a young, dim but passionate character and has a strong actor to carry him. (See Seven) A recent example is Troy. He plays Achilles, has his shirt off alot and can pull off the action scenes. The problem is that he has to deliver some emotional lines and show some depth in the character. He cannot pull off a dark side. He is the weak link in an otherwise decent movie.

Spy Game works. Redford can act and plays his age. No love interest for the the Redster. He plays the grizzled veteran spy who makes one last operation to rescue his protegee, Pitt, who went off the reservation to rescue his radical girlfriend from a Chinese prison. Pitt gets to throw a chair and get all emotional over the business of spying and death while Redford carries the film with a strong and likable performance. Every time this one pops up on cable, I'm watching.

This gets me thinking of great supporting roles or cameos from much maligned actors. Scene stealers or unexpected performances. Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross and The Departed. Bruce Willis in Nobody's Fool. Travolta in Pulp Fiction. Charles Grodin in Midnight Run. Val Kilmer in Tombstone.