I have mixed feeling about Robin Williams. I grew up loving Mork and Mindy, and had been entertained by the odd movie of his here and there. I did find it annoying when he would give an interview the way he would keep leaping out of his seat and adopting one of his 'wacky' characters to answer the questions. Some might find that entertaining, but even before my intense cynicism took hold, I found that element to be mugging and annoying.
Then I would find Gregg who, along with the rest of his family, couldn't stand him. I'll admit to being somewhat influenced by this, but ultimately, I still enjoy the films I enjoyed and I even laughed at his stand up special on HBO. Apparently his coked out period of stand up is more a shambles than amusing. That does make me want to see it though, but for all the wrong reasons.
On coke or not, his departures into characters fits fine in his stand up, but it so damn tiresome in his movies. They always use some idiotic plot device to make an otherwise ordinary person, break into some ridiculous impersonation. I hate it. As much as I like Dead Poet's Society, I cringe when he breaks into his cowboy impression of Macbeth. When we were on a flight recently, Gregg was subjecting himself to RV. He said it was for more fuel for his hate of Robin Williams. I didn't watch the film, but I glanced over a few times only to almost reach for my spew bag as I watched him break into some kind of gangsta routine much to the disgust of the teenagers he was aiming to impress. Is that irony? I'm always misusing teh word and I don't want to make an ass of myself like Alanis Morisette in her stupid song, but is it ironic to be in a scene where you're supposed to be making an ass of yourself, but in real life, where it's supposed to be funny, you're really just making an ass of yourself? I'm so glad I never saw Patch Adams.
So now we have a new Robin Williams nightmare on the horizon. He's played a doctor, a school teacher, a child trapped in an adult's body, a man posing as an old woman and now the sonovabitch is going to play...a comedian. Oh fuck. I can't think of anything worse. He is going to break into those fucking characters non stop. In Man of the Year, the tagline is something like, "What if a comedian ran for President? What if he won?" am I the only person who finds this notion mortifying? Is there going to be some idiotic scene where he does some racially stereotypical character in order to converse with another world leader? Is he going to unite the people because we all think he's just like us because of his stupid impressions? I have no idea, and for now, I don't want to know. But I have a sneaking feeling that now that I have complained so much and made predictions, I am one day going to want to see it to see if I am right. Not any time soon though and not for a nickel!
*update* I just got pain in my chest. I'm serious. Distress signals from my brain were sent to my chest and I had a little pang. Why? Because while searching for an image of Man of the Year for this blog, I discovered that Mrs Doubtfire 2 is in production and set to hit screens next year. I admit, I liked the first one, but I'll be fucked if anyone can make me watch number 2! He has no reason to keep posing as a woman anymore! He was allowed to see his kids in the end and that was thirteen years ago, so they are all grown up now, just like me. No more.
*update no. 2* It gets worse! I thought the image of Robin Williams with the George Washington wig was merely a promotional image. Wrong. There is a scene in the movie with him wearing said wig.
