The Day After I Began Admiring the Gyllenhaal

Relax, okay?

He'll NEVER be Tobey.

But he's more talented than Fabio.

These thoughts came to me the other night as I watched The Day After Tomorrow and soon upon the tails of watching Donnie Darko. So, maybe I've got the Gyllenhaal on the brain and don't really admire him at all. His image is just shifted up into the short term memory area of the brain's cortex. (Or maybe I now know what Flipper is like every day when she walks around. Her brain's cortex has probably carved out its own little Gyllenhaal area.)

Anyway, I am sure that when Spiderman 3 comes out next summer (TOO FAR AWAY!) I'm quickly displace Jake with the Tobey. In the meantime, I'll try to scrub it all clean by watching The Ice Storm or something.

As for TDAT, it is standard summertime fare that I finally got around to watching. Maybe it seemed more dramatic because I was watching it Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as the lightning and thunder flashed and rolled outside my windows.

I was struck by the fact that Jake's character never has a moment's hesitation about anything that he is going to do. At one point, in order to save the life of his cute girlfriend, Jake must collect medicine from a Russian tanker that has run aground in the urban canyons of NYC. But to get the medicine, he has to experience the super-cold storm that is inflicting a new ice age upon the Northern Hemisphere. Remember that his meteorologist father (Dennis Quaid) has ALREADY warned Jake that this storm is so cold that he could be frozen to death instantly! But Jake is so noble and heroic that he never hesitates to expose himself to the cold. And, while on the ship he has to crawl out one ship window and shimmy along a icy/frozen metal pole to access the room with the medicine. And after THAT he has to outwit CGI wolves that are also roaming the ship! WHEW!

But throughout it all, Our Man Jake soldiers on, never making a mistake, doubting his actions, second-guessing, nothing.

Forget having your own personal soundtrack . . . I want my own personal screen writer!

*******

On to other media news.

Shannon died on LOST last night and I am not too sad. (I called it accurately, by the way.)

I did wonder today if, since we didn't actually see her dead and buried besides Boone, it might be possible that Jack could save her. After all, it was only a gut shot, right? I mean, Charlie didn't die and he was hung up in a tree by CrazyTomCruise'sCrazyCousin.

But then, I read this.

So, I guess it really is goodbye to Shannon.

(The funniest part of the articled linked above is Jorge Garcia's mother worrying that Sawyer might die. Hey mom, what about your son's character, hmmm? I mean, doesn't "Everybody Love Hugo"?)