Pajiba

"Toe pick."

Chariots of Fire? Anyone? Hello?

...I'm so lonely.

Cross Country Skiing is going to rock this year. Practically everybody is from Alaska. Go Kikkan!!

Pretty sure he was only talking about fictional movies, not documentaries, but you've sufficiently dazzled us with your knowledge.

By all means, carry on being a pretentious asshat.

What's more "set in the Olympics" than a documentary of an Olympiad? Neither the header or the article says anything about fictional movies.

No, I meant it. We're dazzled. You can stop now.

i have an irrational love for the cutting edge.

There is an excellent made for TV miniseries called "The First Olympics: Athens 1896" about the modern revival of the ancient Greek games. Due to poor travel arrangements, the American team barely arrives in time for the opening events yet walks on to the field cold and blows away the European competition. And it's mostly true!

I almost forgot one of my favorite movies: "Walk, Don't Run", Cary Grant's last film, co-starring Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar. The three of them are forced to share a small apartment during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Grant plays matchmaker to the other two and at one point strips down to his boxers to impersonate a race-walker. Very funny movie!

I shamelessly love AND own The Cutting Edge. But then again, I'm just a whore for figure skating in any form.

Skewicide Blonde just didn't want anyone to be lonely around here.

Bitter, disillusioned, snarky, and eloquent, sure, but no loneliness.

What skit, btw?

Which Mighty Ducks was set in the Olympics?

That one.

ChristianH, was Kenan Thompson in that one or was that just a nightmare I had once?

Oh he was in it, becks. He was in it to win it.

I love Miracle. I think it might be my favorite sports movie of all time.

I generally hate Disney films, but I have to admit that their sports flicks get me every time. With the exception of We are Marshall, which bored me to tears.

P.S. In Soviet Russia, MOVIE CRITIQUES YOU!!

Welcome to the boiling pot of scathe, Rosiose! It's always a delight when someone delurks! :)

Running Brave is actually okay. It is about an American Indian runner by the name of Billy Mills, played by Robbie Benson. He is the third of three American runners in a distance event at the 1964 Olympics in Japan. It is not thought the he is going to do much, so he does not even get team issued track shoes.

His upbringing and the racial issues he had to face at the University of Kansas are set against the backdrop of being from a reservation. His girlfriend's parents do not want their daughter around him and he is continually fighting the perception of the race in general. It really speaks to the stereotype of Native Americans during the late 50s and early 60s. The idea that the race would at one time or another give into learned helplessness and not amount to anything. It does have a bit of a sappy end but it really is ok and worth a Netflix shot if you are out of ideas.

How about a list of worst Olympic films? I'll start:

"Top of the Hill", starring Wayne (Trapper Fucking John!) Rogers as a 47 year old upper management type who dreams of becoming a member of the US bobsled team at the Lake Placid games.

Also starring Elke Summer.

Shitastic, no?

Shitastic, yes. There's one scene burned into my memory of a training run down the course. As most of you know, the start of a bobsled run is incredibly explosive. Four people (wearing spiked shoes), pushing a heavy sled down an icy chute as fast as they can, which is why a lot of the better bobsled teams have folk that weren't quite fast enough to be 100 meter sprinters. The training scenes in "Top of the Hill" remind me of nothing so much as an old man with scoliosis and a bad knee chasing down a runaway Rascal.

Plus, Elke Summer.

Speaking of skit, where's he been?

"P.S. In Soviet Russia, MOVIE CRITIQUES YOU!!"

hahahahahaha

Jokes like that will never get old.

Um...how could you make a list like this and forget "The Mighty Ducks?" Only the greatest Olympics movie EVVARR. The sequel was pretty rad too.

I would welcome a movie about the 1980 Red Army hockey team. That's just not what "Miracle" was, though. I didn't think they were portrayed as villains, either. I found the article in the New Yorker where Larionov talked about the movie and he didn't sound as upset at you remembered it, juiceinla. He said he went the theatre alone and mostly wished they had shown more of the soviet side. I simply think that wasn't the focus of the movie, and it's natural for him to feel the loss at seeing the dramatization of his mates' loss. I surely doubt players from the US basketball team that lost to the Russians would get a feelgood reaction from seeing a movie celebrating the 1972 USSR win over the USA.

Chariots of Fire is really moving and well done. Cool Runnings was a staple in my house for awhile when I was a kid. Good flick.

I know it's kind of off-topic, but I guess anyone else in Canada might now what I'm going on about:

Can I just say how DISGUSTED I am with CTV News right now for their coverage of the luge accident last night? I was over at my sister's place and brushing my teeth, so I didn't end up seeing this (Thank God), but I ran out of the bathroom when I heard her scream. Without warning, they showed the entire incident, including the accident that ended up taking his life, so Happy Valentine's Day, Georgia! Yes, that was a Canadian news broadcast that decided that it would be a good idea to salt the wound of one of your native sons dying on our soil by turning it into entertainment fodder, and inflicting it so crassly on the waves. Whatever criticism we get over this, we deserve. Yeah, we're the ones who have no respect for the dead. But of course the news brass knows this already. They know what fetid cretins they were being by doing this, because even if this thing goes viral for six seconds before being shut down, it'll have the good ole 'CTV' logo splashed across it. They'll issue their mea culpas that they don't mean in response to a lot of anger that they totally expect... and they'll get everything they wanted because they got that one showing on the air.

The last time the Olympics were in Canada was 22 years ago, so they knew full well that they would be getting monster ratings from the spillover. Why not show what is also your broadcast's largest audience in history a real shocker without any warning, before they've fully realized that the Opening Ceremonies are over? They'll blur it if they show anything again, or issue a warning to sensitive viewers, and they'll be SO contrite to the late athlete's family, teammates and country for their insensitivity and for causing any undue pain. They'll say it, and they'll they'll crack open their champagne bottles the second the signal's out because people are still talking about it and everyone's thinking about CTV. So, everybody wins, right?

What else do you want to sprinkle with integrity dust, guys? So often, our sources of information desecrate and sensationalize under the banner of 'disseminating information free of sanitizing forces and bearing witness to circumstance'. Sure, I'm going to write a letter of complaint, that's what a lot of us do when we're displeased, but it's just going to be feeding into their money and ratings-obsessed hands, and we all know that you can't get a time machine. It's such a non-issue at this juncture, though. You don't NEED to see the Second Coming fifteen times, once is all it takes, everything else is just superfluous seraphim. Gross.

If anybody got this far, I'm wondering if anyone actually saw this happen? What was your response? Am I overreacting? Obviously I'm at my most tactless when I'm on this site, but does anyone else have any thoughts on this, or the news in general? Shortly after the earthquake, I remember instinctively turning my head away from a TV set because I couldn't stomach the sight of a rash of dead babies in the street. Do I need to stop being so precious and get off of my cloud and in tune with reality?

***

Stephen Harper, stop partying in Vancouver and go the to work! If you think we're just going to forget about torture because the name on the calendar changed, you seriously underestimate your country.

And now I have to watch minstrel shows for research. If some fake-ass blues 'man' has something to say about it, bust him in the jaw until he's too swollen to speak and tell him practice his scales. And don't Twitter about it, alright? No one wants you adding whine that milquetoast, huh? I don't know what his system is, because I have to practice a lot. A LOT. Does anyone know that article from THE ONION called something to the effect of, 'Area Man Fan Of, Cause Of The Blues'? And Jennifer Rachel dated that thing twice? Fuck, no wonder Brad left her for Angelina.

I don't really have any opinion on showing the crash, as when I saw it, CTV gave a very clear warning, so I wasn't caught unawares. What I will say is that the incident was covered extensively throughout the day (I spent the whole day watching the torch run and attempting to work on my thesis - the life of a grad student), including the press conference. Were you referring just to the pre-opening ceremonies package? I can't remember if it was mentioned in that in particular.

@Superfish: When you have nothing to believe in, believe in NBC. Is there anything those kings among men can't ameliorate? Let's build a gazebo in their honour.

@PallasJay: I actually heard about the death when I was in transit. I went to my sister's place to watch the ceremonies and saw a news headline from the subway. I guess this would have been around 6:00 pm. There was some coverage of the incident prior to the ceremonies, but no footage. The accident was the top story of the news broadcast which was on at about 11:15 at night.

It opened with a generic statement in the way of, 'Tragedy at the Vancouver Olympics', or some such. I was puttering around her place just brushing my teeth and both of us thought it was a little odd that they would be showing any part of it. I remember just bellowing, 'oh, come on' from her washroom and she responded 'I'm sure they won't show the actual crash.' Then she semi-screamed and I hot footed it to the TV. It was so strange because a well-placed gush of wind will warrant a disclaimer, but nothing doing this time.

Maybe we're in different time zones? Whatever the case, I'm just thankful that I was spitting toothpaste when it happened.

@matches- you said "I found the article in the New Yorker where Larionov talked about the movie and he didn't sound as upset at you remembered it, juiceinla."

I saw him SAY it while standing with his daughters doing a television interview, and I am sticking to my guns on this one.