You know, there is only one movie I found so bad that I weighed up the lost cost of my ticket against the lost cost of sitting there for another two hours to watch it that I actually got up and walked out.
That film was Ellen Degeneres’ 1990s screen vehicle Mr Wrong, which seemed to rely on a dated psycho slapstick vibe where crazed stalkers are funny. I think I lasted about 10 minutes into the film before I decided to walk out, just when the overacted phone call from said slapstick stalker occurred.
That, closeted as she then was, Ellen might be the perfect choice to play the lead in a heterosexual stalker-rom-com is something that I leave to the verdict of history. It did not occur to me at the time, and I have never given the more ironic merits of that film any further thought.
[I would say that there are some other films I wish I had walked out on. Jim Carey’s star making hit Ace Ventura is high on the list. And some which took so long to go nowhere that I wish I had known that in advance – such as Johnny Depp’s sci-fi horror flick The Astronaut’s Wife and the low budget alien invasion film Skyline.]
Mr Wrong would be the outer limits of my direct exposure to Ellen’s screen presence – either big or small. I never saw her sitcom, nor the talk show which is currently doing an impersonation of the Titanic after it struck the iceberg (now that is a film I only went to see because 4 hours in an air-conditioned cinema looking at icebergs was better than putting up with the 40 degree celsius heat outside that day).
It seems that at the moment, Ellen is the latest target of the me-too movement. Her public image has been one of a loveable goof, who always tells everyone ‘Be kind to each other’.
Apparently this public image is as genuine as a three dollar bill, from the avalanche of stories which have come out about her behaviour to crew on her show, and to lower status guests (yet no one is awarding Ellen an Emmy for her acting performance). Being friends with George W. Bush is also a bit like putting a ‘kick me’ sign on one’s back in terms of preserving popularity amongst the woke and other undead (or is it ‘cultural’) marxists.
So Ellen’s show is in trouble and no one really believes her authenticity when she gets up there and gives a scripted apology to viewers about mistakes which might have been made.
How is her show to be saved? Not that I really care, as I do not watch talk shows and such rubbish, but like everyone, I have an opinion, which I can and will share with the few readers of this blog (especially my avid readers in the PRC, who make up 10% of my readership).
That is, Ellen needs to embrace her nastiness. Stop pretending to be nice and start showing everyone the true Ellen, the mean spiteful vindictive creature which her crew know and fear. Don’t bother apologising and revel in being hated and feared instead.
After all, the best Shakespearean plays are the ones with a virile villain whom you can really barrack for, such as Macbeth, Richard III, and Iago. They are so evil and ruthless and clever and full to the brim with Nietzschean Will To Power that when they finally get their comeuppance, you somehow feel that something is wrong in the world, that weaker beings with all the insipid goodness of Dudley DoRight have somehow triumphed through dumb luck.
Be a villain Ellen. All the world loves to hate a villain.
Lost For Words! 