Entertainmentoday

The movie world lost an iconic movie figure recently when Julius Carry III passed away from pancreatic cancer.   He was 56.  Anyone who’s a fan of the cult martial arts flick “The Last Dragon” is familiar with his infamous character “Sho-Nuff”.  Although he had much success later in his career for doing bit parts on several TV shows and movies, it is his role as Sho-Nuff that he is the most recognizable.   If you’re not familiar with the movie, the role of the Sho-Nuff was a cross between  ghetto Harlem kingpin and Bruce Lee.  Throw in a crazy shogun styled afro, pair it with his jive lingo (”I am Da Master!”) and you’ve got a master sensei for the ‘hood.   There will never be another martial arts villain quite like Sho-Nuff.   You will be missed!

It seems like all summer long, the only thing that I seemed to look forward to was the premiere of Ben Stiller’s latest comedy “Tropic Thunder”.   How can you resist those hilarious trailers with all the funny jokes and Robert Downey Jr. as the austrailian-turned-black actor?   From the get go, I thought it was a great premise:  Throw this group of spoiled actors into the wild to film a gritty war movie, only to discover that once they get there, they are actually living the real thing.  BRILLIANT!  I think everyone’s great in their respective roles, but somehow… for me at least…. the movie kind of went into a standstill once they were dropped off in the jungle.  Like the writers knew how to build it up, but all of a sudden, they just sort of got LOST.   I know, I know…. hard to believe, especially coming from a comical genius like Ben Stiller, but I really have no other way of describing it.  The movie seemed to lose it’s momentum in the middle by filling in scenes with other useless scenes.  Don’t get me wrong — there were funny parts sprinkled throughout the movie.   There were also characters and scenes that were cleverly done.   Yes, having Tom Cruise as the stereotypical obnoxious Hollywood agent had his moments, but even his scenes felt a bit forced and not as funny as critics made him out to be.  Although the media described him as ‘unrecognizable in a fat suit’, you could totally tell it was him.  I hate how the media hypes up high profile actors when they go against the grain so to speak, but that’s a whole different blog that I won’t get into here.  All in all, I think fans will appreciate the bits of humor in the movie, but may be disappointed overall.  For me personally, it just wasn’t the falling-out-of-my-seat-laughing movie that I had waited all summer to see!

So back in the day, my husband and I used to belong to L.A. Fitness, where every once in a while, my husband would run into Carrot Top getting his workout on.   I thought it was funny when he first mentioned that “Carrot Top is pretty buffed”.  HUH?  Who knew this Ginger Kid (South Park reference for any fans out there!) would not only keep up his workouts throughout his mediocre career, but would be so bold as to take it up a notch?  Yes, it appears that our bushy-headed friend has done a Barry Bonds and juiced up his comedy act big time.  But why bother?  I hate to admit that he is not the most handsome in the bunch, but name one comedian who ranks high in the looks department?  He’s almost unrecognizable, which may hint that he may have gone under the knife.   Did he think that this would toughen his image?  Did he think the chicks would dig it?  Did he think this would open new doors for him?  I just feel that he may have compromised his unique look to become a total freak of nature.  Either way, I think fans may be turned off by his new look.  I know that I’m already finding it harder to look at him!