Yesterday I picked up the two disk version of Raging Bull and the three disc version of Gladiator. I have been so hungry for great movies lately. I just want to see actors doing something instead of reciting lines from a script.

I watched Raging Bull last night. It has been years, probably ten, since I've seen it. It wasn't until after I bought Raging Bull that I remembered I didn't like the ending of the movie. It's not that I hated the ending, I just didn't like it. I remember thinking it was awful short. I think before, I didn't pick up on the whole brother thing. I can't believe I missed it. But I got it last night.

Also, everybody talks about how great De Niro was, and he was amazingly great, but what about Joe Pesci? Granted, he pretty much plays the same character slightly modified in each movie. But he was great in Raging Bull, and it was his second film ever. I also have realized that if you want an Oscar nomination, just put in a scene of Pesci kicking somebody's ass. That's all you have to do.

As for Gladiator, I haven't watched the new version yet. There is a pop up trivia thing called "Are You Not Entertained?" plus audio commentaries with Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. There's also a 3 hour and 20 minute documentary to watch plus hours of other extras. It also looks slightly better than the first version, and the first version looked great. Raging Bull has a lot of extras as well including audio commentary with Jack La Motta, several documentaries, and actual news real footage of La Motta fighting.

This morning, the phone rang waking me up, and I answered. A man shouted, "Hey! Hey!" and then he mumbled out what I thought was my number and kept on mumbling something. I hung up. He called back ten minutes later, waking me up again. I tried to ask who he was, and he wouldn't tell me. He just kept on mumbling things to the phone and then to somebody else. I kept hearing my number. I kept asking who he wanted to talk to and what did he want. Eventually, I hung up. Ten minutes later, he called again. I told him to stop calling. I was getting pissed at that point. I was awake and couldn't go back to sleep. He kept calling saying the same thing over and over.

The last time he called, and this was about an hour into the whole ordeal, somebody else took the phone. The new man sounded depressed. He said, "Hello." I could hear the first man mumbling in the background, again my number. I asked, "Who is this?" He sharply and rudely shot back, "Who is this?" I asked, "Who do you want to talk to?" He said, "He's trying to get in touch with his brother." I told him who ever he wants to talk to isn't here, and that he had called five times already. The new guy said, "That's not my fault." I then lost my ever-loving-mind apparently. I said, "Well, you tell that fucking retard to stop fucking calling here." I was not loud and spoke at a normal volume. I believe the new guy said again, "That's not my fault." I then said, "Then take the fucking phone away from him." I then hung up and unplugged the phone. I never raised my voice, but I was so pissed off. I just wanted some sleep. I normally do not use colorful language with people like that. For some old-fashion reason, I try to be polite as possible to people on the phone.

I lay trying not to think about things and trying to go back to sleep. And then it dawns on me, it probably was a mentally challenged person trying to get in touch with his brother. He knew his number and maybe the guy he was telling was hearing the wrong numbers and dialing what he thought the guy was saying. Or maybe the mentally challenged person was dialing the number. The point being is that it wasn't until after I said what I said that I realized that it probably was a mentally challenged person trying to reach his brother. The man said the exact same things over and over each time he called and, when I thought about it, he did sound exactly like mentally
challenged people sound sometimes.

I know I wouldn't have said what I said if I wasn't trying to sleep and if the second man wasn't rude. Also, if I had just thought the first or second or third or fourth or fifth time the man called that he was mentally challenged, I would have tried to help him by explaining to him that my phone number was not the one he needed to dial and that his brother was not here.

So what have we learned? We learned that if you want an Oscar nomination, just film Pesci kicking somebody's ass, and if Jason doesn't sleep that he'll call anybody a retard and hang up on them.

  ¶ 5:27 PM