Weekly Opinion Poll: Underdog
“Hey, Natasha – it’s Jen. Just wanted to see what you were up to tonight. I’m just hanging out, watching Season 3 of Six Feet Under. Give me a call. Talk to you later – bye!”
“Hey Jen – just got your message. What up, dog? You’ll love Season 3! So what’d you do this weekend?”
“Ohmigod – I went to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory! It’s so totally my new favorite movie! You seriously have to see it ASAP. It was awesome. Johnny Depp was hilarious! Tim Burton did such a good job with the-”
“Shhh! Stop! Don’t tell me about it! I want to go see it next weekend.”
“But I was just gonna say that it was really cool because they-“
“Jenny! I’m serious! I don’t want you to spoil it for me!”
“Okay, Nat. You’ve seen the original movie what? Like fifteen times? I think you’re pretty familiar with the story.”
“Well… how do I know how they changed it?”
”No, no. You’re right. I don’t want to spoil it. Especially that part where Veruca Salt kills Willy Wonka and enslaves the Oompa Loompas. I so did not see that coming.”
“Dammit, Jenny! See – now because you said that, I know it didn’t happen. Just stop talking about it!”
“Nat – killing Willy Wonka? You’ve read the book. Do you honestly think that they kill off Willy Wonka?”
“Look – it’s Tim Burton. He’s crazy. How do I know what liberties he took with the script?”
“Okay, whatever. I’m sorry. The movie sucked. You shouldn’t see it. Everyone dies. The chocolate river is really made of poo. Willy Wonka is a serial killer. Rosebud is a wagon. Aliens pop out of Charlie’s stomach. The cops are all in on it.”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
[click]
See, what Natasha didn’t let me explain is that the reason I loved Charlie & the Chocolate Factory so much is because it’s a great story of the little guy winning out over the rich and powerful. Charlie was poor! He only got one candy bar a year! But he found that golden ticket, by golly – he found it! And he had a good heart, too! He wasn’t greedy, or mean, or competitive. His kindness wins out in the end.
Man, I love a good underdog tale. I love rooting for the kid everyone else thinks is a loser, the kid who has no business being here, the kid with all the odds stacked against him. My money’s on that kid!
Which leads me to this week’s Weekly Opinion Poll!
Question: What is your favorite “underdog” movie? (as always, write-ins happily accepted):
A) Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (or Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory)
B) Rudy
C) Swingers
D) The Bad News Bears
E) Rocky
F) My Bodyguard
G) Hoosiers
Filed under: Opinion Poll on July 21st, 2005
July 20th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
You do realize, of course, that when we were kids we thought Roald Dahl was all cool because all of his books were about underdogs, i.e., poor kids who triumphed over the establishment, but when we grew up and read more of his stuff we realized that he was a total Socialist? Just funny…now that I know that, everything he wrote makes so much more sense to me.
July 20th, 2005 at 11:18 pm
From imdb.com
“Stopping briefly in a small Texas town, an itinerant race car driver finds that his stock car, on a trailer behind his motor home, has just been quickly and expertly stripped. He chases down the miscreants, who turn out to be six orphan children. He has no recourse to the law, for the corrupt local sheriff takes most of the proceeds of their thievery in exchange for not putting them in an orphanage. They are charming rogues who are in turn charmed by him. Disliking their arrangement with the sheriff, they stow away with him, and he finds himself becoming a reluctant stepfather. Thanks to their enthusiasm and incredible mechanical know-how, he begins to make a name for himself on the racing circuit. But the sheriff doesn’t take kindly to losing his extra income…”
Such is the tale of Brewster Baker, as portrayed by Mr. Kenny Rogers. SIX PACK is the greatest underdog film of all time…the underdog of the genre itself.
July 21st, 2005 at 10:38 am
Charlie Bucket in the original movie was kind of gooberish looking. But the new Charlie Bucket is so cute he made me sick. So I root for the new Charlie Bucket.
Although…Rudy was pretty rootable, as well.
July 21st, 2005 at 3:50 pm
The Usual Suspects
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:51 am
Breaking Away
July 22nd, 2005 at 11:03 am
If you throw Cheesy in with Underdog, I have to vote for Karate Kid.
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:48 pm
well, admittedly i don’t watch a lot of movies, but i’ll toss ‘Three O’Clock High’ into the write-in column.
July 24th, 2005 at 11:17 am
c’mon people! swingers has GOTta be the all time underdog movie… for two reasons.
1) mikey is the ultimate underdog until he starts to show off his twirley whirley on heather graham. and who the HELL wouldnt want to root for him and her hooking up.
2) life imitates art imitates life. the movie swingers was an underdog in itself!!! it was never supposed to be made, AND when it was, it was made on a shoestring budget. AND it was a hit!
baby, you’re money and you dont even know it. ha!
cheers
hooizz
July 25th, 2005 at 10:01 am
At first it was a toss up between Breaking Away or My Bodyguard. But then I thought.. no, for me it will always be Meatballs. Where have you gone Chris Makepeace?
This is the year Fink beats The Stomach.