the Tao of Steve

Last night's rental was a surprise. I thought Doug would go to the store and rent "Gladiator," seeing as he did want to see it and I did screw up and rent that horrid Malcolm McDowell gardening flick... instead, he brought home:

"The Tao of Steve," starring Donal Logue of "Grounded for Life" fame.

What a funny, cute and painfully sweet movie this is. Dex (D. Logue) used to be a stud muffin in college, now he is a part time kindergarten teacher who hits the bong, drinks beer and plays frisbee golf and poker in his free time with his buddies. By applying three principles of the "tao" of "Steve," (1. do not desire, 2. do something excellent in her presence, 3. retreat, because we chase that which retreats from us) he can get any woman he wants.

Or can he?

'The Tao of Steve' won Mr. Logue a jury prize for outstanding performance at the Sundance Film Festival last year... he's been a busy guy, starring in a bunch of movies in this past year alone ('The Patriot,' 'Million Dollar Hotel,' and 'Steal this Movie') and it looks like he'll have an interesting career.

I liked this movie for a lot of reasons... I liked how it made fun of the womanizing philosophy major type who could talk his way into the pants of any girl (I was never one of those girls but I sure knew a couple in college). I liked the "wannabe" Steve friend that he gives advice to, who wants to be as cool, if not cooler, than Dex. And I liked the perspective of how shitty and lonely his life really is, 10 years out of college and still behaving like he has to act this way to get anywhere with women.

And I liked his "excellent" behavior with the kids in the kindergarten, because it seemed that even when no one but the movie viewer was watching, that was when he was most honest and beautiful. I found him to be sweet and kind and wonderful, and I am sad that most men can't really be that kind of honest when someone is watching them.

I worry about recommending this movie to any of my single male friends though. I am afraid they will misconstrue that I am saying they are like this Dex guy. Most of my single friends, male or female, are single because they had a good long relationship that just kind of went bad, or there were committment issues... or some other distraction got in the way like drugs or something. Perhaps a little of Dex is in everyone who makes it to their early to mid 30s and is still running around scoopin' up bed partners, but there is hope.

So if you are one of my single male friends, even if you have a girlfriend, you can see this movie with my recommendation and my honest assessment that no, you aren't really like Dex. You are like you. Whatever the hell that means.

Gotta get to work. I've spent about 2 hours goofing off, waiting for an email report from the QA group on the new portal design that we are supposed to be rolling out. I have some editing work on the other project which I can work on while I wait for Mike's report. Sigh. I wish I could spend all my time researching movies and surfing the web, and writing about it.

I love the IMDB (Internet Movie Database). You can get lost in there. You can play your own Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon by playing in there. I wonder how long it takes to connect Donal Logue to Kevin Bacon? Hmmmmmm..... I think that's a project for my buddy clayton. You'd have to go through Mel Gibson (the Patriot), and from there something has to lead to Tombstone!