Sunday, March 25, 2007

You, Me, and Dupree

We’re big on romantic comedies around here. YOU, ME, AND DUPREE is a decent example of the genre. Owen Wilson plays a slacker who is forced by circumstances to move in with his old college buddy, played by Matt Dillon, and his old college buddy’s new wife, played by Kate Hudson. Hijinks ensue. There’s nothing groundbreaking here – Owen Wilson is goofy and Kate Hudson is cute. (And at least once in every movie of hers that I watch, I find myself thinking, “Man, she really looks like her mama!”) But everything works out in the end and it’s certainly a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.

I did find myself wondering, out of all the people who watched this movie, how many of them noticed that Matt Dillon’s character has the same name – Carl Peterson – as the arch-villain in the Bulldog Drummond novels by “Sapper” (H.C. McNeile). Not many, I’d bet. And even fewer would care.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed, James, very few will care. But the important thing is that many of us who come to blogs like yours DO care. We think it will be a sad day for our culture when such "trivia" is all swept away. Encouragingly, visits to my site, www.blackhorsewesterns.com have been running lately at twice their normal level. I put it down to the level of interest in the homage/nostaligia of two of the current articles there -- "Detectives in Cowboy Boots" and the tribute to the late Sydney J. Bounds.

James Reasoner said...

Keith -- My work schedule has sort of knocked me out of the loop as far as Black Horse Westerns are concerned, so I'm glad you posted this and prompted me to visit the site again. There's a lot of interesting material to be found there. The crossover between mysteries and Westerns is one of my favorite subjects. As for Sydney J. Bounds, I've read only one book by him that I know of, a science fiction novel called THE ROBOT BRAINS. I distinctly remember reading it when I was in junior high school, but I don't recall anything about the book itself. It's still on my shelves, though, so I may have to reread it one of these days.

Charles Gramlich said...

I've always liked Owen Wilson but my fiance can't stand him so we don't see any of his movies.

James Reasoner said...

The first Owen Wilson movie I saw was SHANGHAI NOON with Jackie Chan, and I love that film so I guess I've had a tendency since then to like Wilson in other movies, too.