For New Year's Eve, I watched a couple movies. I made the mistake of watching Cinderella Man first. I say mistake, because almost anything you watch after a movie directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe will almost certainly be a letdown.

The offending movie in this case was Stealth. Though far from being a "bad" film, I found it very formulaic. You have the hot shot white guy who's a renegade, the supportive black guy who gets killed, and the white girl, with subtle hints of romantic interest. The movie didn't say much.

Cinderella Man took me by surprise. I didn't know much about boxer Jim Braddock, other than he was defeated by Joe Louis. The fight scenes are the most real I've seen in any movie, maybe because not only did Ron Howard consult with Angelo Dundee, Dundee actually played a part in the movie!

One of the best and funniest parts of the bonus features was when Ron and Russell were talking about how Dundee behaved in the corner. He treated each scene like it was a real fight. In one scene, Russell took a beating, and Dundee got pissed because Russell wouldn't listen to him, and kept dropping his left hand. They had to explain to Dundee that in this scene Russell was supposed to drop his left.

The movie also caused me to ponder differences between the 1920's and 30's and present day. We've lost something. Something real. Jim Braddock wasn't just an athlete. He was a person. He had a wife and family that loved him. He worked real jobs. He knew poverty during the depression, and the frustration of not being able to provide for your family.

Even in his prime, Braddock probably couldn't have beaten Mike Tyson. Today's athletes are so specialized. Few of them have ever had to get a job to support a family. Most, in fact, begin so young that they can support their parents before they even get a place of their own. Most retire or seriously consider retirement by age 30.

Granted, today's athletes are probably the best the world has ever seen, but it seems to me they've lost some humanity. I mean, how can the rest of us relate to a 15-year-old kid who's been swinging a tennis racquet since he/she was 2, and now spends life in private jets, being whisked away from tournament to tournament? A person who never has to pay an electric bill or concern themselves with gas prices. Pampered, living in an alternate reality.

Or, maybe I'm the one living in an alternate reality.

Gotta go. In my reality, I really must pay the rent tomorrow.