Critic Fight!

We wait for the moment eagerly. As eagerly as people watching a women-in-prison movie wait for the catfight with all its hair-pulling, uniform-ripping, and nubile-curve-exposing mayhem. We sense it coming, licking our lips with anticipation: a critic fight. First one critic climbs into the ring full of jello and beckons angrily at the other. Then the second critic climbs in and before we know it they're rolling around in the Bill-Cosby-endorsed gelatinous substance, their bellies heaving, their thighs locked around each others' slime-encrusted forms...

The latest critic fight has popped up over a piece that the great old white man of Asian film, Tony Rayns, wrote for FILM COMMENT a few months ago basically accusing Korean director Kim Ki-Duk of...well I'm not quite sure. Whatever the case may be, he certainly has harsh words for anyone who likes Kim Ki-Duk's movies (they even made me cry).

Next up, Chuck Stephens leapt into the ring with this defense of Rayns' article. Okay, so it's not the most thrilling critic fight out there, I mean basically it's a tag team of Stephens and Rayns taking on...well, it's not clear who they're taking on, although they don't seem to like blogs very much (oh, crap -- I should stop writing, quick!).

There's some notes and articles about the phantom critic fight here (in a blog, no less) and another blog (d'oh -- cover your eyes, Chuck!) over here. There's also a very nice little bit of chit chat about the backing and forthing over here (and it's on a discussion board, not in a blog...thank the lord).

If anyone has a good picture of Rayns in his wrestling uniform, or Chuck Stephens dressed as masked wrestler Santo, send it in. We're desperate for visuals and from what I've heard both men cut an imposing figure in their wrestling duds.