Tyson - 3.5 stars

If someone told me that this movie was a documentary of Mike Tyson talking to the camera for an hour and a half, there is no way that I would have watched this. I'm glad that I had no idea what I was getting or I would have missed it. I heard about Tyson while listening to NPR. NPR, by the way, continues to surprise me. You'd think they are just about news and cooking and old guys talking about cars, but they also have great music and entertainment programming. Anyway, they were doing their annual entertainment list of best movies, songs, etc. The top 10 movies of 2009 consists of 13 films (why not?), including Tyson.

These year in review lists are one of my favorite ways to build my Netflix queue, so I added all 13 to the list. Jim & I were looking for something to watch tonight, and it was available on the instant queue, so we started it. I need to pose a question here to the masses of people who read this blog - why does Netflix only allow you to watch certain films/shows instantly? Why not let you watch anything streaming instead of having it mailed to you? Is it so they can charge different rates for different services? Then why not offer an all-online subscription? Let me know if you have any insights.

Back to our topic at hand... Mike Tyson is a fascinating creature. Everyone has an impression of the fighter known for his police rap sheet and for biting Evander Holyfield's ear. He's crazy, right? He went to jail for 3 years for rape, was accused of beating his then-wife Robin Givens, and regularly flew off the handle in front of the media. Then you start watching this very calm and oddly articulated man. He's very complex. I was fascinated by the way he talked, which isn't the language of his generation. Here's my conclusion: (which you may not want to read until you watch the film, but it isn't exactly a spoiler) he doesn't have a personality of his own. His speech is stolen from his mentor, who was 60 years his senior. That's why he keeps getting into trouble even though he's reasonably smart and knows that his actions are frequently crazy. I was also struck by how candid he is. He readily admits weakness and mistake, which is contradictory to so much in his personality. It's like he has no impulse control. Or, maybe he is a new person. You'll have to watch and judge for yourself.

I give it 3.5 stars because it is so revealing and well made, but it was still about 5 minutes too long and I don't expect to watch it again.