Feb 16 2009
The Amazing Race 14: Team member Mike White is a genuine movie star!
The Amazing Race is now officially started, beginning it’s 14 season. This season, the producers included movie star Mike White, as a team member! It seems every new season of The Amazing Race, it’s a new mixed brew of members, diversions and challenges. These Amazing Race team members are about has diverse as the show has had.
When they showed the gay - father son team members Mel and Mike White, I immediately recognized Mike from a couple of movies he had been in. Mike is an actor, writer/director. You might recognize Mike White from “School of Rock”. He helped write the screenplay and also starred as Jack Black’s roommate. Mike also was in the TV show “Pasadena”.
Yet, I remember Mike White from some insane independent film that still pops up on IFC cable; from time, to time. If you have not seen “Chuck & Buck”, it is about as quirky and funny as an independent film can be. Mike White is the star and what a scene steeler he is. Mike makes “Chuck & Buck what it is - a classic.
This premiere opener of The Amazing Race does not take any time getting bogged down, or stretching this episode out. It starts out with a bang and is extremely fast paced and entertaining. No other reality show, competition can have me sitting on the edge of my set in front of the TV, like The Amazing Race.
One of the tasks was a bungee jump, the second highest in the world. As much as I don’t like the idea of a bungee jump, I would have done a few of them, compared to the “cheese” task the team members had to endure. Hauling 100 pound blocks of cheese on your back, down a slippery terrain might have been one of the toughest tasks that The Amazing Race producers, ever thought up. No doubt, it’s hilarious to watch, yet it did have my body aching just to watch it.
A clip of The Amazing Race “Cheese” task.
It will take some time to get to know the team members. The Amazing Race has a knack for bringing out the best and worse in everyone. I was not sad at all to see the boyfriend/girlfriend team be eliminated for coming in last place, last night. There is still one other couple I really want to see leave The Amazing Race real soon. The husband and wife team, from “Hicksville, USA. It’s no fun watching a husband go off on his wife, especially when she does not deserve the abuse. In all fairness, the husband did help his wife in the cheese task.
The mother/son team Margie and Luke, came in first place and won a cool vacation for a week in Mexico! Luke is deaf and wants to show everyone that he can compete just as well as anyone else, with his handicap. Luke showed us all that he really has, what it takes.
This Amazing Race is, what it is. It looks to be a real tough roadmap for these team members to follow, without getting beaten down on their long journey. Should be a real hoot!
