Sting weekend

You know how I like reporting movie-related coincidences I experience. Well, here's another.

I hadn't been thinking much about Sting recently. In fact, I can't remember the last time I devoted some portion of my brain to him, but it could have been more than a year ago. That's how long it's been since I had a Sting-related incident of any kind.

This past weekend, I had three.

The first was when the former Police lead singer did a handful of songs before the AFL (Australian Football League) grand final. I didn't know what Sting's connection to Australia was, but then again, Bryan Adams had no connection to Australia when he fulfilled a similar role last year. It's a big enough event to woo A-list talent, albeit A-list talent past their prime.

But is Sting really past his prime?

I marveled not only at how fit he looked, but how good his voice sounded. The high notes are not a problem for him or anything, and he's still trim with impressive muscles. Looks more like a 45-year-old than a 65-year-old (his milestone birthday was also this past weekend). I'll hope to look that good when I turn 45 in two years, and will surely fail.

The second Sting event was not really an event at all, but pondered me to first consider the coincidence. It was seeing his name among my trending topics on Facebook. The reason he was trending had to do with some viral video on Jimmy Fallon. I didn't watch the video, but I did wonder how he managed to get to Jimmy Fallon so soon after being in Melbourne on Saturday. (He must have been in New York first and come to Melbourne after that, unless maybe he did it remotely.)

It was by Sunday night that I started to wonder if someone was punking me.

Sting has something a bit larger than a cameo in Zoolander 2, which I watched Sunday night. It's important to emphasize this because there are about 173 others who have what would more legitimately be described as a cameo. Sting appears in the movie twice, in a consequential role, so he almost reaches the level of, like, a co-star. It was nice to see him on screen again. He was funny.

And you know what? Zoolander 2 was funny. I may have just lost all credibility with you, but the movie was so much funnier than I had any reason to believe it would be. The word of mouth about this movie has been awful, and even as a fan of most Ben Stiller movies, I figured I'd be in synch with those opinions.

But after 15 amusing minutes in which I didn't laugh much but appreciated what they were going for, I started bursting out laughing periodically, maybe once per five minutes. That's not bad at all in a 100-minute movie. It all started with the hilariously unexpected appearance of Benedict Cumberbatch as the androgynous transgender supermodel called "All" and it just went from there. (The only person I didn't really like, in fact, was a usual favorite, Kristen Wiig.)

Where will I see Sting next?

Wherever it is, it will be welcome.