Thursday, October 2, 2008

Well let's get this shit crankin again



It's been a while since I even bothered to look at this, and so far this has only been comprised of movie reviews, which by the way another review should be up tomorrow, which will be of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I've seen a lot of movies lately and I really enjoyed Burn After Reading, but im not gonna write a review of that since im too fucking lazy. Also, my life is pretty unpredictable, especially as of late, and I never really know what to expect. But regardless of my woes, let's get this shit rolling again.


This is my first post regarding sports, which was supposed to be the main focus of my blog but I never got around to that. So, I thought I would finally make a post regarding sports, specifically speaking football. I thought I would give my predictions for division winners, since we are starting to get a feel for who's for real and who's just a pretender.

Starting in the infamous AFC East, I have to go with the Bills. The Patriots are nothing without Tom Brady, the Jets have played inconsistently from week one, and the Dolphins are too young and inexperienced to make any noise at this time. In the AFC North I am going with the Ravens because Flacco really showed me something on MNF regardless of his rookie mistakes. Flacco will be a solid QB in this league for years to come, which sounds like a joke seeing everyone thought he would be the next Kyle Boller. I think the Steelers will fall down the stretch and the surprising Ravens will rise up and win the division. Add to the fact that they had that game stolen from them, and as for the Browns and Bengals, all I have to say is; Im sorry for football fans in Ohio.

Moving onto the disrupted AFC South I see the Titans continuing their dominate play throughout the season and into the playoffs. It looks like all the Titans needed was a QB who can manage a game, which isn't Vince Young. Jacksonville and Indy have both gotten slow out of the gates and it's now or never for them, so if they don't get rolling soon, the Titans will have this wrapped up very soon. In the AFC West it's a battle between the Broncos and Chargers, and I see the Broncos edging the Chargers out, most likely from the "incomplete pass" in the meeting in week 2. The Chargers defense isn't the same this year without Merriman in the middle, and teams like Denver will be able to make them pay for not having the dominate leader out there.

In the NFC East I am going to go with the Washington Redskins. This is the best division in football, and all of the teams in the division will have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. However, the Cowboys usually crumble under the pressure in Big D year after year, the Eagles are already banged up after 4 games and if they can't get tough wins on the road against teams like the Bears, they won't have a shot at the division. Now the Giants have gone unnoticed, and they even dominated the Redskins on opening week, so how the hell will the Redskins win the division? Good question. I think the Redskins are playing inspired football right now, and that opening week ass whooping by the Giants really woke the team up. Campbell is on fire and hasn't thrown an interception all year, and Portis is playing his best football in years. Add to that a stout defense and you've got the recipe for a division winner.

Into the NFC North we go where I think it will be a close race between the Packers and Bears. I think the Bears win out simply because of the dominate defense. They are back to their super bowl form on that side of the ball, and with Matt Forte challenging early on for offensive rookie of the year, and Kyle Orton proving he's miles ahead of Rex Grossman, they really have a good shot at the divison. Ah, the NFC South, where the hell have you been? From 2002-2004 the NFC representative for the super bowl came from that division. Add to that, the Panthers were in the NFC Championship in 2005 and the Saints were in that same game in 2006. Last year the mediocre 9-7 NFC South winning Bucs lost in the opening round. But this year is different, even the Falcons are playing good football. I think Carolina wins out for one simple reason; They are back to their old identity of playing John Fox football. They pound you and set up the playaction pass to Steve Smith and scorch you down field. Add to that the defense is back to its old form.

Now for the NFC West-

Will any half decent teams show yourself?

............................*Crickets*

To be continued I guess.....

Thanks for reading, even if it's only like two people.

Monday, July 28, 2008

The Dark Knight is here, and it couldn't be better.

I have been anticipating The Dark Knight since the end of Batman Begins where it foreshadows that The Joker would be the main antagonist in the sequel. Dark Knight builds off of what Begins started with it's darker and more mature feel to the Batman world. Director Christopher Nolan once again shows his great directing and bright vision with Dark Knight, and it surpasses expectations on just about every level.

Dark Knight takes place immediately after the events of Batman Begins. Batman has continued to lock up criminals and limit the chaos in Gotham City. New District Attorney Harvey Dent and partner Rachel Dawes continue to pursue to lock up people involved in the mob. However, now with The Joker in town, he pursues Harvey Dent and Batman, hoping to reveal Batman's true identity to the people of Gotham. Along side the help of Jim Gordon, Batman and Harvey Dent hope to lock up the psychotic Joker and stop his continuous robberies and murders.

Dark Knight accomplishes everything it sets out to : once again giving the Batman universe a very dark and mature feel to it. Some of the scenes could be so graphic if shown, that it would warrant a 'R' rating for theaters. Of course all of the hype behind Dark Knight is from the death of Heath Ledger, who plays The Joker. While some people may think people are being sympathetic towards Ledger by saying his performance is legendary and he deserves an Oscar, they aren't doing the slightest. Ledger's performance is simply astounding and he captures the essence of the psychotic and schizophrenic Joker perfectly.

The action in Dark Knight is what really makes you sit on the front of your seat for the entire 2 hours and 40 or so minutes that this movie lasts. The movie is also extremely suspenseful, and you never know when the movie is going to throw a huge twist or turn at you. Dark Knight is really about morals and whether the heroes will rise or whether scum and villainy will take control of the world. For example The Joker captures ordinary and high class citizens on one boat, and a bunch of criminals/convicts in another boat. The Joker says if they don't decide which boat to blow up, that in an hour both boats will be detonated. This is part of The Joker's maniacal plan and his idea of burning society and it's morals to the ground.The music is also extremely well done and it has some very memorable tunes in it.

Probably my favorite thing about Dark Knight is the fact that Nolan perfectly applied this to a real world situation. The Joker isn't straight out of a comic book; he's portrayed as a real world criminal that could really exist. Also, Batman isn't unstoppable like a typical super hero: he's human and he has limits. Also the movie doesn't exactly have a happy ending and the good guys don't always win, which makes the film seem a lot more realistic.


After the horrendous failure of the 90's Batman movies and having Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Carey play the villains of Batman, it seemed that the caped crusader was doomed forever. But when Nolan took head charge of the Batman series; things immediately changed. The series wasn't cheesy and comic-booky; it was a real world interpretation of Batman. It was also very mature and had a very dark tone to it. Nolan brought hope to Batman fans everywhere with the great film Batman Begins, and now with Dark Knight he has just reassured us that Batman is here, and he's here to stay. Anyone that likes Batman a little or just enjoys action movies, you have to see this, there is absolutely no reason to skip out on this fantastic film. Now fans play the waiting game and wait for the 3rd installment in this fantastic series. This one is easy; A 5 out of 5.

RIP Heath Ledger - You went out on top, you'll always be missed.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

WALL-E is the epitomy of what movies are all about.

Pixar has always been reliable for creating movies with great characters, great stories, and lastly, sending out a great message. Personally I wasn't enamored with Finding Nemo or Cars, so I wasn't sure WALL-E would be my thing, and that maybe Pixar's magic was wearing off on me; I was wrong. WALL-E is what movies are really about; a story that conveys it's message without having to force it on you, it creates great characters that feel alive, and provides great entertainment while making it seem effortless.

WALL-E is a sci-fi love story set about 800 years in the future. Humans have left Earth because it is uninhabitable from all of the pollution and trash about the planet. They have left units known as WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class) to clean the planet by taking gobs of garbage and forming them into small cubes of trash to make the planet more organized. WALL-E was for some reason not shut off when humans shut off all WALL-E units, so he has been forming trash cubes on Earth for hundreds of years. EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is sent to Earth by humans to search for life. WALL-E meets her and instantly falls in love with her. He has been able to gain emotion and feelings by being on Earth for so long, and from collecting random human objects such as Ipods, CDs, Rubix Cubes, etc. EVE goes back into space and WALL-E goes looking for her. (I won't specify much, for people who haven't seen the film.)


The thing I love about WALL-E the most is; it silently conveys how sad our race and our planet has become. WALL-E depicts a world where mile long superstores, buying in bulk, ridiculous technology, and streamlined lives rule people. It shows the path that we are likely to go down if we don't do anything about our problems. In WALL-E, people are extremely overweight, lazy, and rely on technology to do everything. People are so lazy in WALL-E, that they have lost most of their bone mass as a race, because of them always sitting down and being carried around by a car-like recliner. There are tons of messages being conveyed in WALL-E, that some are hard to find, since there are so many.

Some may be turned off by WALL-E since it's technically a "Kid's movie", but it really is for everyone, and most of the messages and some humor is targeted towards teenagers and adults, ironically. It really is an amazing movie that will be recognized and remembered for a long time. Pixar has made such unbelievable strides in CGI from the early days of Toy Story, and WALL-E visually is nothing short of fantastic.

WALL-E is for everyone: It conveys great messages that really make you wonder and think, it has great humor for everyone, it visually looks great, and overall it's a great love story. WALL-E ends on a bittersweet tone, and a little confusing. Although the ending could have used some revising, overall, it doesn't take away from the shear genius, that is WALL-E. I recommend WALL-E to anyone that wants to see a great movie; Pixar has done it again, folks. Keep the great movies coming, Pixar, because this one is easily one for the ages. WALL-E gets a 5 out of 5.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Get Smart? That's something the writers and producers should have tried.



Get Smart wasn't exactly the biggest hyped movie in the world, but a 7.5 rating on IMDB and lots of media praise that I have been reading, I bit the bullet and saw this movie. It just about fails on all levels, and it's easily one of the worst movies I have seen this year. With Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway heading the movie, how could this have turned into such a train wreck? Ironically, at the end of the movie our agents escape a train wreck, and it pretty much sums up the entire film; it barely escapes total failure.

The main plot of Get Smart (if there is even one) is that the Russians have weapons of mass destruction and they want to blow stuff up, at least that's all I got from the films poor story telling. Yes, evil Russian terrorists that want to blow up the world, very original plot. Basically the government chooses Maxwell Smart, Agent 99 (Steve Carell) to go along on the mission with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to stop evil.......or something. Our two "heroes" set out on random and unspecified missions, so you won't know what in the world is going on in terms of story progression. But story in a Action/Comedy/Romance? Well since it attempts to accomplish those, you would think they could nail one of them.

The only decent thing about Get Smart is that you will get a cheap laugh or two, here and there. The movie also establishes a growing romance between Carell and Hathaway, while although is extremely predictable, they do provide good stage presence together. However, my biggest problem with Get Smart, is if you look past the cheap laughs and ridiculous action scenes, there is no story established. After watching it, I feel like I missed something, there was absolutely no character development.

Towards the end the government suspects Carell is a double agent and that he is trying to pull a move over on them, however it's obvious that the double agent is among them, and you find out soon who that is. I will not specify who that is, since some people may want to see this flick, but it is extremely obvious during the course of the movie.

The thing that really got to me while watching Get Smart was that the humor was totally predictable, so when something happened, you didn't laugh, because you saw it coming from a mile away. They also try to rip off of movies like Indiana Jones with amazing escapes from death and avoiding nuclear bombs. The movie has such a hard time finding it's identity, that you will scratch your head trying to figure out what genre this movie actually fits in. Here, I have a category for movies like these; it's called abomination.



With Hathaway and Carell heading this one, I didn't think it was possible to have such a poor film, so hats off to the writers and producers on this one, you did it. However, I was completely confused that they casted girly- girl Anne Hathaway to be an ass-kicking secret agent? Also, former NFL bad boy Bill Romanoski makes a cameo in this one, as well as The Great Kali, for you wrestling fans out there. Unless you enjoy genre jumping films that involve cheap laughs and poor dialogue and atrocious story telling, you might want to skip this one.

Get Smart? Im smart enough to know that this one isn't a good one. A 2 out of 5.