A Conversation Between Allen Iverson and Jim Mora

This made me laugh.

Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier

This is a free download at itunes. Basically it is a short film that is a prologue to Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (which comes out later this year).

It stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. (On a side note...all Natalie Portman fans should watch this clip anyway).

Pretty cool marketing...and it is an interesting clip.

Cubbies are In!

I had an eventful of evening of watching over four hours of baseball last night. Ideal results happened with both games. The Cubs defeated the Reds 6-0...and the Padres defeated the Brewers 6-3. Thus the Cubs became the first NL team to clinch a spot by winning the NL Central. The Padres as of last night has clinched at least a tie for the Wild Card Spot...and are still one game out of the division.

Also for the Padres...Greg Maddux won his 14th game of the year and the 347th of his career. It wasn't his best outing (3 ER over 5 innings) but he battled...and the Padres won. Hats off to the bullpen...especially Clay Meredith for inducing a big double play in the sixth inning to get out of a based loaded jam.

This afternoon...Jenny and I are off to Cincinnati to watch the Cubs take on the Reds. The game has "basically" no significance but I'm still excited to go. It is very rare when Cubs fans can watch a regular season game knowing your team is already in. That's a good feeling. I'll definitely be scoreboard watching the Padres/Brewers game as a Padres win locks up their Wild Card bid.

Fun times.

Baseball is blowing my mind

I haven't posted much...been to busy keeping up with the NL baseball races. Hard to believe that their are three games left and no team has secured a spot yet. There are seven teams in the hunt for four spots. Unbelievable. And awesome...especially when one is pulling for two teams...in my case the Padres and Cubs.

It is going to go down to the wire.

Superman: Doomsday DVD

Just finished watching Superman: Doomsday. It is DC Comics latest foray into the world of straight-to-video feature animated films. It was pretty good. It is loosely based on the famous "Death of Superman", "Funeral for a Friend" & "Last Son of Krypton" storylines from the mid 1990's. I say loosely because really only the first third of the film is based on those story arcs. I would say overall the film works even though the final two acts bear little resemblance to the original source material. It's pretty good stuff...and definitely more intense than other DC cartoons. Little kids should not be watching this.

The animation is in the same vein of the Bruce Timm (he does serve as producer and co-writer here as well) DC universe but the movie exists on its own...it doesn't fit into the continuity of the rest of Bruce Timm's work (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond & The Justice League). But I will say that like those other shows...Superman: Doomsday is on the same high quality level as those other cartoons. And I would also say that the production value--in terms of the animation and story are the best I've seen from Bruce Timm and his fellow filmmakers.

DC's next feature length animated film is one that I'm highly pumped for. Justice League: The New Frontier, one of my all time favorite mini-series, is getting the next treatment. Even cooler...the film is being drawn with respect to how Darwyn Cooke drew the original comic book mini-series. It's going to be cool. Here's an example of artistic sytle.

Split Decision on Shoot'em Up

We take a break from the current crop of new releases and take a look at a movie that was released a few weeks ago that managed to slip through the cracks. Shoot'em Up stars Clive Owen as a hitman(?) who during a wild shoot out delivers a baby. He incorporates the help of a harlot (Monica Bellucci) and the three of them seek refuge from an army of goons (led by Paul Giamatti) that are in hot pursuit of them.

Andy: I've got to be honest; the best thing about this movie this week is that it kept me from watching Good Luck Chuck. While that helped Shoot'em up some, the movie was unable to stand up on its own merits too well. The concept is pretty good, actually. You've got the gun-slinging action movie stripped down to its bare bones. As little time as possible is wasted on plot or background, we just need action. The film runs mercifully short (1 hour, 20 minutes), as a longer movie this crammed with gunfights would have been unbearable. As it is, Shoot'em Up is more than bearable, it's actually pretty entertaining. But I still felt something was missing, and apparently audiences felt the same, as they've been staying away from this one in droves.

Ryan: In some moviegoers eyes, there are going to be good reasons why Shoot'em Up fell through the cracks at the cineplexes. The movie is completely out-of-control. It's absurd and very ridiculous. But I really liked it. It's definitely not a movie for everybody. But as a stylized action set piece that doesn't take itself seriously, Shoot'em Up is a wild thrill ride of pure escapism. I can completely see that some moviegoers are not going to be into what this movie is but for those moviegoers looking for a testosterone-driven action flick, Shoot'em Up is that movie.

Andy: It's definitely intended to be read as escapism and it doesn't really attempt to be anything other than an all out action thrill-fest. The problem is that was so comfortably in the mold of the action
film that it seemed like it was bordering on satire. It didn't ever quite make the jump to satire, and I think that writer / director Michael Davis was going more for a tribute to action movies than a satire. The problem is that several things were just kind of stupid. At one point early in the movie Clive Owen's character (who inexplicably is always eating carrots) actually sticks a half eaten carrot through a bad-guy's skull. He then quips, “Eat your vegetables” It's almost funny, but not quite funny enough to work.

Ryan: Much of Shoot'em Up's entertainment value lies with the two leads Clive Owen, who is a fine actor that I really like, gives another enjoyable performance. Obviously this isn't his best work or anything new to his catalog, but he always puts forth a noteworthy performance. Paul Giamatti, who is as solid as they come, takes on the part as the villain. Playing the heel is somewhat new to Giamatti's resume but nevertheless one can tell that he greatly relished this opportunity to play such a vicious character.

Andy: There is no question that this movie is sporting some A-list talent. Giamatti and Owen are two of the best and certainly most consistent actors in Hollywood. And in the absence of a detailed story,
talented actors can often create depth with their performances. That just didn't quite happen here, and I imagine that's what the filmmakers were banking on. Owen is stoic and humorless as the mysterious lead. He does it well, but this movie needed a little more. It's not a bad performance, but it did not prop the movie up any, either. And I'll say this about Giamatti; he looked like he was having a lot of fun being the bad guy.
Shoot'em Up took a nice shot at being a pure action flick, but things didn't quite click for me. Final grade: C.


Ryan: Granted Shoot'em Up by design is supposed to be a film that doesn't take itself seriously. But even with that expectation the movie has to work with the framework that it sets up for itself. More often than not the film works. Not every James Bond-esque one-liner is a winner but most are. The action scenes are absurd but no more absurd than what one would see in a regular action flick. Shoot'em Up is basically a big budget B-movie that straddles the line of satire and straight ahead in-your-face action. The movie achieves what it sets out to do so I give it a B+.

Milton Bradley Goes Crazy

In what will go down as one of the strangest injuries in the history of sports, Padres outfield, Milton Bradley, tore his ACL while being restrained by his manager, Bud Black while arguing with the first base umpire.

Click here for visual proof.

Here's a quick recap of the incident via yahoo sports:

Bradley was ejected from Sunday's game after an eighth-inning conversation with first-base umpire Mike Winters that had its origins to a fifth-inning at-bat.

Bradley was called out on strikes to end the fifth inning. Plate umpire Brian Runge told the Associated Press that Bradley "... flipped the bat right in front of me, about five to 10 feet in front of me."

Runge asked Bradley before his eighth-inning at-bat if Bradley had flipped his bat in the direction of Runge intentionally.

"He said, 'No,'" Runge said. "He said, 'Did he [Winters] tell you that I threw at you? He started to point at Mike. I said, 'No, no.' I even threw my hands up and told him to calm down."

Once Bradley arrived at first base, he engaged in what essentially appeared to be a tame conversation with Winters, who was standing behind him while play continued. That's when things got strange.

"I get a hit and I go to first base, and I asked him [Winters], 'Did you tell him I threw my bat at him?'," Bradley said. "He said, 'Yeah, you did.' I said, 'Are you kidding me? That's completely ridiculous. Why would you do that? Why were you even watching me? If I strike out, the inning's over, why are you even looking at me?'"

San Diego first base coach Bobby Meacham, who witnessed the entire incident, said that a fan in the seats down the first-base line yelled something from the stands directed toward Winters.

"Someone from the stands booed the umpire and Milton pointed to the guys in the stands. He didn't say anything, [he] didn't look at him. Then the umpire went off on Milton and called him a name," Meacham said. "If he had said that to me, I would have charged him."

For a Padres's fan...this stinks. The Padres are only a half game in front of the Phillies and 1.5 games in front of the Rockies (who just swept them) for the Wild Card spot. For a mediocre offensive team...one can't afford to lose your best and most consistent hitter...and yes that is sad when Milton Bradley is that player.

Bradley is a loose canon...but he had been on relative good behavior. Regardless of what the umpire called him (alledgedly--a "f___'n piece of sh_t") Bradley has to not act like a loose canon and be a professional about it. I just hope the Padres can keep it together.