The Countdown: Mel Gibson

The countdown counts down the top 5 of a random topic I deem important enough to talk about at that certain time. Today it is the top 5 Mel Gibson movies as decided by me. Before he drunkenly slurred racial slurs (pun intended!) he actually made some solid movies. I will only count movies he acted in.

5. The Patriot

The Patriot was one of Mel Gibson's movies during his streak of trying to act in a war movie in every time period possible. The movie is American propaganda to an extreme degree. In case you missed it let me sum up the plot: Americans are great, noble people who never owned slaves while the British or horrible, disgusting people who take great pride in war crimes and atrocities. Yup, that is pretty much it. The movie is also historically inaccurate which would matter if it was trying to be an educational movie. Bottom line the movie is good, has good action, good acting and it involves Americans kicking British ass! It makes my top five because I do enjoy it.
Grade: B
Best Quote: "I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost would be more than I could bear." - Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson's character)

4. Signs

You either love or hate Signs, there is no middle ground. I have never seen another movie with such a wide disparity in the reviews as this one. Signs is one of my favorite horror/suspense movies. I think the tone is set right from the beginning when Mel is awoken by his daughter's screaming and when he goes to investigate the movie is dead silent. No cheesy, suspenseful background music, just dead silence. Nothing is scarier then dead silence. The movie is well acted, has a good story and a few good scenes of humor to break up the suspense. A lot of people say the movie was ruined when they showed the alien, but I do not believe so. Not all aliens should be little green men with big heads and bug eyes. If they had not shown the alien, you would have been pissed!
Grade: A
Best Scene: When we see the home video of a kid's birthday party and all the kids are screaming in horror, then for a split second we see the alien (for the first time) walk into and out of the frame. That made me jump in the theater, good stuff.

3. Lethal Weapon Series

Riggs! If you say buddy cop the first thing I think of is Riggs and Murtaugh. The 1st one was the best, and I liked the 3rd one the least but they were all pretty good. The funny thing is Murtaugh was close to retirement in the 1st one, yet made three more movies! Joe Pesci comes along in the 2nd one to give us some awesome comedic relief. The 2nd one also introduced the illiterate masses (such as me) to diplomatic immunity. The 4th one is pretty cheesy and overall not that good, but still enjoyable. Plus it introduced the world to Jet Li. Now I have a question for you to ponder, who would win in a fight between Riggs and John McClain (Bruce Willis' character from Die Hard)? That sounds like a whole other blog post.
Grade: 1: A-, 2: B+, 3: (dont remember or care) 4: C+
Cheesiest Scene: In the 4th one where Riggs just got done fighting Jet Li and is stuck under water and Murtaugh does not know where he is and yells out "Will me Riggs!" then dives into the water and swims to exactly where Riggs was. Wait, that is an awesome scene!

2. Maverick

Is there a more lovable, sleazy, card shark in film history then Brett Maverick? I think this movie is hilarious, and is Mel Gibson's best comedy performance. The characters are great too: Jodi Foster as Annabelle Bransford (she and Mel had great chemistry in this one), James Garner as Marshal Zane Cooper and Graham Greene as Joseph, the most unbelievable Native American in film history. Not only does this movie deliver on comedy and action, but it also fills the poker fix and old west fix! What a movie. If you have not quoted every line from the final table in this movie during your own poker nights with your friends, you are severely lacking in awesomeness.
Grade: A
Best Quote: "I have two small pair . . . 8's over 8's" - The Commodore

1. Braveheart

This is my favorite movie of all time. It is long, but never drags. The acting is great, the musical score is great and the ending is great. This movie is just plain great! It even won an academy award for best picture for its efforts. I get hooked from the very beginning, seeing the endless miles of green grass and the bagpipes blaring (God Bless Scotland!) If you didn't get sick to your stomach when Robert the Bruce double crossed William Wallace on the battlefield, you suck. If you weren't pissed when they slit Wallace's wife's throat, you have no compassion. If you didn't get goosebumps during Wallace's "freedom" speech, there is something wrong with you. If you weren't moved by Wallace yelling freedom instead of begging for mercy during his torture, you just might not be human. Great overall movie.
Grade: A+++
Best Scene:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End

So we have finally come to the final adventure of Jack Sparrow and his faithful friends (well, we think). The 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie had one main criticism: It was really confusing. Well At the World's End suffers from the same problem. The movie, although better then the 2nd, is incredibly hard to follow. These two sequels seem to have way much more going on the the original ever did (not a good thing). Pirates has had two sequels and neither can come close to comparing to the original. The humor that was so charming in the first one was tired and predictable in the 2nd and 3rd.

In the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean movie we followed Will Turner and Jack Sparrow as they tried to save Elizabeth from Pirates who were trying to break a curse on themselves. Simple, easy and good. The two sequels deal with the East India Trading Company, Davey Jones, Pirate Lords, Sea Goddesses and more. I have no idea what is going on! Who are the protagonists? The pirates? Pirates are bad guys! The English? They sure do not feel like it. Davey Jones? He is a walking curse. Hard to tell.

I'm getting off track. If you enjoy the humor of these movies, enjoy watching Johnny Depp play Jack Sparrow, enjoy Keria Knightly and enjoy the creativity and sense of fantasy these movies have, then you will enjoy this. They may pale in comparison to the original (which was a solid A movie) but they are still interesting. Even if they are tired and played out. At least this movie has closure, although you can't help but think they set it up for a 4th movie. Hey if you can keep pulling in $100 million opening weekends, you should keep making movies.

Grade: B-

The Finest Music Video Ever Made

Without a doubt the finest music video ever made, I thought I would dig it out of the vault because it still has amazing replay value. Jessica Simpson's career peak in my opinion. Bonus points because Willie Nelson is in it.

3rd Annual TV Awards Blog

Its hard to believe this is my third annual TV awards blog. It is an awards/year in review blog that I put out every year so my three readers can see what I have to say about the world of TV.
Disclaimer: I don't watch reality TV, so that will not be included. Very popular TV shows I don't watch due to the fact that I don't have the time or they conflict with my viewing schedule: Grey's Anatomy, House, 24, Lost and the Sopranos. So do not be angered that they do not appear in my list.

Away we go!

Best New Show: Heroes
I think I would classify Heroes as a surprise hit. I sure did not think it was going to be that good but what we got was a water cooler show in the sense that you always were wondering what would happen next. Twists and turns every week in this slow moving TV series. The initial fear that it would be an X-Men rip off has now subsided, the biggest reason you could call this show a success is the fact that got renewed for 30 episodes next year plus a spin-off series that will run for 6 episodes. 36 episodes! That is when you know your show is a winner.
Apologies to: Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock (hey NBC had a solid year!)

Most Disappointing Show: Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip
Back in its infancy, Studio 60 was supposed to be the show that spearheaded NBC's comeback attempt. Starring the wildly popular Mathew Perry (in an incredibly different role then his days as Chandler on Friends) and produced by Aaron Sorkin (of West Wing fame) this show had the hot buzz. Lets not forget it reintroduced Amanda Peet to our lives, which is always a good thing. The show never quite took off as the dialogs, while it was well written and smart, was totally unrealistic and it seemed the show often centered around right-wing Christian controversies. I liked it for what it was, but it could have been so much better. Luckily for NBC, their hit hour long drama ended up being Heroes.

If we removed all shows about medicine and law from TV, would there be anything left?

The Best Guest Character: Loyd the Delivery Man from Scrubs
(note, this award given to characters that appear on their show, but not enough to be considered a supporting character).
Loyd first made his appearance in season 5, as the air drummer for the classic air band. He had more of a roll in season 6 and was hilarious in the little time he was on screen. See Youtube clip for more details.
Apologies too: Almost any other bit character on Scrubs, Creed from the Office.



Best New Character: Hiro from Heroes
Originally meant to be the comic relief of the show, and he was, he ended up becoming the show's most popular character and the one you root for the most. How else to you explain this:
Extreme Apologies go to: Andy Bernard from the Office



Best Supporting Character: Loyd from Entourage
As his roll expands on the show the funnier he becomes. He is the perfect compliment and voice of reason to Ari, which also leads to incredibly funny gay jokes by Ari. He seems to be getting more screen time in season three.
Apologies too: Jake from Two and a Half Men, Janitor from Scrubs (or any other supporting scrubs cast member).

Best Character: Jim and Pam, the Office
Decided to give this award to two people, since the entire Office season was defined by the Jim, Pam and Karen love triangle. The excellent season finale (I wont give it away if you have yet to see it) only added to the great year they had. Everyone roots for them, Jim is the aloof guy that everyone likes and Pam redefines "girl next door" cute. Since Jim and Pam are close to overtaking Ross and Rachel as NBC's most famous couple ever, well you deserve the best character award. If you disagree, well just watch this youtube clip:
Apologies too: Dwight from the Office, anyone on Scrubs, Charlie from 2 1/2 Men, Barney from How I Met Your Mother, Alec Baldwin from 30 Rock, Lex Luthor from Smallville, Johnny Drama and Ari Gold from Entourage



Best Show: The Office, NBC
NBC's the Office had an amazing season, become the rock the NBC's return to Must See TV Thursday nights (although their slogan now is. "Comedy Night Done Right") and features such a cast of great characters that it had to win the award this year. Even though Michael Scott is almost unwatchable at times he is still pretty funny and the entire cast is awesome. For more see above about Jim and Pam. The year also gave us a bigger role for Creed and the introduction of Andy Bernard. Couldn't find a best of clip of season 3 on youtube yet, so you will have to settle for the best scene of the year:
Apologies to: Scrubs, Two and a Half Men, Heroes, Entourage



Thank you see you next year!

Spider-Man 3 Review

I love Spider-Man movies. I was incredibly pumped for the 1st one and it did not disappoint, the 2nd one was even better. When I heard the third one was coming out and tackling the best storyline Spider-Man has to offer, the symboite, I was incredibly pumped. What I was subject to was a mockery of the Spider-Man name. My review is split into two parts, my actual review that does not contain spoilers and my analysis that should only be read after you have seen the movie. So here I go:

Review

Spider-Man 3 suffers from trying to cram to much story into one movie. The movie contains three villains and not nearly enough time to give them enough back story and character development to make you care about them. That was not the case in the first two, when they only had one villain and did a great job with them. There is so much in this one that the stories are sloppy. Take into account the Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church (Lowell from Wings! How far he has come!). He apparently turned to a life of crime to help save his daughter from an illness. The movie, however, never says what her illness is and NEVER resolves the situation! We start with Spider-Man being adored by the citizens of New York, the fame is quasi going to his head and starting to annoy Mary Jane, who's acting career is struggling. Peter has to avoid an attack by Harry Osborn, who has redesigned the old Goblin stuff from his dad. After that Peter/Spider-Man fights the Sandman, an escaped convict who's body is made of sand. The special effects in the Sandman battles are nothing short of breathtaking. Peter later finds out that the Sandman actually killed his uncle, in his pre-sandman days, which drives Peter to seek revenge. An alien substance from outer space takes this time to bond with Peter, turning him into a more power full and evil Spider-Man with a fresh looking black suit. The suit feeds on aggression and causes Peter to do evil things. Once Peter turns evil the movie gets so cheesy it is impossible to take seriously. The rest of the movie deals with Peter trying to rid himself of the suit while dealing with the Sandman, Harry Osborne and a new villain that comes in at the end; Venom. Compared to the first two, this Spider-Man is awful. The biggest disappointment I have ever felt after a movie.
Grade: C-

Analysis

Put on your seat belt, I am a huge Spider-Man fan boy and feel the need to break down how bad this Spider-Man movie was from both a movie stand point and a true to the comics stand point. The symbiote storyline is Spider-Man's best storyline. It is an alien substance that bonds with him, enhances his powers and makes him evil (so evil he basically starts to hop the line between hero and villain, and lets his rage control him at all times). The symbiote can morph itself into whatever clothes Peter wishes it, so he never really has to dress himself again. In the movie, however, it's just a suit like his normal Spider-Man suit. That's bullshit! Not nearly as cool. The suit only affected how he acted when he had it on, where as in the comics he always had it on. As for Peter becoming "evil", it was pathetic. I'm sure Sam Rami was trying to be funny, but he went way to far. Instead of evil, Peter becomes a somewhat mix of 70s John Travolta and an Emo punk. Its laughable, the whole theater was laughing and not for good reasons. He starts walking down the street, pointing to women, doing gay disco dance moves and saying weird saying like "give me some shade, long legs" (to a woman). When he ditches the suit and it bonds with Eddie Brock and creating Venom, well the movie sucked at that too. The look and effects were awesome, but the character sucked. When Venom talks he refers to himself as "we", referring to Eddie Brock and the symbiote. Not in the movie, it did not help that Eric Foreman played Spider-Man's greatest enemy. At the end of the movie Venom gets Sandman's help to take down Spider-Man which is bogus. Venom is a loner and he wants to kill Spider-Man by himself. He actually would defeat people attacking Spider-Man because he did not want anyone to steal his glory. Plus he does not need any help, he is physically superior in every way to Spider-Man (his only weakness being sound). The movie also did not make it clear that the symbiote actually made Spider-Man more powerful while he was wearing it. The Spider-Man movies have sort of varied from the comics in the past, which was fine. But they never varied this much and made such a mockery out of the character. Rami, Maguire and Dunst did their job for the first two movies but it might be time for them to step aside.

The ending was horrible, with the Sandman and Spider-Man "forgiving" each other then the Sandman drifts off into the sunset. Never mind that they never resolved the Sandman's daughter is ill storyline. The symbiote storyline is Spider-Man's best. It makes Spider-Man more powerful, gives him a cool black suit, makes him evil, shows him overcoming the evil inside of him and gives birth to his coolest villain. It is supposed to be darker then all other Spider-Man stories. If a Saturday morning cartoon can do a better job of portraying this then a movie without the limitations of catering to a young audience, then that is just sad. I want to forget this movie ever happened.

The World Needs More Air Banding

Is Anyone Reading?

I know the answer to this question and it is: Yes. Hopefully. As I was reading some old blog entries I realized something, first off I almost abandoned this blog when Tecmo Blog started up, and second I really enjoyed writing this blog. When I write for Tecmo Blog (in case you don't know is the big blog I write for click on the link for more info) I try to be somewhat professional. When I write for this blog I get to talk in first person, ramble on about things in my life no one cares about and not overly worry about grammar. Most importantly I really enjoy re-reading my posts months later and remembering what was going on at that time in my life. So I have come to the conclusion that this blog is for me as much as it is for you. So with that in mind I am bringing it back. The goal is a lot more posting, especially about the random things going on in my life. It might be tough for the next month since school will be crazy, but once school is out I am all yours. With that in mind lets kick off this post:

I have no roomates. None, nada. Zilch. Just 10 days ago I had two other roommates lined up and was all set to move into the most awesome apartment complex I had ever laid eyes on (that I could afford) the Galleria Palms located right next to Arizona Mills. So what happened? Both my potential roommates are no longer looking for places to live and that leaves me high and dry with just about two months left on my lease. I have no options and a burning desire to somehow, someway find my self living in the Galleria Palms. Why is this apartment complex so awesome? Well lets just say when I went over to check out the Large's new apartment (he lives there) all we saw while standing on his balcony and drinking beer were hot girls. As we decided to check out the pool we met these people playing beer pong in the pool area and proceeded to dominate them in a game. Why do I want to leave my current apartment? Maybe it is because my window sits right on Baseline Rd (seriously) something that was not mentioned to me when I moved in. There are other reasons but lets just I am having a roommate crisis.

Finally my bar crew and I have managed to create the most incredibly awesome array of dance moves of all time. You may think they are horrible, but I defy you you ladies to not love them after:

• you have had a few drinks
• you are sick of the way 99% of guys dance
• you want to see something new or crazy

It is hard to type them out in a blog without physically showing you them, something I will not do unless I am in a social setting with some liquid courage in my hand. Next time you see me in this setting just ask to see "the lawnmower" the dance is sheer awesomeness. Thats all for now, see you on the dance floor.

TMNT

I, like most kids of my generation, I LOVED the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am pretty sure they were my life for my formidable years before I turned double digits. I can not count how many action figures I owned. I remember bragging with kids in school about how many times I had seen the original turtles movie in the theater, I think I said 5 and some kid bested me with 8 but these were totally untrue and just young kids exaggerating for effect. Then after the 3rd movie came out, even I remember that one being bad, the Turtles were pretty much done as a part of my life. The only exposure I had to them since was a few years ago at the Cottonwood house. It was 2am and a party had just died and I remember stumbling across the DVD of the first movie, putting it in and enjoying it throughly before I fell asleep about half way through. So what does all this senseless backstory mean? When I heard they were making a new one, almost 15 years since the last one came out, I decided I had to go see it. I owed it to my past self. If I did not see it and you traveled back in time and told the 8 year old version of me that I chose not to see a turtles movie he would be pissed! He might cut off his finger just to spite me now (damn crafty past Aaron!). So I saw it and now I must review it:

The movie takes place after the originals way back in the early 90s. Shredder is dead (many will be disappointed he does not appear in this movie) and the turtles have basically packed it in. Splinter sent Leonardo to train in Central America, but he has been gone for three years. While he has been gone Splinter has forbidden any surface fighting activity by the turtles. So they spend their time in different ways: Michaelangelo works kid's birthday parties, Donatello works as an IT phone help guy and Splinter watches soap operas. Raphael secretly moonlights as a crime fighting vigilantly. Yes these turtles world has changed, they don't really feel whole anymore. There is a scene were Raphael and Casey Jones (yeah he is back) reminisce about the old days. After a chance meeting with April in Central America, Leonardo decides to come back and is immediately at odds with Raphael (of course) who resents him because he left. Most of the movie focuses on their conflict but then gives way to the main story line. They must fight a bunch of ancient immortal stone generals who are trying to take over the world, you know classic Saturday morning cartoon stuff. The Climactic scenes were okay, but the rest of the movie was what I liked the most. Watching the turtles shake off their rust and slowly return to what we used to know them as. The movie has your same classic jokes, that may seem tired and worn to some but I would have been disappointed if they tried to change anything (they are very, very true to the classic characters you all remember).

The movie has an Incredibles feel to it in animation and humor. I was surprised to say I found myself laughing out loud a few times at the classic turtles shtick. I honestly did not think "throughly enjoyed it" were the words I was going to use to describe this movie. Then again the entire time I watched it I could not help but feel like past Aaron, there was no way he was NOT going to let me like this movie.
Grade: B+

Pure Awesomeness

I have resorted to posting youtube clips lately but hey for good reason. Consider this guy a lock to win my best character award in my TV awards blog this year as well as the sole reason I am going to buy a suit. Suit Up!

Hooch is Crazy!

An ode to the greatest minor character in TV show history. Is it a blessing or curse that he only appeared on three episodes?

300

I finally ended my movie embargo this weekend (first movie seen in the theater since Rocky Balboa) with a viewing of Frank Miller's 300. It seemed like a good choice, by the guy who created Sin City, about Spartan Warriors and lots of non stop action.

300 is about, you guessed it, 300 Spartan warriors who fight to fend off an attack from a much larger Persian army (historic estimates have it at about 300,000). The story follows King Leonadis' 300 men in non stop action. They slice and dice the enemies for two straight hours, only taking breaks for an uninteresting side story and to make wise cracks. The fighting is pretty awesome and really cool, but at some point it gives away to being kind of cheesy. In one scene an oncoming Persian Rhino is baring down on a Spartan solider with a spear. The solider throws the spear, kills the rhino that happens to come to a sliding halt with it's horns just inches away from the Spartan warrior. It was totally predictable, and would be cool if there were not already 20 other scenes like that. Yeah these Spartans are good, but no one is that good. We are also treated to a back story of Leonadis' wife, the Queen, pleading with the senate to send the Spartan army to his aide. The only reason this story, which never gets resolved, seems to be in the movie is to serve as a break in between action scenes. I think a better option would have been having a intermission screen, giving viewers time to go to the bathroom and get more popcorn.

Overall the movie is entertaining, it is two hours long but does not drag (except for the Queen scenes). The fighting starts soon, and the Persian army sends a bunch of cool looking bad guys the Spartans way. If you are in the mood for two hours of bashing, slashing, machismo then this is for you. This one is probably not for the girls.

Grade: B

I Love College Life

From time to time I like to hit you all with a random story from a random night. Last night, for example, I went to a random party. Well I feel a few things that happened last night needs documentation and since I rarely get a chance to post on this blog this is the best you are gonna get for a while! Last night J to the, Pro and I went to some random party (it was someone Pro knew but for all intent and purposes it was random). I ended up knowing a few people there but that is not relevant to the story. Basically the night can be broken down into three awesome stories:

• At the party was a video game called Guitar Hero. It is pretty popular, for those who don't know the controllers are guitars and you actually "play" to the music by pressing corresponding buttons on the guitar and what not. The game is a favorite of Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya. So I decided to give the game a try, jamming out to "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns and Roses. After a horrible start because I had no fucking clue what I was doing, I came on strong. So strong in fact I broke the game. The game froze. I said it was because I was so damn good, J to the claimed it was because "I was horrible" (actually it was because the game glitches on Sweet Child of Mine). Shortly after that some random girl arrived, championing her Guitar Hero skills developed from playing it at a Wal Mart one day. I naturally told her I would destroy her heads up (there is a heads up feature in the game) and I proceeded to. At one point I guess I accidentally paused the game during a key moment in her guitar rifting, in which she called me a cheater for pressing the start button. To which I replied "I didn't know guitars had start buttons." Good times. Either way I dominated her the first song, she then demanded a rematch. I chose "Freebird" forgetting the song is about 9 hours long. After a marathon session in which I beat her by about 20,000 points (a major ass kicking) I dropped the guitar and said "I told you once you son of a gun, I'm the best there ever was" (that was quoting Charlie Daniels in 'The Devil Goes Down to Georgia, and I actually didn't say that. Sadly I am not that awesome).
• Story number two of the night comes a few hours later when we are trying to figure out how we are going to get a ride home. Pro keeps promising to find us a ride, but in fact he is just bullshitting us and totally planning on passing out at the house. J to the steals an energy drink from fridge and says "I'll pound this energy drink, and then I'll walk home" (we are about 4 miles away from our house and its about 45 degrees outside, that ain't happening.) Shortly after this I get a phone call from the Large and I think to myself "maybe the Large can give us a ride home." However he is in Tuscon, super hammered and just keeps repeating "chea, chea chea, chea" before hanging up. There went that plan. Don't worry we got home safe and sound.
• When we finally got home and woofed down some random Mexican food we picked up on the way home, Pro suddenly darts outside onto the back patio. J to the and I both assume he is puking. When comes back in I ask him if he puked, but Pro responds "no, I was just recalibrating". What does this mean? We have no idea. We don't believe him. Pro repeats, "I didn't puke, I was just recalibrating." To which J to the responds, "Are you a fucking joystick?" Maybe the greatest response to anything ever. When I asked Pro about this today, he had no recollection of this conversation (actually his exact words were, WTF is recalibrating)

Those three stories made it one hell of a night. I knew there was a reason I stayed in college.

Enough With Health Foods!

I was walking across campus today accompanied by the sounds of my stomach rumbling and decide to stop and get some lunch, sadly my lunch was a bag of Ruffles I got out of the vending machine. On the bag was a label that proudly read: "made with 100% real sunflower juice". What the hell does that mean? Even worse this kind of stuff is everywhere! Countless snack foods are littered with the phrase "0 grams Trans fat". Of course look at the nutrition facts on these foods and they still have high amounts of fat and cholesterol, but hey there is no Trans fat! It does not matter what you eat today anyway, everything is bad. Unless you grow it and cook it organically without any flavor the food you are eating is probably bad for you, or so it seems. I go by the simple slogan, the less taste the healthier it is. What about Michelob Ultra? Apparently it is a low carb beer that people think they can binge drink on and not get a beer gut. Do not get me started on carbs, my rant would grow to long. I blame all of this stuff on Subway. Subway started running adds (earlier this century) about how much healthier they were then some stores. They said they were much healthier than McDonalds, then proceeded to prove their point by matching up their healthiest sub (some no taste sub with no cheese or any goodies on it) to McDonald's most unhealthy menu item, the Big Mac. Never mind McDonalds has a number of menu items comparable to Subway's taste free healthy sub, but Subway also has a number of menu items comparable to McDonalds cholesterol filled Big Mac. But McDonalds is the bad guy? I just miss when someone used to tell me what to eat and made all my meals, that was an easier day. I did not make any decisions. In fact I want that back, I think I am going to hire a cook. Anyone out there want to work for low wages making me food every day?

Fiesta Bowl

When you get the pleasure of watching unbelievable fantastic games like the Fiesta Bowl was tonight, well you just realize why you spend all that time following sports, watching sports and living and dying sports. Tonight’s game was it; this is what we live for. That game is the justification of why us sports nuts do what we do. I was rooting for Boise State because they were the underdog and I think they are actually a pretty darn good football team. I think people might say Bob Stoops didn’t have his team ready to play but I think Boise State was just that good. Maybe Oklahoma had more talent but when you get guys that match your system perfectly, well that is better than having superior talent. All I know was Oklahoma was playing their asses off at the end of the game. I also know that Boise should have won it running away, up 28-10 in the 2nd half. Those last few minutes well let me just say:
I didn’t think Paul Johnson had what it took to lead OU down the field like so give him credit for picking apart the Boise defense that seemed really tired. Another thing that will be forgotten was the three two point conversion attempts. The first one failing but OU getting another chance because of a Boise State penalty, then the second one succeeding but waived off due to that OU penalty and then the third one succeeding. That was just awesome drama alone right there. I felt crushed for Boise State after the interception return, which would have been a horrible way to go out. As for the insane hook and later play that tied the game, well let’s just say that might have been the most awesome play I had ever seen at the time and I didn’t expect to not even be the best play of the game when it was all said and done. What is going to get lost in the shuffle was the awesome 25 yard TD run by Adrian Peterson on the first play of OT to put the Sooners up. Then Boise tries to come back with what looked to be a flea flicker before the play got busted up. My head was spinning when I saw QB Jared Zabransky go into motion on what was then the most critical play in the history of Boise state football yet they still score the TD with their stud QB lining up in the slot. Bottom line was the statue of liberty play they ran to win the game was the coolest designed play I have ever seen in college football. Simply amazing and to top it off Ian Johnson gets engaged during the post game interview. That, my friends, is a textbook Hollywood ending. Will someone make a movie about this team? Because if they don’t I will.

Simply Amazing, congrats Boise State! Seeing a small town school from the West Coast excel in the big time stage is something I always love.

My Thoughts on Rocky VI

Although I already wrote a review on Double the Blog's sister blog Tecmo Blog (the word blog appeared three times in that sentence folks) I have more to say.
Warning: This is not a review of Rocky Balboa, it is a commentary on the movie. Therefore it will contain spoilers so its probably best not to read it until you have seen the movie.

That being said . . .

I’ve now seen Rocky Balboa twice and after weeks of hype by me (and the Large) it has lived up to my expectations. I think it is a fantastic movie. Part of me was hoping for a cheesy, all action no real story flick (a la Rocky III and IV). What Sly gave us was a back to your roots Rocky, a character study that was much like the original. The movie is touching right off the bat, as we realize Rocky no longer had Adrian and his son avoids him. When he goes on the tour of Philly to all the past places we know and love from the original Rocky you can’t help but feel nostalgic. I couldn’t help but feel sad for Rocky, despite the fact that he owns his own restaurant he really does not seem to have much going for him in life except is storied past. From time to time we get a little back story of Mason Dixon, but it is never enough. The movie barely touched on his life other then he is a not well liked champion. He is the least charismatic of any of the Rocky “villains” and it is not Tarver’s fault. There was really nothing in the script that dug deep into the core of Dixon. He doesn’t really come off as a good villain, like Apollo Creed did in the first Rocky. Nor do you hate him, like you did Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago. This would have worked just fine, not everyone can be a hero or villain, if they would have studied his character more.
There are some quirks in the movie that many didn’t seem to like but I thought were kind of funny. Although Steps didn’t seem to have much of a roll in the movie, I thought it was funny how he went from meeting Rocky, to being at the fight press conference to being in Rocky’s corner all in what seemed to be a matter of days. Pauley is still golden; I don’t think his character will ever get old. He shows some rare compassion in this movie, when he agonizes over how he treated Adrian badly when she was alive. Rocky had three real big cheesy speeches in this movie and I liked all of them actually. When he opens up and even starts to cry in the meat locker while talking to Pauley, that makes you realize that life has beaten down this once great champion and you feel for him. It makes you realize why he would want to fight again. I also enjoyed his speech to the boxing commission after they denied him a license, because it made sense. The best speech was the one he gave his whining, sniveling son. I didn’t like Rocky Jr. in this movie, maybe because I have never liked the character or maybe because you weren’t supposed to like him. He tries his best to talk his dad out of the fight because he is sick of living in his shadow. Instead of Rocky taking a step back (like he would have done with Adrian) he rips into his son for acting like a coward and letting life beat him down. Rocky tells him, “Its not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep getting up”. It’s a good line I thought.
With Rocky somewhat lost in life he decides to try and fight again, of course. People say it’s a joke, Rocky Jr even mentions how Rocky has become a joke to everyone right before he gets the aforementioned speech. One could assume Sly had the same conversation with his real life son, Sage Stallone (who turned down a chance to reprise his roll as Rocky’s son in this movie even though he has no film career what-so-ever). Rocky decides to fight anyway; he doesn’t care what people think. Sly decided to make Rocky VI anyway for his own sake, he didn’t care what people thought. All this makes for an interesting enough movie leading up to the training scene. But once we hear the trainer Duke talking about building “hurting bombs” and “blunt force trauma” well now things are really getting going. Then the classic “Gonna Fly Now” music blares as we enter the famous training montage (too short by the way) and it is officially a Rocky movie. I enjoyed the training montage because the first part of it shows Rocky really struggling with his workouts but he eventually gets better.
The actual fight is an interesting one, unlike any other Rocky fight in terms of presentation. It feels like an actual HBO PPV fight with screen graphics, Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman calling the fight (even some Michael Buffer too). During the fight montage we switch from color to black and white shots. The fight begins with Dixon destroying Rocky, making him look as old and week as he probably is. I got depressed, it was sad to see an icon like Rocky looking helpless in the ring. Finally the fight turns in the 2nd round when Dixon breaks his hand punching Rocky and Rocky unleashes a fury of body shots that knock him down. The crowd in the theater actually started to cheer (me included), it was awesome. I know you all know the rest of the fight, but the best scene in the entire movie is in the tenth round when Dixon lands a devastating blow that knocks Rocky back. His vision is blurred, he can barely stand but he recalls the speech he gave to his son (about how hard you can get it) and yells at himself to get up and he does, much to Dixon’s dismay. That was a great scene. In between rounds Rocky Jr yells “The whole world thought this was a joke, I thought this was a joke. No one is laughing now” Same could be said about the movie itself.

Tony Romo is my Idol for now . . .

I can confidently say I am a Tony Romo fan and the more the Cowboys lose the longer I will remain a fan. Let’s go over why I originally liked Romo: When he first started he basically threw every ball to TO, who at the time was on my fantasy team and helping me through a dominating stretch were I was scoring at will. Well then Romo apparently was going out with Jessica Simpson. For those that don’t know me I am a big fan of her (looks wise) even though she is probably an incredibly annoying person (maybe a reason their rumored relationship didn’t go anywhere?) But now he apparently

has something going on with Carrie Underwood. I was a fan of Mrs. Underwood since I first saw her on American Idol and she was the only reason I watched that season (I am not an American Idol watcher, but I also am not an American Idol hater). So basically Tony Romo is running through all the women that are my “who are your top five women” list. This is amazing, I envy this man. When the Cowboys started to win the press (ESPN) basically decided to run every Romo story possible and I was pretty sure I was going to get incredibly sick of him. However the Cowboys started to struggle, the Romo talk kind of died and the Carrie Underwood thing happened. So basically I am back on the bandwagon and ready to see who else he runs through on my list (like Kristen Kruek or Erin Andrews maybe?). Still if the Cowboys make it to the Super Bowl all bets are off. Two whole weeks of TO and Romo stories would make me commit suicide. I would not even be able to turn on ESPN once during that time. What’s the bottom line of this random blog entry? Tony Romo is my idol for now.

One Awesome Weekend

I have the rare distinction of being both a college graduate and a college student. I for one love it. Quick side note on my life, I graduated college on Saturday, but I am going back to pursue a second bachelor’s degree and get teacher certification so basically I will be attending ASU for another two and a half years. This is awesome for two reasons:

a) I get to live the college dream for another few years

b) When I do graduate I get to become a social studies teacher, someone is going to pay me to work 180 days out of the year, talk about history, geography and stuff and regulate kids (and hopefully make a difference in their life!). I could not be more pumped up.

Okay enough with my future; I am here to communicate with you what has been one of the most intense weekends of my life. Well a lot of my “crew” was graduating this weekend so it was intense. Lots of alcohol, I mean a lot. On Thursday night it was the Ed’s graduation dinner. It was pretty formal, a lot of family and friends. All I know is I got to go up and tell a story about the Large (not the one I actually wanted to tell because in that story he is drunk and I don’t know if family would have appreciated that story) and eat free food. Then Mr. Hermes (his dad) decided to buy Bjorn, Praj, Mondo, Justin and I beer all night long. The dinner was in a hotel so he bought us about four rounds of Bud Lights then we proceeded to Tilt a Kilt (a bar) where he gave us a hundred dollar bill and told us to buy more beer. So basically he is True American Hero and will forever be awesome in our eyes. I must recommend Blue Moon with an orange slice, quite possibly the greatest beer ever brewed. For some odd reason the Tilt a Kilt closed at like 12:15, their loss I guess.

Friday night was even more intense. My office had a Christmas party at this bar in Scottsdale, there was an open bar. So all their crazy $10 dollar mixed drinks were free! I started off with a Mai Tai but decided that, since I had to graduate tomorrow, to switch to beer because mixed drinks would get me really hung over. The party started at 8; by 1130 I had my share of beers and mixed drinks and was ready to meet up with the crew down at Mill Avenue. My boss kindly paid for my cab ride and down to mill I went to meet up with an all star crew (Colorado Justin, Justin, Baker, Bjorn, Easy E, Josh, Laura, Mondo, Ed and his sister and cousins.) The night ended with random dancing at the Tavern and a lot of alcoholic intake by me. I had to turn in at 3am due to my graduation ceremonies the next day.

So by Saturday night I was done, but we were having a graduation/birthday party for Scottie that involved a lot of drinking. I tried my best but after three beers I just could not take the drinking anymore, call me weak but three consecutive nights of drinking took their toll on me. I have a party to go to tonight that I am going to have to skip; I can’t stomach any more liquor.

So that was one crazy graduation weekend, I had a lot of fun, hung out with old friends, drank a lot more then I never normally do, all while having the dual distinction of being a college graduate and continuing student. So what does the future have in store for me? Well next semester is all about dominating my studies while living the college dream. I hope to keep you all updated. Aaron OUT!

Casino Royale

Casino Royale was so close to being the best Bond movie ever and it was so close to being a great movie that it is sad it was not either. For those that don’t know, the Bond franchise dumped Pierce Brosnan and their special effects filled, story deprived crappy movies they had churned out since Golden Eye (a very good movie). They replaced it with a back to basics, no-nonsense, gritty origin story that was almost perfect. Daniel Craig was a great choice to play Bond, he does it very well. Gone is the corny, cheese ball, walked straight out of a comic book Bond that Brosnan’s character had become. Craig’s bond is ruthless; he is a good guy with a mean streak that could make him the greatest villain in the Bond series if he wanted to swing that way. He is not a noble spy; he is just a man that is very good at his job: killing people. There is no Q in this movie, no super unrealistic gadgets (like cars that shoot missiles from its headlights), the most advance technology they really seem to use is a tracking beacon injected into Bond’s skin and text messaging. The story is good, the acting is good, and the characters are great. So what went wrong? The ending. If you quit watching right after the poker game (I’m not giving anything away it’s in the plot description) you will leave thinking it truly was a great movie. The 30 minutes after that is so confusing, kind of boring and pretty unrealistic (for a movie that had been as realistic as any Bond movie could be). So many twists and turns and different bad guys come into play in the last half hour I had no clue what was going on. In the end I felt they killed an awesome movie, knocking it down to “good” status. Still worth seeing, it is still a very good movie. Plus the movie was great previews, including Rocky VI and Spider-Man 3.
Grade: B+ (A- if you take out the last 30 minutes, A+ of you take out the last 30 minutes and factor in the awesome previews).

A quick non Bond related note. Jay Z’s new hit song “Show Me What You Got” is not that bad of a song but it is being killed, in my opinion, by the commercialization of it. Whenever I hear that song I think of Jay Z rollin’ down the highway with Dale Earnhart Jr and Dannica Patrick. Is this his new crew? There is no way he rolls with these two. I doubt he even drinks Bud, doesn’t he drink Cristal? Or used to anyway. Still that commercial ruins what was an ok song to me. I just thought I would share that.

It Must Be Said

I feel the very need to communicate a few random thoughts from my weekend so here we go. First off I had an interesting Saturday; actually it might be seen as the exact opposite of interesting but that is for you to decide. I am sure everyone is really happy that election season is almost over because I am so incredibly sick of political ads. Gag me, seriously. Some of them are just stupid, like John Kyl’s attack ads on Jim Pederson stating he denied filing for bankruptcy five times even though he did actually file for good old chapter eleven a few years back. Look I have no idea if that actually happened or not, but lets assume it did. Who cares! I am supposed to not vote for a guy who filed for bankruptcy and is trying to cover it up, hey I would do the same thing right? Alright that probably did not make much sense but you get my drift. There is so much random smut thrown around this time of year I do not think anyone really knows what is true. So you know what I would like to see? I completely crazy political ad. Maybe Harry Mitchell can come up with an ad that goes something like this:
“Hi, I’m Harry Mitchell and I approve this ad because JD Hayworth sucks dick. Seriously, I have proof. He sucks dick and takes it in the ass. You don’t want a dick sucker as a congressman.”

This would be somewhat amusing wouldn’t it? JD Hayworth could counter with an attack ad about how Harry Mitchell kills newborn babies and bathes in their blood. We are all unsure what’s true anymore anyways, so let’s make some crazy shit up! There is going to come a point someday where politics is going to merge with wrestling and when this happens it will be the greatest day in history. I can picture it now; let me give you an example. I went to a democratic rally on ASU’s campus on Thursday to see former president Bill Clinton speak and support the democratic candidates. When politics and wrestling combine here is what would happen: Clinton would stroll up to a podium, say hello and then rip off his suit to reveal underneath a shirt supporting republic senate candidate John Kyl. The crowd would gasp and the announcer for the rally, because there would have to be one, would shout in fake horror: “Oh my God! Oh my God! Clinton just turned to the Republican side! I have never, EVER seen something so HORRIBLE!” This is the world I dream about kids, hopefully someday it happens.

Finally I want to wrap it up with a few non political thoughts. I was in the SRC today (ASU’s gym for you non-believers) and I saw a blind man with a Seeing Eye kid. No I did not type that wrong, I was not trying to type Seeing Eye dog. The blind man had a child on a leash (one of those harness things ya know) and the kid was guiding him around. You don’t see that to often. And finally, I was in Target today when I saw something very awesome. Right next to the Oreos was a box of cookies tilted “Newman-Os.” They were Oreo knockoffs, organically made with like low fat, no cholesterol and I am sure no taste. The best part was on the front of the bag, under the Newman-Os sign and picture of two old people titled “Ma and Pa Newman” were the words “Paul Newman donates millions of dollars to charity”. That is all it said, so basically someone made Diet-Oreos with a box hyping up Paul Newman’s philanthropist tic skills. What world we live in.

Aaron's Iron Laws of Partying

I will be leaving the wonderful world of college in a few months since I graduate in December, so as my gift to all current and soon to be college students I give you Aaron’s Iron Laws of Partying. Two quick notes, I am maybe the last person on Earth to be giving party laws but I am going to anyway and I call them Iron Laws because people will pay more attention to them. So here we go. Also important note this is from a guy’s perspective.

Iron Law #1: A Keg Does Not Make a Party

How many times has a friend called you up and told you he was at a party, so you decide to leave your perfectly comfortable living space, stop watching that great TV show you were watching, figure out what clothes to wear and drive all the way to this “party” only to find out its six dudes playing beer pong near a keg. Just because you have your friends over and have a keg that does not mean it’s a party nor gives you the right to call it a party.

Iron Law #2: Classify Your Party

Teenagers got something right, they classify their parties. It’s a party or a kickback. These are two terms are closely related but shed a huge amount of light on what you are actually doing. A party is 20 people or more, a kickback is less then that. But we don’t call it kickbacks because we are not teenage girls so instead we say “chillin” or as the Cottonwood House made famous a “box social”. So if you have a keg and 10 people, you are chillin’ with your friends NOT throwing a party. Okay? Good.

Iron Law #3: Guy to Girl Ratio

There is really only one statistic you can use when trying to figure out if a party is good and that is guy to girl ratio. If the ratio is over 2:1 (and that’s the absolute maximum) you do not have a party. What you have is what is referred to as a sausage fest and no one wants to go to a sausage fest.

Iron Law #4: Entertainment Must be Provided

A keg is all the entertainment I need but you can’t call yourself a party without any of these three things: cards, a card table and a beer pong table. You may be able to get away without one, but without all three and your party’s classification changes to a chillin’ (unless it is really big).

Iron Law #5: Forgive and Forget

Sometimes it’s just not happening. Your friend tells you there is going to be a party so you go. The party has all the elements, a keg, peer pong table and drinking games. However there are about 10 guys to every girl and only 20 people there. Sometimes people have the best intentions but their parties can’t get off the ground, it’s not their fault it was just a bad night to be partying.

There you go, 5 Iron Laws of partying from someone who has thrown one party in his life and ended up ditching his own party to go to the neighbor’s party. But hey, one could say I have observed the masters of the Old Cottonwood house for three great years.