Double Your Animated Fun

I've watched a couple of Animated movies with my kids lately.  So, I guess I should review them.

"Toy Story 3":  The third, and I think final, movie in the "Toy Story" franchise from Pixar is my least favorite of the three movies.  With that said, it's still a good movie...4 stars.  Disney/Pixar has managed to bring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen back for three of these movies, and I have to say that I'm grateful for that.  Without the same vocal talent, it's just not the same movie.

In "Toy Story 3", Andy is off to college, and the toys are facing the reality of life ahead of them.  When they are mistakenly donated to a day care, the toys learn the harsh reality of life on the inside.  Can our heroes make it back to Andy in time?  Will they ever be played with again?  Well, you have to watch to find out.

"Hoodwinked Too:  Hood vs. Evil":  My kids were really excited about this one.  We really liked the original "Hoodwinked", so my wife and I were looking forward to it as well.  Sadly, we were very disappointed.  "Hood vs. Evil" is only a 2 star movie.

For starters, Anne Hathaway is not back as the voice of Red, which really bugged me.  Hayden Pantierre is ok, but the change in voices just threw me.  Secondly, it just felt like the producers/directors were just going for cheap laughs rather than any substance.  Finally, the story just wasn't that good.  Everything just fell really flat with "Hood vs. Evil."

Not the Broncos of Old

This post was actually requested by a friend/reader that lives in Colorado.  So, in the interest of keeping one of my 11 readers happy, here's my blog about the Denver Broncos, and Tim Tebow. 

First off, with the NFL season starting tonight, let's just face it...the Broncos are going to be terrible!  If I were a bandwagon fan like Nuke and rooted for teams that win all the time, I wouldn't be a Broncos fan.  I'd be a Steelers fan, and I'd probably predict a Super Bowl title.  As it is, I'm predicting 4-12 for my Denver Broncos, so one more win than last season.  I'm basing this on the fact that I think John Fox is a slightly better coach than Josh McDaniels, and I think the schedule is slightly easier this year.

As far as the team...it's awful.  Yes, they added Von Miller at Line Backer, but he's still a rookie.  And yes, Elvis Dumervil is back from injury, but they still have way too many problems.  Here's the problems I see:

1 - The Defensive line is not good.  Line backers are not free to do the things that they need to do if they have to tackle running backs 5 yards down the field all the time.

2 - The Offensive line is unproven.  Maybe they'll surprise me, but I wouldn't want to be a Quarterback for the Broncos this season.

3 - They are still relying on Knowshon (don't call me Slowshon) Moreno as their #1 running back.  The guy looks like he's running in quick sand all the time.

4 - The secondary is old.

5 - The wide receivers are unproven and probably overrated.

6 - Kyle Orton is not the long term answer at Quarterback.

So, I got to the sixth problem before I got to Quarterback, which is the position most fans want to talk about.  A year ago, the Broncos drafted Tim Tebow in the 1st round.  Tebow is definitely the most polarizing figure in all of football.  The left in this country hates him, because he's a good, upstanding Christian kid, who was probably taken too early in the draft.  The right in this country loves him for the same reasons.  Tebow is definitely not the prototypical NFL Quarterback.  But, it's not his fault he was taken early in the draft, and it's not his fault that the offseason was lost due to labor issues.  The bottom line is that nobody deserves the criticism Tebow has gotten.  If an African American QB were criticized the way Tim Tebow has been criticized, the sports media in this country would have a field day with the criticizers.  But, since it's a white, Christian kid, the criticism goes largely ignored.

I hope Tim Tebow is successful.  My eyes tell me he won't be, but I hope I'm wrong.  I do not understand the team's decision to play Kyle Orton over Tim Tebow.  We know exactly what Kyle Orton is...he's a system Quarterback who can win with a strong defense and running game.  On this team, he will win 3-4 games this season.  By starting Orton this season, the team is just prolonging the inevitable.  They have sold way too many Tebow jersey's not to give the kid a shot.  Whether it's this season or next, Tim Tebow must be given a shot to succeed in Denver.  And I, for one, think that shot should come this season.  Throw him out there and see if he can perform.  He's surprised people his entire life...who's to say he won't surprise us once again.

So there you go...my pessimistic, rambling Broncos preseason blog.  Go Team!

In The Beginning...

There was Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnserr.  It's the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Marvel universe is just learning about the existence of Mutants.  In "X-Men: First Class" we see the beginning for the famed Marvel X-Men, and the genesis of the villain Magneto.

As I said above, this movie is set in the early 1960s.  Erik Lehnserr (Michael Fassbender) is hunting the Nazis responsible for his imprisonment and his mother's death.  While seeking out the man he most blames for his mother's death (played by none other than Kevin Bacon), Lehnserr meets Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and a friendship is formed.  But, Lehnserr and Xavier have different ideas about the futures of Mutant Kind and Human Kind that comes to a head at the Bay of Pigs.  Out of this event, Professor X and Magneto are born.

I really enjoyed "X-Men: First Class".  I watched it while on the plane back from Brazil last week.  While not as good as the other Marvel movie of the summer, "Thor", "First Class" is one of the better X-Men movies.  The story was great, and while it was an action film, there were some humorous moments, including a cameo by Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and several hair jokes by Charles Xavier (in the X-Men movies set later, Xavier is played by bald actor Patrick Stewart).

James McAvoy continues to be a fantastic actor.  From Mr. Tumnus to Charles Xavier, he gives his all to every role.  This was the first time I've seen Michael Fassbender in a movie, and he was terrific as Lehnserr/Magneto.  At times, he really steals the show.  Finally, any movie with Kevin Bacon is automatically excellent because we have another movie we can use for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

"X-Men: First Class" is a 4 to 4.5 star movie.  If you are an X-Men fan or a fan of Marvel comics in general, give this movie a shot.

Famously Good

Ok, I'm probably going to catch grief for this one, but I really like Famous Dave's Barbecue.  I know it's a chain BBQ restaurant, and I'm sure those from the south will tell me that it's not nearly as good as the BBQ you get in Memphis or Texas or Kansas City.  But as a guy who grew up in the midwest who just wants some good hickory smoked ribs or pulled pork, it's pretty darn good.

This weekend, we were outta town in a locale that is not exactly a BBQ hot spot.  My family all really likes BBQ, especially my 10 year old.  He loves Famous Dave's spare ribs.  So, last night we went to Famous Dave's, and it was sooooooooo good.  I had the Georgia Chopped Pork, which I smothered in Rich and Sassy sauce.  I got the Spicy Green Beans and BBQ Chips as my sides.  I love to dip the BBQ chips in the different sauces.  My mouth is watering right now thinking about how good it was.

Some other items around the table included Baby Back Ribs, Spare Ribs and BBQ chicken.  Also, Buffalo Wings...they have really good Buffalo Wing sauce at Famous Dave's.  All of the food was very good. 

I still look forward to getting to take a trip to the south for some "real BBQ", and I'm planning to get a smoker and learn a little more BBQ cooking myself.  But, for now, when I'm in the midwest and I see a Famous Dave's, it will be very hard for me to pass it by. 

Movie Review: Enemy At the Gates

My Netflix queue is definitely deficient right now in movies I really want to see.  "Enemy At The Gates" is one that Netflix figured I'd give 3.5 stars, so I gave it a shot.  It's not a bad movie, but there were enough things that I didn't like or that made me uncomfortable for me to drop this from 4 stars to 3.

"Enemy At The Gates" stars Jude Law as Vasilli Zaitsev, a renowned Russian Sniper during World War II.  I believe this movie is loosely based on actual events, though the movie is largely fiction.  When the Russians start using Zaitsev as propaganda during the war, the best German Sniper, Major Konig (Ed Harris) comes to Russia to kill Zaitsev.  What follows is a battle of wits between the 2 snipers that ends in the death of one of them.

Like I said in the opening, there were a few parts of this movie that I didn't like.  The opening 15 minutes is really hard to watch, and I nearly shut the movie off.  Additionally, I was sort of annoyed that all the Russians spoke with a British accent...come on, it's not that hard to do a Russian accent.  But, there were enough redeeming moments for me to rate this 3 stars.  The battles between Zaitsev and Konig are done very well.  And, for the most part, Ed Harris didn't annoy me like he often does.

I don't know if I'd recommend this.  I think if you like movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and other WWII movies, you might like this, but be prepared for some hard things to watch.

Why Not Jack?

It's pretty much official now that I'm a weekend blogger.  When I get home at night, I just don't feel like being on the computer.  Next week, I'll be on business travel all week, and then we'll be outta town for the weekend, so I might get one more blog in before a pretty long hiatus by my standards.  Though, if my energy level allows, I may blog while I'm on my trip.

Anyway, this blog is not about my lack of blogging.  This blog is about the pick of Tiger Woods to be on the US President's Cup team.  Fred Couples, the team captain, said that Tiger is the best player forever and had to be picked.  I hate to disagree with Fred Couples...he's a likable guy, but he's flat out wrong with this pick.  Tiger is not the Tiger of old...Tiger isn't even in the top 15 Americans right now.  I could name off at least 15 Americans that I'd rather have on the team before I get to Tiger.  In his last 2 events, he finished T-37th and missed the cut...those finishes coming off 4 months off due to injury.

But, if I use Couples' logic, then why not take Jack Nicklaus for the team.  Sure, he's in his 70's now and can't play anywhere near how he used to play, but Jack Nicklaus has more career wins than Tiger Woods and more career majors.  Jack is obviously the greatest player ever, so shouldn't he be on the team too? 

I wish I could take credit for that one, but a friend at work made that point last week.  I thought it was great, so I used it.  This pick doesn't make any sense to me, and it's not just because I'm not a Tiger fan.  I enjoy the President's Cup and I'd like to see America win.  I believe that to do that, we need our current 12 best players on the team...not our 12 best of all time.

Another of the Things That Make Me Go Hmmm...

Last night, my wife and I watched the movie "Tristan and Isolde", which was billed to me as a love story with sword fighting and battles and such.  Well, it's not...it's a star-crossed love story with a few moments of action, followed by long moments of heartache and sorrow.  I only rate it 2 stars, because I'm a happily-ever-after kind of guy.

This got me wondering...why do people like to watch movies and read stories that end poorly?  Why do we want to end up sad or scared or both?  I've never been a fan of movies that have sad endings, and I'm also not a fan of horror movies, and frankly, I don't understand people who are.  If I'm going to invest 2 hours of my time into something, I'd rather laugh than cry, and I'd rather my heart start pumping because of action as opposed to something scary.

This is another blog without any real point, other than to wonder in writing about things that I think are weird about other people.  I guess to each his own.  I'll stick with my over the top action films and sappy happily-ever-after stories, and the crazies out there can watch their horror films and shows with sad endings.