Movie Preview - June 2012

The month of May has come to an end, which means its time to look forward to the variety of movies that come out in the month of June. This past month was quite the amazing month, unless you were a movie maker not involved with the Avengers trying to make money on the movie you released in May. The Avengers dominated May and has already made it past $500M domestically and in a few days from now it will pass The Dark Knight's total to get the number 3 spot on the all time domestic chart. Worldwide it is about to pass Harry Potter 7.2 for third on that chart as well with $1.3B. This all in a month. Now it is currently ahead of Avatar and Titanic's pace thus far, but that won't last much longer. With that huge success, the only other movie to perform decently well is Men in Black III this past weekend. All the other major releases - Dark Shadows, Battleship, What to Expect When Your Expecting, The Dictator, and Chernobyl Diaries - have all been disappointing.  June, on the other hand, won't be lopsided like this. It will be much different as there several movies that should all be decent hits with no surefire dominant movie. It'll be a good change of pace before we see Batman and Spiderman dominate July.

June 1st - 3rd - The first weekend of June isn't always a great spot for movies to premier because typically there will several big May movies going strong with at least one or two big hits the last weekend. Well, as mentioned above, this isn't quite the case this year. Avengers has slowed down enough and Men in Black III won't be a huge obstacle for the first potentially big movie of June, Snow White and the Huntsman. Now this is the second of two Snow White movies, but the other one, Mirror Mirror, was a joke. This one looks like the real deal as the Huntsman looks like it is combining Snow White with Lord of the Rings in an awesome action packed Snow White movie that will probably be closer to the Grimm Brother's Snow White as opposed to the nice Disney version. A star-filled cast will lead the way in this with Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron as the lead roles. Most have been worried about Kristen Stewart getting the Snow White role, but early reviews say that she redeems herself after the her awful job in Twilight as Bella. The only other new wide release this weekend is For Greater Glory. This movie is a foreign film from Mexico and while it is a wide release, it is barely a wide release and won't make a huge dent in the weekend. Starring Eva Longoria as the biggest name here in the states, it is a movie about the Cristeros War.

June 8th - 10th - The second weekend in June provides us with an interesting battle for the top spot. First up is Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. The first two Madagascar movies both had decent openings and with both of them being well liked, the third installment should be a popular choice amongst families, especially those with younger kids who adore the Madagascar characters. It is the first animated family movie of the summer and with no competition via other family movies, it should fare well at least until Brave comes out two weeks later. Fighting against Madagascar 3 for that top spot is the highly anticipated Prometheus. Prometheus has been hyped up for quite some time now and seems to be rather mysterious as it claims to be some sort of prequel to the Alien movies. It is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, and Charlize Theron in her second June movie in as many weeks. It recently got slapped with an R rating which shouldn't be too surprising given that the Alien movies were all rated R as well, but that fact could effect it's box office totals. It won't hit the huge blockbuster level that some people thought as only ten R rated movies have ever topped $200M with only one of those passing the $300M mark, but it should make a decent ripple in June. A win over Madagascar this weekend wouldn't be surprising and is what most people expect, but it should be a close race.

June 15th - 17th - Father's Day weekend this year brings us a few interesting choices. First up is the musical Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages is made by the same director who brought you Hairspray five years ago and is based on the Broadway show. It takes us on a nostalgic trip back to the musical world of the 80's. So those who love 80's music should enjoy this, unless of course you are not a fan of the lifestyle of 80's musicians, because it dives into that as well. It has quite the cast in it with Tom Cruize playing the lead role of fictional rocker Stacee Jaxx and along with Cruize is Malin Akerman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, and more. In the trailer it claims that it features the music of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, and Twisted Sister. I imagine it will also bring more as well. Challenging Rock of Ages will be Adam Sandler with his new comedy That's My Boy. Now Sandler is generally good at attracting people to the theaters to see his movies. There will always be the typical Sandler fans that will go every time. Now he is also pretty good at avoiding the R rating with his comedies even when several of them have deserved it. This one however did not avoid it and got slapped with an R, so it will be interesting to see how much of that Sandler crowd will still go. Despite that it should be in good shape as the summer always brings a few popular R rated comedies. In this movie Sandler is back as his crazy psycho self as he plays a father who has a son in his early teens and after several years apart comes back into his life right before his son's wedding. It fits the Father's Day theme, so it might be a popular choice on Father's Day.

June 22nd - 24th - The last two weeks of June provide a plethora of movies as they all try to race and earn money before Spiderman and Batman take control of the Box Office in July. The final weekend of June provides four new releases and this fourth weekend has three. The biggest release of this weekend, which will also most likely be the top grossing movie of June, is Pixar's Brave. Now Pixar typically has a very good track record. Before last year's Cars 2, Pixar had a 9 movie streak stemming back to Toy Story 2 in 1999 where every movie they released topped $200M. Now, $191M isn't bad for a movie, but out of all Pixar's movies, the only movie that grossed less was 1998's A Bug's Life. Adjusting for inflation, Cars 2 is officially the least grossing Pixar movie and rightfully so. It was a terrible movie. But Brave should pick up where Pixar left off before the Cars 2 disaster as it looks like a fun, original movie with a tagline that reminds me a bit of Megamind. "If you had the chance to change your fate, would you?" By original, I mean a non-sequel because the change-your-fate idea in a movie isn't original, but Brave should a fun movie still and should put Pixar back on track. The second movie this weekend is a rather ridiculous one. My hope is that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will kill off the vampire craze that has been going on in Hollywood for the last several years. Now this movie is based off the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, I hear the book is an interesting one and the movie could very well be a good, fun action movie, but the premise of the movie just makes me laugh every time I think about it and watch the trailer. The problem with that is that I know its not supposed to be a comedy. Come on, Abraham Lincoln hunting vampires? That is hilariously ridiculous. Moving on, the final movie of the weekend is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Hmmm... I wonder where they got the idea for that movie? This is the second R rated comedy of the month and stars Steve Carell and Keira Knightley and is what it sounds like. The world is ending and after the guy's wife leaves him, he goes and searches for his high school sweetheart.

June 29th - July 1st - This final weekend of June (yes, it does include one day of July) was supposed to be the GI Joe 2 weekend, but they wisely decided to postpone their release because coming out at this time would warrant a domestic gross of $50M - $75M max. Released next March it actually has a chance at crossing $100M. But now with it out of the way, it will be a complete grab bag for the top spot this weekend, which could very well end up being a 2nd win in a row for Brave. In competition to steal the throne from Brave will be two comedies, a drama, and a comedy/drama. Out of the four, the one that I imagine will draw the most attention is Ted. This is heavily marketed as the first motion picture from the creators of Family Guy. This is certain to unite the many Family Guy fans around the country as well as any other person who wants to watch an R rated comedy about a guy and his crazy talking teddy bear. It stars Mark Wahlberg as lead role and includes three people from Family Guy, including Seth MacFarlane himself as the voice of Ted the teddy bear. Movie number two is Magic Mike. This is the second R rated comedy of the weekend and fourth in three weeks. Not all of them will be huge, but one or two of them might break out and it will be interesting to see which ones will and which ones will flop. Magic Mike features Channing Tatum in his third major movie in the last four months. It is about Channing Tatum being a male stripper, which is totally appeasing (yes, that was sarcastic). This is also the movie that is a drama as well, so it might have more depth to it than Channing Tatum dancing around half naked in front of girls. If this kind of thing is for you, then be my guest. The movie that I think sounds most interesting this weekend is  People Like Us. Unfortunately it probably won't be the most popular movie of the month, but it could be a surprise hit, you never know. It's an interesting family drama where a man is asked to deliver $150,000 of his deceased father's fortune to his sister that he has never met. And of course some crazy plot twists happen along the way. It has an interesting cast of Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Banks, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The last movie of the weekend I think is useless. Tyler Perry Madea's Witness Protection. If you like these movies, then go ahead, but I'm not going to say any more about it other than it is being released.

John Carter Review

On a memorial day afternoon when I found myself all alone, I decided to venture out to the Dollar Theater to hopefully enjoy a movie. John Carter was my choice. Now the story behind John Carter certainly isn't a happy one. Disney invested a ton in this movie. It was almost the first animated movie ever made, but that fell through and now close to a hundred years later, it finally comes out as a live action thriller. Not only was there a time investment with this, there was a huge financial investment as well. Disney was so certain that this was going to be a hit that they spent $250M making it. They released in on the second weekend of March with very little competition. Perfect plan for success right? Uh, not so fast. Something went wrong along the way with the marketing and advertising and this movie fell flat on its face. It only barely broke even with a worldwide total of $280M, which 75% of which came from outside the US as it only earned $70M here in the states. A movie that took $250M to make should earn more than $70M here. So yes, this is an instance where the term high risk, high reward turns disaster. The worst part of this is the fact that after finally seeing it, I thought this was a good movie that was definitely deserving of the big dollars that it was supposed to but didn't get.

John Carter the movie is based on the Barsoom books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early 1900's. Specifically it is based on the first book in that series titled Princess of Mars. I have not read any of the books, but the series along with other works by Burroughs have been an inspiration to many writers. Now being that I have not read the books, I am not capable of comparing the book to the movie, so I apologize if you were looking for that connection, but the story I was given in the movie I really enjoyed. Captain John Carter, a civil war veteran from Virginia finds himself mysteriously transported to the planet of Mars, or as the natives there call it, Barsoom. When he gets there he quickly learns that due to a difference in gravity amongst other factors he can leap far and consequently become really strong. This makes him a great warrior and weapon in the war that he quickly learns that he has been thrown right into. The story is one of him finding out who he truly is as he battles internally between finding a way back home, chasing after the runaway princess, and deciding if he wants to help save the planet from destruction. It is a story with heart and bravery that has a great combination of action and romance. 

What else was good about it? The special effects were brilliant. You could tell that a lot of time and effort was put into creating the Barsoom world and creatures. The CGI aliens were quite brilliant and, as the credits informed me, shooting at least a portion of this movie in the great Martian-like scenery of Moab, Utah was a great idea. I thought the acting was great in the movie, especially Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins as the lead roles of John Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris respectively. I thought the costume design was well done as that made it feel like we were on Mars. However, of note is that this may be disturbing to some as several of the outfits are quite revealing particularly that of the Princess of which her outfit towards the end is the worst. Lastly I would like to mention that the music was fantastic and added greatly to the movie. Michael Giacchino, best known in my books at least for his brilliant music in the TV series Lost, was a great choice for this movie.

This movie was obviously intended on being a huge blockbuster hit with multiple sequels if it was successful. I am saddened that it didn't work out as expected and sadly I have a hard time seeing another John Carter movie hitting theaters after this one was an epic failure in the Box Office. But great movie that makes me want to pick up the books and read them. I am giving this an 8 out of 10.

2012 NBA Playoff Predictions - Conference Finals

#1- San Antonio Spurs vs #2- Oklahoma City Thunder - Not too often does it happen this way, but the Conference Finals in the West gives us the match-up that we were all hoping for. The Spurs and the Thunder both blew by their competition in the first two rounds as the Spurs made the Jazz and Clippers look like jokes while the Thunder impressively snuck past the defending champ Mavs and the perennial contending Lakers. The Thunder and the Spurs have a combined one loss in the playoffs, the Spurs being the undefeated team, so this should be quite interesting series. Personally, I hope the Thunder will win this series, but right now I have a serious problem with going against the Spurs. They have now won 18 straight and 29 out of their last 31 games, only losing twice when they rested their big three. Two things that are key in the playoffs are momentum and experience and with this huge winning streak they certainly have the momentum and we all know that this Spurs team is experienced. Now the Thunder have some good momentum and are gaining more playoff experience that will help them in the future, but I really think that this is the Spurs' year. The Spurs have defeated the Thunder twice out of three times already this year and while I don't see a third straight sweep, a quick finish to the series wouldn't surprise me. I think all the games will be close and hard fought, but the Spurs will be clutch enough to wind out on top. Prediction: Spurs 4-1

#2- Miami Heat vs #4- Boston Celtics - First off I want to give a well deserved shout out to the Sixers. No one expected them to do much in these playoffs, but they certainly had a spectacular run that started by knocking off a beaten up Bulls team and ended by giving the Celtics a run for their money by taking them to seven games before finally getting outrun. Doug Collins has certainly done wonders with that team. But onto the Celtics and Heat. The Eastern Conference has been the conference that has given us the most drama and competition this season and I see that continuing in the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics owned the Heat in the regular season going 3-1, but I see quite the dog fight happening in this series rather than a one sided battle. Miami is still beat up with Bosh being out, but James and Wade have certainly been on fire as they won three straight to knock out the Pacers in six after the whole country wrote them off when they went down 2-1. I think that momentum will carry into this series and they will start out strong. I also see the Celtics starting out strong after the clutch win against the Sixers in game seven. Some might say a brutal seven game series agains the Sixers will make them a bit worn out to start with, but I don't see that. The Celtics big three know how to win and on top of that Rajon Rondo has been a beast. So like I said, this will be a tough, hard fought series and I wouldn't be surprised to see either team wind out on top, but I will give the slight nod to the Heat in this one. Prediction: Heat 4-3

The Vow Review

Kim and Krickett Carpenter

The story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter is quite an inspiring one. They fell in love and got married on September 18th, 1993. Ten weeks later they got in a serious car accident that left Krickett with serious brain trauma that pretty much wiped out the past 18 months of her life in terms of her memory. That time included her forgetting the whole time span of her meeting, dating, and getting married to her husband Kim. He, however, was still madly in love with her and stayed with her during the months she was in a coma and the months of physical therapy that followed. Despite all the effort, she never regained her memory. This obviously frustrated him a bit and there were times when he thought the marriage wouldn't work out, but at the same time he refused to leave her in the state that she was and things ended up working out. Despite her never remembering the previous relationship with him, she fell in love with him again and in 1996 they renewed their vows and had a second marriage. Both state that what kept them together during this time period was their faith in Jesus Chist (they are devout Christians and attend a Methodist church in Farmington, NM) and their vows they made to each other and to God. They wrote a book about their story called The Vow that was published in 2000. Perfect material for a romantic chick flick, right? Some movie makers certainly thought so and turned this story into a movie that came out just this past February. New on DVD just recently, my brother and his wife rented it and I watched it with them. Awful. Just plain awful. Despite it being a bit dated, I have a few things that I want to say, so here on my blog is the perfect place.

Now first off, how do I know the Carpenter's story so well? That answer is easy. When I watch a movie that starts out by saying "Based on a true story" (or in this case I think the wording was "Inspired by true events") I get curious as to what the actual story is and so I jumped on my laptop once the movie started and looked it up as I watched. What I quickly learned was that when this movie says "inspired by true events" what they really mean is "the events that happened to this certain couple inspired us and we decided to make a movie that had the same basic premise, but our movie and the real story have very little in common." Which that isn't a terrible thing. I don't have a problem with you making a story that is only loosely based on true events allowing you to use your own creative liberties instead of just doing a documentary. But when you do that your created story better be a good one because if not I am going to criticize you for taking an awesome and making it pathetic. This movie is not about Kim and Krickett Carpenter. It's about a fictional couple named Leo and Paige. In both situations, the couple got in a car crash and the girl lost the memory of her husband. Outside that, the two stories are dramatically different. Kim and Krickett's story is awesome. Paige and Leo's isn't.

Now that I've rambled on about that for two paragraphs, lets jump into the movie. Yes, I am a guy that is reviewing a chick flick so I know that if you are a girl and are reading this, that fact alone will cause you to not trust my opinion, but hear me out please. I don't hate chick flicks. In fact I have enjoyed many of them, but there are a few things I always look for when I watch a chick flick. One, I want it to be done well. Meaning the story is intelligent and believable and the couple in the chick flick have great chemistry. The second is that I like a chick flick to throw me off a bit. We all know that the story line of a chick flick. Guy meets girl. Guy and girl fall in love. Some event happens that causes drama in the relationship and guy and girl almost break up permanently. A second event or series of events happens that brings the couple back together. There. Boom. That's the basic story line of all chick flicks. For me to enjoy a chick flick, something has to happen to cause the chick flick to be slightly unpredictable. Most girls don't care about that second aspect, they just want it to be sweet and romantic. I gotta have both. The problem with the vow is not only did it not have the second point done right, I don't even think it got the first one done right.

So yeah, the unpredictability in this movie doesn't exist. There are no curve balls at all in the story line. If you have seen the trailer, you have seen the whole movie. Ok, that's not the end of the world. It means I won't enjoy it that much, but many people still can. The huge problem is that other aspect I mentioned. Lets start at the very beginning. The crash. Unrealistic. With the way the truck hits the car in the beginning, having all the windows crack or shatter with the girl flying halfway out on the hood of the car just wouldn't happen. And why in the heck would a girl feel the need to take off her seatbelt while they were sitting there at the stoplight to lean over and make out with husband? That doesn't make sense to me. Then we move on to the story. In was a bit forced and a little weird. The girl in this loses 5 years of her memory. And apparently with this story, she forgets her whole personality. 5 years ago in the story she was a righteous good girl and then in those five years she goes rebellious. Well when she loses her memory, she forgets that whole rebellious stage and thus becomes a good girl again. Then of course we have to throw in an aspect that one of the last things she remembers is a previous engagement and so she thus falls in love with that guy again. On top of that, I didn't find any chemistry between Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. A part of that was the script they were given, but another part was that the acting wasn't very good or believable at all. The whole time Channing Tatum, or his character Leo I suppose, is a complete jerk and idiot. And certainly not romantic at all. I'm not a girl so maybe I don't know, but I really don't think he did anything that would've won her over. I expected it to be sweet and romantic like 50 first dates where when he learns that she has a memory loss issue, he is smooth and romantic by taking her on dates and treating like a new situation. Nope. That didn't happen. Instead we get dissonance, arguments, and separation the whole movie and some how by some miracle Paige finds Leo and decides to stay with him. It didn't make sense. I won't go into detail about how it ends, but it is ridiculous and completely forced. And of course because the movie makers think they are smart, they have to include a few scenes where we see full body shots of Rachel McAdams in nothing but her underwear and for the girls we see Channing Tatum completely nude from the behind. Dumb.

So now my rant is over. This movie was just not done very well. Even my sister-in-law was disappointed with it. Kim Carpenter himself said this, "We enjoyed the movie but we were a little frustrated by the artistic licence they took." Another interview mentions that they were also disappointed that the religious aspect was taken out. So if the people you base your chick flick off of weren't even all that impressed with your movie, you know you have problems. I am giving this movie a 4 out of 10. I'm being that generous because it inspired me to learn about the amazing story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter, but that's about it.

Supernatural Season 7 Review

In a day where many TV shows end up getting cancelled after only two, three, or four seasons thanks to TV stations like FOX not giving anything a chance, having a TV series make it through seven seasons is quite the accomplishment. Well, that is exactly what Supernatural has done as the season seven finale was just this past week. Maybe being on the CW has something to do with that as they are more prone to giving TV shows a shot, but still. More impressive is that Supernatural has been renewed for a season eight and may even last for nine or ten. In addition, it has survived the past two seasons on Friday nights, which is a typically the night that TV shows have gone to die. The reward it gets for surviving that spot for two years is a time change to Wednesdays nights for this upcoming season. Now Supernatural could've easily ended after five seasons. That was the original plan. And with the apocolypse happening in the fifth season, it would've been a great ending. But they decided to move on. And how do you top the apocolypse? Well, you don't. What you do instead of trying to top it, you just take the show in a completely new direction. And that is exactly what they have done for the previous two seasons.

The direction they took in season seven is with leviathans. Now what in the heck is a leviathan you ask? A random creature that Supernatural made up? Heck no. That's one of the reasons that Supernatural is so awesome. They do their research with the stuff that appears in their show and using a leviathan is yet another argument to support that. Sure they use creative liberties in the actual way they portray them, but the creatures or monsters in Supernatural exist in mythology. Now which mythology you ask? Well, a combination really. Looking at a leviathan, it actually appears in biblical mythology, just like much of the stuff from Supernatural, especially seasons four and five. Now I am not asking you to convert to Christianity with this next request, but for the sake of Supernatural crack open an Old Testament and turn to Job chapter 41. The whole chapter is dedicated to describing a leviathan. Why? I don't know. But it is. I won't quote the whole thing here, but I'll start with verse one in my King James version: "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a card which thou lettest down?" Pretty cool, eh? Now if you read the whole section, it's describing a powerful sea serpent which is not quite what Supernatural does with the leviathans, but they are seen differently in different mythologies. Demonology says a leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and it's gatekeeper. Some later Jewish sources see a leviathan like a dragon. In the middle ages, Christianity saw the leviathan as a symbol for Satan. So what a leviathan is depends on your perspective really and Supernatural kinda combines some of these ideas and turns a leviathan into a crazy, nearly unstoppable monster from purgatory that can take over the body of a mortal.

With that small history out of the way, season seven starts with the pompous Castiel paying for his mistake of trying to become God. The end of season six saw him suck in Purgatory and become all powerful while the beginning of season seven sees him explode releasing the leviathans onto earth along with their leader Dick Roman. While I did enjoy the somewhat complex storyline style of season four and five, season seven does a great job of going back to the style done in the first few seasons. That style included a loose story line that played along during the season while including a bunch of stand alone episodes that the casual observer could enjoy without having to know much of what was going on. This worked quite well for season seven. Also working in its favor was the emotional aspect of the season. I won't blurt out what happened, but those who watched it will know what I am talking about. Some may be angry and bitter about this, but they shouldn't be. The number one rule of Supernatural is to expect the unexpected. Crazy things happen all the time that take the audience by suprise and that is the fun part of it. You should never be mad at Supernatural for doing something unexpected or doing something to a character that you didn't want done. The journey for Sam and Dean has never been peaches and roses and what happens in season seven just adds to that dynamic.

Now lets end this with talking about the finale. No the finale wasn't as epic as the season five finale and no it wasn't as jaw droppingly shocking as the season six finale, but the way it ended was quite amazing. I felt that season six set up quite nicely for season seven. Now I feel that the with the way season seven ended, it set up quite perfectly for the eighth season. The journey has been long for Sam and Dean and each new season adds a new dimension to their story. Both brothers have progressed quite a bit since the start of the series and I am excited to see where this next season will take them. Season seven was great and I have a feeling that season eight will be even better!

The Pirates! Band of Misfits Review

Hey, guess what? Avengers isn't the only movie in theaters right now! Yeah, I know. Shocker. After seeing the Avengers three times myself I finally remembered that I could see other movies and thus on a Thursday night when I was out with a friend, I went to see The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Apparently we were the only ones to realize that there were other movies in theaters because outside an elderly couple, we had the screen all to ourselves. I suppose that this tells the Box Office story of Pirates! rather well because after three and a half weeks in theaters it has only just cracked 20M which is quite a shame. I suppose that we can look at this as the movie's biggest weakness. The marketing/advertising wasn't big enough to get people interested and then decided to open it the week before Avengers wasn't the smoothest move. A late March or early April would've been much better.

But anywho, going away from the fail on release date and what not and on to the movie, the Pirates! was a movie that I actually rather enjoyed. It comes from Aardman Animation and is another claymation movie in the style of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. Like always, the claymation is done rather well. I was very impressed. The story was about a pirate who really had a strong desire to win the pirate of the year award and he goes through quite the adventure with his crew in order to try to win that honor. It's a fun story. Not an epic story line and not crazy or dramatic, but it was fun. It's the type of movie that I can see the younger crowd really loving. I was thinking of all my little nieces and nephews as I was watching it and thought that they would love it. One of the movies that a parent should buy for their younger kids to watch all the time. And at the same time it is one that the parents can enjoy, so calling it a movie that they whole family can enjoy is a great description. A huge factor in making it fun is the randomness in it. The part of the title that says band of misfits describes this very well. Its an odd crew that do and say a lot of weird things that catch you off guard but make you laugh at the same time. And throwing in Charles Darwin as on of the main characters that the crew runs into as well as mentioning or including others like Jane Austen and the Queen of England is quite hilarious.

I don't have a whole lot else to about this besides what I have already said, but in wrapping up I strongly recommend you give this movie a shot, especially if you are a parent with young children. Don't let your kids miss this movie because it will be one of their favorites that they will watch for years. It's not epic or completely amazing, but its worth your time and money. I give it a 7 out of 10. 

2012 NBA Playoff Predictions - Conference Semifinals

#1- San Antonio Spurs vs #5- Los Angeles Clippers - I never thought I would be saying this, but the Clippers are a team on the rise and they'd be a team that I would love to pick to go to the Conference Finals. The problem is that they screwed themselves over by getting stuck in the five seed. As expected, the series between the Clippers and the Grizzlies was a dog fight that went down to game 7. Both Paul and Griffin got a little banged up in that series. Meanwhile, San Antonio is coming off a lengthy rest after making the Jazz look like a college team. Some might say that a week off would make the Spurs a bit rusty, but this is the playoff savvy Spurs we are talking about. Even if the Clippers did have a similar break, I'd say the Spurs walk away with this one, so the extra rest gives the Spurs a huge advantage against what could be a tired Clippers team. I'll be rooting for the Clippers because I have never liked the Spurs much, but if I'm being honest and realistic I think the Spurs will take care of business in this series. Prediction: Spurs 4-2

#2- Oklahoma City Thunder vs #3- Los Angeles Lakers - When's the last time we had two teams from Los Angeles in the Conference Semi's? Well, only once I suppose since the Clips are coming off their second career playoff series win. If I'm being quite honest, I think that a Lakers vs Clippers conference finals match-up would be quite epic. There's only one problem with that happening. Well, actually there are two. It's the Thunder and the Spurs. One of those teams may fall, but I doubt that both will. However, I digress. Thunder vs Lakers. I really despise the Lakers and really hope the Thunder win. In fact, I hope that it is an embarrassing 4-0 sweep, but something inside me says that there's no chance of that happening. The Lakers are going to be a hard team to push away and thus I think this will be a very intense series. However, I know that it is cliche right now to predict Spurs vs Thunder, but I am going to do it. The Thunder pull off a tight series win. Prediction: Thunder 4-3

#4- Boston Celtics vs #8- Philadelphia 76ers - Now the Eastern Conference cheated. I wanted to submit this post before the next round started, but the Celtics and Sixers played a game before the first round was over and the Celtics take game one by the skin of their teeth. Now the Bulls had played fine without Rose for many games of the season and so when he went down it was actually surprising to see the Bulls go down so hard. Doug Collins gets a lot of credit for the work he's done with this Sixers team. I think the Sixers will put up a good fight, as apparent by game one, but I think that the playoff experience by the Celtics will put them over the top in this series. Prediction: Celtics 4-1

#2- Miami Heat vs #3- Indiana Pacers - Once again, game one of this series was conveniently played before I could type this up due to the Clips and Grizzlies going to game 7. The Pacers I have thought this whole time could be the dark horse of the playoffs and they started very well by beating up a broken up Magic team. I really want to pick the Pacers in this one because I think that would be cool, but I really can't pick against the Heat right now. The Pacers silently had a great season this year, but I don't think they have enough to take out the Heat. I think they won't go down without a fight and will sneak out a game or two, but the Heat will be the team that makes it to the Conference Finals. This should be a great round of playoffs to watch! Prediction: Heat 4-2