From Peyton to Eli

In case you didn’t get the memo, the NFL season is now over. Pretty soon we will get the opportunity to jump right into the NFL draft talk and free agency. It almost seems too soon to be talking about that already, at least free agency anyways, because usually we have to wait a full year before it happens and not just six months. But thankfully there will be no lockout to worry about, so things will be on schedule and we get rewarded with two free agency periods within 6 months of each other. But right now the NFL talk isn’t quite yet on the discussion of draft and free agency, but rather people are talking about two talented brothers. Eli and Peyton Manning. Now I want to spend some time and add to this conversation because both brothers are in two very different situations. Situations that are quite new for each quarterback respectively. Both situations are quite intriguing as well.

First up to bat is Eli. Eli has always been seen as the lesser, younger Manning. He’s always been in the shadow of his older brother Peyton. Up to this point, not many have even considered discussing the idea that one day Eli will become better than Peyton. However, the days of completely throwing Eli under the bus and logging him off as a failure have most likely ended this week when he did something that Peyton has never been able to do. That would be winning a second Super Bowl. Now winning one Super Bowl doesn’t say a whole lot. There have been a lot of average-at-best quarterbacks that have won a Super Bowl. But two Super Bowl wins is something different. No, it doesn’t guarantee you a spot in the hall of fame, but it certainly says that you are a good quarterback and you winning the Super Bowl wasn’t a fluke.

So now applying that to Eli, what is his place? Do we mention his name when we talk about the great quarterbacks of today? Do we say he is a hall of fame quarterback? What about comparing him to his brother? Is he equal to his brother? Is he better or more successful? Now by posing that question, I am not claiming I think the answer is yes to all those questions, because I don’t, but I am simply bringing those questions to the table. If the answer is no, what more does Eli have to do to make people start saying yes to those questions. Both of the Giants’ Super Bowl runs were quite impressive. Now you could just say the first one was a fluke if you really wanted to, but that game is easily one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. And with the way the NFC turned out this year, having the Giants run through the Falcons, Packers, 49ers, and Patriots was quite the epic run being that three of those four teams had 13 wins or more and at one point the Giants were sitting at 7-7 with no one even giving them a shot at the playoffs. And if you look at Eli Manning’s stats on the year, he quietly had a great season. Now it was overshadowed by monster seasons from Brees, Brady, and Stafford with them getting above 5,000 yards and Brees and Brady both topping Marino’s former record. Then of course there was MVP Aaron Rodgers as well. But Eli was right up there behind that crew and that is very respectful, not to mention he was ahead of the pack when it came to fourth quarter comebacks and that included a great one this past Sunday in the Super Bowl. Now I don’t think we can give him the title of Hall of Fame quarterback quite yet, but he’s a force to be reckoned with and if he keeps up this pace and ends his career with another Super Bowl win or two under his belt, then I think he will certainly be in that discussion.

Now, before I end, I want to spend a bit of time on the other Manning brother. The one that we definitely can say is a hall of fame quarterback and in the discussion for best quarterback in the NFL right now. Peyton Manning. Him and the Colts are in quite the predicament. Peyton is coming of a season where he didn’t play one snap due to a recent neck surgery. It was the first season since the Colts drafted him that they had to go without him. And the result of that showed the world how valuable of a player he was to them. Every year, no matter who he has around him, Peyton has brought his team to the playoffs. In several cases, especially the last few years when the Colts have done a terrible job of building a team around him, he has almost single handedly brought his team to the playoffs. One sign of a great player is one who makes everyone around him better and Peyton certainly does that. The result of Peyton being hurt results in the Colts’ worst season since before Peyton was drafted. That in my mind says a ton about Peyton. I would be willing to give him the MVP award this season just because of how horrible the Colts were without him. Now MVP stands for Most VALUABLE Player, so when you think of what that means, namely most valuable and not best player, then it’s not a stretch to say that.

Now Peyton being a great quarterback here is not what is up for debate, but what is would be what do the Colts do now? Because of how bad they did, they have wound up with the number one pick in the draft and it just so happens that this is the draft that includes Andrew Luck, who many people say is the best pro prospect to come out of college since either Peyton Manning or John Elway, some even saying ever. Now as a side tangent, it’s interesting to note that the Colts certainly know when to lose. Elway and Peyton were both drafted by the Colts as well. So it is inevitable that the Colts will take Andrew Luck. And with that they will be owing a big paycheck to him. Now, if the Colts decide to keep Manning, they owe him quite the hefty paycheck of a total that is north of $20 million. That’s a lot of money invested in one position. The other thing to consider is Peyton’s injury. If it was a shoulder injury, a leg injury, or something else that would be different. But it’s not. It’s a neck injury. And that is an injury that is no small thing. It would be one that wouldn’t surprise me at all if it ended up putting Peyton in the broadcasting booth earlier than he would like. And if that is the case, with the Colts having access to Andrew Luck, is it time to cut ties with their superstar and move on? Peyton himself said that he thinks that he would not feel jealous at all if the Colts took a quarterback and that quarterback should start from day one just like he did. With that you get to build your team around luck and start over with a youth movement. However, what if Andrew Luck doesn’t work out? What if he becomes a huge bust? Then the Colts have screwed themselves over big time AND gotten rid of their star. The advantages of keeping Peyton on board is that you have insurance. If Peyton heals fully, then he starts and Andrew Luck has one of the best all time mentors. If Peyton ends up not playing, then yes you did just spend a lot of money that you could’ve used elsewhere, but you have someone better to turn to than Curtis Painter. Both situations have advantages and disadvantages. If it were my call, I will hang on to Peyton for at least another year or two and then go from there, but we’ll see what happens. I know there are several teams out there that will jump at the chance to add Peyton to their team. If it happens, it will certainly be weird to see Peyton suit up for a team that is not the Colts. And now that is all I have. Feel free to give your thoughts on the either situation presented here.

Super Bowl XLVI Predictions

Super Bowl XLVI – New England Patriots vs New York Giants – Sunday 6:29 ET (NBC)- Yup, it’s that time of year again. The Super Bowl is coming your way this Sunday and that means it’s time for me to make my predictions. This game certainly bring comes with a de ja vu. It wasn’t all that long ago when the Patriots and Giants were playing in the Super Bowl. In fact, that was just in 2008. Remember the season where the Patriots had an undefeated season and were just one win away from becoming enshrined forever in the NFL history books by completing the second undefeated season in NFL history? Yeah, Eli and company had some other ideas and thus pulled off what will probably be known as the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. The Patriots haven’t been back to the Super Bowl since then and now they will be hungry for revenge on the Giants after the Giants spoiled their miraculous season. Seeing the Giants here in this game is certainly a surprise given the state of the NFC right now. We had the almost perfect Packers, the record setting Drew Brees and the Saints, the surprisingly dominate 49ers under new stud head coach Jim Harbaugh, the young and powerful Lions, and the inconsistent yet dangerous at times Falcons all in the hunt for the NFC title with the Giants, and yet the Giants make it out on top. The Giants, who come in to the playoffs at 9-7 while barely making it in thanks to Tony Choko and the Dallas Cowboys pretty much giving them the Division title. If I would’ve told you at the beginning of the playoffs that the New York Giants would make the Super Bowl, you would’ve called me crazy and called for my head. Heck, if you told me that the Giants would make the Super Bowl, I might’ve done the same thing to you. But nonetheless they are here and it’s quite the story. Meanwhile Aaron Rogers, Drew Brees, and Alex Smith will be sitting at their homes watching the game from the couches and scratching their heads wondering what in the heck happened. And now if the Giants beat the Patriots, Eli Manning, who was always thought to be the younger and crappier Manning brother, will have bragging rights over his brother Peyton because he will have more Super Bowl wins under his belt. Meanwhile, the Patriots being in the playoffs doesn’t surprise me that much, but at the same time it is a little baffling being that they have one of the league’s worst defenses. Defense is supposed to win championships and yet a team with no defense just might do it this year. But that is really because of a terrible AFC this season. The Pats competition included the up and down Ravens, the injury riddled and inexperienced Texans, the Tim Tebow led Broncos, the beaten up Steelers, and the snake-bitten franchise the Bengals. Yeah it’s not surprising at all that the Pats made it out on top. At 13-3 you would think that I would give them more respect than I have, but did you know that their last playoff win against the Ravens was their first win of the entire season against a team that ended with a winning record? Someone on that team better be praying to the scheduling gods and thanking them for that one. And now Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady are just one win away from earning yet another Super Bowl ring. And Tom Brady has his young tight ends to thank for that one. Can you believe that the Gronk is only in is second NFL season and yet he is already setting Tight End records with the most touchdowns and receiving yards ever in a single season for tight ends? Amazing. Yet, unfortunately for Tom and the rest of the Pats, he might not be able to go as a high ankle sprain has been bothering him for the last couple weeks since that Ravens game. And if he does go, he won’t be at full strength and the Giants will be aiming for his ankle to test it. Not a good omen for the Patriots. But yet despite that, I think that logic says that the Patriots will win. Which is why I am going with the Giants on this one. They have defied logic this whole post season. I picked them to beat the Packers. I picked them to beat the Niners. Why would I stop now? Should be a fun game to watch.

My Pick: New York Giants

February 2012 Movie Preview

February 3-

It is now February and I am jumping right into my February movie preview. February is typically another slow month and that probably won’t change much this year, but there are some interesting movies worth checking out starting with this upcoming weekend. The Woman in Black in my opinion is the most intriguing movie of the weekend. It’s a horror/thriller film that started out as a book (or novella I think), then became a play, then became a TV movie, and now has officially been made as a nationwide film. Early reviews on it are positive. The thing that makes this most intriguing is that it stars Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliff, that is, if you were confused by that. Its Daniel Radcliff’s first major film since Harry Potter has ended and it will be interesting to see him in a different role. Chronicle is the second movie of the week. It’s about three high school kids who make an incredible discovery and end up with super powers. Then of course things start to go horribly wrong. To be honest at first it didn’t sound that great. I thought it might be a bit cheesy and childish, but early reviews are great. It has 89% on Rotten Tomatoes for what it’s worth. Turns out this could be one of the first surprisingly good movies of the year. Last up we have Big Miracle. Big Miracle is a movie whose premise reminds me a lot of Dolphin Tale, which I enjoyed. Dolphin Tale was a movie about a kid trying to save a dolphin. Big Miracle is about a news reporter and his ex-girlfriend trying to save a family of whales in Alaska. It stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski as the lead roles.

February 10-

Week two continues the new craze for re-releasing movies in 3D with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace getting its second shot at the big screen. Of course there will be the diehard Star Wars fans coming out of their cave and crying for Lucas’s head again, but in the end George Lucas will be the one with the last laugh. Phantom Menace currently stands at number seven in the all-time domestic box office with 431 million. It only needs to get 30 million to pass the original Star Wars and both break the top five all-time and become the highest grossing Star Wars movie to date. Chances of it passing that in weekend number one is pretty good. Now it probably won’t pull off a Lion King, but if it does it is just over 100 million away from The Dark Knight. With Star Wars, comes three additional new releases. The first is another high powered action movie called Safe House. In Safe House, a young CIA agent is given the task to watch over a fugitive in a Safe House. The fun starts when the safe house gets attacked and the CIA agent finds himself on the run. Safe House brings back Denzel Washington to the big screen, which will be the first time we’ve seen him in a year or two. It co-stars Ryan Reynolds. Channing Tatum is out to make a mark this year and this week he gets his second of five films released with The Vow. Take notes of this one guys because if you take your girl to see this one, it may win you some brownie points. The Vow is about a married couple where the wife gets in a bad accident and has severe memory loss. Her husband has the challenge of trying to get her to fall in love with him all over again. It kinda reminds me of 50 First Dates in a way. Finally, this second weekend of February brings us our first sequel of the month with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. I am sure there was no pun intended with that title, especially since its predecessor is called Journey to the Center of the Earth. Now I haven’t seen the first one so I can’t pass judgment on this one, but nevertheless I am not overly excited about this movie.

February 17-

Ghost Rider fans will be happy for this weekend as the Ghost Rider sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is released. It is certain to get mixed reactions from fans just like every Nicholas Cage movie does. I’m not anti-Cage, but I know some people are and I don’t think this will be much different from his other roles, so keep that in mind. No Eva Mendez in the sequel but the devil is present and it is Cage’s goal to stop the devil in this one, so I’m game for that. I’m not a fan of the devil, so I will be rooting Cage on. If I see it of course. This weekend brings the first major animated film of the year. That is not counting Beauty and the Beast of course, since that is a re-release and not a new release. That animated film is The Secret World of Arrietty. Now this doesn’t sound all that original, but it does sound like a good movie. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it reminds me of a combination of a few different movies. It’s about a family of people who are four inches tall and trying to avoid the normal sized humans, but gets discovered. The biggest name actor in it is Will Arnett. Last on the week is This Means War. It’s quite the combination of elements with it being an action/romance/comedy movie. Either that will make it rather epic or it will crash and burn. I’d want to vote the latter, but I’ve learned to trust Tom Hardy recently. He’s teamed up with Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon in this movie. The storyline is as follows: two CIA agents discover that they are dating the same woman. Then keep in mind the title of This Means War and you can guess what happens in this.

February 24-

The last weekend of February has the most new releases with four, but at the same time might be the slowest weekend of the month. First up is a pair of thrillers. Gone might be the most intriguing option of the weekend, at least for me. It stars Amanda Seyfried and the plot the includes her hunting down a kidnapper. The other thriller is a notch higher with an R rating is title Act of Valor. It continues on odd theme of CIA agents by being the third or fourth CIA agent movie this month. In this one the, a team of NAVY seals is on a mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. That together with Gone and you have a good dose of kidnapping on the schedule for audiences to watch. Tyler Perry comes back to the big screen next with Good Deeds. A lot of these Madea movies have come out and quite honestly they all look dumb. This could be the dumbest movie of the month. Now normally the adage is last but not least. I am changing that for this preview. The last movie I talk about here is certainly the least in my mind. R rated comedies did great last year and this movie will try to continue that. It is called Wanderlust. The fact that it has the word lust in the title combined with the fact it is rated R for graphic nudity turns me away. It stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Anniston as a couple that decides on living in a rural commune where free love rules after becoming unemployed. I will be skipping it, but you can do what you want. 

Dolphin Tale Review

In reviewing Dolphin Tale, it may not be as popular or interesting of a blog post, but that doesn’t bother me that much. I went to see it this past weekend as was really impressed with it. So much so that I felt like writing this blog post to promote it in a sense. September and October aren’t very busy movie months and so there’s a good chance that you have either never heard of it or have not seen it and that is why I am writing this because I think it is certainly a movie worth watching. Great, inspiring, clean family films are becoming few and far between it seems, so a movie like this is fairly rare. There isn’t any language, sex, nudity, or violence in this. Now if you are the type of person that likes these kinds of movies that are vulgar or have hard core action violence then maybe Dolphin Tale isn’t for you. Now I do enjoy quite the variety of movies, so I’m not knocking on any movie genre when I say that, but I am one who does enjoy inspirational family movies, so I enjoyed Dolphin Tale.

Let’s go back in time for a second. Dolphin Tale came out on September 23^rd, 2011. It opened up in third place in the box office behind Lion King and Moneyball with around 19M. However, good word of mouth propelled it ahead of both of them and took the number one spot in its second weekend. It ended its box office run with a total that was just north of 70M, which is good considering it was a September release that only opened to 19M.

Dolphin Tale is based on a true story. It’s about a young boy named Sawyer Nelson who lives with his mom only and isn’t much of a social person at all. He also struggles with school and is forced to start summer school of which he isn’t excited about at all. One day as he is on his bike riding past the beach he runs into a dolphin that is caught in a trap. After freeing the dolphin, the dolphin is taken to the local animal hospital where his tail has to be amputated and he struggles to survive. Morgan Freeman is the biggest name in this movie and does quite well in his role like he usually does. The other actors in this movie aren’t huge name actors, although they have shown up here and there. The lead kid, Nathan Gamble, appeared in the Dark Knight as Jim Gordon’s son and Harry Connick Jr and Ashley Judd appear in things periodically. As a whole, the movie was casted very well and I thought the acting was all great. The story flowed rather well and the cinematography with the animals was good.

The message in this movie was great. It’s a story about not giving up, especially when times get hard. We can learn a lot from Winter the dolphin and the other characters in this movie. I don’t know if it’s a movie that I will buy and watch over and over and I don’t know if it is one that would’ve made my top 10 from last year, but nonetheless it is a great film. I highly recommend you go on over to your local redbox and pick it up. You won’t regret it. I give this movie a 9 out 10. 

Red Tails Review

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is certainly an inspiring and historical story. One that should be put in history books and taught in schools. It is the story about a group of African American pilots in World War II. Specifically they were the first group of African American pilots in the history of the United States armed forces. Watching this movie made me want to go home and learn more about them because if I was taught about them in school, it must’ve not stuck in my brain very well because I didn’t know much about them going in to this. Now I’m not a huge history buff, so that might be the reason, but who knows. Now Red Tails is a movie that is about the Tuskegee Airman. It is a movie that George Lucas said he wanted to make for quite a long time. It’s the first movie that he’s worked on in a long time that isn’t named Star Wars or Indiana Jones. After hearing this and learning what he is taking on, I was excited and thus went to see it on opening weekend. However, after seeing it I was extremely disappointed. It’s been a long time since I have been able to point out so many horrible things about a movie. And before you just write me off as someone who is anti –war and/or doesn’t like watching war/World War II movies, I will write you off as my critic right now. I enjoy war movies and enjoy World War II movies. And one day I think the Tuskegee Airmen deserve a great movie made about them, but this is not one of them. George Lucas should be ashamed. I was embarrassed for him.

Now prepare for a paragraph full of me ranting about a bunch of reasons why this film was bad. Where should I begin? How about the beginning. It was slow. I had a hard time getting into the storyline and even almost dozed off a few times. And in general throughout the whole movie the storyline was choppy and unorganized. I was able to follow it because I read up on the American Tuskegee before seeing the movie, but had I not done that I think I would’ve come out of the movie not knowing hardly what happened. It was also a bit too long at 145 minutes. Now normally I don’t mind long movies, but this one seemed to drag on a bit longer than it should’ve. Ironically though, the ending seem a bit quick. And by that I mean that it didn’t really finish the story that good. It just kinda ended. The script in this movie was terrible. The dialogue was cheesy and weird throughout the whole movie. The acting wasn’t horrible, but at the same time it wasn’t that great either. Some of the actors did a good job with the horrible script that they were given, but others seemed very shallow undeveloped characters the whole movie. Along with the story line, there were a few side tangents that just didn’t work. The romance story in it was the strangest love story I have ever seen in it. It was forced and disconnected while having absolutely no chemistry between them at all.  The other weird tangent was a scene where one of the main characters gets captured and tries to escape. It could’ve been a really good story line in the movie, but instead it was poorly done and thus didn’t fit in very well. The music was also annoying. It wasn’t a bad soundtrack, but the timing was off. There were times where I felt it needed music and there just was none playing. Then a few seconds later the music would play for 30 seconds and then just stop again. I won’t spoil the ending, but there was one scene that was very emotional but the music sucked for that scene and thus the power of the scene was lost a bit.

Did I miss anything? Probably. But what was good about the movie? The special effects were good. But is that surprising? Lucas is good at making movies with great effects, but sometimes I feel that is all he focuses on. But even with that, the movie felt like a video game at times during the war scenes instead of a World War II movie that was supposed to look like real life. But I am done ranting. Maybe you will like it better if you see it, but I thought it was awful. Almost Last Airbender awful. 4 out of 10.  

2012 Movie Preview

January is already mostly over, bet there are still 11 months left in the year and two weekends left in January, so it is certainly not too late to look forward and examine the upcoming movies of 2012. In doing so, I am not going to list off every single movie that will be made. That would be a very long and boring blog post. I will just go over the highlights of the year and talk about some of the major movies coming out. Now it will be an early look for sure. There are always several titles that take people by surprise as to how good they are and other movies that seem to come out of nowhere to be really good, but nevertheless I will proceed. And I am going to do this in thirds. Instead of going month by month, I will look at the movies coming out in the first third of the month, January through April, then the second third, May through August, and finally the last third, September through December. Enjoy!

Late Winter / Spring – January through April – January has brought us some decent hits so far for being a slow month. The Devil Inside opened to the 3^rd biggest January openings with a total in the mid 30 million range while both Contraband and Beauty and the Beast 3D re-release had good releases in the 20 million range. There are still a few decent movies to be released in January, but in the first third of the year, the biggest movies come in the month of March. There are five weekends in this March and each weekend has something intriguing each weekend. It starts with another rendition of a Dr. Seuss classic with The Lorax. The Lorax is from the creators of Despicable Me and stars Zac Efron and Taylor Swift. An eyebrow raising movie in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was planned to combat the Lorax on this weekend, but recently decided to postpone its release until January of 2013. The second weekend in March brings John Carter to the big spring. No, that’s not an actor’s name, it’s a movie title. A movie that was almost going to be the first animated movie ever and now ironically becomes Pixar’s first live action film. A huge budget of nearly $300 million was spent on this movie, so anything shorter than a blockbuster would be an epic failure. The 3^rd week of March begins an odd fetish with Snow White as Mirror Mirror becomes the first of two Snow White films, both of which have nothing to do with each other. Mirror Mirror easily looks like it will be the worst of the two. Mirror Mirror is challenged in week three by the movie remake of 21 Jump Street, the TV show that made Johnny Depp famous. This will star Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, but will have a cameo appearance by Johnny Depp himself. The fourth weekend brings the much anticipated Hunger Games. With Harry Potter coming to an end last year and Twilight coming to an end this year, The Hunger Games plans on being the next big popular book series turned into a series of movies with the goal of not having the same fate as other failed series translations on the big screen like Percy Jackson and Eragon. Eddie Murphey’s new movie A Thousand Words wisely rescheduled itself from the Hunger Games weekend to April 20^th.  Finally for March we get the sequel to Clash of the Titans, called The Wrath of the Titans in the last weekend of March. Trying not to get lost in all of this is a fun animated movie called Pirates! Band of Misfits starring Hugh Jackman. Now we will remove ourselves from the big month of March and take a look at some of the highlights of the less busy months in this time frame. A 3D re-release craze will continue in this time period. We have already seen Beauty and the Beast get another shot at the big screen. April will bring Titanic back into theaters with it being the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. And I’m sure James Cameron is stoked to earn more money on this after the success he had with Avatar in 3D. George Lucas never seems to be done with his Star Wars work and the latest in this is re-releasing Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in the 3D in February. Speaking of George Lucas, he’s also decided to branch out and work on a project that doesn’t have anything to do with Star Wars or Indiana Jones as he releases Red Tails this weekend (Jan 20^th). Speaking of this weekend, the Underworld franchise will see their 4^th movie with Underworld Awakening and January will end with Liam Neesen in The Grey. February has Daniel Radcliff on the big screen with The Woman in Black. It will be interesting to see him in a non-Harry Potter role. For those who liked Ghost Rider and Journey to the Center of the Earth, February will provide sequels to those movies with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (I’m sure there was no pun intended on that one…). Ending this segment with April, April is riddled with a bunch of smaller name movies of which I’m sure there will be a title or two that will end up on top of the rest. A remake of The Three Stooges is included in this as well as some movies for those who like dirtier comedies with American Reunion and Scary Movie 5.

Summer – May through August – This past summer had a lot of good movies get released but none were box office shattering movies. The Harry Potter finale was the top summer movie with $380 million. Instead there were a lot of movies that did decently good in the box office. This summer should be a little different by being a lot more lopsided. There are two extremely hyped up films that both should be at least $400 million and possibly both have $500 million if it turns out to be an amazing showing for both. I’m sure you can easily guess the two movies I’m thinking of. The first one is the movie that starts the summer off in the first weekend of May. That movie is The Avengers. The Avengers is finally here after building up to it for several years with 5 movies made just to set this one up. Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, and Thor will all finally get to team up in a movie event that should be quite epic. The second movie that will dominate the summer is The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight was the second movie to climb north of $500 million domestically. Comic Book fans everywhere called this the best comic book movie ever. Obviously that is opinion based, but that type of reaction will certainly ensure crowds running to the theaters to see the series finale this summer. Those are the two main titles of the summer, but there is a decent supporting cast of movies around the two. There aren’t a whole lot of movies daring enough to open up in the shadow of the Avengers, but in two weeks Battleship hopes that crowds have died down enough for there to be good crowds to see it. Yes, Battleship is based on the Battleship game, which seems like a slightly odd game to make a movie out of. Sure I loved the game, but it’s not one that has its own storyline to work with. But nonetheless, it looks like it will be a good movie. It brings with it an interesting cast that features Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neesen, and yes, Rihanna. May will conclude with Men in Black trying to pull a Toy Story-esque move with Men in Black III, released ten years after the second one. I’m a fan of Will Smith, so I won’t be complaining about this. June starts with the second of the two Snow White films, Snow White and the Huntsman. It’s a planned trilogy with Snow White and while it certainly is an odd take on Snow White, it should quite amazing. It has a mostly great cast with the one question mark being who was the bright one that decided to cast Kristen Stewart as Snow White. June also has one of the biggest sequel happy companies at it again. Dreamwork’s Madagascar 3 will be released in the second week of June. It will be rivaled by the alien movie Promitheus. June ends rather busy as several makes make an attempt to have a good start and run before The Dark Knight takes control of all theaters in mid-July. The third week we have another dip into the fairy tale vault with Jack the Giant Killer, which looks to be a rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk. Adam Sandler will also jump into the crowded June group with his movie Donny’s Boy. For those people complaining about all the remakes and sequels and lack of original movies, the fourth week of June will be pleasing as it has two original movies planned. The first one dips quite deep into the jar of creativity with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Apparently what none of us knew about Lincoln is that his mother was killed by a vampire and he thus became passionate about killing vampires. Should be quite the ride. The other original movie this week comes with a Disney-Pixar original animated movie with Brave. Finally, June will end with the GI Joe sequel GI Joe: Retaliation. As mentioned previously, the Dark Knight Rises will come to theaters in the third week of July. On the first week of July will be The Amazing Spider-Man. This is quite the risky project in remaking Spider-Man so soon. This could be one of the biggest mistakes in recent movie making history, or it could bring high rewards if it turns out better than the Tobey McGuire Spider-Man series. With both Spider-Man and Batman hitting the big screen in July, not many movies plan on challenging them. There are a few smaller movies throughout the month, but the one movie brave enough to fight them is Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. This fourth Ice Age will be in theaters right in between Spider-Man and Batman. At first it seems like a head scratcher because the third Ice Age wasn’t that popular in the US, but this fourth one is being made because Ice Age 3 was one of the biggest international movies ever. August is typically the quietest summer month, but there are a few movies that plan on surfacing after the Dark Knight Rises party begins to die down a bit. First up to plate is what initially looks like the dumbest idea of the summer. The Bourne Series will continue with Bourne Legacy as the fourth installment, but for some reason, the franchise decided to make this fourth movie without Matt Damon. I don’t quite know what they were thinking on that one, but maybe they know something I don’t. Dorothy of Oz may come out on that weekend as well, although I’m not a hundred percent sure they have that date set in stone. Now Dorothy of Oz is an animated sequel to Wizard of Oz and you may be wondering why make a sequel after over 70 years (yes, I know there were a couple other sequels, but they fell flat on their face and this one is a direct sequel to the original), but a little known fact is that there were a whole ton of books written and finally someone realized this and decided to take advantage of it. Wrapping up the summer we get a sneak peak into Halloween season with the animated movie ParaNorman that has the animation feel of Corpse Bride and Coraline, being that it is by the same people. Last but not least we have Chuck Norris and Friends, or better yet The Expendables 2. I just like to call it Chuck Norris and Friends because they invited Chuck Norris along for the ride for this one. And he’s already started taking control with demanding that they remove the foul language in order for it to be a PG-13 rating. Way to go Chuck!

Fall / Early Winter – September through December – September is always one of the slowest months of the year. But it’s also the time of year where the Oscar Buzz starts following movies and towards the start of September is a movie that is sure to get some. That movie is Argo. Now Ben Affleck has seemingly disappeared in the last several years but he returns in this one as the director and the lead actor in this movie about the Iranian revolution. Early September will also have Disney’s next 3D re-release with Finding Nemo returning to the big screen. If it theoretically earns as much as Lion King did last September it will break the top 10 in the all-time domestic box office. The third movie in that same weekend as the previous two mentioned is the fifth installment in the Resident Evil franchise with Resident Evil: Retribution. After that we are thrown into what should be an epic Halloween season. This Halloween is kicked off in late September by Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Now those two have done movies together, but this one will be quite unique. They are doing an animated family movie together called Hotel Transylvania. It also has Miley Cyrus in it. Ending September we have Bruce Willis and Joseph-Gordon Leavitt teaming up in the action movie Looper. The premise is that a killer working for a future club realizes that one of his targets is his future self. Two weeks after Hotel Transylvania in the actual month of October another animated Halloween movie. This one is Frankenweenie. If it reminds you of Frankenstein, that’s because it is. But with a dog instead of a man as the monster. The other interesting thing is the fact that this is a Tim Burton movie. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Tim Burton animated movie, but he is now back this year. In addition to the two animated movies, this Halloween season also brings quite the lineup of Horror films. First is a remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre which in this instance will be called Leatherface 3D. The second Horror film will be the 4^th installment of the recently popular Paranormal franchise, Paranormal 4. Finally, the third big horror film, coming out right before Halloween will be Halloween 3D, the third movie of the recently remade Halloween series. Thrown into the mix in October will be the Taken 2, the sequel to the original Taken movie made back in 2008. As we swing into November, we will see several big name actors and actress make it to the big screen. This includes Chris Hemsworth in Red Dawn, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity, Robert De Niro in The Silver Lining Playbook, Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin, and Billy Crystal in Parental Guidance. 3 major movies will hit the big screen in November in addition to that. The biggest one is sure to be The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. This will be the finale of the Twilight Saga and finales to big hit series typically do very well compared to their predecessors. The next movie in the James Bond series will also premier in November. This one is Skyfall. The last movie of note in November is another animated movie that is quite the clever idea. It will be about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, and the Sandman all teaming up to fight against the Bogeyman. How’s that for a storyline? The movie is called Rise of the Guardians and is actually a film adaption of the book called The Guardians of Childhood. Now if you have made it this far in this blog post I commend you because this has been quite the project. 2012 will end with quite the lineup of movies. It starts with another film adaption of the popular play Les Miserables. This version will have an all-star lineup of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham-Carter. In an unspecified date sometime in December, Steven Spielberg will release his movie called Lincoln. I will let you take a guess as to who this movie is about. It has Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and quite the cast around him which includes Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Tommy Lee Jones. December also has two popular books get turned into movies. First is World War Z starring Brad Pitt, a story about the Zombie Apocalypse. The second is the F Scott Fitzgerald classic novel The Great Gatsby, which will star Leonardo DeCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, and Tobey McGuire. And finally we are at an end. Saving one of the best for last, coming out in mid-December is the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The famous Lord of the Rings prequel brings back Peter Jackson as director and much of the cast of the Lord of the Rings movies as well. In order to translate the book into a movie, they have decided to split this into two movies and this will be the first part. In addition to the original stars from Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit will bring in Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, Martin Freeman as young Bilbo Baggins, and Luke Evans as Bard.

Well that is officially a wrap. I hope you had as much as fun as I did. Maybe you didn’t. Maybe the length of this bored you, but I can tell you that after doing this, I am certainly stoked for the many great movies of 2012.    

2011 NFL Playoff Predictions - Conference Championships

Only four teams left in the NFL playoffs which means the Super Bowl in Indianapolis is just around the corner. The potential Super Bowl matchups are quite intriguing. We have the possibility of having two different Super Bowl rematches. If it is the Ravens versus Giants, we will get a Super Bowl XXXV rematch. If it is the Giants versus Patriots, it will be a Super Bowl XLII rematch. We could also have the Harbaugh Super Bowl if it is the Niners versus Ravens. There would be no special significance if it was the Niners versus Patriots, but that would be a really fun matchup. If the Giants win then Eli can brag to his older brother Peyton that he has won more Super Bowls. Tom Brady and the Pats would love to add another ring to their collection while there are many players on the Niners and Ravens that would love to win their first. The Ravens have come so close the last several years and they would really love to get over the hump. The Niners haven’t made the Super Bowl since 1995 and even making it this season would be quite the story. So who will make it? That is yet to be seen, but here are my thoughts and predictions.  

Baltimore Ravens @ New England Patriots – Sunday 3:00 ET (CBS)- This is a matchup of the Ravens defense versus the Patriots offense. I haven’t been a firm believer in either of these teams this year, but they are the best of a very average AFC. The Patriots have quite the glaring defense but yet have a high powered offense. The Ravens are about the exact opposite. They have a high powered defense and an offense that has potential, yet underperforms at times. Both of these teams met in the playoffs just two seasons ago, with the Ravens winning that game. However, the Ravens and Patriots have played each other a total of 7 times since the Ravens came into existence and the Patriots have won 6 of those games. Edge for the Patriots on that one. But overall, the game is pretty well matched and could easily go either way. In giving one team the overall edge I look at one common trend from these playoffs so far. The old saying of defense wins championships stands out like a sore thumb. The Packers and Saints both had high powered offenses but fell flat on their faces when put up against a team with a solid defense. It seems like the Patriots are going to follow that trend. They have a great offense but no defense. They Ravens fit the bill of a team that would follow this trend. Now the Patriots are 13-3, but to be honest that is a very over rated 13-3. They managed to pull that off based on a fairly easy schedule. And by saying that I am referring to the fact that the Patriots still have not beaten a team that went above .500 on the season. Meanwhile, the Ravens have played poorly on the road this season and Foxboro is a tough place to win a playoff game, but I am thinking that the Ravens will pull this one off. But it certainly won’t be easy.

My Pick: Baltimore Ravens

New York Giants @ San Francisco 49ers – Sunday 6:30 ET (FOX) – I think everyone expected this game to be a shootout between the Saints and the Packers. But nonetheless, both of those teams got eliminated and instead we will be watching the Giants take on the Niners in San Francisco. Now the Niners were most likely jumping for joy when they saw or heard news of the Giants win. I don’t think that a trip to Lambeau in the winter to play the Packers wouldn’t have been too desirable and now they get to play host to the Giants. Now there is quite the story for both of these teams. The Niners haven’t been good for a while and with a brand new coach added with the lockout going on and a team that didn’t improve much during the offseason no expected them to be any good at all. Well they certainly proved people wrong. And in case someone had no idea that this team is legit, a playoff win against the Saints is pretty convincing. Yet on the other side of the stick you have the New York Giants. Now the Giants have been quite up and down all season long. They started strong but then fell on their faces quite hard and barely limped into the playoffs. However, since sneaking in to the playoffs, they have proven their worth. A 24-2 win over the Atlanta Falcons in round one was impressive and so was beating the reigning champion Packers by 17 points, giving the Pack their second loss on the season. It will be hard for the Packers and the Packers fans to swallow a one and done performance in the playoffs. This game is a tough call, but I was lucky in my last week’s picks when I said the Giants were the dark horse team in the playoffs, so I am going to go with the Giants on the slight edge and a rematch of Super Bowl XLII when the Giants topped the Pats in a thrilling game to give Eli his first ring.

My Pick: New York Giants