Top Ten: Christmas Movies!

Since it is that time of the year, here are my rankings. Go and watch some or all of these and enjoy!

1. A Christmas Story
2. It's a Wonderful Life
3. Love Actually
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Original)
5. Christmas Vacation
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. Elf
8. Family Man
9. Miracle on 34th Street (Original)
10. Scrooged

The Rangers finally traded some of their catching surplus. Gerald Laird was traded to Detroit for 2 minor leage pitching prospects. I consider that not a bad deal because this organization always needs pitching depth. Now, will they pick up a free agent? Ben Sheets is mighty tempting.

Will the Cowboys make the playoffs? Find out Saturday night. I hope they have the NFL network where I am going.

Quantum of Ok

Every fews years I get to experience a new movie from the oldest movie franchise around so it is always quite an event. James Bond has been entertaining crowds for almost 50 years now with 22 movies and I just about love all of them all. The franchise went through a reboot with the last movie Casino Royale and I was not onboard with this move but was cautiously optimistic though. They started off right by selecting Daniel Craig and this guy nails the role. He is not like any of the past Bonds on screen but is the Bond from the original novels which is quite an improvement for the character. Casino Royale turned out to be fantastic and dare I say one of the best of the series.

Quantum of Solace follows up right where Casino left off and immediately jumps into a car chase already in progress, nice way to start a movie. Things pretty much go downhill from there. The story is average, the editing bad, and the direction is lackluster. Director Marc Forster has a resume of low to mid level budget dramas so I am not sure why he was selected for the movie. He has never done an action movie let alone a $200 million dollar one and it shows. The only thing this movie has going for it is Danel Craig and he is a complete bad ass in the film and his Bond does anything to get the job done. As always I look foward to the next installment though.

The Cowboys have won 2 in a row and are back in the chase, let's see what happens on Thanksgiving where hopefully the main entree will be Seahawk. All is quiet in the Baseball free agency hunt so far but it will heat up soon. Unfortunately the Rangers will stay in the cold.

Movie of the week: I always view some old Bond movies when a new one is out so I am going with From Russia with Love. Connery is greatness.

TV show of the week: Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2. Boba Fett slicing up Ewoks with a lightsaber=priceless.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gran Torino=Greatness

Clint Eastwood has a new move coming out in December and it looks great. It is nice to see him in front of the camera again after directing only on his last three movies. He looks tough as nails in this and I can't wait!

Enjoy some Clint greatness!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/grantorino/

RIP Paul Newman

It has been awhile since I have updated my obituary blog so here it goes. Awhile back we lost a true hollywood legend in Paul Newman. Word had been going around for awhile that he had lung cancer and was not doing to well so I had been going thru some of my favorites of his recently.

Cool hand Luke has always been my favorite of his and I got the Blu Ray recently and it is fantastic! Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is great and also ranks among the top ten Westerns of all time. He and Robert Redford also teamed up for the Sting and it was rumored they we were always looking for another project to collaborate on but they never could come up with it. Too bad, they were magic together on the screen.

Paul was nominated for Best Actor 9 times in his career and won only one once for his role in The Color of Money, the seqeul to one of his earlier films The Hustler. He got tired of attending the awards ceremony and he did not go to accept his Oscar. One of his lesser known roles was Nobody's Fool in 1995 and it was a comedic turn for him and he received another Oscar nod for that film. Paul continued to do supporting roles at the end of his career and was the voice of Doc in the Pixar movie Cars.

I admired Paul Newman alot for things he did outside of his movie career. Being married to his wife and actress Joanne Woodward for over fifty years is not the norm for a Hollywood couple. He also created Newman's Own food products with everything from salad dressing to popcorn where all profits go to assist kids in need. He was a true legend and he will be missed.

Are the Cowboys done for the season? I'm glad it is the bye week because I am losing interest quick.

Tv show of the week: NBC's Kath and Kim. Selma Blair is hilarious!

I will try to update again soon and hopefully with no death of any kind.

R.I.P. Snowman

The great Jerry Reed left us this past week so I could not let this go unnoticed since he is in one of the best movies ever and one of my top 10. He played"Snowman" in "Smokey and the Bandit' as the truck driver carrying 400 cases of illegal Coors beer while "The Bandit" served as blocker in his ultra cool black Trans Am complete with the screaming chicken on the hood. Jerry is also immortalized in the movie as he did the soundtrack and performed the legendary track 'East bound and Down', what a classic.

Jerry was a successful country music singer before jumping on to movies. Other notalbe roles were the Bandit sequels, Bat*21, The Waterboy, and Gator. He was 71.

Snowman, stop by your local "Choke and puke" and stay "East Bound and Down", glad you could stop by good buddy.

Movie of the Week: Smokey and the Bandit, see above.

Tv show of the week: Terminator: Sara Connor Chronicles. Season 2 strats Monday.

R.I.P. Mr Gatti's

It is with great sadness that I begin my blog with the departure of a long, dear friend, Mr. Gatti. Ah, where to begin. I remember when my parents first took me there and the pizza sucked so bad to them I never got to go back with them again. Luckily junior high rolled around and I was able to frequent the place more often with classmates. I remember the big screen they had in the corner that was covered with sauce and grease stains from the occasional thrown slice to it. I remember Mike eating 18 slices once only to outdo that by eating 19 cheeseburgers the next day. I remember meeting friends already eating there and sometimes trying to blend in with them and just try to grab a plate but that guy behind the counter always knew who paid and who did not. I remember the ongoings in the parking lot behind but that is for another time. We all grew up and went our separate ways but you my friend, Mr. Gatti, always brought us back together except for last week when you decided to close and screw me out of my free buffet PUNK! I had been working on that card for the free buffet for quite awhile thank you. Anyway off to Pizza Buffet heaven you go. Also, Cici's has fantastic brownies.

Movie of the Week: Batman Begins. Watch this again before 'The Dark Knight' comes out next week.

TV show of the week: Deadliest Catch. I do not know why guys crab fishing interests me every week.

Happy birthday Kevin Bacon!

By the end of the week the Rangers could be 4 1/2 games out or 11 1/2 out, we will see! Four players at the All-Star game next week.