Oscar Picks 2011

On Sunday Hollywood will pat itself on the back for another year of films in the can. I think over all it was a good year for films and the Oscar Noms reflect that because they are all over the place this year. I do not beleive there will be one movie running away with just a ton of Gold Boys this time. I kid you not I was 100% on my picks last year but I did not list them on here but I did on my grease board at home. So here are my picks:

• Best Picture- The King's Speech
• Best Director- David Fincher
• Best Actress- Annette Benning
• Best Supporting Actress- Hailee Stenfield-This one is a stretch, but man she was great!
• Best Actor- Colin Firth
• Best Supporting Actor- Christian Bale
• Best Animated Film- Toy Story 3
• Adapted Screenplay- Aaron Sorkin
• Original Screenplay- Christopher Nolan

I wish True Grit would just sweep them all but that's not gonna happen. Enjoy the show with the 2 hosts.

Top 10: Sitcoms

The sitcom seemed to be a dying breed a little while back but is poised for a comeback with a few good shows that are on the air right now. I do not watch most of them since I have about had it with network TV cancelling shows after two episodes, but I hear some are good. Kudos to The Big Bang Theory and The Office. Let's see where Dunder Mifflin goes after Michael Scott exits. Some of the shows below did not start out well ratings wise but the network let the show grow a little bit and let the audience discover it. What a novel concept.

1. All in the Family- No show like this existed and sadly never will again because it would not be politically correct to air such a thing. A fantastic cast lead the way with this groundbreaking show and we learned what a meathead was and what the toilet sounded like flushing on TV. RIP Carrol O'Connor, you were a great one.


2. Seinfeld- A show about nothing turned out to be a lot and instilled itself into a generation. My family and I are always quoting the show or going remember when Kramer did this? My Church even plays Seinfeld clips during the service. Not bad for a stand-up comedian.


3. Cheers- The place where everyone knows your name and made a bar look even more fun. This show seemed destined for failure when Shelly Winters departed in the middle of its run but when Kirsty Alley came onboard some might agree it got better. Great writing for this show. My favorites were the two guys at the end of the bar.


4. The Honeymooners- Such a simple, fantastic show. Four actors on one set about 99% of the time. Who knew so much could happen to a bus driver in a little apartment?


5. Sanford and Son- The only junk on his show was all the stuff in the house and in the yard. I love the theme song to this show. It's Fred G. Sanford, and the G stands for greatness.


6. Frasier- Kelsey Gramer had a heck of a run on Cheers and got to stay in character for many more years after Cheers signed off. The supporting cast made this thing work and the dog was good too. "We call him Eddie Spaghetti. Oh, does he like spaghetti? No, he has worms."


7. Three's Company- A very risky show at the time to have a guy livng with two girls. Suzanne Sommers was incredible in the show and got a little to big for her britches for salary demands and the network let her go but the show carried on nicely.
8. I Love Lucy- I have not seen this in awhile but this show was hilarious. Lucille Ball carried this thing and had her little cuban help out too.
9. Everybody Loves Raymond- I caught onto this show at the end of its run because I always heard it was so good and I was not disappointed. Peter Boyle was outstanding in this, he could just appear on screen without saying a word and it was great. I always remember the Halloween episode where he was Frankenstein, nice homage.
10. I am cheating here. Simpsons or Family Guy? One has been on wayyyy longer but the later may be a lot more funnier. We will let this one play out.

No one better mention Friends here. That show ran out of steam after about three seaons. Pretty people on tv, that is all it was.

New Release Tuesday with the Rare Friday Release

Still slow goings on the release front but there are a couple of good animated releases coming this week. DC has fallen way behind Marvel when it comes to studio movies lately but one thing DC has excelled at is their short animated features. This week marks the return of the Man of Steel in All Star Superman and I hear it is fantastic. I shall enjoy this with my boy.


Due Date- A new comedy from the makers of The Hangover. I will gives this a rental sometime.


Momento- First time on BLU and one of Christopher Nolan's first works. If you liked Inception, you will love this flick. It is played in reverse order, kinda of like that Seinfeld episode.

And on Friday Megamind comes out for the weird Friday release. I caught this at the theater and liked it alot. This is a must buy.

Rangers spring training is up and going and Michael Young is being the good soldier and is at camp not complaining so far. It must be nice to be making $48 million over the next 3 years. Bring on the games!

My past comes back to haunt me

This is a little video that was made in high school. I had no idea it still existed. It coveys my love of Rocky Balboa, lifting weights, and of course Twinkies. Enjoy.

Props to KY, nice work.

http://www.youtube.com/jerkiesfootball

New Release Tuesday

Wow, If you thought last week was a slow release day then wait until you see this week. Not much for new releases or older movies being released. Unstoppable appears to be a watchable action flick as Denzel Washington teams up with his favorite director Tony Scott yet again and we get the up and comer Chris Pine to boot.







Watching Dexter Season 1 and finding it quite intriguing, thanks for the recommendation BM. Justified Season 2 kicked off last week and last night's episode opened up all sorts of subplots, great show.

Good news on the new release front, my favorite movie The Outlaw Josey Wales gets released in June. "You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?"

Cabin Bound Again

At home with the kids again today. That is 5 snow days in the last week. Tomorrow is up in the air too becasue it will be in the teens tonight. I do not recall ever missing that much school in a year. So today I am entertaining the kritters, applying to jobs, cleaning house, and getting ready for Justifed Season 2 tonight.

Pitchers and catchers report in a week and Michael Young wants out now. Great timing Mike, at this time of the year teams are set on who they want to report to spring training with and you are making this fiasco. Is $48 million over the next three years not enough for you? This may be the best built team going into Spring training after their greatest season ever and you do not want to be a part of it. That is a shame.

New Release Tuesday

Yesterday was a pretty slow day on the release front.

The Alien Anthology was released late last year to great reviews and was released in a special package yesterday that is pretty cool. Do I want 2 really good movies and 2 movies that were just okay for that amount? I might wait for a price drop on this.

Thelma and Louise- I have not seen this flick in a long time and recall it was good. One of Ridley Scott's finer films.

There was not alot else that I am interested in and next week looks bleak too. So sit back and spin something.

Began Dexter Season 1 this week, interesting so far.

Packtacular!

Well last night's Super Bowl was a good game to watch. North Texas is not scoring real well on the Super Bowl evaluation card so far. The weather? There is not much you can do about that. Ice falling from the stadium? I cannot believe the fire department did not think of that scenario. Last year at this time there were several videos on the news of sheets of falling ice from buildings and water towers. Sell tickets that have no seats? Whoa, the NFL messed up pretty bad on that situation. And now it has come out that they were aware of this a month ago. Way to go, serves you right that you missed the attendance record by less then a 1,000. Oh well the game was good, the commercials forgettable except for that VW Darth Vader one, and the halftime show sucked. Bad. Was that Karaoke they were doing?

Got to send the kids back to school after the blizzard kept us out for 4 days and I got to go back to the gym.

Justified Season 2 starts this Wednesday, it had a good Super Bowl ad with a little Dirty Harry to it, nice.

It's setting in...

Day 4 of no school and staying home with he kids is getting...I don't know. I love staying home with them, I guess not getting out much gets cumbersome. We did manage to get to a couple of places Wednesday evening and yesterday too. All stocked up with junk food. Watched RED last night and that was pretty good, I am enjoying the older actors doing action movies. Helen Mirren was brilliant in it, she looks great with a machine gun.

North Texas is getting bad Super Bowl press for the weather this week. I am not sure how other cities control thier weather but would be interested to find out. Would they rather the game be up in Chicago or New York this week? In nine feet of snow? I hope they enjoy the indoor game on Sunday.

I got out and played in the snow today and will go out for round two later.

Go pack!!!

Top 10: Action in the bathroom

Do not take that title the wrong way. I am not talking about Judge Reinhold in Fast Times at Ridgemont High action but great action scenes that happen to take place in the potty. They can be quite humorous.

1. True Lies- Arnold against a buff terrorist with water spewing all over the place and hand dryers rip off the wall with ease. Classic scene when Arnold slides across the wet floor to get his gun.

2. Eastern Promises- Viggo Mortensen has infiltrated the Russian mob and gets into a tussle with a few guys in the sauna, naked. Yes naked. Does the whole scene that way and parlayed that into an Oscar nom.

3. Goldfinger- In the intro Bond blows up his assignment but needs to stop off for one more visit to his lady friend and runs into a henchman. Bond Throws the man into a full bathtub but then he attempts to grab Bond's gun hanging by said bathtub and Bond decides to warm up his bath with a place heater. Bond's reply in that Connery way, "Shocking."

4. Terminator 3- Two Terminators slugging it out in a huge bathroom. Arnold gets roughed up a bit by the Fembot.

5. Firefox- Clint is an American spy/pilot that has made his way into Russia to steal a top secret jet from them. After nervously getting through a checkpoint Clint stops by the restroom to collect himself. A Russian police officer stops in to hassle him and Clint decides to open up a can on him and take him out.

6. Lethal Weapon 2- Ah, the adventures of Mel and Danny. Murtaugh finds out he has a bomb underneath him while on the john. Riggs discovers his predicament and decides they need some help. Murtaugh requests that Riggs keeps this quiet and of course Riggs calls in what seems like the entire force. Any way they share a moment and Riggs pulls Murtaugh into the bathtub for shelter and the potty goes flying into the street. Is Warner Brothers really wanting to reboot this series instead of continuing it? A shame.

7. True Romance- Patricia Arquette is in her hotel room while the mob is looking for her. A pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini locates her and roughs her up in the bathroom. She cleverly uses the top of the toilet tank and a swiss army knife to take care of the bad guy.

8. To Live and Die in LA- A secret service agent chases a counterfeiter through the airport and loses sight of him and decides to check the restrooms. Of course he checks the ladies room first with no luck and proceeds to the men's room. The crook almost get away with it by sitting on a toilet with his feet but he moves just a bit to cast a shadow and is caught.

9. The Big Lebowski- The Dude is chilling out at home with a White Russian and a group of thugs come into his house and pull him into his bathroom and shove his face into the toilet. They continue to ask him "Where is the money?" and the Dude does not know what they are talking about. His reply, "It's uh... uh... it's down there somewhere, let me take another look." Classic line, "Hey, careful man, there is a beverage here!"

10. Fight Club- Brad Pitt and his club take a guy down in the bathroom and show him they mean business by threatening to take his manhood with a knife. Yeah, I would do just about anything for them too.

It is day 2 of ice day and no school for the kids. Cabin Fever is setting in. We are thinking of heading to Best Buy and Target today if we can get out of the driveway. Go Pack!!!

New Release Tuesday

Tuesday is always new release day and let's see what new titles we have out this week. I have not seen any of this new stuff so I am looking forward to them.

Title of the week: Hatchet 2- Back in 2006 director Adam Green made Hatchet for around a million bucks and churned out a fantastic 80s themed horror movie. It even had cameos of Jason, Freddy, and Candyman. Hatchet 2 debuted in theaters in October but was quickly re-rated NC-17 and pulled from theaters because of too many complaints. Too bad, I hear the sequel is quite worthy.

Alice in Wonderland- I really am not sure if I have seen this or not but will be picking it up for the kids.

Monsters- A movie about giant monsters, I am in.

Lucky Lady- A 70s movie about 1920s prohibition with Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds. I did not know the Bandit ran boos before Smokey and the Bandit.

Let Me In- New vampire movie from last year. It is not Twilight so I will give this a spin.

Now my dilemma today. North Texas is covered in ice and I cannot go anywhere to get this stuff today. Perhaps all will thaw tomorrow.

Today is media day at Cowboys Stadium. I hope the teams have fun getting there. Go Pack!!!

School is out so off to whip the kids in something on the WII.