Friday, May 27, 2011

2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions - Round 4

The Stanley Cup Final is now set. The Boston Bruins will play the Vancouver Canucks starting on Wednesday night. I had originally picked a Boston/San Jose Final so this isn't too bad.

Last round I went 1-1 with my picks which brings my overall playoff record to 8-5. Even if I guess wrong this next round I'll still finish above .500. Not too shabby for someone who in the past has been terrible with playoff predictions.

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (3) Boston Bruins - Boston in 7
I know that the Canucks are heavily favored to win. The one thing that everyone has been forgetting about is the fact that the Canucks haven't had to play an overly physical team yet. Sure the Blackhawks got a bit rough with them in the last to games of their first round series. But so far the Canucks have had a fairly easy road to the Finals compared to Boston. If Boston is healthy enough to play a physical series with the Canucks this could give them the edge to win.

Boston's last trip to the Finals was in 1990 and Vancouver's was in 1994. Both lost and Vancouver has never won a Cup at all. Both cities fans deserve to see the trophy hoisted in their city (yes, even though I hate the Canucks). Regardless of who wins we're all treated to another round of Cam Neely sitting in the pressbox looking like he might kill someone!


GO BRUINS!


Friday, May 20, 2011

RIP Macho Man - 1952-2011

 

Like so many other people I was saddened to hear about the passing of Macho Man Randy Savage. According to TMZ it sounds like the former WWE champion had a heart attack while driving and got into an automobile accident.

I grew up and still to a certain extent am a pretty big wrestling fan. I don’t watch WWE every week anymore but when I was a kid I never missed a single episode of Superstars, Saturday Night’s Main Event, or Wrestlemania.

My all time favorite WWE event is still Wrestlemania IV from 1988. This was the event where Savage beat four other wrestlers in a tournament to win his first ever WWE championship. Savage went through Butch Reed, Greg Valentine, One Man Gang, then finally one of my other favorite wrestlers, the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.

I remember my dad rented this for me to watch with my friends during my 9th birthday party. My friends and I knew who won the belt but we still loved all four hours of the event. 

A lot of people like to make fun of wrestling but for me these guys were superhero’s. As a scrawny & short kid who wasn’t that good at sports these guys could do things that I only dreamed of being able to do one day.

Rest in peace Macho Man. I know you’re walking down that aisle in heaven with Miss Elizabeth.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Top 10 Summer Movies - Part Deux

Last weekend was the first official weekend of the Summer movie season. Although, if you listen to the producers of "Fast Five" they would've told you that it started in April. Sorry guys, your movie looks good but May is when the Summer movie season officially begins.

This year's crop is kind of interesting. There's a lot more sequels and superhero movies than normal, which is normally ok but some of these movies I'm not so gung-ho to see.

Sorry Disney but I'm not a fan of Cars or Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers 2 was horrible so no matter how good the trailers for the new movie are looking (and they are looking good) I'll wait to see these on Blu-Ray.

Which movies am I excited to see? Here's the second half of the top 10 movies that I'm most excited to see this Summer. To read picks #10-6 click HERE

#5 - Rise of the Planet of the Apes (August 5)

Maybe it's because I'm one of the few people who actually liked the 2001 Tim Burton version but I'm pretty excited for this prequel that shows how the apes start to take over the earth. The trailer has a great dark tone and the apes look creepy as hell. James Franco stars as the scientist may be the cause of mankind's demise.

#4 - X-Men: First Class (June 3)

Yes, it's another prequel but this time we get to see how everyone's favorite team of mutants comes together. The interesting part about this one is Professor X (Jame McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fessbender) have to come together to help stop the Cuban Missile Crisis. Plus add the fact that they wear the cool retro yellow X-Men suits and this is directed by "Kick-Ass" helmer Matthew Vaughn, this could be a great way to get the series back on track after the disappointing "X-Men 3" and "Wolverine"

#3 - Super 8 (June 10)

Not much is known about this J.J. Abrams directed movie. We were all treated to a teaser last summer that showed a train carrying what was possibly an alien from Area 51 crashing in a small town. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg have kept a pretty tight lid on the plot which is why this movie is so high on everybody's must see list. Plus the full trailer makes this movie feel like an 80's Spielberg movie.

#2 - Cowboys & Aliens (July 29)

Are you interested in a big summer movie starring James Bond and Indiana Jones fighting aliens in the old west? Oh and did I mention that it's directed by Iron Man's Jon Favreau? Yeah, there's not much more to explain here. See you on opening night.

#1 - Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22)

Cowboys & Aliens looks awesome but as a fan of Captain America it's hard not to get pumped up about this movie. Plus, the trailer is fantastic and director Joe Johnston has done a great job creating a WWII environment. The biggest reason that you should be excited to see this movie though is the fact that this will be the last Marvel movie before next summer's mega-blockbuster "The Avengers". So make sure you stay after the credits for this one.

Animation Domination Battle Royale - #1 05/08/11

I have a love/hate relationship with Sunday's. I love not going into work but I also hate that Sunday night dread of having to go into work the next Morning.

One of the things that helps me get through that unpleasantness of work is Fox's Animation Domination. It's a joyous 2 1/2 hours of primetime cartoon shenanigans. It starts off with American Dad!, followed by my all time favorite show The Simpsons. It then goes into Bob's Burger's then the Seth MacFarlane double whammy of Family Guy and the Cleveland Show.

I though it would be fun to have all five battle it out to see who had the best episode this week.

#1 - American Dad! (Home Wrecker)
Whenever I talk to someone about American Dad! I always say that Roger the Alien is the best character on the show. After this episode though I might have to change that to the Principal Lewis character. The guy has become the MVP of this season. In this episode Lewis discovers that Barry is idiot savant who could be used to count cards. Of course move forward a few scenes and he has Steve, Barry, and the rest of their group counting cards at a dingy back alley Asian casino. Of course the kids start realizing that they don't need Principal Lewis and try to branch out on their own. This leads to the best line of the night from Steve "He's spends all the money on lap dances and James Ingram cd's".

In the other storyline Stan and Francine are boasting about how great their marriage is. They visit Terry & Greg's house after they remodel their kitchen and Terry & Steve bet them that they couldn't survive a kitchen remodel. They offer to pay for the renovations if their marriage survives but if not they have to give them their marriage license. Of course they end up fighting and do the classic sitcom "you stay on your side of the house and I'll stay on mine" bit. It's been done a hundred times before but they make it funny.

Show score - B+

#2 - The Simpsons (Homer Scissorhands)
Homer's had a lot of jobs over the years and tonight we can add one more to that list. Hair stylist. After a freak painting accident destroys a good portion of Patty's hair, Homer realizes that he has a knack for styling women's hair. Of course that means in the next scene that Homer now has his own studio. While he's actually good at a job for once he realizes that he hates listening to women talk all day. Normally the Homer new job episodes haven't been that good but this one actually worked.

In another funny part of the show Milhouse realizes that life is short (after watching the first scene of "Finding Nemo") and he shouldn't waste any time telling Lisa how he loves her. Of course in true Milhouse fashion he rejects him but a 5th graded named Taffy takes a liking to him after seeing him pour his heart out. Naturally Lisa gets jealous and this leads to a pretty funny scene that involves Milhouse sitting on a flying eagle saying "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" Plus in this episode it's revealed that Lunch Lady Doris is dating Hans Moleman. Way to go Moleman!

Show score - B-


#3 - Bob's Burger's (Weekend at Mort's)
I have to admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of this show when it first came on. I've since come around to it thanks to some great writing and some great secondary characters like Bob's restaurant nemesis Jimmy Pesto.

In this week's episode mold is discovered at the restaurant so they're forced to close down for two days. Mort who runs the funeral home next door to them let's them stay at his funeral home for the weekend. Linda of course thinks this could be their second honeymoon but Bob just wants to relax for the two days and do his "Speed" bus model. Meanwhile the kids help Mort get a date through an on-line mortician dating site. This leads to a great double date with Bob and Linda at Jimmy Pesto's restaurant. Naturally this leaves the kids to explore the funeral home while they're gone.

In case you're wondering the burger special this week was the "I've created a Muenster Burger".

Show score - B

#4 - Family Guy (The Big Bang Theory)
Unfortunately Family Guy was the weakest of the Fox toon lineup this week. Normally Brian/Stewie episodes are great but this one was a bit disappointing.

Stewie invents a time machine which his half brother Bertram gets a hold of and tries to travel back in time to kill one of Stewie's ancestors so Stewie never exists. It turns out that one of Stewie's ancestors was Leonardo DaVinci. Stewie and Brian go back through time to try and stop him.

There wasn't that many laughs and probably the best part was the Stewie/Bertram in air chase through Italy on DaVinci's flying machines.

Show score - C+

#5 - Cleveland Show - (Your Show of Shows)
This week Rallo is trying to get ready for the school talent show and of course goes to his old Jewish friend Murray for advice on what to do. He ends up writing him and his friends (voiced by T-Pain and wil.i.am) a song about fiscal responsibility. Naturally the song bombs at the talent show.

Meanwhile Cleveland ends up convincing his boss that he should have his own talk show on Waterman Cable. The first episode bombs but he repackages the show and target's it to house wives. This is the best part of the episode because it involves a great production meeting scene with Cleveland's pals pitching show ideas.

Rallo

Episode score - B-

This week's winner - American Dad!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Animation Domination Battle Royale #2 - 05/15/11

 I have a love/hate relationship with Sunday's. I love not going into work but I also hate that Sunday night dread of having to go into work the next Morning.

One of the things that helps me get through that unpleasantness of work is Fox's Animation Domination. It's a joyous 2 1/2 hours of primetime cartoon shenanigans. It starts off with American Dad!, followed by my all time favorite show The Simpsons. It then goes into Bob's Burger's then the Seth MacFarlane double whammy of Family Guy and the Cleveland Show.

Last week we saw American Dad! come out on top. Let's see who can win the last battle royale of this tv season.

American Dad! (Flirting With Disaster)
Sadly we don't get any Principal Lewis this week but we are treated to Roger acting extra sleazy. Roger notices that Steve has a knack for building bird houses. It doesn't take long for Roger to sell the houses and spend all the money on drugs and hookers. He even gets an awesome chest tattoo of Klaus. While doing this he gives Steve cheap parts which lead to a clip of a young family of blue jays who's home is destroyed because of the shotty home they live in. It reminded me of the "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" homage with squirrels in season 1.

Over in the main story Francine ends up taking a job at the CIA which pisses Stan off because that means he can't flirt with all the ladies around the office as much. Francine doesn't mind because the guys in the office start flirting with her too. This leads to a jealous co-worker throwing acid in Francine's face. She can't get a skin graph and comes back to work and is all upset that nobody is flirting with her anymore.

Show score - B+

The Simpsons (500 Keys)
I love The Simpsons. It's without a doubt my all time favorite show. I have two Simpsons calendar's in my cubicle at work and my wife and I can have entire conversations just quoting the show. A lot of people say that the show isn't funny and isn't as good as it used to be. Now I'll admit that the show isn't quite as good as say seasons 2-7 but even the worst new episode is better than most things on TV.  Well except for last night's new episode....

The show started off good as the family discovers that they have an entire drawer full of keys. Of course most of them are from Homer's old jobs like Mr. Plow and when he filled in for Smithers. After the keys are found which happens in the first 5 minutes the episode goes down from there. There's basically four plots as each of the main characters has a key that unlocks something important. Homer has a key to the Duff brewery so he flies around the Duff blimp for an episode and Lisa unlocks a secret room underneath the school. The Marge and Bart storyline's are small filler that don't go anywhere. There was a lot going in in this episode and it seems like when they try to keep it simple the episode works. This one really didn't.

Episode score - C-

Bob's Burger's (Lobsterfest)
The big annual event known as Lobsterfest is coming to town and Bob hates it. Not only is Bob allergic to lobster (really funny bit) but it also means that nobody wants to buy any burgers. He doesn't even let the rest of his family eat lobster.

Luckily for Bob a hurricane comes through and threatens to cancel the event. Bob stays open through the hurricane offering up free burgers and beer and declares that they should celebrate "Bobsterfest". After a hard night of partying he wakes up to find his restaurant has been trashed and his new friends have abandoned him because the weather clears and everyone heads to lobsterfest.

Tonight's episode wasn't quite as good as last week's but there is a funny part with the kids trying lobster for the first time and Jean having an allergic reaction to lobster.

Episode score - C+

Family Guy (Foreign Affairs)
Last week's episode was a dud but fortunately we're treated to a pretty good episode this week. Lois goes to Paris with Bonnie for a vacation. After getting there she admits to Lois that she's only there to have an affair with another man. She ends up sleeping with a guy names Francois who is also in a wheelchair. He asks Bonnie to stay there with him. She considers until Lois tells Joe and he show up to get her to come back home. In the funniest part he shows his love by standing up for her. It turns out that Quagmire is just taped to the back of him though.

The second storyline was also good by having Peter home school the kids while Lois is away. Peter feels that he should pull the kids out of school after a flu outbreak. Of course Peter teaches them nonsense and there's a great part that is similar to the Conway Twitty cutaway's as Peter said that in 1985 "was the year of the gayest music video of all time". I think Peter was right....

Episode score - B

Cleveland Show (Hot Cocoa Bang Bang)
Tonight in the second season finale, Cleveland creates his own comic book called "Waderman". He's so sure that everyone will the story of a hero who isn't afraid to go into shallow water that he decides to take the whole family to Comic-Con in San Diego. Nobody wants to go except for Cleveland Jr.

While at the show Junior because sour on the convention after the convention is filled with Twilight and crappy NBC sitcoms like Schwim-Team starring David Schwimmer. He then gets all the other geeks to get together and get rid of those terrible exhibits.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Donna had appeared in a Blaxploitation movie called "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang". Robert Rodriguez is screening the film and Donna tries to stop him. He ends up screening the movie after buying the rights to Cleveland's "Wadrerman" comic. They then end up trying to hunt down Rodriguez after the threatens to distribute the movie.

Overall pretty good episode to end the season on. Plus, we were even treated to a cameo from Comic Book Guy!

Episode grade - B+

We have a tie this week but since you can't have two people win a battle royale the winner for the second week in a row is:

American Dad!

Friday, May 13, 2011

2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions - Round 3

Compared with with first round I hardly watched any of this last round. This was probably a good thing as my picks weren't so good. I went 2-2 without picking a correct amount of games for a single series. I was right about the Bruins and the Sharks advancing which is good considering they were my original picks to make the Stanley Cup Finals. So far in the playoffs I've been 7-4. Here are my thoughts for each of the Conference Finals.

Western Conference
(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (2) San Jose Sarks - Sharks in 7
I've gone two rounds without picking the Canucks so why not make it three in a row. I really think this could be the Sharks year. They had that epic come back against the Kings then survived three straight wins from the Wins to get to the third round. I think they're starting to exercise some of those past playoff demons. Plus Antti Niemi has now won 6 straight playoff series. Suck it Vancouver!

Eastern Conference
(3) Boston Bruins vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning - Boston in 6
To be honest I'd be happy if either of these teams won the Stanley Cup. I'm taking Boston though because they were the team I predicted to win the Cup. The biggest obstacle they face is losing Patrice Bergeron to a concussion. Hopefully for them they can win this one without them.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Top 10 Summer Movies - Part One

This weekend was the first official weekend of the Summer movie season. Although, if you listen to the producers of "Fast Five" they would've told you that it started in April. Sorry guys, your movie looks good but May is when the Summer movie season officially begins.

This year's crop is kind of interesting. There's alot more sequels and superhero movies than normal, which is normally ok but some of these movies I'm not so gung-ho to see.

Sorry Disney but I'm not a fan of Cars or Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers 2 was horrible so no matter how good the trailers for the new movie are looking (and they are looking good) I'll wait to see these on Blu-Ray.

Which movies am I excited to see? Here's my list of the top 10 movies that I'm most excited to see this Summer.

#10 - Horrible Bosses (July 8)

The premise alone has me excited. Basically, three guys (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day) have had enough of their bosses and decide to kill them off. Sounds like a new version of "9 to 5" with guys. The movie already has an R rating and I'm a big fan of dark comedy so this could be good.

#9 - 30 Minutes or Less (August 12)

Jesse Eisenberg teams up with his "Zombieland" director Ruben Fleischer to tell the tale of a pizza delivery driver forced to rob a bank. The trailer looks awesome and two of the funniest guys on tv also star, Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation) and Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down). This could be this summer's "Superbad".

#8 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (July 15)

I've never read a single Harry Potter book but I have to admit that this has been a fantastic franchise. Warner Bros pretty much pulled off the impossible by filming this franchise for the past 10 years and has created the biggest film franchise of all time. I predict that this film will make the most money this Summer.

#7 - Green Lantern (June 17)

I have to admit that if I was making this list 6 months ago that Green Lantern would probably be #2 on my list. Sadly the more trailers I see, the less I want to see it. I guess the FX look a little too much like a video game for me. I still want to see it though as I think Ryan Reynolds will do a great job as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

#6 - Hangover 2 (May 26)

Does this movie look exactly the same as the first one? Yes. Do I care? No! This is the follow up to the most successful R rated comedy of all time. It's going to be compared to the first juggernaut but that's ok. The trailer looks crazy enough that they will probably have another hit on their hands.

Come back later this week for #5-1.