Because It's What We'd All Like to Do on Friday

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WALL-EEEEEEEEE!

Probably going to be the best summer movie this year (yes, even over Iron Man and The Dark Knight). Definitely the most anticipated movie in our household. Probably going to take the first family outing to the movies next week to see it.

Quote of the Day

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Actress Sienna Miller had to wear fake breasts for her role in forthcoming action movie G.I. Joe, because her own cleavage was not big enough for director Stephen Sommers. “(I wear a) tight black leather outfit. And much bigger boobs,” Miller said. “They gave me these things that looked like chicken fillets. The director said, 'I'm gonna be honest, I like girls with big boobs,' and I don't have them so we made them bigger. At least he's honest. But I was mildly offended."

Miller plays the Baroness in the the 2009 film G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (which, btw, I think is the dumbest movie title since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). If you’re wondering, here’s what Miller’s character is supposed to look like:

Here are some advance teaser posters that were just released, starting with the aforementioned Miller, followed by Channing Tatum as Duke and Ray Park as Snake Eyes:

I’m still sitting on the fence on this one. I’m not sure they can pull it off, but I’m still awaiting the first footage from the movie.

Quantum of Information

Interesting viral widget produced by the Bond people to get more information out about the next Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

My Kind of Shopping Center...

Happy Summer!

Happy first day of summer to all of you… it’s all downhill to the fall sports season now.

And don’t forget that the Steve Carell/Anne Hathaway/Dwayne Johnson film Get Smart opens today, as does Mike Myers’ The Love Guru with Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Congrats to the Celts, Doc Rivers, and Paul Pierce. They showed how good they were, while the Lakers showed how little they cared. All the Celts certainly outplayed their counterparts, Doc showed up Phil Jackson, and Pierce put himself in close to the rest of the Celtic greats. Give credit to the Celts’ defense and toughness for their 17th championship. So much for the Laker-Celtic rivalry… As has been said, it’s only a rivalry if both sides win; it’s a feud if one dominates the meetings.

I spot-watched the first half of Game 6, getting more and more disgusted as the game went on. Of course, this continued my disgust from Game 5, which I didn’t bother to watch much of. The Lakers showed no passion, which speaks to their lack of desire, professionalism, and perhaps their unity. It has been suggested, while most of the Lakers seem to like each other, they don’t particularly care for Kobe (and maybe Phil).

On that note, where were Kobe and Phil this entire series? As Jim Rome said after Game 4, Kobe can forget all the MJ comparisons. There’s no way MJ would’ve let his team look as bad as the Lakers looked, and Kobe’s performance throughout the Finals seemed oddly lethargic. As much as people can talk about Kobe sharing the ball, this Finals was probably the opportunity for him to be more aggressive, while the other guys shared the ball and played four-on-four against the rest of the Celtics.

As for Phil, for being talked about as the best coach of the last thirty years, he looked remarkably inept. He made no major adjustments, couldn’t get his team to defend, couldn’t put enough wrinkles into the offense to get his scorers into position to make plays, and couldn’t find the right players to put on the floor. He was going for his 10th championship in 11 opportunitites and failed miserably. It looked like, as was noted in a number of outlets, that Doc Rivers was hungrier than Phil, which has to be true.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t blame just Kobe and Phil. The entire Laker team looked slow, unathletic, and dispassionate. They’d better find some guys to take roles similar to the Celts’ Eddie House, James Posey and Kendrick Perkins, while the “big three” of Kobe, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom better find some cajones. Where will Kobe go after his tirade last summer and the apparent change in his attitude during this season?

Okay, not to be too bitter, it was an amazing run to the Finals, which was unexpected at the start of the season. The Lakers really weren’t as good as everybody thought they were when they got Gasol, and they will have Andrew Bynum (hopefully) next year. They still need to get more athletic, defend better, and be mentally tougher, but they should still challenge next year.

Back in the 80’s with the Showtime group, they were wildly erratic, especially in the 1984 Finals. They came back to look pretty good in ’85, ’87, and ’88, so it might be possible for this team to do something similar. They just won’t have the air of mystique they would’ve had if they had won (or even competed) during this Finals.

Hulk Out!

Happy Hulk Day.

NBA Finals, Game 4

Absolutely the worst NBA Finals game I have ever seen played – by the Celtics in the first half, and by the Lakers in the second. The first half was the Laker blowout I expected in Game 3, and the second half was a ridiculous implosion by the mental-midget Lakers.

Props to the Paul Pierce, Doc Rivers, and the Celtics. Pierce played some of the best defense ever on Kobe Bryant, Doc Rivers made some great calls (moving to a small lineup, putting Pierce on Bryant, going with Eddie House, force-feeding the ball to Garnett), and the Celtics played brilliantly. Pierce has really moved up on my respect-o-meter. I used to think he was a soft gunslinger who didn’t know how to win. I’m almost ready to call him a stud after his effort in Game 4. Consistency will be his key.

F*ck the Lakers. Absolutely the worst possessions at the end of the game by the Lakers – Ray Allen drives on Sasha Vujacic for an easy layup, and then the debacle of a final offensive possession. And how do they let it get to a few possessions? You’re up TWENTY-FOUR and you can’t pull it out? At least Lamar Odom showed up for one half (that was nice), and Pau Gasol had a nice overall game, but he needs to be an absolute force on either the offense or defensive ends. He can’t be both and this missing layups thing while missing help assignments is ridiculous. He merely plays okay on both ends.

The question now is where the hell are Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant? Phil hasn’t shown the genius moves he’s capable of, and Kobe is schizo. Jackson’s acquiesced to the players and moved away from the defense- and team-first attitudes he was known for while creating a pretty good offensive team, but the Lakers just aren’t mentally tough enough.

Kobe can’t decide how to play – he can’t score while playing the facilitator, and if he doesn’t play the facilitator, he gets too focused on scoring. I don’t know exactly where the balance lies for him, but he needed to come out like he did in Game 3. I think he’s got to score between 35-40 points for the Lakers to win. Wonder how he’s going to feel if the Lakers lose the series. He’s the one who wanted to shoulder the burden. He’s the one who wanted to win alone. He complained about not having pieces, they got him pieces, and now it’s not happening.

Argh. Aggrivating. Oh, well… like my dad says, you don’t get a dollar if they win.

Incredibles

Before I begin, let me first say to read through the entire blog, because there’s a hilarious/sad ending that’s totally worth it.
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Okay, fine. If you don’t want to read all of this, skip to the end.

The Incredible Hulk

Some of you may be wondering, with all my Iron Man and Speed Racer hype, why I haven’t mentioned the upcoming Hulk movie (opening this Friday, June 13). Mostly, it was because of a bunch of nonsense when they were editing the film that made it seem like Marvel Studios and actor Edward Norton were really at odds over how to cut the film. Throw in that some of the early teasers and trailers made it look average and Iron Man trailers looking awesome, and I sorta just said, “Meh,” to the movie overall.

I’m still on the fence about the whole thing, but fanboy reactions to early screenings seem positive, so it may be okay afterall. Also, since more and more clips started creeping out onto the internet, it’s looked better. I doubt it will have the same success as Iron Man, but from what I’ve read, it seems as though Marvel Studios is doing what fanboys like me have been waiting for – creating a coherent Marvel Universe on screen.

See, the interesting thing about comic book universes in print is the ability for characters to show up across titles. Spider-Man can show up in a Hulk book, Captain America in an Iron Man title, and so and so forth. Previously, because of the way movie studios acquired rights to characters, this crossover was impossible. But because Marvel decided to form their own studio, they can play around with their entire stable of characters within any movie they make. Really makes it easy to do fun things like put Captain America’s shield in the background of this scene in Iron Man (if you can’t see it, it’s in the background under the right arm):

Beyond the quick nod to Cap in Iron Man is, of course, the well-publicized scene at the end of the Iron Man credits, which expands the movie universe a million-fold:

Sooooo… back to my point. The interesting news about The Incredible Hulk movie is that it contains a couple of nods to the coherent Marvel Universe, notably (and confirmed), a scene in which Robert Downey, Jr.(as his Iron Man character Tony Stark) shows up to speak with William Hurt’s character. Beyond that, there is supposedly reference to the “super soldier” serum which created Captain America and ~possibly~ a scence with Cap himself (as director Louis Leterrier let slip… a lot). See this article.

We’ll take a wait-and-see approach after the weekend reviews for The Incredible Hulk. I’ll say I’m not that crazy about Ed Norton in the movie (though I really like Ed Norton), but it seems much more fun than Ang Lee’s original Hulk movie. In the meantime, here’s the latest and coolest Hulk trailer, with the Robert Downey, Jr. scene:

Iron Man 2

While we’re on the subject of the Marvel Universe, there are reports on IESB.net and aintitcool.com that director Jon Favreau and Marvel are having issues reaching a contract for Favreau to helm the Iron Man sequel. The short story is that Favreau took a (relatively) small up-front fee to do Iron Man, with the idea that he would get a substantial back-end cut from the sequel. Marvel Studios head David Maisel apparently feels that Favreau is asking for too much and feels that Iron Man 2 will be a hit regardless of who helms the film.

Marvel is attempting to fast-track the movie and get it into production starting in March 2009, with a target release of April 2010. It’s never a good idea to fast-track anything like this, especially considering no script has been written, the principal cast isn’t signed to contracts (I don’t believe), and obviously, the director’s chair is empty. The whole purpose of the creation of Marvel Studios was so Marvel could retain quality-control over their characters (while make a ton of money for themselves, of course).

To blow off Favreau, who along with Robert Downey, Jr. (a Favreau recommendation) was the reason Iron Man worked so well, is asinine. The movie was validation of the idea behind Marvel Studios – a quality depiction of a Marvel character that leapt from the printed page to the celluloid screen. The movie that was produced could only have been done by Favreau, because he’s a fanboy who worked tirelessly to create a film that fanboys AND the general public would love. Now they want to go and throw it all out the window. Idiots. Favreau’s supposedly not asking for that much, certainly not what Bryan Singer got to helm the (relatively) ridiculous Superman Returns.

Here’s hoping Marvel Studios comes to their senses. For Favreau’s side of things, check his MySpace page.

Street Fighter

I’ve mentioned the new film that’s being made with Smallville’s Kristen Kruek in the lead as Chun Li. What’s been made official is that the two “main” characters of the Street Fighter videogame franchise, Ryu and Ken, will NOT be a part of the film. WTF? You sell this game with those two front and center and can’t fit them into this movie? Are you kidding?

I guess the title Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li wasn’t enough of a giveaway for me about the direction they were taking this movie. Still, if you’re trying to hit the fanboys with this movie (and really, who else are you targeting?), you don’t leave out the two most recognizable characters from the franchise.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li also stars Neil McDonough, Chris Klein, Michael Clarke Duncan, Moon Bloodgood, Taboo (of the Black Eyed Peas), and Hong Kong cinema star Pei Pei Cheng (Jade Fox from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). It's due out in 2009. Keep up with the production at the official movie blog.

The Big Finish

Okay, I told you it would be worth waiting for… It’s a lot crazy and a lot sad at the same time. Set to the sound effects of the Street Fighter video game:

Steve's World of Sports

***UPDATED, Wednesday, June 11 at 12:21 PM***

My bad... As pointed out by my boy Don, the Celtics have won two games on the road in the playoffs, at Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals. Eh, goes to show how interested in the playoffs I actually am...

NBA Finals, Game 3

At least the Lakers pulled this one out… Sasha Vujacic came up huge with 20 points, and hit a clutch 3 from the left-hand corner to put the Lakers up 5. More than the points, it caused Boston to pull back from it’s double-teaming of Kobe as soon as he crossed half-court and allowed him to go one-on-one for two final baskets with under a minute left. Love that Phil Jackson called Vujacic “a rock-head” because he’s so damn stubbornly confident in himself (Kobe blasted him right before he hit the 3).

Still, did somebody forget to tell Pau Gasol (9 points, 12 rebounds) and Lamar Odom (4 points, 9 rebounds, 5 turnovers) that the game was last night? At 6:00 p.m. PDT? Did anybody tell the rest of the Lakers besides Kobe, Vujacic, and Jordan Farmar (5 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds)? At least Odom had that great late-game drive and attempted dunk which Gasol cleaned up.

Fortunately, Kevin Garnett (6-21 FG, 13 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists) and Paul Pierce (2-14 FG, 6 points, 6 rebounds) didn’t know the game was last night, either. And here I was thinking that KG had maybe started to get over the “46-minute man” label that he’s had his entire career, and I was gaining respect for Pierce as a basketball player through the first two games. Garnett was still a load, but Pierce was M.I.A.

Anyway, props to Doc Rivers, who everybody (with the exception of the Boston Herald) thought was overmatched coaching-wise against Phil Jackson. He’s done a pretty good job this series, keeping Eddie House in when Rajon Rondo went out with an ankle injury and double-teaming Kobe to get the ball out of his hands for the last 7-8 minutes of the game. Of course, he pulled a couple of not-so-great-in-hindsight moves by putting Rondo back in late in the game (allowing Kobe to roam free defensively off him) and by pulling off the double-team after the aforementioned Vujacic 3-pointer. If Vujacic hits 3’s after forcing Kobe and another Laker to make a pass, it’s better than Kobe vs. Ray Allen one-on-one.

Props also to Ray Allen, who’s really been missing a lot of the playoffs, but has played well in his last five games. 25 points on 8-13 shooting (5-7 from 3) is what he should be delivering, especially if Garnett and Pierce aren’t playing well. Athletic players who can run and move have always given the Lakers fits.

My big problem with this game (man, I’m really a downer, huh?) is that people are saying that the Lakers are back in the series. Um, sure, the series is at 2-1 and the Lakers have two more games at home, but they fell behind in the third quarter and didn’t look dominant at any point in the game beyond the first five minutes. Boston could easily win Game 4 and it’d be 3-1. Of course, Boston hasn’t won on the road in the playoffs, so who’s to say that they’ll show up, anyway?

Eh, I fully expect the Lakers to win another game at home, and the next story would bear that foregone conclusion out…

Tim Donaghy

For those of you who forgot about Tim Donaghy, here’s the quick refresher: former NBA referee who was caught in a federal investigation into mob gambling and admitted to betting on NBA games and divulging referee assignments and other inside information to gambling sources. Donaghy is currently plea-bargaining with the feds, hoping for a lighter sentence in exchange for helping with the investigation.

Donaghy’s lawyer recently released a statement claiming that the NBA fixed series, possibly mandating that the 2002 Lakers-Kings series be extended to seven games (which the Lakers won in one of the worst-refereed games in history). The statement also insinuated that a 2005 series between the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks was possibly altered due to an NBA crackdown on Rockets C Yao Ming after Mavs owner Mark Cuban complained to the NBA.

These assertions seem add to the idea that pro sports occasionally fixes games to get the matchups they want or to extend playoff series in order to make more money. Add to that a recent report in Sports Business Journal that the NBA and it’s partners stand to make $300-400 million per game if the NBA Finals goes back to Boston for Games 6 and 7, and you start to wonder… It’s common knowledge that games in Boston are refereed differently than games in L.A. I can attest to that after having been in college basketball for a number of years. You expect (and usually get) different calls at home than on the road. And $300-400 million is a lot of money…

Of course, this is coming from a guy who has pretty much zero credibility. There is the thought that Donaghy can’t be lying because he’s bound under federal oath, but if he hasn’t given any decent information to this point, maybe he’s just throwing stuff out there. I personally don’t want to believe him, but you have to think about it…

UC Irvine-LSU baseball, Game 3

Three assertions made by a co-worker of mine prior to Game 3: 1) the game was going to be over by 4:25 p.m. PDT on Monday (first pitch was at 4:07 p.m.), 2) if LHP Noel Avison pitched, the ‘Eaters would be in deep doo-doo, 3) LSU was going to get to 20 runs. Unfortunately, all three were true.

The ‘Eaters went 1-2-3 in the top of the first, and then here’s what LSU did:

Leadoff walk (on four pitches).
Runner advances to second on a wild pitch.
Single puts runners on first and third.
Balk; runner on third scores, runner on first advances to second (1-0 LSU).
Home run. (3-0).
Home run (4-0).
Home run (5-0).

All before the ‘Eaters recorded an out. The final was 21-7. LSU hit seven home runs in their last game in their old ballpark and racked up 24 hits, while the ‘Eaters threw seven pitchers out on the mound. Soooooo…

End of the 2007-2008 Big West Conference year. On to 2008-2009. At least Avison actually did okay for the ‘Eaters: 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 BB, 0 ER in the sixth inning.

And that, my friends, is all I have to say about that.

Randoms

NBA Finals, Game 2

We’ll start with the Lakers’ 102-108 loss to the Celtics. The worst part of it all has to be the two days of whining in LA. News flash: the Lakers weren’t that good to start with. They’re better than they’ve shown, but they aren’t phenomenal.

The role players sucked ass and the Lakers played pretty shitty defense. Colin and I couldn’t even watch the game (he got extremely angry and fussy, so I turned on Dirty Jobs instead). Coming back from 24 down with 8 minutes to go to get within two is crazy, but now they have to win 4 of 5 to win the whole thing. Hmm…

Props to Leon Powe for coming up big. 21 points for the kid was obviously huge for the Celts. He was so exciting in the first half that ABC ran a piece on Powe at halftime that detailed his difficult childhood in Oakland, becoming homeless, going into foster care, then losing his mother (with whom he had a close relationship) four days before his high school state championship game. Awwww… and he seemed like such an ass in college. Guess he’s just misunderstood. We should all have somebody to tell our side of the story.

The Lakers-Celtics rivalry is starting to mirror the stereotypes that people have of the two teams: Lakers are finesse and run-and-gun, while the Celts are blue-collar and grind-it-out. The Lakers look soft, while the Celts look like the favorites. We’ll see what happens when Game 3 takes place on Tuesday night.

BTW, it seems that the Lakers were -13 with Lamar Odom on the floor, while the Celts were +11 with Sam Cassell and +20(!) with P.J. Brown on the floor. Oy.

UC Irvine-LSU baseball, Game 2

The mood of the day was not good even before the Laker game. When you work at a mid-major conference like I do, you really watch to see what teams you can get to the postseason and how they do, because, obviously, that’s how you get publicity for the institutions and the conference. So we had four teams make the NCAA Baseball Tournament, with Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Davis, and UC Irvine.

Long Beach and Davis went out in the first (regional) round, while Fullerton and Irvine advanced to the second (super regional) round. Both teams advanced to the College World Series last year, with Irvine knocking out Fullerton in a 5 hour, 45 minute 5-4, 14-inning marathon. So imagine how cool it would have been to have both teams return to Omaha again this year. Unfortunately, it was not to be…

Fullerton looked great in the first round on ESPNU, winning at home against Cal, San Diego, and UCLA. They then proceeded to suck it up on ESPN and ESPN2 Friday and Saturday, losing in two games (best two-out-of-three series) at home to Stanford. I was seriously planning on taking the family to Omaha if we had two teams there (of course, I’d be working and Kindra and the kids would be in Des Moines with Grandma and Grandpa).

With Fullerton out, Irvine was the hope since they played the first game of their series on Saturday, crushing LSU 11-5 at LSU. They went up 7-2 in the 4th inning on Sunday and looked good until the 8th when they gave up two runs. They proceeded to give up 5 more in the 9th, losing 9-7. They shoulda pulled their pitcher after he gave up the leadoff walk, or at least after he gave up the single, but… *sigh* The ‘Eaters play Game 3 of their series today, Monday, June 9 at 4:00 p.m. PDT on ESPN2.

Soooooo… instead of having two teams at the CWS, we’re gonna have none. =P

FYI, the Baseball America headline for the game was "Zot Through the Heart, LSU to Blame."

The Belmont Stakes

Is Big Brown the Barry Bonds of horse racing? After the whole “racing is horrible” mess that started after Eight Belles went down at the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown’s trainer had admitted that he’d given Big Brown (like probably every other horse in racing) the steroid winstrol. Reports were that Big Brown may not have been given the steroid since April. After getting annihilated at the Belmont, Big Brown was checked (twice) and nothing was found wrong with him physically. Anybody think it had to do with him not getting his drugs?

It’s funny also that everybody was talking about the “pressure” on Big Brown to win the Triple Crown after destroying everybody else in the Derby and Preakness. My answer was that you probably didn’t need sports psychology for a horse. The consenus after the Belmont was that Big Brown just “didn’t show up.” So, maybe you do need a horse whisperer…

On a Lighter Note…

Since the culture of television and movies seems to have shifted to rehashing old ideas, somebody needs to revive MTV’s old Celebrity Deathmatch, only this time, they need to make it live-action. For the first fight, I nominate Clint Eastwood vs. Spike Lee.

If you haven’t heard, Spike Lee recently complained that there were no black soldiers depicted in Clint Eastwood’s companion movies Flags of Our Fathers and Iwo Jima. Eastwood said that it was historically accurate, because black soldiers were in ammunitions divisions at Iwo Jima and were not involved in the fighting or raising the U.S. flag there. I’m sure that would’ve sufficed, but Eastwood supposedly added that Spike needed to “shut his face.” Spike then responded that Eastwood “sounds like an angry old man” and that Eastwood “is not my father and we’re not on a plantation, either.”

LET'S GET IT ON!

(Side note: Holy shit! In looking stuff up for this blog, I found out that they still made the show through 2007. I guess it airs on MTV2 (sorry, I only get basic cable). Here’s the website.)

I’m looking forward to my Thomas Kinkade TV. Apparently, Samsung has entered into an agreement with the Thomas Kinkade Company to develop a 46-inch TV called the Digital Masterworks Art-TV. Users would have the ability to shift between live TV and displaying digital artwork. As much as Kindra loves Thomas Kinkade, I’m sure we’ll have on hanging on our walls as soon as it becomes a reality. More info here.

NBA Finals: Game 1 Thoughts

1. That NBA championship trophy logo on the floor of the Garden is GINORMOUS. And ridiculous.
2. The Celtics aren’t quite as bad as people think they are.


3. The Lakers aren’t quite as good as people think they are.


4. Paul Pierce does not need to be compared to Willis Reed; I know he got hurt, came back, and had a great second half, but he’s still not Willis Reed.


5. Paul Pierce did do himself good by playing as well as he did in Game 1. He’s not a Celtic great, but he’s trying to be.


6. Props to Kevin Garnett, too. He had a monster game, but still settles for too many jumpers (though he did make a ton).


7. The Celts did a great job putting two players to Kobe, as they did to LeBron. The Celtics D was really, really good.


8. The Lakers need to get Kobe the ball on the move more, instead of giving it to him in an iso situation and getting out of the way.


9. Confidence is key in this series, especially for the bench guys and role players.


10. Holy cow! Was that a Sam Cassell sighting?


11. Boston’s bench guys and role players have an advantage because they’re more athletic than the Lakers’ guys.


12. The Lakers’ bench guys and role players have an advantage because they’re smarter players than Boston’s guys. Uh, except for Sasha. He’s kinda up-and-down.


13. Somebody might want to tell Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol that they need to box out and rebound. Might want to get everybody else involved in that, too.


14. While we're at it, tell Pau he's just going to see single coverage from Garnett the rest of the way; he'd better figure out how to draw some fouls.


15. And if Garnett's on Gasol, Odom better own Kendrick Perkins.


16. Best Laker of the night? Derek Fisher. He deserves to be remembered in Lakers’ lore as one of the great contributors. They shoulda never let him go a few years back.

Quick notes:

I can’t stand the tie-ins between the NBA Playoffs and summer movies. As much as I like most of the movies advertised, it just doesn’t work for me to cut commercials featuring clips from Transformers, Indiana Jones, and Hancock with highlights from the playoffs – it’s a little blatantly commercial for my taste…

I thought the Zohan commercial that was a take-off on the “There Can Only Be One” commercial series with Baron Davis and Adam Sandler was a great idea... Exectution lacked a little in that it wasn’t funny enough to last as long as it did.

Did you know the NBA is auctioning off game-worn jerseys from the Finals, along with other memorabilia? Ah, to have some disposable cash… how awesome would a Bryant or Garnett jersey be? Maybe I can pick up a D-Fish.

LOVED the Magic-Bird “There Can Only Be One” spot. If they didn’t do it, it would’ve been a travesty. Can you believe it’s been twenty-one years since those guys squared off in the Finals?

BTW, can we get this match-up? How awesome would that have been back in the day?

Insane in the Membrane

When you know it's time to change jobs (watch the guy in the middle cubicle):

Asian Influence in America

Happy Kung Fu Panda Day! The movie opens today, starring Jack Black (Po the panda), Dustin Hoffman (Shifu the red panda), Angelina Jolie (Tigress the… uh, tiger), Ian McShane (Tai Lung the leopard), Jackie Chan (Monkey the mon-… nevermind), Seth Rogan (Mantis), Lucy Liu (Viper), and David Cross (Crane). A couple of Asian character actors you might know are Randall Duk Kim (the Keymaker in The Matrix Reloaded) as Oogway the tortoise and James Hong (Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China and the maitre d’ in the Seinfeld episode “The Chinese Restaurant”) as Mr. Ping the goose. Oh, and Michael Clarke Duncan plays Commander Vachir, a rhino.

Normally, I wouldn’t get so excited over a Dreamworks animated production (they made Shrek, Madagascar, and Over the Hedge), but fanboy reaction to the movie has been good. Hopefully they’ve solved some of the story cohesiveness that has plagued their other movies. And I guess Jack Black has toned it down some, so it could be fun.

So let me get this straight… ABC is producing a new reality game show called Wipeout, which is based on those wacky Japanese game shows like SpikeTV’s Most Extreme Elimination Challenge – MXC (originally Japan’s Takeshi’s Castle) AND they’re producing a series titled I Survived a Japanese Game Show about people who are sent to Japan to compete in stunts reminiscent of, well, Japanese game shows?

What, there aren’t enough reruns or inane reality-show ideas that they have to rehash Japanese reality-show ideas? The problem with both of these shows is, if you’re not Asian, or privy to shows that these games are based on, you just don’t get the joke. You take them at face value, which is pretty worthless. If they’re going to rehash Japanese game shows, they need to bring out Japan’s Sasuke, which airs on G4 as Ninja Warrior. That show’s got some serious athletes competing in some serious challenges.

By the way, the winner of Wipeout wins $50,000 while the winner of ISAJGS gets a free trip to Japan and $250,000(!). Eh… Wipeout has ESPN’s Jon Anderson as one of its hosts and no jet lag.

Finally, it’s not Asian, but an Asian was probably involved in the creation of this insane, inane summer slide...

Silly Germans...

There WILL Only Be One

The NBA Finals start tonight at 9:00 p.m. EDT! I think you know I’m rooting for the Celtics… to get their butts handed to them by the Lakers. =)

Graphic by rdoggjunk. Take-off on the NBA’s “There Can Only Be One” commercials.

FAIL of the Day

More fails at failblog.org!