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!

Hadouken!

For you gaming fans, Street Figher IV has been confirmed for XBox 360, Playstation 3, and PC’s. It’ll be a cel-shaded 3-D fighter with a lot of the original cast returning, so it should be satisfying. Read more here, and go to the official site for character reveals this Friday, May 30.

I know the console isn’t designed for these sorts of games, but is it too much to ask for a Wii version? I was never very good at the game, but I liked playing it, so this is a title that would probably get me to plunk down $50 for it (well, at least $19.99 when the game gets discounted two or three years after its release).

One-Liners (Sorta)

Iron Man ROCKED. Caught it on Monday with my sister, who was worried that I wouldn’t like it because I usually complain about things gone wrong in movies. I’ll say that the only things I didn’t like was that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) waffled between the liberated woman and the damsel in distress and that the last battle was too short and unsatisfying. BUT, the movie still kicked ass (including Captain America’s shield in the background!). More later.

Haven’t said much about the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, slated to come out July 18, but I am looking forward to it. A little miffed by Heath Ledger’s Joker voice, but I’ve only seen clips so it might be okay. There’s a clip on YouTube that I’ll have to find that shows the parallels between the trailer for the 1989 Tim Burton Batman and The Dark Knight. So similar, it’s eerie. But the reason I’m writing about it now is that it seems Reese’s has jumped on the bandwagon with their latest bat-shaped and Batman-themed candy. Here’s a link to the site.

It’s a bizarre baseball season, and Sports Illustrated’s covering it with comic artist Mark Bagley. The May 21, 2008 Sports Illustrated will feature a cover by Bagley with Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford, the Yankee’s Derek Jeter, and Superman villan Bizarro looking on. For those of you looking to get me a gift in the near future (or any future), the original art to the piece would be nice. =) Read more here.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about that SI cover jinx thing? Just after the cover was revealed, Derek Jeter had to leave the Yankee’s game against the Orioles after he was hit by a pitch by the Orioles’ Daniel Cabrera. The Yanks also lost, 12-2. Jinx intact!

Very quickly, the real winners in the NBA Draft Lottery held on Tuesday, May 20 were the Miami Heat. They had the highest chance of winning it, but the Chicago Bulls, with a 1.7% chance of getting the first pick overall, saw the ping-pong balls go their way. Problem is, the Bulls now have to pick between Michael Beasley, a 6-9 forward who can go inside and out, and Derrick Rose, a 6-4 point guard who can do it all. The Heat win, because they just have to choose whoever the Bulls don’t, and there’s no second-guessing by anybody. Just to throw it out there, I think the Bulls should take Beasley and the Heat Rose, but I think that Beasley is the more talented of the two (slightly), but Rose is tougher and will reach more of his potential than Beasley.

Lastly, happy birthday to Mr. T! The man turns 56(!) today.

Same Zip Code...

***UPDATED Tuesday, May 20 at 2:00 p.m. PDT***

Because Don asked… Jenny Garth, who starred on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 as Kelly Taylor, will reportedly guest-star as a school counselor at West Beverly High occasionally.

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90210… Need I say more?



Alas, no Brenda, Dylan, or Brandon… but the Midwestern kids are from Kansas City, and Lori Laughlin plays a mom! Oh, and if any of you watch Reaper (which would probably be about zero of you), that's what you've seen Jessica Stroup in before (she's the Devil's daughter). Oh, she was also on Grey's Anatomy for an episode, so you may have seen her there, too.

Hmm… I thought the CW already had an updated 90210 in Gossip Girl.

What the...? of the Day

Sarah Jessica Parker at the Sex and the City movie premiere.

Dopey rating:

7 out of 10. Saved by the dress.

What the hell is with the headdress/hat thing on her head? Did she get dressed saying, “Hey, I want to avert eyes from my gorgeous dress and put myself squarely in the middle of a fashion faux pas?” Weird for a woman who’s usually right on the money, fashion-wise.

Here’s the rest of the cast:

Sex and the City opens nationwide Friday, May 30, 2008.

Goku!

For Don, who has enjoyed Dragonball… Here’s the first production still of Goku, from the forthcoming Dragonball live-action movie directed by James Wong (Final Destination) and produced by Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung-Fu Hustle).

The movie stars Justin Chatwin (Tom Cruise’s son in War of the Worlds) as Goku, Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshii, James Marsters (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) as Piccolo, and Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) as Bulma. It’s due out April 8, 2009.

Picture from Weekly Shonen Jump, Issue 24 (available this week). Read more at the Dragonball movie blog site.

I haven't ever watched the Dragonball anime or read the manga, but it's one of the biggest series in the world. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of high hopes for this movie.

Clone Wars!

There’s a new, weekly animated Star Wars series coming to TV this fall, but the pilot will be shown in theaters beginning August 15. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is based upon the shorts created by Gendy Tartovsky that aired on Cartoon Network a few years ago, which, incidentally, is probably the best Star Wars stuff EVER (and is available on two separate DVD’s). It’s set during the time between Episodes II and III of the movie series, so you get to see a lot of lightsaber and Force action. Needless to say, I’m excited about it.

The trailer for the new series will debut across multiple networks on Thursday, May 8 at 7:58 PM (local time). Cartoon Newtork, TNT, TBS, Boomerang (huh?), and even CNN will air the trailer simultaneously. Woo-hoo!

The series will air on Cartoon Network, with subsequent airings on TNT.

Today's Dwarf Rating

On a scale of 0-5 dwarves.

Sleepy

Grumpy

Dopey

BTW, I just realized that it's Snow White and the Seven DWARFS, and not Dwarves. Does that bother anybody else?

Happy Iron Man Day!

'Nuff said!

POW! Right to the Moon!

By now, most of you have seen this:



This just aired a couple of days ago (make sure you watch it through):

Get Your Joint On

In theaters now!

Yes, Please... Except I'm Going to have to Fork Out for Another System, Right?

Crazy Dog Story!

Yo... Joe?

You all know I’m a huge pop-culture geek, who’s into comics and Star Wars and Transformers and such, but I’m going to add one more to the mix. I’m a HUGE G.I. Joe nut. At least, the version of G.I. Joe that I grew up with in the 80’s. As my family can attest, I had every toy short of the aircraft carrier when I was younger and go so far back with it that I can remember days before the “kung-fu grip” (actually, it was swiveling-arm joints on the 3 ¾” figures).

Anyway, I got excited when they first announced that a G.I. Joe live-action feature was in the works, but have been disappointed in the supposed story lines and casting decisions. I’ll get more into that on another post, but I’ve also been disappointed in the costume designs. They released this a while ago in USA Today:

It’s a shot of actor Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) as everybody’s favorite character from the 80’s Joe era, Snake Eyes. The fanboy reaction was mostly positive; I was less than thrilled. It’s an okay shot, until you see the full costume in better light:

All I can say is, “What’s with the cargo pants and the Batman-molded body suit?” It’s actually kinda faithful to the original design, but I would’ve preferred seeing him in costume similar to what the rest of the cast is wearing.

Things looked a little better (no sexual reference intended) with the reveal of the next character a couple of days ago, Scarlett. She’s played by Rachel Nichols, who’s appeared in the TV show Alias and most recently in the movies P2 and Charlie Wilson’s War (quick note: she’s listed as a cast member for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek as an Orion slave girl, yowza!):

Before you jump all over me for the pic of the hot redhead in the skin-tight outfit, this is what Scarlett looked like in the “classic” version:

Still, it looked like things might be okay, depending on how they filmed it. But then I got word that they released pics of the rest of the cast, which can be found at the website What Would Tyler Durden Do? (http://www.wwtdd.com/). I thought maybe Scarlett’s outfit would be just her costume, not the basis for costumes for the rest of the cast. Ugh. I’m sure that all of the characters will show up in their “normal” attire in the movie, but, still… I’m not getting a good vibe.

Even though knowing is half the battle, the other half is getting movie executives to make appropriate changes. Oy.

This is Gonna Rock

Who’s comin’ with me!?!?

Of course, we’ll have to resist the urge to race afterwards. But I'll still win. =)

Cold Turkey

As of this moment, I am going cold turkey on soda, caffeinated drinks, cigarettes, pot, heroin, coke, speed, and the other assorted drugs (illicit and otherwise) that I’m on, until the baby is born. It’ll give me a good cleanse before I really need to hit the stuff hard in a couple of weeks (holding out for April 28 *cross fingers*).

I actually gave up caffine in January, but then February hit, and all the winter and spring sports started to cross over. Basketball, swim championships, baseball, basketball tournaments, etc. all came to a head at the same time, and needless to say, I was back aboard the caffeine train.

This should be a good test of will power and give me a chance to come down to normal before Kindra and I lose what little sleep we get to the newborn and Danica climbing out of bed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go wait for the shakes to come as I come down from my sugar-induced, caffeinated, nicotine and THC supplanted acid trip.

Oh, Yeah... It's Gonna Fly

Totally taking Danica to the movie on May 2. Or maybe I’ll go at midnight, May 1… Hmmmmmmmm…

This is Funny… and Racist, Maybe?

Personally, I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it… but I’m still not sure if the Japanese should be offended.

Congrats to the Hall of Fame Class of 2008!

Come Get the Spirit

Bear Grylls' Brother?

I feel really out of shape now… This dude rowed ACROSS THE FRICKIN’ OCEAN. Geez.

Call MJ, Larry, and McDonald's

I don’t care how long it took them to get these shots. They’re still pretty good.

'Nuff Said

This is a block?

From the NCAA 2nd-Round game between UCLA and Texas A&M, played at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.

Officially the #1 Movie on My Must-See List

Steph

Steph, originally uploaded by djstarr.

'Nuff said...

Yet Another... But Sooooooo Worth the 1:44

Totally Worth the Fifteen (Not 60) Minutes

Check out this piece from 60 Minutes, a feature on 24-year-old Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. It’s not so much his conducting, but his background in the Venezuelan music system that’s fascinating. How about a country-wide program that takes kids from the poorest neighborhoods and gives them an opportunity to learn music? Something to learn from here, I suppose.

Watch it NOW! (Seriously, watch it).

My Softer Side

I thought he didn't have a real name...

Da… da… DA DA DA… DADA-DADA-DADA-DADA-da, da, da…

Biggest debut of the spring! (Um… except for my second child, of course).

Geez… More DVD Watching to Come

I’ve always been interested in Battlestar Galactica, but have never had the time to watch it after the first TV movie aired five years ago. I’m definitely going to have to catch up and watch all of this series after seeing this:

Sweet Valentine's Reveal!

Hearing the music gives me goosebumps.

Juwanna Man

THAT... is frickin' scary.

Totally Worth the Five Minutes

Geez... It Doesn't Get Any Worse

Talk about the worst recruiting story in history. The kid from Nevada who was supposedly duped by a “recruiter,” who, it turns out, made up his whole recruitment by the likes of Cal, Oregon, and Washington must just be hating himself now. The police are finishing up their investigation and will turn in their findings to the D.A. who can decide whether or not to charge him with filing a false police report. You know they won’t press charges, because what could be worse than people finding out the truth after you hauled out the media, your family, and your entire school to a press conference in your gym where you committed to a school that never even considered recruiting you?

Read more about it here.

How Did I Not See This?

Cool Story

A nice little story on North Carolina’s JV men’s basketball team at ESPN.com.

Keep It Quiet

***Updated Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 9:37 p.m.***

Is it just me, or should the NCAA’s spring signing day (the day that high school athletes are permitted to sign a National Letter of Intent binding them to attend a university) should NOT be a nationally televised event? People forget that these are seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-year-olds making huge decisions, but decisions that should not be scrutinized by the media or fans of the colleges to which the student-athletes are committing. It’s too much hype, not to mention that it probably leads to a number of athletes with over-inflated egos.

It also leads to things like this report that a young man from Nevada verbally committed to Cal in front of his school, family, and television and news media – but never actually had an offer from any institution on his table. The student-athlete had been contacted by a man claiming to be a recruiter, who also apparently set up false phone calls with people claiming to be the head coaches of a number of top-tier universities. Turns out, there were no offers on the table, as neither Cal, nor Oregon (the school he supposedly picked Cal over) recruited him.

I’m wondering how this kid was duped for so long, and why he never took a visit to any of these schools – official or otherwise – to see them for himself. I know it’s a complicated process for athletes and parents, but you don’t get recruited for just a month and suddenly end up with a scholarship. You really don’t get a scholarship without meeting somebody from the staff in person on campus. It’s sad that people would take advantage of kids this way.

I know people want to know where the next great kid is going to school, but ESPN doesn’t have to devote an entire day, taking up all of one of its networks (ESPNU) to this. It’s stupid.

***UPDATE***

How about the dumb kid made the story about his recruitment-gone-bad up? Read more about it here. Sad.

Is This Bad? I Can't Tell

Heh-Heh Heineken

Giddy Excitement

A new photo from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Read more about it on MTV’s Movie Blog. Recognize those crates? Maybe this picture will jog your memory:

If that still doesn't work, it's the last shot from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Makes me all giggly inside.

Quote of the Day

“The greatest trade in NBA history: Caron Butler for Kwame Brown.”

-- MSNBC’s Tim Russert, during the Lakers-Wizards telecast.

Horrible

So I’m at a stop light on my way to work, when I see a woman run across the street in front of me to try and catch the bus that’s behind me. She waves at the bus driver as she’s head to the bus, and then I see her in my rear-view mirror knocking on the door of the bus, asking for the driver to let her on. She’s standing by the door of the bus sandwiched between the bus and the right-hand turn lane, pleading to get on the bus, and just so you know, the bus stop is literally twenty-five feet behind where the bus is stopped. It’s not like we’re far from where the bus would normally let her on, anyway. Unfortunately, the light turned green, I had to go (which now I realize, I coulda stayed right there and made the driver put her on the bus by refusing to move… darnit), and the poor woman got stuck waiting for the next bus.

Whee!!!

This is a Christmas-related post, so it’s been a long time in coming. By far the best gift I received was a Nintendo Wii from Kindra’s family. It’s been six or seven years since I last picked up a video game controller (from a Sega Dreamcast, natch), so it was a little weird. Especially weird since I’d gone through the Playstation, XBox, GameCube, PS2, XBox 360, and PS3 launches without much interest.

Don’t mistake my lack of interest for a dislike of video games. It’s just that they come with increasing costs – each game these days run $45-60. Not to mention they suck up time. (Wow… how old am I?). Of course, the darn thing’s already cost me time and money, so...

Anyway, I’ve got just four games, but I’m also the kind of guy who likes games that are replayable, so it works out okay:

Wii Sports

This is a cool set of games that came with the Wii. There’s boxing, golf, baseball, tennis, and bowling along with a bunch of mini-games designed to help you practice the skills necessary for playing the games. It’s the ultimate party game and time-waster, since it’s pretty replayable.

I’m partial to tennis, bowling, and golf. I rarely play baseball and boxing is a bit chaotic for me. It’s kind of funny, since I didn’t like playing tennis when I was a kid, I rarely bowl because even when I was at my best, I averaged about 135 (125?), and I’ve only ever swung a golf club something like five times in my life. On the other hand, my cousins and I used to play baseball pretty regularly when we were kids, and I’m a guy, so why wouldn’t I want to beat the crap out of a computer-generated boxer?

I’m still trying to figure out all the ways to hit the ball in tennis, since I can’t seem to do an overhead smash or direct my volleys the way that I want to (maybe I should read the instructions). My high in bowling is 264, I just wish the physics could be set to be more “real” so that it’s more difficult to bowl well. It’s kinda cool how easily you can generate different types of bowling spins. Golfing-wise, I’m okay, and I just realized that the golf courses are based on the old “Golf” game for the original Nintendo that I used to play. There’s only 9 different holes, so it does get a little repetitive, but it’s good enough for quick plays (which, really, are the only things I should have time for).

I’ll also mention that Kindra’s dad could beat the crap out of anybody in the boxing game, so stay on his good side.

Madden 08

I’ll say this first: I love Madden and sports games in general. There’s a lot of fun in pretending to be that athlete you dream about performing like and admire on TV. I’ve also played Madden since it was first created, way back in the day, and love all the EA Sports games – Tiger Woods, NBA Live, NHL Live, etc. I like this game and the intricacies that are built into it, and it’s definitely cool that I have a sports game to play other than Wii Sports.

That being said, this is an example of why not every game for the Wii should have its control schemes redesigned for the motion-senstive Wii-mote. I understand that the appeal of the Wii is partially the fun of jiggling the controller around to make things happen on the screen. However, mapping controls for Madden to the Wii-mote just plain annoys me. There are times that I want to sit and play a game and not have to flail about to make a tackle.

There are two control schemes on the Wii: “Family Play,” where you just use the Wii-mote and the computer does the rest, and “advanced,” which uses the nunchuk attachment with a joystick and two extra buttons. It’s not that it’s not fun sometimes, but I wish there was a way to simply plug in a regular controller and just play the game like you would on any other system. Flicking my wrist back to hike the ball and then flinging it forward to make a pass can be kind of interesting, and thrusting the controller forward to make a hard tackle is cool in the practice mode, but when it’s 11:00 p.m. and I want to play a quick game before heading to bed, it can be bothersome.

Super Mario Galaxy

How do you own a Nintendo product and not have a Mario Bros. game for it? It’s a fun game with controls that map well to the Wii-mote and the nunchuk. It’s pretty, too. =) I haven’t played it a ton, since it’s so level-based and requires some dedicated play, but I’m going to have to play it more, or else I’ll never have time to play it when the new baby arrives.

Guitar Hero III

Currently the biggest vice in my life. I had it for two days before Kindra first mentioned that she hated the game because 1) I play it a ton and 2) I like playing the same six or seven songs over and over and over again (hey, you gotta practice). Whoever created this game is a genius. I want to practice, which I never did when I was taking music lessons (of course, it’s a bit easier to play the Guitar Hero guitar than an actual guitar). I just wish there was a way to get downloadable content on the Wii like you can on the XBOX 360 and PS3.

Still, the game rocks (no pun intended), and I like it because 1) it reminds you of all the cool songs out there that you don’t normally listen to and 2) it makes songs that you do listen to that much more interesting. My sister Steph was right – if you hear a song you play on Guitar Hero, all you want to do is figure out how you strum and key the song. Of course, being the dork that I am, I made a CD of a bunch of the songs before I left for a recent road trip to the Bay Area. My current favorite is “Cliffs of Dover” by Eric Johnson, which I first heard fifteen years ago because a buddy of mine in high school was a pretty good guitarist and of course, listened to all the really great guitarists. If it wasn’t for Guitar Hero III, I wouldn’t have been able to even name it. I’m also partial to “My Name is Jonas” by Weezer because it’s fun to play. And just so you know, Metallica’s “One” is ridiculously complex.

FYI, I can only play songs on the “medium” setting, since the “difficult” setting is pretty crazy and “expert” is something that I can only dream of. Besides, I’m pretty sure that Kindra will break the guitar and the Wii before I can practice enough to get to that level.

Later... Gotta go kick some butt at tennis.