Quick College Football Update

After some of the upsets this weekend in college football, here is my new top 5:

1) Oklahoma
2) Alabama
3) Missouri
4) LSU
5) Texas

Three Big 12 teams in the top 5. We'll probably see the same teams in the top 5 in the AP and Coaches' Polls, but we shall see what order the teams will land.

College Football/The Dark Knight/Warren Theaters

Imagine that, probably the busiest time of my life and I'm sitting in my living room blogging! Not bad as I wait for my laundry to be finished in the washer to put in the dry and as I jam out to some old-schoolin' Bon Jovi. I wanted to touch on a few things before my life pretty much changes forever (although I think it's more of a ceremonial change than anything, my life has already changed forever). As I look back on my past bachelorship I find that a few things change, and some things will never change. My status will never again (hopefully) be single, I will wear a badass wedding ring, and I will come home to a wife and child everyday...those are the changes. The things that will never change...well that is my passionate hobby of following sports and pop culture (pop culture being movies, television and music more than following up with tabloid stars). So Saturday will honor a great change in my life, this blog entry will honor the great non-change! Here is my college football preview, official movie review for The Dark Knight, and first impressions of the lastest theater to be built in the OKC Metro - Warren Theaters in Moore.

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College Football Preview

With the season kicking off this week I'd like to put up a few of my predictions, five of them actually. And I shall have a shnazzy name for it:

The Meatrodomus Five Fortune-Telling Truths of the 2008 Season

Will Sammy and Co. run the table?

1. OU will win its third Big 12 Championship in a row. Unprecedented in the conference, but I just don't see anyone taking down Oklahoma enough to derail them from getting the conference. I believe that the Red River Rivalry will again decide who goes out of the South Division, and I don't think Texas's defense has matured enough to stop the potent OU offense. There is a lot of hype around up-and-coming programs like Missouri or even Texas Tech, but it is a different story for Tech who has not beaten OU in Norman since 1996. Missouri does have a chance to remain undefeated leading up to the Big 12 Championship, but I don't believe their defense will be enough to stop arguable the most balanced offense in college football. I think Nebraska will make a run at the North title this year as bold as a prediction that may seem, but will not be able to overcome Missouri. Kansas will slide a little this year although still making the Kansas-Mizzou game something special again like last year.

2. The Heisman Trophy will not go to a sophomore again this year. Sorry folks, unless Sam Bradford or DeMarco Murray break a number of OU or NCAA records this year, I don't see either one of them getting the Heisman. Now, that's not saying either one won't get invited. I do think that Bradford has the greater chance of getting the nod to go to NYC, but I don't see him winning it this year. The sophomore with the best chance to win the Heisman would have to be Knowshon Moreno of Georgia, but even then he would have to have a killer year. My frontrunner is Chris "Beanie" Wells of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

3. The BCS National Championship Game will be Ohio State vs. Oklahoma. That's right, it'll be storybook. The two teams seeking BCS redemption with their recent disappointments will face off in the championship game. Now, it is a tall order and I do believe both of these teams will not be undefeated going into the game. The Buckeyes will have to defeat an always solid USC team (which I think this will not be the team they will lose to) and Oklahoma is part of the Big 12 South so it goes without saying that there will be a test. My top 5 teams going into the season right now in no particular order is Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, and Florida. Those teams would have the best chance to make it but I think it'll be Bucks and Sooners in the finale in a close one. The Meat Life Prediction: Oklahoma 27-20. It'll be redemption time for the Sooners and Stoops will finally get his second national title as a head coach.

4. Conference Winners:

Big East: South Florida. Pieces are in place and West Virginia will fall just short.

Big Ten: Ohio State. Goes without saying, although I do think they will lose to Wisconsin on the road.

Big 12: Oklahoma. See #1

Atlantic Coast Conference: Clemson. Personnel looks solid although look for Wake Forest to make a run again.

Southeastern Conference: Georgia. They will probably be a 2-loss champ like LSU last season.

Pacific 10: USC. As much as I hate them...Oregon would have made a run if QB Nate Costa didn't get injured.

Mountain West: BYU. BCS Buster? Has the offense for it.

Western Athletic Conference: Fresno State. Other potential BCS Buster.

Sun Belt: Florida Atlantic. Go FAU! Beat those Longhorns! HAHAH

Conference USA: Tulsa. New era without QB Paul Smith, but still loaded.

Mid-America Conference: Central Michigan. QB Dan Lefevour the real deal.

5. No team will go undefeated this season. Now, this prediction may be less plausible. And being an Oklahoma fan, I think out of my top 5 OU has the best chance to go undefeated. But in the aftermath of last season it is hard to believe that the rollercoaster ride college football was would change. Then again, we could go in with 3 or 4 teams undefeated and everyone in the press calling for a playoff. Who knows. I just don't think anyone will come out unblemished.

That's my season preview. Enjoy football this year!

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The Dark Knight

It has been over the month and everyone has ridden through all the hype and through all the talk of possible greatness. I will have to say that first of all, The Dark Knight is NOT a movie for everyone. Not everyone will like the plot twists and the overall somber and (for lack of a better word) dark mood. And although this movie is not for everyone, I would recommend anyone interested in a fairly intelligent crime drama to give this a look.

Notice that I called it a crime drama. This is really just a crime drama disguised as a comic book movie. Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan went with a more realistic feel with his series as evident with the first installment Batman Begins. The story picks up about 6 months to a year after that story as Batman with the help of Lt Gordon are close to ridding Gotham of organized crime until the Joker takes over and runs all over causing chaos. With a new hope for Gotham in DA Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne contemplates giving up being Batman to be with longtime flame Rachel Dawes.

As far as the actors go, most of the carryover characters return with their original actors: Christian Bale as Wayne/Batman, Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox; with Maggie Gyllenhaal picking up for Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. New characters/actors introduced to Nolan's series include Aaron Eckhart as Dent, Eric Roberts as mob boss Sal Maroni, Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Anthony Garcia, Anthony Michael Hall as reporter Mike Engel, Chin Han as Hong Kong crime boss Lau, and of course the character and actor most talked about in this film, the late Heath Ledger as the Joker.

The action in the film is nearly non-stop, for the plot is driven by said action. The reason for all the action? The Joker. In a desperate move by the crime bosses, they hire Joker to combat and take down the Batman, all the while the Joker pushes Gordon/Dent/Batman and the entire city of Gotham to the moral limits. The Dark Knight is a picture of a world not too different from a world we live in and the story of forces pulling it both ways, to the depths of evil and terror, or to the light of hope and a better life.

It goes without saying that Ledger's performance of the Joker is magnificiently eerie and twisted. I was in the camp that was kind of shocked when they first picked him to play Joker but now I am fully converted. Excellent choice and I have a hard time envisioning anyone else to play the character, although I cannot picture a third installment without the Joker. That's how good the performance was, and that's how all the action and storyline is driven, through the Joker. At first viewing, it seems this is more of a Joker movie than a Batman movie. But I can definitely say that even though Joker steals the show, this is a Batman centered movie, playing off what had been built from Begins to really get you to relate to the Wayne character. Although this film can very well stand on its own, it is so much better standing if viewed in succession from the Begins film.

Definitely can't wait to get this on DVD or if I have it by then BluRay. This film sets itself apart from the comic book genre (although in recent years has seen some great movies come from it). With all the hype, I will say this...this film is probably the best I've seen this decade. 9.5/10

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Warren Theaters

The lounge bar at Warren

To close my longest entry ever, Warren Theaters. With a bar and lounge outside their balcony seating for the main feature, Warren has definitely come out as the best movie experience in the OKC Metro. Their main screen is smaller than the Cine Capri of Harkin Theaters, but the overall a better presentation. We saw The Dark Knight at Warren and it was definitely worth the hefty $12 matinee balcony ticket price ($18 for evening showings). With a crazy loud sound system and servers at a push of a button, this is definitely the premier movie experience. Not to mention heated seats. Moderately priced food and adult beverages. Thumbs up!

BCS Playoffs: What Would Have Happened Part II

So Kevin and I played out the mock playoff bracket we established. Here is what it looked like:


Click on pic to see matchups and results.

We based the seating on the final BCS Rankings before the 2007-2008 bowl season and put in the top 16 teams, with the #1 seats having to be BCS Conference champs with of course the higher ranked conference champ being seated higher. We had the first round played with the higher ranked team being the home team and then picked the biggest New Years Day/BCS Bowls to play out the elite eight, final four, and national championship: Gator, Cotton, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose with the Sugar Bowl venue doubling as the national championship matchup.

Oddly enough, Ohio State became our eventual national champion.

Notable matchups:

Opening round -
Virginia Tech vs. Boston College. If this were to have happened it would have been the third time they would have played, and this would have occurred just a couple weeks after their meeting in the ACC Championship game. Our result BC winning in O/T 34-27.

Georgia vs. Florida. Another conference matchup and this would have been interesting especially after their last meeting when the Bulldogs all rushed to celebrate in the endzone on their first touchdown. A late comeback spoiled another Bulldog victory as Florida squeaks by 42-38.

Second round -
LSU vs. USC in the Gator Bowl. This potential matchup is reason enough to have a playoff! LSU started off quick but USC mounted a killer second half scoring the majority of its points in the third as USC dominated LSU winning 42-23.

OU vs. Florida in the Cotton Bowl. In what could have been a great battle of offenses turned into an old-fashioned beatdown. OU had a quick start scoring most of their points in the first half until Florida turned on the jets and turned 4 second half Sooner turnovers into a 55-19 victory.

Final four -
Ohio State vs. Missouri in the Rose Bowl. Strange that Missouri advanced farther than OU, but that's unrelated. Mizzou proved no match for Ohio State as the Buckeyes outscore the Tigers 48-29 in what was a back and forth game until the Buckeyes took over in the fourth.

USC vs. Florida in the Orange Bowl. I'm telling you, these matchups just beg for a playoff! This game was surprisingly a defensive slugfest until late in the fourth. Florida owned a 7-3 lead for most of the game until USC scored touchdowns on back-to-back possessions and sealed it off with a safety to end the game 19-7.

...which leads us to the championship...
Ohio State vs. USC. And I know what you might think, Ohio State? But yes the Buckeyes made it through and in a shootout out-shot the Trojans 41-31, with their defense coming through and holding strong as the Trojans charged in two late drives.

Now some critics will argue that a playoff will make bowl games insignificant and make the regular season less significant. I say that most bowl are kind of insignificant anyway unless you are going to the school who is in that bowl. That and I'm willing to sacrifice a less significant regular season if we get matchups like that in a playoff. But I can't imagine a regular season having less significance, I mean a lot of teams have non-conference games against cupcakes schools like Louisiana-Lafeyette so how can that get more insignificant?

Playoffs! It won't happen in major college football anytime soon, but it's nice to imagine.

The Dark Hype: IMDb #1 Movie?

The Dark Knight. Great but greatest ever?

The Dark Knight. I will have a post with a full review, but before then I just want to review what has been going on since last weekend. As you probably know unless you have been chillin in a cave with Osama for the past week and a half, the lastest installment of the Batman franchise and probably its greatest effort to date The Dark Knight came out with a historic box office opening last weekend, not only setting records but also seeing both critics and average movie-goers gushing over how good the movie is.

I have seen it myself, the first Saturday it was out. I would have to say with all the hype behind it, it certainly proved its worth. What is crazy to think about is not how the movie lived up to the hype, but how much hype it has received even after the release.

Many an internet user hits up the Internet Movie Database or IMDb.com for those savvy to it. And about just as many people regard its rating system as a great indicator for how good a movie actually is. They have a Top 250 best movies as well as a Bottom 100 worst list. The movie ratings are kind of a mystery in of itself, for they are from registered users who meet certain criteria that is actually unknown to most including myself. From my estimation, half are those film efficianados who do nothing but watch movies and the other half are fanboys of a particular genre/actor and drive up the ratings.

No matter how the breakdown may be, the IMDb rating system has been regarded by even professional bloggers and media as a reliable judge of what the best movies of all-time are. For those who keep up, the reigning #1 before the latest Batman came out had been The Godfather rated a robust 9.1/10 while perennial top 5 movies would take turns at different spots but for the most part had been as follows: The Godfather Part II (9.1); The Shawshank Redemption (9.0); The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (8.9); and Pulp Fiction (8.9). (I have my own opinions about those films, The Godfather series in my humble opinion highly overrated, and Pulp Fiction although a classic is no where near as good as Reservoir Dogs when it comes to Tarantino flicks). So for the most part this top 5 has been the same for the better part of a decade, or at least since I had been frequenting the site in 2001.

The Godfather...a rating you can't refuse?

Then just as the Joker put chaos in Gotham, the chaos began at the top of the IMDb list...but oddly enough it didn't start with The Dark Knight. Nope, it was last month's release of Wall-E that stirred things up. No other film this decade had even touched the top 10 (Return of the King, the third Lord of the Rings installment was the closest at #14) until Wall-E in its first weekend took the #1 spot with a 9.3 rating. Things did calm in the coming weeks and we now find Wall-E at #25 with a still very respectable 8.8 rating.

Wall-E now looks up at the top spot.

Then along came the Bat. Since its midnight release on July 18th, the Dark Knight has been at the #1 spot. That opening weekend it was at an astonishing 9.6 rating, about .5 points ahead of the longtime #1 Godfather. Now, given my opinions on the Godfather, I did like that another film was a the top. It just felt odd though. I know the Dark Knight is probably one of the best films I've seen this decade (even though I have a hard time actually recalling what has come out in the 2000's) but really the #1 of all time?

Since the opening, the Dark Knight has settled at 9.3 rating, still putting it at #1 while The Shawshank Redemption (probably my favorite of all time) is at #2 now with the mob classic at #3. It will probably be a couple months before we find out if the Dark Knight is just riding fanboy hype at IMDb or if it has that staying power to stay on top.

If it were my list, I would have Shawshank at #1 but I know I would have to deliberate and actually sit down and think about the rest of the list.

The Shawshank Redemption...Greatness.

My full Dark Knight review coming...

Rant: Economic Stimulus Package

To open, this is NOT complaining about getting a "tax rebate check." I rather enjoy money, especially if I didn't have to really do that much to get it. Not to get too political on this blog, but I think that the "Economic Stimulus Package" is probably the best thing George W. Bush has done while in office. Especially now since gas prices are climbing dramatically and it is the summer, the extra funds are more than welcome, especially since I'll be getting $900.

My rant is focused not on the check that will be mailed out to or direct deposited to millions of Americans. My qualms are with the way the government has chosen to notify everyone that we are getting the money. It's not enough that it's all over the news or that local Congress members and other government officials and even the President are seen over and over on CNN and Fox News and all that talking about it for months.

No. They have to send us mail.

And not just one piece of mail. Two. And that's not all.

There are billboards, newspaper ads, and even TV commercials to inform us.

And why am I mad about this? Not that I'm annoyed about seeing the ads everywhere or that I'm getting money. I'm ticked that the government feels the need to bombard us with ads and mail about how we are getting money, spending TAXPAYER money to do so. It's not that I'm mad that they are telling us we are getting money, it's thinking about how much it would cost to send out 100 million pieces of mail on taxpayer money.

I'm getting married soon and recently bought stamps. I only bought 200 regular stamps for the RSVP envelopes and 200 59 cent stamps for the large invitation envelopes. Those weren't all of the invitations we are sending out, it's only really for starters. So on a total of 400 stamps, I spent about $202. If that's just for 400 total stamps, think about how much it would cost to send not one, but two pieces of mail, NOT INCLUDING the check itself to hundreds of millions of Americans.

Don't get me wrong, I don't know the numbers. I don't know how many people are getting these rebate checks or how much it costs to send those kinds of pieces of mail, but I'm pretty sure its a damn-lot.

And that's not including all the other types of media the government is using to inform us. We all know that television advertising is hella expensive. The other day I saw an ad with a young woman talking about how she's getting a rebate check and how she's gonna spend it. But why? Why would you take out a TV ad if you have all the news networks giving you free advertising. Isn't Charles Gibson mentioning it on ABC World News or Larry King mentioning it when he's talking to economic experts about gas prices? Hell, even local news mentions those rebate checks at least twice a week.

So this is my message to the US Government: the next Economic Stimulus check that you send out (and I hope you do this again next year cuz that would be awesome) DO NOT mail out notification after notification or take out full page New York Times ads to get the word out. There is a reason why news outlets mention it three different times a broadcast. I know we waste something like $489 billion a year on the war in Iraq (not a real figure), why do we feel a need to waste more money on telling us that we are getting money. Just tell journalists about it and send us the damn check.

Okay, end of rant. Next entry will be about fun stuff.