The Labor Day Weekend Wrap

Things I liked:

Sunday I took it back old school teenager style. I pulled off the vastly underused triple play movie experience. Paid for one movie, matinee of $4 and got a triple feature, ah the days of childhood sneaking around a movie theatre. I had not been to the movies in awhile and there were some things I needed and wanted to see, so I glanced at the movie times and saw I could catch all three with a minimal break in between (which is to say enough time to piss, get another soda and watch some previews, which I enjoy). I surrounded comedy with lots of death and gore, first seeing Halloween, then Superbad and lastly Kevin Bacon’s Death Sentence. Here are the quick reviews:

- Halloween was intense exciting, gory and naked breast filled, but what else would you expect from Rob Zombie. He did a solid job with this remake, still while making the movie his own. The back story on young Michael Myers was a little too much off the traditional “storyline” but nonetheless a good attempt to give the character some depth. The only thing that totally sucked was the guy who played Dr. Loomis, he just was no Donald Pleasence. 3 out of 4 stars if you are a fan of the original, 2 out of 4 if you are not.
- Superbad was fucking funny. Now of course it was stupid dick and fart joke funny, but it was funny. And yes the McLovin guy does rule this earth. This movie did struggle because there was no linear storyline, Knocked Up, 40 year Old Virgin or American Pie all at least had some linear story to follow. Lastly, as most of the recent laugh out loud comedies it ran a little long, as the movie was winding down I said to myself, you know this movie could have been about 15 minutes shorter and really tightened up all the scenes and jokes. If you look at the real great comedies that hit homeruns the whole movie they are 90-100 minutes, rarely every longer, well guess what, not to my surprise Superbad ran 114 minutes, so it gets 2 out of 4 stars.
- Death Sentence was pretty darned cool, and Kevin Bacon played a good badass. The plot was a little flimsy but Bacon;s performance was solid and he carried most of the movie, and John Goodman was great in a bit part. Basically Bacon is seeking revenge on the gang of hoodlums that senselessly killed his teenage son. The movie obviously goes on to have a great deal of violence, but also some good suspense (from one of the new masters, Director of Saw James Wan). In the end it delivers as expected so I would say 2.5 out of 4 stars, but there could be an extra half star because all of the principal photography of the movie was done right here in Columbia, not a hot bed for Hollywood. So it was cool to see the different things around town that I see on a regular basis


Seriously, as an Irish Catholic you wouldn’t think I would feel this way, but is there anything better than watching the Fighting Irish get their asses handed to them, at home! I have hated the Irish ever since that jerk face Lou Holtz was there. Then they finally go out and hire someone with a little class and treat him like dog poop, firing him after three seasons because he is black, let’s be honest they never wanted him in the first place. Then they put all the money into the great savior Charlie Weis. Hey Golden Domers you going to dump Weis this season like you canned Willingham? Oh no that’s right you gave this guy a 10 year extension already.


Things I disliked:

What the hell is up with the New York Yankees? They come into the biggest series of the year against the Sawx and absolutely rock the joint, including pounding possible Cy Young award winner Josh Beckett for 13 hits. The Sawx have the second best pitching staff in baseball when it comes to ERA and Batting Average yet the Yankees pounded out 30 hits and 14 runs. Then the Devil Rays come storming into Yankee Stadium a team who is 7 games below .500 since the All Star break and have the worst pitching staff in all of baseball in ERA and batting average and the Yankees manage 12 runs and 20 hits over three games, how pathetic.

The only other thing that really sucked was watching Maria Sharapova lose this weekend early at the US Open. She is a great tennis player and as old people like to say, she is pleasant on the eyes. But again I think she is a great player and that is fun to watch, plus those hot dressed she wears.




Things we learned:

It is time for Lloyd Carr to go. I am not a Michigan fan nor do I claim to know all there is to know about the program, but there is just no excuse in losing to Appalachian State. They are a nice football program and they are achieving great things on their level but you cannot let them walk into the big house and steal your manhood. This was supposed to be Carr’s redemption year, a middle finger in the face of Wolverine fans who said who can’t get it done. He returns a 4 years starter at QB in Chad Henne, Michael Hart (who by the way hasn’t improved since the day he got there) a 4 year starter at RB, and perhaps the nations best player in LT Jake Long. People thought they could win the national title, well so much for that dream.

While we are on the subject of coach’s who may be past their prime, Papa Bowden may be getting a little long in the tooth. His teams having been slowly slip sliding away from him and last night was an embarrassing performance by his team. I could see if the problems were different and because of injuries or some unlucky recruits here and there your program goes through a swoon, it happens. But in the case of the Seminoles we are going on 4 or 5 years of this same garbage; a terrible offensive line, a quarterback who couldn’t start at Georgia Southern and a completely anemic running game. The problems continue to be the same and I am afraid under Bowden it doesn’t look like it is going to change.

Phil the thrill took the Tiger down. Now I am going to wait for the Phil boo birds to come flying out and say well he didn’t do it on Sunday at a major blah blah blah.
Now these of course would be the same people who would be creaming the Mick if he hadn’t stuck that 8 Iron stiff on 16, or not had two of the best chips I have ever seen on 15 and 18. The fact is he stared down Tiger, the whole week and outplayed him, something they said he didn’t have the mental capacity to do, the intestinal fortitude if you will. The Mick boo birds are the same ones proclaiming he was done this summer, but he and swing coach Butch Harmon told you it was a wrist injury, he couldn’t practice without pain. That and the fact that while he is reshaping his swing he hasn’t worked on his short game. Remember how Harmon fixed Tigers swing to be more consistent, well he is doing that with Phil, couple that with Phil’s short game and his streaking but sometimes incredible putting stroke (see 23 total putts yesterday) and you may have a few more majors in your pocket sonny.