Sports and Entertainment

X-Men Origins:  Wolverine…..Ugh….Please for the love of Stan Lee change the name of this movie to simply Wolverine…..anywho, the new poster for the movie is out and is pretty badass.  Check it out and leave your thoughts below.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG….Sorry.  I just finished watching this.  OMG it looks glorious.  Do we FINALLY have an awesome Batman video game?  The voice work sounds great, the graphics are really coming along, and the story is just brilliant.  I simply cannot wait for this game to hit the local Gamestop.  Check out the awesome trailer below.

I love The Rock.  There I said it.  Is it a bromance?  Is it a man crush?  Maybe.  But most importantly, I think it’s me growing up watching him wrestle and being the most electrifying man in sports entertainment history.  Having said that, The Rock has come out with some crap movies.  I’m looking at you Doom.  I like Scorpion King, absolutely loved The Rundown, and thought Gridiron Gangs was underrated.  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is destined to be a huge huge huge movie star, but until then, he is stuck in a Disney deal that will make him and Disney tons of money meanwhile alienated his true fans that want to see him be the next Schwarzenegger. 

His latest Disney flick, Race to Witch Mountain might be a PG rated Disney movie, but from the looks of the first two trailers, it doesn’t look bad at all.  The latest trailer that will appear at the Super Bowl has a little funny Star Wars reference and amps up the action to get grown men like me excited.  If you don’t want to spoil the Super Bowl commercials, don’t watch the youtube box I am about to post.  If you don’t care then check it out below and tell me what you think. 

On Super Bowl Sunday, I will try to post all of the TV spots for trailers but probably won’t get to it until that Monday morning seeing as I will be drinking heavily.  Check back then for more trailerly goodness.

I personally thought the first two Chronicles of Narnia movies were great adventure movies.  I mean, I really dug the crap out of them.  So when Disney announced a couple of months ago they were dropping the franchise, I was kind of depressed about the possiblity of me not being taken to a dream world of magic again.  Well according to Variety, Fox has picked up the franchise and the movies will continue.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the next flick in line to get made and according to 20th Century Fox, they hope to have it hit theatres in 2010.  Right now there isn’t a budget and work is being done to script it, but the plan is to have it out by the holidays.

Apparently, Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley are coming back as Caspian, Edmund and Lucy. Joining the cast will be Will Poulter from Son of Rambow in the role of Eustace Clarence Scrubb.  Michael Apted will helm the project.

Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that Columbia Pictures is looking for screenwriters to pen the sequel to the Nicolas Cage superhero flick Ghost Rider.  Nic Cage is already signed on to reprise the role of Johnny Blaze.

Did this flick need a sequel?  Probably not.  The first one wasn’t that good and didn’t make tons of loot, but that’s never stopped unnecessary sequels from getting made.  The Punisher: War Zone is a prime example of leaving well enough alone.  Next thing you know we will have a Daredevil sequel. 

It doesn’t surprise me that this is getting made and good franchises in the Marvel Universe are still untapped.  What about an Iron Fist or Luke Cage movie?  Black Panther?  I mean we have a great Iron Man movie, a great Hulk movie, a great Captain America movie and Thor movie in development, two decent X-Men flicks, and 2 great Spider-Man flicks.  Why are all these less than B character movies getting made?  Does anyone care about Ghost Rider?  Eva Mendes I can see…but Ghost Rider?   You tell me in the comments.

There’s not much to say about this flick that hasn’t already been said.  I hope the early teases and early “reviews” (I’m talking to you Kevin Smith) are right, and this thing is going to blow our minds.  Thanks to Slashfilm (The award winning Slashfilm now!) for the heads up.

A crazy rumor to end the day:  Europa Press in Spain ran a story about Megan Fox potentially replacing Angelina Jolie in a third Tomb Raider flick.  No director has been attached or script or anything….just a rumor.  They want to start filming in 2010 for a 2011 release date.  Goes to show how much I know.  I thought Megan Fox was Angelina Jolie…..just DeLoreaned back a few years….

  Thanks to Latino Review for the heads up.

Hello my friends.  Today is a good day.  Today is January 26th.  Or as most of you know it as, the day the best team in football history won the biggest game in football history.  Today is the anniversary of the best Super Bowl team ever.  So without further ado………

Bears…..Bears……Bears……Polish Sausage…….Bears……

Tim Falletti

(Bret this is for you so you can stop bothering me to write it)

The Wrestler is a difficult film to review.  Not because it isn’t clear cut if I liked it or hated it, but because The Wrestler is one of those movies where after you finish watching it, you don’t want the story to end.  You want the film to keep going and going until a resolution that you feel the film needs is set and you are happy with the outcome.  It’s a film that engrosses you so completely that you find yourself searching the internet for a fictitious character in hopes that he actually exsists and you can read what happened next.

Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is the equivilant of our real world Hulk Hogan.  In the 80’s Randy had it all.  The championship belt around his waist, the video games, and the action figures.  As time went past him though,  The Ram didn’t go on to star in films like Hogan did, he didn’t have a reality television show, and he didn’t get a chance to make a George Foreman grill.  Randy’s career ended in the early 90’s….but no one mentioned that to him.  His love is still the pop he gets when he enters local gyms, wrestling for a few bucks.  He loves the neighborhood kids, and at times, they love him back.  He’s The Ram….no matter what his W-2 says.  Unfortunately, that is the problem with Randy’s life. 

Being The Ram has cost Randy virtually everything.  He lives in a beat up mobile home that he can’t afford the rent on, he frequents strip clubs when he has spare time, his body is an old shadow of its former self due to drug use, he works part time at a grocery store, and has an estranged daughter who can’t stand him.  But he’s still The Ram.

And with that, The Wrestler poses the hard questions that effect each and every one of us.  Can we integrate our past into our present without bringing along the baggage our former days packed on our shoulders?  Can we leave behind the glory of a high school football star or prom queen that we were, and simply use it as a memory and not a crutch?

Mickey Rourke was bred to play the part of Randy Robinson.  Hell, he is Randy Robinson.  It’s no secret that Rourke was one of the hottest young actors around in the 80’s.  It’s no secret about his fall from grace.  And with the story of Randy The Ram’s comeback, it’s also no secret that this also Mickey Rourke’s comeback.  He already won the Golden Globe for this role, and is the front runner for the Oscar.  He plays Randy so effortlessly, so emotionally that you can’t possibly look away.  You feel every steel chair to the head, every staple to the chest, and every heartbreak out of the ring.  Rourke gives us the performance of his career.

While The Wrestler is Mickey Rourke’s movie, the supporting cast is astounding as well.  Marisa Tomei plays Cassidy/Pam, a dancer at a local strip club that Randy frequents who is living a mirror image of a “fake wrestler”.  As Pam, she is a mom and provider, but as Cassidy, she is an older stripper who is finding it harder to make a living in her line of work.  This is the only part of the movie that to me was a little unbelievable because Marisa Tomei would be the hottest dancer at any strip club across this nation, but hey…. for the sake of argument, I will go along with the story.

Evan Rachel Wood plays Stephanie, Randy The Ram’s daughter who was albeit forgotten about by The Ram.  She plays the role with subtlety and grace.  She has too many reasons to be mad at Randy, and we all know that she is right and should never forgive him for the things he has done or didn’t do.  She makes us believe that forgiveness is alright, but also that unforgiveness is ok too.

Other supporting cast seemed to be picked right out of the who’s who of washed up wrestlers.  I think I saw K-Quick if I’m not mistaken…haha.  They make the story so much more believable.  Every chair shot, every fall from the top ropes onto a table, every staple to the chest feels real. 

Director Darren Aronofsky does a fantastic job with the gritty hand held camera work on The Wrestler.  You feel for these characters so deeply, I would dare to say I felt more out of the characters than in any other movie this year.  It is a great great movie. I definitely give it a Check It Out. 

There was a rumor last summer that a Veronica Mars movie could make its way to the big screen.  When that rumor hit, I think a tear dropped from my eyeball.  I was highly disappointed when that show was canceled..especially when they didn’t tie up everything.  Then those rumored died….and a little part of me did too.But now, series creator Rob Thomas has been itching to bring this show to theatres and now it looks like that is moving forward.  Thomas says that with his show Cupid scaling back, it opens the door to really bang out a story. 

God bless Rob Thomas.  And God bless Kristen Bell.