One Shining Moment.

The Final Four starts tomorrow, and if you've been anywhere near any sports media, you know that it promises to be a great one. All four teams are very good, and each matchup has plenty of juicy storylines. I'm taking Florida to shut down UCLA again, Georgetown to overpower Ohio State inside, and the Gators to simply be more complete than the Hoyas in the final. It should be a great weekend, topped off by one of the year's great sports days on Monday, when the Royals open the season at home against Boston, followed by the national title game that evening. Good times.

But the real reason for this post is to share one of the greatest blog posts you will ever see. Someone deserves a medal for this. Here are the last ten renditions of One Shining Moment, CBS's annual musical montage that recaps the NCAA tournament. It's overwrought; it's cheesy; it's melodramatic. I love it. The college basketball season is not officially over until the song has played. I feel very strongly about this. I will never, EVER watch How I Met Your Mother because of its cheap promo that parodied this esteemed song. Doogie Howser should be dragged around in the street. Maybe he'll move to Wyoming.

But I digress. Enjoy One Shining Moment, one of the highlights of my sports year.

This is madness!

Sorry, this isn't a 300 review. I've been a little distracted lately by basketball and...uh...stuff, so I haven't gotten to a theater since the Oscars.

My bracket is basically screwed, although I do have three of my Final Four (KU, Georgetown, Florida) left as of this post, along with my national champion (Gators). But my key upsets (Texas, Notre Dame) didn't work out, nor did my "dark horse" Final Four pick (A&M). I also chose the wrong year to take all four 10-seeds and three of the 12s, since none of either seed won. The only decent surprises I predicted were VCU in the first round and Vandy into the Sweet Sixteen. Therefore I'm done in all my pools.

The tournament so far has been solid, even though I did miss much of the best action last weekend for a wedding. But here's the best finish to any game that will happen this year. It's the Division II national championship game. Defending titleist Winona State (in white) has a 57-game winning streak on the line. They led Barton by seven with 45 seconds left; the video picks up with the Warriors at the line, up five, with 35 seconds left. And...play!





Unbelievable.

...with honors!

Here are my miscellaneous movie awards for 2006. Enjoy...

Unbreakable award (best trailer): The Prestige. Not even close. The trailer breathlessly presents the three acts of a magician's trick, which conveniently parallel the film itself. It leaves the viewer with a sense of awe and excitement without divulging much of the intricate story. If only more preview editors could do the same.

Best Movie Moment: United 93, when the titular flight departs the runway. Despite knowing what had to happen, I found myself hoping against hope that somehow the plane might not get off the ground. When it did, my heart was ripped from my chest as a combination of pride and sorrow delivered chills through my body.

Kangaroo Jack award (worst trailer): Let's Go to Prison. Can we put the makers of this "movie" in jail? Here's how the pitch must have gone…

Dumb Writer: Okay, let's get that guy who hasn't done anything good since Punk'd, throw him in prison, and make it like a bad camp with every overdone jail joke possible.

Dumb Producer: Great idea. And let's put a bar of soap on the poster…just in case the audience doesn't pick up on the dozen gay jokes we put in the thirty-second trailer.

Unbelievably Dumb Executive: Sounds great! Let's do it!!

Baseball award (best documentary): Once in a Lifetime. I thought about placing this in my top ten, but lumping documentaries in with traditional feature films is too complicated for me. This one tells the story of the New York Cosmos (1970s soccer team), wonderfully capturing the era with an olio of period music and graphics. The fantastic, sometimes grainy soccer footage is often impeccably edited in rhythm with the music or narration, creating a sense of humor that seems appropriate given the ridiculous extravagances in which the team indulged. Any soccer fan needs to see this.

M. Night Shyamalan award (most underrated movie): Lady in the Water. Obviously. On Premiere's annual Critic's Choice list, this was dead last out of one hundred movies rated. Dead last. Rarely have critics completely whiffed on a movie this badly. Two words: BEDTIME STORY! Stupid people.

Ocean's Eleven award (best overall look): Children of Men. Seconds into the movie, the entire mood of the bleak futuristic world is entirely evident, and it never wavers throughout. Throw in pitch-perfect world-weary roles from a solid cast, and this film is the epitome of how cinema can create new environments for their audiences.

King Kong award (best theater experience): Casino Royale, with a couple dozen guys, was good, particularly the chair scene. Little Miss Sunshine was quality, with gales of laughter and even tears. But the start-to-finish winner is easily Snakes on a Plane. The serpents bite just about every human body part, and are killed in equally diverse ways. That induced countless cringes and screams from the people I was with, topped by Doug's "That was not necessary!!" Good times.

Yogi Berra award (movie that triggered déjà vu all over again): Glory Road. A few decades back, a coach takes over a struggling team and controversially integrates it. As they overcome persecution and their own differences, the team manages to learn a ton about the game and themselves, propelling them on a Cinderella run through their sport's biggest tournament. Remember the Titans? Nope. It's Glory Road, which was also a Bruckheimer production. I can't wait until he reworks the baseball version about Jackie Robinson so that Brooklyn wins the World Series in his rookie season.

Showgirls award (worst movie): The Last Kiss. I didn't see any completely horrid movies at a theater this year. So I'll give this award to a movie with a completely horrid foundational premise, that marriage is a transient and meaningless thing. Morons.

Deep Blue Sea award (wholly enjoyable movie that wasn't that good): Superman Returns. Almost all of this movie's quality was derived from imitating the original two movies, and the primary original storyline was a little sketchy. I wholly enjoyed it, but not entirely for its own merits.

Catch Me if You Can award (best opening credits): Casino Royale. Typical Bond opening credits, with girls dancing and guys shooting, except these were two-dimensional scenes composed largely of the four playing card suits. Good stuff, and a great stage setter for an enjoyable escape of a movie.

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban award (best closing credits): The Fountain. Nothing too fancy here, but instead of merely scrolling through the names, these credits faded them in and out on different parts of the screen. Accompanied by appropriately ethereal music, the credits matched the tone of the film perfectly.

Snake Eyes award (movie that took a dive in the last act): The Departed. Yes, Scorsese put together an excellent film…for two hours. But the final twenty minutes are very unsatisfying. My bitterness has waned since I originally saw the film, as the close does seem more appropriate. But it is still unsatisfying, prevented the movie from being an all-time classic.

Batman & Robin award (most disappointing sequel): Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I have a hard time believing that there were actually parts cut from this movie to include as deleted scenes on the DVD. Underworld: Evolution was pretty bad too, but it had less to live up to and was significantly shorter.

Shakespeare in (expletive deleted) Love award (movie most overrated by critics): The Queen. This was the #1 movie of the year according to Premiere's annual panel of critics. The two lead performances by Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen were worthy of such acclaim, but the film had very little technical merit. Absent the two leads, it would be nothing more than a decent TV movie, far from an Oscar contender.

Thanks for reading. As usual, I leave you with a few movies I'm anticipating most in the upcoming year. I find it interesting and sad that most of them are sequels of the third degree or more (and I didn't even list the third Spider-man/Shrek/Pirates/Bourne), but I suppose the best original films often lack the buzz until their releases are nearer. For what it's worth, 2006 was filled with a similar number of unoriginal ideas, but only one made my top ten.

Ocean's 13. June 8th. Judging from the trailer and set reports, the cast and crew seem to have recaptured the irreverent spirit of the original without getting lazy or gimmicky like the second one.

Live Free or Die Hard. June 29th. A current front-runner for best trailer and movie of 2007. Yippee-kay-yay, !#$%^*@###^&.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. July 13th. That's right, it's a Friday. The possibility of reading three Potter books and seeing this movie over the course of a few weeks is fairly invigorating.

Across the Universe. September 28th. The always innovative Julie Taymor directs this 1960s love story. The sweet trailer makes it look like a sort of musical set to Beatles music, which promises to be a trippy experience.


Be there. Aloha.

I hate Billy Packer.

As I've said before, March is the best sports month of the year. There is only one glaring problem with it: the annual resurfacing of Billy Packer. Since he primarily does ACC games during the regular season, I rarely have the misfortune of listening to him until tourney time or a big game late in the year, like yesterday's Duke-Carolina contest. As you can see on the video below, with scant seconds left in the game, Gerald Henderson of Duke (he's the black guy) hammered UNC's star player, Tyler Hansbrough, on a putback attempt. For the five minutes that it took to sort things out, Packer adamanty insisted that Henderson was going after the ball...WHICH WASN'T EVEN ON THE SCREEN WHEN HE SWUNG! Obviously I just gave away my stance on the incident, but I'm willing to listen to someone reasonably try to explain otherwise. Conversely, Packer won't shut up about how Henderson was clearly trying to block the shot, intimidating his too-polite partner Jim Nantz into an awkward silence that screams disagreement, or at least evenhanded-ness. The lesson, as always, is that Billy Packer is an idiot.

As for the foul itself, admittedly, Hansbrough probably shouldn't have been a 12-point game with fifteen seconds left, but that doesn't mean that Duke gets to crush his face. At the very least, Henderson's play was sloppy and irresponsible. Realistically, I think his cheap shot is as dirty a play as one can make in a basketball game, and is more than worthy of any suspension he might get. (I can't believe I'm defending Carolina.)

The best of the best of the best, sir!

For whatever reason, Blogger decided it hated me, not allowing me to upgrade my old blog to the new version. I suspect racism. Anyway, thus the new URL (and some new features). If you're looking for something I put up before this month, you'll still have to go to the old site, which I link to down there on the bottom right.

To kick this new blog off in style, here are my Top Ten Films of 2006, which some of you may have received via e-mail. I'll throw the miscellaneous awards up here in a few days. Enjoy...


Like most years, 2006 was an interesting cinematic one. I didn't think I'd seen nearly as many films as I usually do, although I did watch all five Best Picture nominees. Upon further review though, the number is virtually identical (about 40) to the last couple years. The difference appears to be that I didn't make it to quite as many "films", but saw more "movies". My initial thoughts were that that 2006 was not a great cinematic year, but looking back, I see several decent flicks that didn't make my list, along with seven films in my top ten that were brilliantly creative and well-executed, plus my heart-wrenching top selection. I think these top eight films could hang with any octet from any year. Go see them. Now.

Without further ado, here is my Top Ten of 2006, in reverse order, with links to my full reviews if possible. Remember that the rankings may not directly correspond with the ratings I doled out upon initial review, because a top ten list should be more fluid than simply organizing films by number…

Warning! Mild Spoilers Ahead!

10. Mission: Impossible III. In the spot reserved for the best movie of the year (a popcorn movie with no pretense of Oscar) comes Tom Cruise's adrenaline fest, which is nearly exhausting with its unrelenting action. A classic MacGuffin only accentuates the point that this is not a grand film, but pure summertainment featuring beautiful people in extreme, life-threatening circumstances with the fate of the world on the line. That's what a summer blockbuster should be, and that's what Cruise and director J.J. Abrams deliver.

9. The Departed. The fact that Martin Scorsese's work makes my list despite an unsatisfying final act reveals just how riveting the first two hours are. The all-star cast is as good as expected; six different viewers could easily come away most impressed by half a dozen different performances. Scorsese doesn't put this one on cruise control though, using creative editing to maximize the medium's capabilities. Since no other film captured the hearts of Academy voters, the film was able to snag a few big Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture; I can accept that. It felt too seedy and occasionally cartoonish to sneak too far up my list, but after an initial poor aftertaste, Departed regained my favor enough to land here.

8. Pan's Labyrinth. Set six decades ago during one of the countless Spanish civil wars, this movie is dominated by the contrasts between the brutal realities of the conflict and the tender imagination of a young girl, blurring the line between fantasy and reality in the process. How much of the film is real is quite debatable, but ultimately doesn't matter. Similar to Finding Neverland, the point is that the imagination is a powerful tool that is particularly and wonderfully useful in the darkest times.

7. The Prestige. With its powerhouse combination of actors (Bale and Jackman), director (Christopher Nolan), and production value, it seems that this tale of dueling magicians should be higher on the list. Maybe I did not possess the proper mindset when I saw it. Perhaps everyone achieves excellence so effortlessly that it nearly goes unappreciated. Seeing clips from the film still gets me excited, and I can't find much wrong with this picture except the lack of any personal connection.

6. Lady in the Water. Anyone complaining that M. Night Shyamalan is a one-trick pony with his surprise endings can stop talking now. There is no big twist here, just a tense children's tale that persistently entertains with its creative characters and imaginative storyline. Had someone else made this film, it would have been received with much more open-mindedness, but because too many people have preconceived notions about Shyamalan's work, his films' reviews suffer. It is a shame that more people do not understand what he accomplished with this fine movie.

5. Letters from Iwo Jima. Clint Eastwood directs the story of the battle for the titular island from the Japanese perspective. From a technical standpoint, this is every bit the equal to Flags of Our Fathers, but connecting emotionally with a Japanese race that has been eternally portrayed as the enemy is something that takes a good chunk of the film to work through. The fact that the movie is still so potent is a sign of its remarkable quality. A similar film about Americans may have hauled in even more accolades, but this one is an equally noteworthy accomplishment.

4. Little Miss Sunshine. This quirky dark comedy was the funniest movie of the year by several bus lengths. I was literally crying from laughter by the end, when the movie smartly got out promptly and on top. The eclectic family was played superbly by the ensemble cast with an appropriate combination of gravity and humor that is often difficult to capture. As hilarious as Sunshine is, it also addresses many serious subjects in ways better than many dramas. Well worthy of its Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, you won't find a much better blend of comedy and poignancy.

3. Flags of our Fathers. As it explores an American angle on the fight for Iwo Jima, Flags quickly establishes that this isn't just another war movie. Utilizing multiple layers of flashbacks, it concentrates on the psychological impact that being hailed as a hero can have on different people, a fascinating contrast to the Vietnam era, when returning soldiers were often vilified. The nearly monochromatic color scheme is fantastic for the black sands of Iwo Jima, as Eastwood's sure hand guides what isn't his best movie, but might be his most important one.

2. Children of Men. Director Alfonso Cuaron helms the finest-crafted picture of the year, featuring a rock-solid performance by a stoic Clive Owen. With several lengthy shots that literally made my jaw drop, Cuaron creates a movie that entertains wildly through its technical achievement while enhancing rather than distracting from the film itself. Even without being aware of them, the long single takes subconsciously spawn tension, gluing the viewer to the screen, scarcely allowing a chance to blink or breathe. Combine that technical quality with a fascinating premise (all women in the world are now infertile), and the result is a film that is worthy of my top spot, but was nudged out by a once-in-a-lifetime type of work.

1. United 93. As its Oscar snubs may indicate, future generations may (erroneously) not rank this film among the year's best. It isn't the best made film of 2006 (though it's close), but it is the year's best and most moving cinematic experience. By using handheld cameras and eschewing dramatic music, director Paul Greengrass recreates the story passionately but without prejudice. Taking shots at the various inadequacies of the military and the FAA would have been simple, but instead the natural drama of the slowly building confusion is allowed to frustrate, perplex, and disappoint without being condescending. United 93 reaches people in ways that most films cannot, because it draws the viewer's emotions into the picture without being manipulative, and those genuine feelings are far greater than anything even the best films can generate on their own.

Thanks for reading. Ben has the first comment in three...two...