Showing Tag: "sports" (Show all posts)

REVIEW: Battle of the Sexes Pits Lobber Sugar Daddy Bobby Riggs Up Against Libber Women's Tennis Superstar Billie Jean King

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, September 30, 2017, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Battle of the Sexes





Directed By: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Starring: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue, Austin Stowell, Eric Christian Olsen, and Andrea Riseborough
 
I've been away from STMR for quite a while now, and the reason has primarily been that I've had nothing to say.  It's nice to have been on the sidelines as the summer box office tanked and as the masses ignored their local cineplexes.  Quality wasn't there on the big screen...
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REVIEW: Up Back Forward Down! With Bo Derek, Milk, & Broken Glasses in Blake's Biscuits, Eddie the Eagle Has Landed In His Moment

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, February 27, 2016, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Eddie the Eagle





Directed By: Dexter Fletcher

Starring: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Jim Broadbent, and Christopher Walken

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."
-Pierre de Coubertin

There's nothing better than a surprise treat at the box office.  I typically don't have too many of these, especially this time of year.  In the last three weeks, however, I've had three rather enjoyable cinematic ...

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REVIEW: With Four Gold Medals, Jesse Owens Runs His Race Regardless of Jim Crow or the Third Reich

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, February 21, 2016, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Race





Directed By: Stephen Hopkins

Starring: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice van Houten, Shanice Banton, and William Hurt

Simplicity can be elegance, especially when it comes to movie titles.  One-syllable titles are especially potent because they say everything and hardly anything at all.  Heat.  Ray.  Up.  These titles are short and sweet but convey so much.  There's no better example this weekend than the Jesse Owens biopic Race.  In the case of the period biographical pict...

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REVIEW: In the Shadow of His Family Rocky Balboa, Baby Creed Adonis Johnson Makes His Own Legacy One Step, One Punch, One Round At a Time

Posted by James Brown on Thursday, November 26, 2015, In : 0.00% Water 
Creed





Directed By: Ryan Coogler

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, and Tony Bellew
 
I have to admit that I was baffled when I learned that Ryan Coogler was directing Creed.  After all, the breakout director of Fruitvale Station delving into the seventh act of the Rocky Balboa saga for his second feature film isn't a career move that makes a whole lot of sense at first glance.  This is especially true when you consider the fact that the aging Sylvest...

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REVIEW: Uno, Dos, Tres. The McFarland Cougars Fly Like Blackbirds With Blanco Cross-Country Coach Jim White Guiding Them

Posted by James Brown on Monday, February 23, 2015, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
McFarland, USA





Directed By: Niki Caro

Starring: Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, and Morgan Saylor

After his turn as Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel a year and half ago, I was intrigued by the prospect of Kevin Costner getting active on the big screen again.  While he delivered a heartfelt performance as the DC Universe began to get its act together, every performance Costner has given since has been a play on his manly on-screen persona.  He gave us the blunt spy Kevin Costner in Jack Ryan: Shadow Rec...
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REVIEW: An Ornithologist, Philatelist, & Philanthropist, Golden Eagle John du Pont Leads Wrestler Mark Schultz to Olympic Gold at the Foxcatcher Estate

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, November 23, 2014, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Foxcatcher





Directed By: Bennett Miller

Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Vanessa Redgrave

I don't know the story of John du Pont.  I was just a kid when the multimillionaire wrestling enthusiast committed the heinous acts that made his name infamous.  Not an Olympics enthusiast, I'm not terribly familiar with Mark or Dave Schultz either.  Alas, the only gold medalist in the wrestling space with whom I'm familiar is Mr. Kurt Angle.  I know.  I should know more, but it mak...
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REVIEW: When the Game Stands Tall, The De La Salle Spartans, Their Winning Streak, & This Bland High School Football Movie Fall

Posted by James Brown on Friday, August 22, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
When the Game Stands Tall





Directed By: Thomas Carter

Starring: Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern, Michael Chiklis, Alexander Ludwig, and Clancy Brown

These August movies are really starting to get to me.  Good movies are just hard to find in this climate.  With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reigning supreme for the last two weeks at the box office, it's a moviegoer's worst nightmare come true.  As I make my way to the next wave of torturously bad flicks, I begin with a high school football film, this week...
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REVIEW: Mr. JB Bernstein Channels His Inner Don Draper to Launch Million Dollar Arm & Make Dreams Come True for Rinku Singh & Dinesh Kumar Patel

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, May 11, 2014, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Million Dollar Arm





Directed By: Craig Gillespie

Starring: Jon Hamm, Aasif Mandvi, Bill Paxton, Lake Bell, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Pitobash, Allyn Rachel, and Alan Arkin

I'm not a fan of splitting up the finale of a movie or a television show.  It's just another way for studios to milk the proverbial cash cow.  There was no real need for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2.  There was no need for seasons 5A and 5B of Breaking Bad.  There's no need for two The Hunger Games: Mocking...
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REVIEW: For No. 1 Pick Bo Callahan & His Magic Beans, Cleveland Browns General Manager Sonny Weaver Sells the Cow on Draft Day

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, April 12, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Draft Day





Directed By: Ivan Reitman

Starring: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Sam Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, and Chadwick Boseman

I despise utterly predictable films.  As a moviegoer, there's nothing worse than wasting my time on a movie that offers nothing refreshing or imaginative whatsoever.  Arguably, that's most of what we're facing at the box office this weekend.  We've got another animated sequel in Rio 2 intended to tap into parents' wallets.  We've also got ano...
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REVIEW: The Grudgement Day Match Between Razor Sharp & Billy "The Kid" McDonnen Has a Few Too Many Butterscotch Jellybeans 30 Years Too Late

Posted by James Brown on Tuesday, January 7, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Grudge Match





Directed By: Peter Segal

Starring: Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, Jon Bernthal, LL Cool J, and Kim Basinger

The AARP is getting into the holiday movie season!  They're giving us a pairing of the Raging Bull and Rocky as the 70 year-old Robert De Niro and the 67 year-old Sylvester Stallone square off on the big screen.  Ten to fifteen years ago, this might have been a halfway good idea.  As it stands, Grudge Match is set to be Grumpy Old Men on crack.  It...
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REVIEW: In Formula One Racing Movie Rush, the Intense Rivalry Between Superstar James Hunt & Asshole Niki Lauda Blazes Like No Other

Posted by James Brown on Friday, September 27, 2013, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Rush





Directed By: Ron Howard

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, David Calder, and Natalie Dormer

It would be an understatement to say that I had low expectations for Rush.  Let's be real.  Did anyone really expect a serious awards contender out of a racing movie led by Thor?  I sure as hell did not.  I knew the film had Ron Howard in the director's chair.  I knew that there was a rich, intriguing story for Howard to tell based on t...
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REVIEW: Trouble with the Curve Has a Little Trouble of Its Own...Moneyball

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, September 22, 2012, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 

Trouble with the Curve





Directed By: Robert Lorenz

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, Matthew Lillard, and John Goodman

As most of you know by now, Clint Eastwood made some rather interesting remarks at the Republican National Convention several weeks ago to an empty chair in which an invisible Obama supposedly sat.  While I believe his comments were insulting to the presidency, I have a website to run, and I have to be able to separate the political activist from the scr...


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REVIEW: Goon — Opens Up A Seriously Funny Can of Whoopass

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Saturday, April 28, 2012, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Goon
SoberFilmChick




Directed By: Michael Dowse

Starring: Seann William Scott, Liev Schreiber, and Jay Baruchel

“This is not f**king baseball.”  This statement was hurled out by an angry coach in Goon, and truer words were never spoken.  Goon tells the story of Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott), a bouncer at a local bar in Massachusetts.  Doug has the honor of being the not so bright black sheep in a family of doctors. While his brother is a surgeon, Doug is skilled in fighting and “bouncing,...
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REVIEW: Real Steel is the Real Deal

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, October 9, 2011, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Real Steel





Directed By: Shawn Levy

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangelline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, and Kevin Durand

After four starring roles in X-Men films and a cameo in this year's X-Men: First Class, I was starting to get worried that Hugh Jackman would get pigeonholed into playing a metal-bearing mutant with anger management issues and amnesia.  His latest outing in Shawn Levy's Real Steel gives me hope however.  Though Jackman still portrays a dude with an attitude problem, his lov...
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REVIEW: Moneyball Has a Perfect Batting Average

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, September 25, 2011, In : 0.00% Water 
Moneyball





Directed By: Bennett Miller

Starring: Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, and Casey Bond

Most sports movies capture the thrill of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.  They delve into the joys of winning and the sorrows of losing.  They do nothing more than depict competition and what drives it.  That's your basic sports movie.  Anything beyond that is a bonus.  Given this, I went into Bennett Miller's Moneyball expecting a decent baseball fl...
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REVIEW: Warrior is a Decent Sports Flick Worth a Few Rounds

Posted by James Brown on Wednesday, September 7, 2011, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Warrior





Directed By: Gavin O'Connor

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte

There's an unique euphoria we all get from watching people beat the hell out of each other for a couple of hours in a great sports flick.  It just makes us feel good inside.  The mixed martial arts (MMA) film Warrior has plenty of great moments, but it drowns in unnecessary drama.

Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte)  is a former alcoholic whose addictive and abusive tendencies ripped his family apart years ago.  His wife...
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