The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 58 trips to carry that many people.
A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space.
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Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Writer[s]: Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
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Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men might be the best visually directed movie I have ever seen. This conventionally shot film has held that title [according to me] for seven years of cinema, including the reinvention and revolution of 3D production. Not included in those seven years since Children of Men is another film written and directed by Cuarón. In that time, I have been patiently waiting for the return of the master. And then, in 2010, it was released that he was working on a movie based in space. Alfonso Cuarón and outer-space. That’s all I needed to hear.
A trio of bodybuilders in Florida get caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.
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Director: Michael Bay
Writer[s]: Christopher Markus [screenplay], Stephen McFeely [screenplay], Pete Collins [articles that provided basis for film]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub
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Pain & Gain is a blast to the past, taking us to the vibrant, colorful, muscular times of 90’s California muscle beaches. I’m sure they were great times, I certainly had some good ones as a four/five year old. With steroids all over the place, muscle-heads could be found left and right. And such are our protagonists, each in desperate need of some hard cash: Walhberg’s Daniel Lugo and his desire to be greater and do greater things; Johnson’s Paul Doyle struggling to adapt to life after prison and addiction; Mackie’s Adrian needing surgery for over-use of steroids and the loss of his manhood. They find this source in the shape of a billionaire asshole, Shalhoub’s Victor Kershaw. With their combined knowledge and skills, the trio of muscle men decide to kidnap and rob Kershaw of all he’s worth.
The Chicago Blackhawks’ 2013 hockey season has been my favorite season of sports ever. It’s not even a conversation for me. After witnessing everything that has happened this year, I wonder if I have ever even really been a sports fan before. Sure, I catch a lot of Bulls games, have even attended several, and I’ve watched about every Bears game for the past couple years, and have always watched sports since I was a child and my father would have the 90’s Bulls championship games on and would react fiercely to Bears games. I even consider myself a Cubs fan, although my enthusiasm for baseball has all but entirely faded as of late.
But this experience is new, and is inexplicable. I’ll go to the bar with friends and family to watch some of these games, just like I’ve done with every other sport every other year, but when the referee drops the puck in center ice, you won’t hear me again for another 20 minutes of game time [save the occasional couch noise]. I am transfixed and mesmerized by the sport, and the viewing experience has transcended anything I have experienced in the past. The crisp, sharp sounds of sticks, pucks, glass, and players is breathtaking and unparalleled in sports; the amount of sheer excitement and suspense never ends, for you don’t have multiple time-outs or time in between plays like basketball and football, and the energy levels multiply those of soccer because of the enclosed, smaller space, along with the fact that pucks can be shot multiple times faster and the players are on skates. There is just no comparison in this world to the experience of playoff and Stanley Cup hockey.
I won’t lie, I like being a little smug and pretentious with my Blackhawks fandom, having started watching them before they won it all in 2010 [I watched in 2009, get on my level]. That win was something entirely different from this year. That win changed everything, and gave life to a dead sport in Chicago, and I couldn’t be more glad that it happened. But the sad thing is, I wasn’t 100% interested in those games that season. As much as I hate to admit this, I even fell asleep in game 6, the final game, before it was over. I can’t help but laugh when thinking about it now, because after 3 overtime games in a 8 days, I am actually getting physically tired watching the Blackhawks games, but I am never close to falling asleep. Pure adrenaline floods my body as the players gear up and the television networks start the hype.
I don’t want to get too far into specifics of this greatest sports season yet, because it’s not over and it could all be for naught, but I also couldn’t go another second without somehow expressing how glad I am that I have been able to experience what I consider to be the epitome of sports, and I hope everyone out there is just as glad.
Tonight, the Blackhawks have a chance to win the 2013 Stanley Cup, and although it will have almost no historical statistical significance, it would be the greatest single sports achievement for me as a sports fan.
Let’s go Hawks!
After visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Marina meets a priest and fellow exile, who is struggling with his vocation, while Neil renews his ties with a childhood friend, Jane.
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Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
Starring: Ben Afleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
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After 2011’s Tree of Life, Terrence Malick became my favorite director, and on certain days of the week, my answer to the question “What’s your favorite movie?” will be Tree of Life. I think Roger Ebert best described my thoughts towards the movie in his review, in which he called the film “…a prayer…”. It is [so far] the pinnacle of Malick’s style and vision, and will more than likely be the measuring stick for his future films, including this one.
To the Wonder marks the beginning of a new regime for Malick. This is the shortest amount of time between movies that he has ever given, and he has three more movies slated for the next couple years. After his 20 year hiatus followed by a routine of one film every four-and-a-half years, this is very different and exciting. This is also the shortest film Malick has made in 30 years, and the only film he has ever made that is set completey in current time. While I am glad to see all these new things so quickly after Tree of Life, it shows in To The Wonder that Malcik didn’t give as much time to the film as we are used to.
Bob's Movie Reviews 