Busy weekend...Kim & I decided to take the kids up to Orlando early on Saturday morning for my father's 76th birthday. He seemed really surprised to see us pop up in the house. My brother & sister were both there with their families, and it made for a really nice day. We got there about 11am and left about 4pm. About a 3 hour drive both ways, but it really made dad's day, so it was worth it.
Today was a totally rainy day. I mean, it started at about 1pm and it must have kept going until after 6pm. I took advantage of some alone time and watched the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremonies...really, really good. The sort of thing that is best appreciated by longtime fans, as new fans will be left wondering who the old guys were. While I was doing that, in order to avoid sending my blood pressure through the roof I taped the Cubs game today. Greg Maddux was going for his 300th win and the Cubs welcomed Nomar Garciaparra to the lineup. Wow! What a great trade as the Cubs lineup looks really solid top to bottom. I even got a call from my old friend Dave Flaherty, who came out of the woodwork to congratulate me on the pickup. Sosa, Alou, Ramirez, Garciaparra, & Lee. That's 5 guys in the lineup with 30 HR a season type of power. The only thing they really have seemed to have given up was a young pitcher named Justin Jones who was a very highly thought of prospect...but at least the Cubs are deep in pitching prospects, so it wasn't like he was our only pitcher. While that was going on......HELLO August!! And when the 8th month of the year rolls around, it means one thing especially!! Football is in the air and its coming. The Vikings opened camp officially yesterday, and the good news is that their # 1 draft pick was signed and in camp. The bad news was that their # 2 pick is still unsigned and its look contentious...and its at a position that the Vikes are especially thin at (LB). I know I usually close the week out with a few movie reviews, but unfortunately this has been a rather quiet week for me in the film department. Earlier in the week I finally got around to watching the Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton & Charlize Theron. Lots of fun and a good heist film. I didn't really care for Norton in his role, which wasn't really fleshed out as much as it could've been. That being said, there's nothing wrong with the movie and its not a bad way to kill 2 hours. ***
Some people like to keep top 10 lists in their heads of their favorite films and I'm no different. So tonight, I'll start giving you my "exclusive list" one film at a time and what it is about the movie that I think is so great. My personal top ten can flucuate from time to time, and sometimes my # 9 or 10 film may drop out for a little while to be replaced by a film that might be right on the cusp of the list. Some of the movies that come oh so close but don't quite make it (at least this week) include:
The Usual Suspect
The Best Years of Our Lives
Slapshot
Caddyshack
Dark City
Heat
Pulp Fiction
Ronin
However...now let me start with my own personal top 10....(drumroll please)...ladies and gentlemen...for your perusal....at number 10......
10) Shawshank Redemption--if you're a guy and you don't love this movie, you're a total homo (not that there's anything wrong with that). Tim Robbins & Morgan Freeman in the now famous drama about life in a prison in Maine from the 1940's all the way up until the early 1970's. Fabulously narrated by Freeman, its the story of one man's struggle to retain his humanity and sense of self-worth while inside an inhumane facility filled with deceit, betrayal, violence and a system that stifles and suffocates any attempt at individuality. Memorable scenes abound: Andy Dufrene sneaks into the warden's office and plays an opera record for the boys in the yard, the horrible loneliness of James Whitmore after being released from prison into a world he doesn't understand, the look on the warden's face when the rock goes through Raquel Welch's face on the poster, Andy emerging from the drain in the middle of a rainstorm...certainly symbolic of Andy literally being "reborn"....and the final scene of the movie (I won't give it away)....the "redemption" of one man's soul. You don't have to be a guy to love this movie (but it doesn't hurt). *****
Jeff
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