11/14/04--Bachelorhood, "The End in South Bend" & a creepier than hell movie

Well, the family went up to 'lando this weekend.  Andy had some band competition, something I try and avoid like the plague.  Kim figured she would go, take Kellie and kill two birds with one stone by taking them to Universal afterwards.  I figured that meant a couple of days of football, boxer shorts, belching and all that sort of good stuff.  And ya know what?  I realized sometime yesterday a horrible thing.  UGH!
I missed my family.
Good Lord....I may actually be maturing.  How could this happen to me?

SPORTS ALERT SPORTS ALERT
Well, I watched some good games yesterday, as I got my first chance to watch Boise State (taken to overtime by SAN JOSE STATE!!), a very good Iowa-Minnesota tilt (I still can't figure out how the Goph's lost that one), Auburn put a can of whoop ass on Georgia, and Miami go up to Charlottesville and look impressive in defeating a very good Virginia team.  My boy Hugh had written the Canes off for dead.
Speaking of dead, I decided to tape the ND-Pitt game yesterday.  It was the Irish's
last home game of the season, and the game between Tennessee & USC.  Now as bad as the Irish had looked losing to BC, Purdue & BYU....a victory over a thus far this season very average Pitt team would at a minimum lock us into the Gator Bowl, with a very slight chance of moving up to the Cotton Bowl.  Well, screw that. 
In keeping with a recent horrible trend, the Irish allowed someone named Tyler Palko, the Pitt QB, to look like the 2nd coming of Dan Marino--the guy threw 5 t.d's against our defense--in our stadium.  Now that's bad enough, especially because for once this season our offense actually played a pretty damn good game.
But this may have been the worst officiated game I've ever seen.  I mean, they were horrible.  There must have been 4 pass interference or holding calls in the last quarter alone.  I'm not stupid--I know that ND's defensive backfield isn't exactly the Steelers of the late 70's--but geez Louise---if Pitt hadn't won the game, I'd be wondering why.  By the way, for all of you Michael Wilbon fans from ESPN---that now makes Ty Willingham 13-14 in his last 27 games---yep, he's turning the corner.

I actually went out to see a movie last night!  Yep, actual theatre new release, the whole nine yards!  I went out with my boy Steve Guerra last night and we had planned on seeing Friday Night Lights, the film about high school football in Texas.
Stupid us, you see, when we see a movie advertised in the newspaper at 7:20pm, and then show up at 7:15pm---why would we expect the theatre to actually be showing the film??  Especially when they could bump the film and make room to show SEED OF CHUCKY in another theatre??  UGH!  And the freaking old lady at the window actually had the nerve to say..."that's why you should call first".
Hey lady---F you.  That's why YOU should check your advertisement.  So anyway, faced with not a lot of other films we wanted to see (Seed of Chucky?  Puh-leeze.)
I took Steve's recommendation and went to see (no pun intended) "Saw".  I have to be careful how I word that.  Am I supposed to say I went to see Saw?  Or that I saw Saw?   Or I went to see, and then saw, Saw?  Oman!  Anyway:
1) SAW--holy crap, what a creepy movie.  Creepy like Seven, or Silence of the Lambs, or maybe The Cell.  You wanted to take a shower when you got out of the theatre.  Its definitely NOT for everyone (this is the type of movie that my man Dino would HATE).  Its not an Oscar caliber effort like Silence, but its not complete crap either.  Its a creepy, get under your skin, twisted little movie about a serial killer named Jiggsaw, mainly because of the mind games he plays with his victims.  And oh man does he screw with their minds.  The stars of the film are Cary Elwes (who appears to have not missed any meals lately--much different than his Princess Bride & Top Gun look) & Danny Glover...naturally playing a cop (does he do ANYTHING else?).  Suffice to say, the film involves two men (Elwes is one) who wake up in the dingiest, grimiest bathroom that you've ever seen in your life, both chained to a pipe across the room from one another.  They are given clues as to how they can free themselves--but there is a time limit--and there are rules that they must follow.  One hell of a creepy ride.  Its not horror, its more suspense.  And pretty damn good suspense at that.  ***3/4

Later,
Jeff