Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Dad and I pretty much agreed after Saturday's opener against William and Mary that we really didn't learn anything about this year's Carolina team from the game.  A blow-out (the kind of victory one would have expected had this game been in 1998 instead of 2004) would have certainly given Dad some ammo in his (deluded) predictions of a 7-4 season.  On the other hand, a loss to W & M would have been a pretty strong signal that I was actually being optimistic in my suggestion that 3-8 is the absolute best one should expect this year.  Instead we get a game with lots of offense but lots of turnovers and dick for defense except at the end of the game when it counted.  So who knows.  Virginia is likely not to be a real indication either since even our best teams have had their asses handed to them in Charlottesville over the last 20 years.  Certainly a win by UNC would be a huge plus, but a loss, no matter how bad, won't really say a whole lot.  We're really going to have to see what happens with the last two games in September - home games against Georgia Tech and Louisville.  The Wreck was picked to finish in the bottom half of the ACC while Louisville is probably a Top 40 team (currently just out of the ESPN Top 25).  If UNC wins 'em both, then Dad's probably $5 richer.  If they lose to both, my 3-8 finish looks a little rose-colored.  At this point, I'd be happy with a squeaker over Tech and not embarrassing ourselves against the Cardinal - but check back with me next week...

Note to JW:  Yes, I'm talking about real Carolina football, sweetie - not those Jake-come-latelys down in Charlotte with the funny uniforms.

We didn't have any big plans for Labor Day weekend, so rented movies were the order of the weekend (when we weren't eating out way too much).  

First up was Starsky and Hutch.  Not bad - not Dodgeball funny, not even Zoolander funny, but not bad.  70's schtick was pretty good, but someone's going to have to explain to me why a Gran Torino was ever considered a cool car.  A) it was a Ford and B) my Dad drove a freakin' Torino.  Zero cool factor.  In the midst of some pretty good late 70's period work, I got the biggest kick out of them (mis)casting Carmen Electra as a cheerleader - girl's got way too many curves for those days of skinny disco queens.  Overall, worth the $4 rental but I would have been pretty disappointed if we'd shelled out $15 to see it in the theater.

Next was Hellboy.  I was vaguely familiar with the story but it is not a comic I've read, so I needed the origin aspect of the movie.  The backstory was pretty byzantine, but overall the movie was pretty enjoyable.  FX were good but didn't overwhelm, Perlman probably did his best acting job and there was enough character development to at least provide a little interest.  It wasn't Spider-man 2 or X-Men, but it wasn't Batman and Robin, either.

We saved the best for last - if you haven't seen Shaolin Soccer, go out right now and find the DVD.  I'd been hearing about this one for some time and actually saw a trailer for it earlier this year, but as far as I know it still hasn't gotten a US theatrical release.  Don't wait - go rent it.  You don't have to like Jackie Chan movies or soccer to appreciate it, although some of the humor is sort of Chan-esque.  I laughed 'til I hurt - what more can you ask of a comedy?  The basic storyline of a bunch of former monastic brothers led by a disgraced former soccer star using kung fu techniques to win the big soccer tournament sounds silly (and it is) but the journey is hysterically funny.  In many ways it parallels Dodgeball in parodying the stereotypical sports movie - ragtag band of underdogs brought together under unlikely circumstances to finally compete in a championship with a team or person that is overtly bad.  (In this case, their opponent in the English version is actually called Team Evil!).  The comedy is as broad as you might expect, but it's PG - watch it with the kiddies!  But just make sure you watch it.