Tag Archives: sports

Airborne (1993)

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Director Rob Bowman’s 1993 inline skating dramedy “Airborne” is the most nineties-est film of the entire decade, and damn it, I love it. It’s so 90’s, it automatically cancels out “Empire Records” and “Clueless,” combined. I suspect Warner and Bowman expected to begin a brand new nationwide rad inline skating craze with “Airborne,” by pandering to their love for all things extreme and edgy of the sport. Including long hair, surfing, flannel, hockey, and an extreme final race that’s so extreme it’s extra-eme.

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WWE: Raw 20th Anniversary Collection – The 20 Greatest Episodes Uncut & Unedited (DVD)

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What with WWE celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their flagship series “Raw” this year, the company that gave us Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant offers fans the chance to revisit twenty years of the show. Rather than all of the episode from every show since 1993, WWE compiles twenty of the “best” episodes from “Raw” that fans may just enjoy re-visiting in all of their uncut and un-edited glory.

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Horse Feathers (1932)

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One of the aspects of “Horse Feathers” that I love is that it introduced me to the sheer radiance that is Thelma Todd. Sure, I ride on a bunch of modern beauties, but out of the slew of reasons why I keep going back to “Horse Feathers,” it’s because of Todd who I’ve managed to have a crush on since I first saw this Marx Bros. comedy masterpiece. Many years ago I viewed this for the first time on VHS and understood why the Marx Brothers were immortal. Suffice it to say I was not let down by “Horse Feathers.” At their prime, the Marx Brothers were unstoppable in the realm of comedy, and delivered laughs at a rapid fire pacing.

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The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

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cincinnati_kid_ver2It’s well documented that Steve McQueen sported a hefty resentment toward Paul Newman and viewed him as a rival until the day he died. Though McQueen was known for being petty and resentful toward anyone who challenged his position as an actor, McQueen mostly aimed for Paul Newman. Naturally, since Newman was known for his iconic role as Fast Eddie Felson, a pool hustler battling against the one and only Jackie Gleason, a pool master named Minnesota Fats, McQueen followed up with his own version of the film, except with poker, and upped the ante by going up against Edward G. Robinson.

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Meta: The Culture of IPL (2013)

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Director Adam Evans pulls together a very entertaining and informative documentary on a subject long overdue for a documentary: Gaming tournaments. There have been many documentaries about gaming in general, but very few have tackled the inherent emotion and intense training that go behind tournaments. Not to mention there’s almost nothing about the dynamics of team gaming. Director Adam Evans explores that facet that is shockingly compelling, and helps identify gaming as something more than a hobby. Especially with $100,000 dollars on the line for the winning teams.

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Death Race 2000 (1975)

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“Death Race 2000” is notable, not only for being one of the best cult action films ever made, but for the amazing foresight it showed in being one of the many fictional tales predicting the entertainment of the twenty first century. Sure, video game violence and reality television were established before the twenty first century, but it didn’t become prevalent and common until much later, when the extremes for entertainment were established as norms for amusement. “Death Race 2000” is a prophetic and darkly genius action thriller that pinpoints the very nature of human illness and how we view violence as nothing more than a mortal hurdle we can ignore in the face of rewards.

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The Sandlot (1993)

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If you’re going to crib from Stephen King’s “Stand By Me,” then you’d better do a good job of re-tooling it. Thankfully, and miraculously, David M. Evans directs one of the best coming of age dramedies in cinematic history. “The Sandlot” is a film that takes the “Stand By Me” premise and adds a baseball-centric theme to the story that becomes the crux of everything the film is built on. It’s the reason characters are able to connect, it saves characters from immediate danger, and it’s the macguffin for the entire movie. “The Sandlot” thankfully doesn’t shove the baseball Americana themes down the audiences throat, but instead focuses on the characters featured in the film as actual characters with complexities and flaws that decide whether they succeed or not.

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