The Kids are Alright (At acting)

So I watched the Kids are Alright with some great acting. Annette Benning did a great job as the masculine, bread-winning lesbian, which was a HUGE departure from what I recognize her as. Julienne Moore was same as usual, solid and pasty white. The kids do a decent job to bring it along and show emotion. I am a huge Mark Ruffalo fan, probably because he's from Kenosha and AWESOME, but he's amazing in the film as a sperm donor who has two children with the lesbian couple of Moore and Benning. They reach out to him and he accepts and genuinely strives to be part of their lives. He gains immediate acceptance from Moore, Benning is slower to jump on the bandwagon. He does eventually win everyone over, especially Moore, who he start banging while she works to landscape the backyard of his restaurant. I ended up feeling pretty bad for Ruffalo's character who realizes how much he yearns for a family, but has never put in the effort, but DID like having two pretty cool teenage kids hang out with him and look up to him. He "falls" for Moore, who really was just looking for someone to fuck and not a real relationship, which was exactly who Ruffalo was looking for. Ruffalo is displayed as the villain and gets shut-out, which is unfair. Good acting, fairly regular and unspectacular slice of life film.

Bottom Line: 7.2 out of 10. Good for when you're sitting around doing nothing on a Sat. morning, but I wouldn't actively search it out.

Salt of the earth and some random thoughts

Salt was a movie where Angelina Jolie is a CIA spy who may or may not be a Soviet double agent. The movie moves quickly along through more and more insane stunts and bullshit until you arrive at the sort-of end. They clearly wanted this to be like a Bourne movie, but you just don't really give a damn throughout. Liev Schreiber is in it as well and does a solid job as always. I just don't buy a lot of the insane stunts and bullshit Jolie pulls off with ease. Why we love the Bourne movies is that they don't get Commando out of control with insanity. He does really cool shit, but you buy into the fact that it is possible. Jolie rolls through and kills 12 Russian super-agents herself. She's a woman, so fist-fights with men aren't going to go in her favor in real life, since any dude would just throw her into a wall until she stopped moving, she seriously weights like 130 pounds. It has entertaining parts, and actually the plot holds together pretty well, I just didn't buy into it.

Bottom line: 6.2 out of 10. If you want to see an action movie with a decent plot, give it a shot.

NBA playoffs- It is an absolute privilege to watch Chris Paul play right now. He is playing at a different level than everyone else on the court, including Kobe Bryant. He's simply unstoppable. The Lakers throw different looks at him, or double him, and he always finds the open man, or simply makes them pay for leaving him defended by a mere mortal man like Kobe Bryant. CP3 is shooting 57% and put up an insane triple-double of 35, 15 assists, 12 boards (I think, too lazy to fact-check). The Hornets don't have David West, that would be the dude who scores most of their points, but they are right with the Lakers. The Grizzlies are looking like beasts against the Spurs. I'm taking the Heat over the Celtics, and whoever wins that series will take it to the Bulls in the Eastern conference final. I would like to think whoever comes out of the Magic/Hawks series can beat the Bulls, but neither team is putting it together enough to beat the Bulls, and nobody on either team can guard Rose. The West is a lot more interesting anyway with upsets and close games everywhere. They are looking at war in every series out West. I'm really starting to think Nene would be a great pick-up for a real contender next year with another decent big man. He defends 4's and 5's, shoots 62%, can pass well, and hustles hard. He really needs a change of venue where he could be the #2 big man and a guaranteed mismatch every night (Get him Bucks, get him).

The Brewers pissed away a possible sweep of the Astros in fantastic fashion on Saturday with a complete lack of judgment by all baserunners in the 8th inning where they had 0 outs and men on 2nd and 3rd, but managed to shit the bed into a near triple-play. They pitch Kintzler entirely too much for such a young kid. It'll be nice to get Saito back, but they need to throw Mitre more in the short-term. Maybe Hawkins is still serviceable as well when he returns, but I think they can make a run at it even if he isn't. I keep holding out for a healthy Greinke, Hart, and Morgan to alleviate all our ills, but we will still have an enormous hole at shortstop and wherever Bettancourt hits. He has not impressed me at all and calling him a power-hitting shortstop is like calling Kyle Fransworth a finesse pitcher. At least he normally makes contact with the ball and puts it in play, but besides that I can't say many nice things about him. The real question will be how the Fielder situation heats up, because even if they are playing well the questions will only intensify as the season progresses. Re-signing Braun will go a long way in pushing Fielder to ink a deal, but with Boras as an agent, he's looking to cake up, not play for a small market team.

Side note: Angelina Jolie could never hide in disguise. She has WAYYYY too distinctive features for that bullshit. They dress her as a dude and it is utterly ridiculous.

Random Thoughts

The Brewers/Cubs "rivalry" is out of hand. Proximity makes it certain that there will always be enough fans of both teams at either game to create problems. The hatred makes no sense. We don't knock each other out of the playoffs year after year, or really have anything to be proud of in the last 1/4 century that we should feel special about. Instead of watching in peace, alcohol fueled stupidity wins out. One fan from a team will say something, then the response from the slighted teams fan, wash, rinse repeat. I fell into this after seeing a facebook post talking about how the Brewers, 155 games out from a meaningful game, had to be feeling the pressure of a slow start, and it would CERTAINLY effect their play. I responded immediately with a simple, concise, "Fuck you". Stupidity kept after it as there were posts back and forth which I reminded said individual that the Brewers have some serious injuries, but more importantly THERE ARE 155 MORE GAMES IN THE BASEBALL SEASON. I just don't get where this hatred comes from, we should hate the Cardinals more since they walk away with the NL Central instead of our respective teams.

The Masters coverage is doing a great job of having different experts chime in, and great coverage of ALL the players within a few strokes, but commercials this close to the end is simply unacceptable. I hate the fact that Tiger Woods was in contention. That man is a fucking piece of shit. We can say classier words, but anybody who is out banging whores and prostitutes at EVERY turn while his gorgeous wife raises children is a fucking piece of shit. I don't care what profession you are in, if you live your life like this I hope you get gang raped by a roaming pack of gorillas, or wildebeests, or anything capable of delivering a savage raping.

The NBA and NHL playoffs are soon to be underway, marking a great period in time for sports. Baseball is fresh and relevant, NHL suddenly becomes relevant and the quality of play increases, same goes the the pumpkin-pushers of the NBA. There will be great nights of TV, and the DVR will be expected to work OT to keep me happy. I will be flipping channels like a madman in between pitches, faceoffs, and free throws to keep updated on live action as much as possible. I am pretty excited to get into hockey and basketball for the first time this year. I find out things that real fans have known the whole year, like Derrick Rose is unstoppable. I love to see the teams that coast through the regular season and NOW start playing team defense and offense. This is basketball at the highest possible level.

Brewers?

I was incredibly frustrated to see the Brewers get swept by the Reds, especially because two of the games were winnable. Watching Will Nieves fail twice to hit important sac flies cost the Brewers the home opener. Failures to manufacture runs and hit situationally is a plague on the Brewers. Hope has flashed the last couple of games, and the returns of Greinke, Lucroix, and Hart all will be BIG upgrades to those positions. It's easy to be down-trodden seeing Neives fail so brutally, it made me realize it's a different manager inheriting the same players who can't drive in a run when it absolutely HAS to happen. Axford seems to have it figured out, meaning leaving 93MPH fastballs belt high is UNACCEPTABLE. I'm liking this team, even the late additions of Mitre and Morgan seem to be likely to pay dividends. Another glaring weakness is the inability to work a count and take pitches and walks. That will need to change to reach the playoffs I feel. It's a hell of a ride, and there's plenty of time to flip-flop. I'm just happy I'm excited to watch games again. I got to heckle Linebrink, Heyward, and the Braves bullpen last night as I was the first row in the bleachers above the bullpen in right field. WHAT A GREAT TIME, though they frown on heckling WAYYYY too much. I also have tickets on Friday, meaning I have to wash the lucky Turnbow shirt and warm-up the vocal cords, and possibly the fists for the Cubs.