Madison Baumgartner: That Dude Better Get Paid

Bumgarner put up a legendary performance on par with anything I've ever seen or heard of. An effort expected of pitcher's in the 1910's, but certainly not in the 2010's. Pitch counts, rest, and excuses were all out the window as Bumgarner had his name called in the 5th inning. He calmly dealt 5 scoreless innings and dominated. He didn't become unraveled when CF Gregor Blanco misplayed a fast-dropping single as badly as a drunken 9-year old would. He settled back in and popped out the next batter. This World Series is the kind of effort that will be talked about for years. A man who simply was unhittable on the largest possible stage. Clutch moments were brushed aside as Bumgarner simply made everything seem as easy as Spring Training. He seems utterly un-shakeable at this point. You'd want him in your foxhole, and you like the cut of his jib, let's be honest. How cool is the shaggy-haired and bearded man walking out to the mound and shutting it down in the World Series? I want to be Madison Bumgarner not just for Halloween, but for the rest of my life. Just the epitome of cool and calm. I'm expecting him to guest star in Sons of Anarchy and crush it on the Late Night TV circuit. I love how he seems to detest interviews and tries to give Belicheck/Popovich-esque answers. I'm currently enjoying and genuinely feeling so HAPPY for Jeremy Affeldt talking about how meaningful it was for him to win this one back in Kansas City, the start of his career and a very tough place for him. It made me wish Erin Andrews would just stand there and look pretty while Ken Rosenthal does the real work. For anyone who has never won something like a Championship in a "team" sport, I can say it's like nothing else. The culmination of hard work with your teammates, who at that point are most likely good friends of yours, is amazing and unlike anything else I've experienced. You don't know how to act because it's the last thing on your mind. I threw my racket across myself in an awkward motion and hugged my doubles partner so enthusiastically I almost threw him over my head, Greco-Roman style. I didn't want this to be about me, I just wanted to talk about the great Series and the incredible efforts of Bumgarner. I look forward to talking about watching Bumgarner own the Series like no pitcher before. Bob Gibson comes to mind, but I'm not certain a World Series has had a performance like Bumgarner's. Just a real pleasure to watch and enjoy.

Fury: 5 Rambo's stuck in a TANK

I apparently missed the boat on getting a boner over this one because Fury is still tracking very well on Rotten Tomatoes. The story follows a WWII tank crew, which they lie to you and pretend that being part of a tank crew was equivalent to running around with no gun during the seige or Stalingrad. Tank crews certainly experienced death, as did all parties associated with WWII, but they were far from "out-gunned" by Germany. German tanks weren't individually superior to U.S. tanks, they were just much smarter with tactics than every other country. The movie already pissed me off and that was before seeing Shia Lebeouf, so I knew that was a bad sign. The film goes through a skirmish to show off the skills of "Fury", the tank Pitt, Shia, Michael Pena (token minority), Jon Bernthal (Shane from Walking Dead), and Logan Lerman (Excellent, especially in Perks of Being a Wallflower). Lerman is the new guy, who replaces the first person lost to the "Fury" crew. The movie follows them on a few missions, shows their comraderie and interesting relationships. It's tolerable, though generally unbelievable, like the rest of the movie to follow. SPOILER ALERT TO FOLLOW: The "powers that be" decide that, despite having an enormous force pressing onward towards Germany, they are going to send 3 tanks to defend the medical tents, supply chain, and exposed rear of the entire Army. They engage in a tank fight and lose the other two tanks, leaving just Fury and 5 dudes between a German SS unit and the rear of the line. Their tank hits a mine, the tread falls off, they are immobile. The new guy goes on patrol and find 200-300 SS soldiers marching towards them. They decide, after much drama and intensity, that they are all staying and fighting. The SS is the German elite soldiers, but in this it's like Rambo fighting the Viet Cong. They are too stupid to use guns, or aim accurately, or fire one of the 50 anti-tank RPG's they show them carrying. Meanwhile our American boys kill everything in sight and heroically defend their tank, until they start getting picked off one-by-one. This should happen within 3 minutes, but this takes 30 or so. Bottom Line: 6.3 out of 10. Overhyped and gets into ridiculous mode way too often for me. I was never touched by their "brotherhood" and I couldn't get past the ridiculousness of a tank being completely surrounded by German soldiers who are too stupid to do anything except get shot running around near the tank. See it when it's free, but I wouldn't pay money to watch this thing.

Rushmore: Wes Anderson Starts

Rushmore follows Jason Swartzman playing a 15-year old private school student named Max Fisher who falls in love with a teacher at his private school. His obsession with her and what he does because of it gets him expelled from the school, which is his life. He is a part, usually the President, of about 15 clubs. He's about 10 years too old for the role, but that's the type of kid Max Fisher is. Bill Murray plays an awesome role as a business mogul who has two sons in Rushmore with Max. He falls in love with the same teacher. There are funny moments and your typical Wes Anderson weird, angsty stuff, but it's still good. Bottom Line: 8.1 out of 10. Funny and a lot of really good performances. Bill Murray is the man, simply put.

Gone Girl: A Movie Worth Seeing FINALLY

VERY happy I spent $5.00 to see this one. I knew nothing about the book/film before seeing it, whch is by far the best thing to do. I'm going to avoid spoilers of all kinds, so I'll tread lightly here. Ben Affleck is a husband who finds his wife missing on the morning of their 5th wedding anniversary. He's gone for 1.5 hours, and his house is lightly trashed (tipped coffee table broken, some pictures turned over) and his wife missing. He calls the police because the door was ajar and the signs of struggle and the movie really starts. It follows their relationship from a few major points to give you a picture of what's going on. There are a ton of twists and turns throughout, so you really never know what's REALLY going on, which is awesome. It's very well done and well written. I almost wish it were like Clue, where there are a bunch of different endings. The casting is stellar from top to bottom. I even have to give credit to Tyler Perry as a high-priced lawyer. Affleck and NPH are the other well-knowns who do great work, but relatively unknown Carrie Coon, Rosemund Pike, and Kim Dickens (DEADWOOD SHOUT OUT) really do a great job with very tough roles. Bottom Line: 9.2 out of 10. A really solid film. Having not seen a lot of movies this year, especially lately, this is probably my favorite film of the year that I've seen in theatres. Very well done and interesting. Worth seeing in theatres.

47 Ronin, Keanu Reeves is still not good at acting

47 Ronin is apparently an ancient Japanese tale that I'm going to completely ruin for everyone starting now. Keanu Reeves is a "half-breed" who is saved by Japanese royalty of some kind and adopted in the sense that he lives with them, but is far from family for most of them. Everything gets out of control when another "royalty" family visits with a witch. Keanu's "King" is forced into attempting to kill the other "King" by the witch, he fails, and then chooses suicide (hiri-kiri) to save his families honor. The 47 samurai are forced into exhile, hence becoming "Ronin's". The band gets back together to kill the other "King" and gain justice. Special effects are pretty good actually, but the movie really has no feeling or decent acting, so that gets painful and old quickly. The real kick in the balls is after killing the other King and the witch, they all earn the honor of getting to commit suicide as Samurai. They "win", but then all commit group suicide, so that's kind of a downer, but at that point I cared so little I thought it was fitting because there can't be sequels now. Bottom Line: 3.1 out of 10 for the special effects. Everything else is crap.