tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57699954999469729482012-01-30T01:32:07.351-06:00Pete's PlaceA running commentary on whatever strikes my fancy at the momentPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.comBlogger28761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-87627866506178157192012-01-30T01:32:00.000-06:002012-01-30T01:32:07.407-06:00SAG Awards: “Help” win no surprise, Dujardin is
Jean Dujardin
I’m not sure what flavor of Kool-Aid AP movie critic Christy Lemire has been drinking, but I thought the Screen Actors Guild’s overall cast award for The Help was a dead solid lock, not the "surprise" Lermire described it as.
Look: if your movie is going to win the actress and supporting actress awards, as it will do at the Oscars (Sorry, Meryl, you’re going to miss out again),Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-74583765361377603472012-01-30T01:10:00.000-06:002012-01-30T01:10:14.082-06:00Available on DVD: “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame”
Andy Lau in Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame finds Tsui Hark, a genre wizard, in top form in this splendid, action-filled period epic. It has opulent, stylized settings of elegance, grandeur and scope, flawless special effects, and awesome martial arts combat staged by the master, Sammo Hung. Yet bravura spectacle never Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-13888458250019423502012-01-29T01:02:00.000-06:002012-01-29T01:02:01.785-06:00“The Artist” nails it
It’s all over but the shouting. The Artist, a black-and-white, predominantly silent film, will emerge from the age of CGI special effects to win the major awards — picture and director — at next month’s Oscars. The only film with a chance to derail The Artist, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, was eliminated at last night’s Director’s Guild of America awards presentation.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-45539903654778696792012-01-28T23:45:00.000-06:002012-01-28T23:45:23.934-06:00"Mother of Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?"
The end of Kidd?
As movie buffs know, the above words were spoken by Caesar Enrico Bandello, the character memorably brought to life by Edward G. Robinson in that great 1930s gangster film Little Caesar. The line just seemed appropriate after reading this article which convincingly argues that Dallas Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd, a certain hall-of-famer, has come to the end of his playing Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-74718576621304136012012-01-28T23:18:00.001-06:002012-01-28T23:18:30.406-06:00Available on DVD: “Daddy Longlegs”
Ronald Bronstein (center) with Frey and Sage Ranaldo in Daddy Longlegs
Scrambling through his own life like a human incarnation of Godard’s Breathless, the protagonist of the terrifyingly funny independent feature Daddy Longlegs makes his living as a movie theater projectionist in Manhattan. Played by Ronald Bronstein, Lenny is a moth as well as a flame, a havoc generator with unlimited, Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-64511443362504321472012-01-28T00:10:00.000-06:002012-01-28T00:10:03.832-06:00Available on DVD: “Margin Call”
Kevin Spacey instructs his traders in Margin Call
Margin Call takes ripped-from-the-headlines events and dramatizes them for all they’re worth. Which turns out to be quite a lot.
Starring a top cast including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Paul Bettany, Margin Call returns us to where previous films, including the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job and the HBO drama Too Big Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-55966213084558002502012-01-27T00:35:00.001-06:002012-01-27T00:35:35.881-06:00Available on DVD: “Attack the Block”
John Boyega (center) leads his teen gang in Attack the Block
"This is the block," declares one of the adolescent heroes of Attack the Block. "We take care of things our way." Set entirely within a tenement apartment building ("the block") and the surrounding South London projects, the movie follows five young teens (John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones and Simon Howard) on one Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-6226301102695529192012-01-26T18:19:00.000-06:002012-01-26T18:19:07.962-06:00Available on DVD: “Higher Ground”
Dagmara Dominczyk and Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground
Vera Farmiga’s debut as a film director tells the story of a woman’s spiritual life from her teen years through the early dawn of middle age, a journey in which she becomes a believer and associates with believers but keeps listening for the voice of God and hearing nothing. Higher Ground shines a light on an important aspect of the human Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-10406668549289170622012-01-24T13:19:00.003-06:002012-01-24T13:19:24.357-06:00Quick reactions to Oscar nominations
I was surprised nine films were nominated at that one of them was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and none of them were The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I expected seven to make the list, eight if Tree of Life was included, which it was.
I thought the supporting actor category had boiled down to a two-person race between Albert Brooks for Drive and Christopher Plummer for Beginners, but Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-41455004900003047192012-01-24T02:15:00.000-06:002012-01-24T02:15:13.314-06:00Available on DVD: “Point Blank”
Gilles Lelouche is on the run in Point Blank
At the start of the breakneck thriller Point Blank, life is good for Samuel (Gilles Lelouche): He’s in line for a promotion at the hospital where he works as a nurse’s aide, his wife Nadia (Elena Anaya) is nearly eight months pregnant with their first child and the future seems exceedingly bright for the happy couple.
All that changes, though, Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-35471897967679400852012-01-20T01:55:00.005-06:002012-01-20T01:59:10.102-06:00Memos from PeteMemo to all-Americans: Guv. Hair has given up on his misguided presidential quest. You can sleep peacefully tonight.
Memo to Texas Rangers fans: Sorry. I can’t get all that excited by the signing of the hurling Darvish. Maybe if one — just one — of these Japanese pitching phenoms had become an ace on a MLB staff I could be more optimistic. But the signing of a Japanese pitcher is as thrilling toPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-21597737673607232372012-01-18T17:47:00.002-06:002012-01-19T00:13:41.789-06:00Available on DVD: “The Guard”
Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson in The Guard
For the f-word in heavy, conventional rotation, rent the DVD of The Change-Up. Which is another way of saying there's not much reason to watch The Change-Up, unless you're an unusually big fan of Ryan Reynolds or Jason Bateman. But for the same word in heavy, unconventional and often very funny usage, in a disarming black comedy set in County GalwayPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-27642694856976552892012-01-18T00:24:00.001-06:002012-01-18T00:24:50.565-06:00A shocker: Romney outpolls Hair in Texas
According to at least one polling outfit, if a Republican presidential primary burst out in Texas today, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney would come out ahead with 24 percent of the vote. Not only that, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would come in second with 23 percent, outdistancing the two Texans in the race, neither of which are even "formers." Guv Hair comes in third with 18 Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-9089735724542842932012-01-11T00:17:00.001-06:002012-01-11T00:17:29.475-06:00Director’s destroy Spielberg’s chances for another OscarNeither Director Steven Spielberg nor his movie War Horse have any chance of winning a major Oscar next month. That became clear earlier this week when the Directors Guild of America failed to nominate Spielberg for his latest juggernaut. That leaves The Artist as the clear front runner, although between now and final voting many Academy members may feel the black-and-white silent film is just Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-73226561936841234712012-01-10T11:52:00.000-06:002012-01-10T11:52:27.075-06:00My final Top 25 college football teams for 2011End of regular season ranking in parenthesis
1.. Alabama 12-1 (2)
2. LSU 13-1 (1)
3. Oklahoma State 12-1 (3)
4. Oregon 12-2 (5)
5. Stanford 11-2 (4)
6. Boise State 12-1 (6)
7. Oklahoma 10-3 (7)
8. Arkansas 11-2 (10)
9. South Carolina 11-2 (12)
10. Wisconsin 11-3 (8)
11. Michigan 11-2 (11)
12. Southern California 10-2 (9)
13. Houston 13-1 (16)
14. Baylor 10-3 (14)
15. Michigan State 11-3 (Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-20569159318743916992012-01-09T00:53:00.000-06:002012-01-09T00:53:26.933-06:00Available on DVD: “The Future”
Miranda July and Hamish Linklater in The Future
Among the first things to ask about a movie are who’s telling the story and is it meant to be believed. Are we seeing the perspective of an omniscient director, a delusional character or a multitude of conflicting witnesses?
The Future is narrated by a scared cat that is recovering from a foot amputation and waiting for a mousey couple to adoptPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-31833190354996443392012-01-07T01:47:00.001-06:002012-01-07T01:47:23.053-06:00Jesus responds to Guv Hair's campaign videoThis is just too fuuny.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-40636278846809133882012-01-06T00:39:00.001-06:002012-01-06T00:39:31.705-06:00Nelson to Guv: “Get Back, Loretta”
Colleen McCain Nelson
I apologize for not mentioning this earlier when the item in question would have been easier to track down, but nevertheless here it is: The great Colleen McCain Nelson had a superb op-ed piece in Thursday’s Dallas Morning News pleading with Gov. Hair to quit his quixotic presidential quest and get back to Texas to do the job voters here elected him to do. Why should he Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-84853749919702759162012-01-05T01:08:00.000-06:002012-01-09T01:00:13.623-06:00Final Oscar Nomination predictionsListed alphabetically
PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
ACTOR
George Clooney The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio J. Edgar
Jean Dujardin The Artist
Michael Fassbender Shame
Brad Pitt Moneyball
ACTRESS
Glenn Close Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis The Help
Meryl Streep The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-83483692566308038772012-01-05T00:23:00.000-06:002012-01-05T00:23:18.250-06:00Available on DVD: “Tabloid”
Joyce McKinney in the 1970s as she appears in Tabloid
Errol Morris turns away from his usual preoccupation with life-and-death subjects to take up the case of an eccentric beauty who became a tabloid sensation a generation ago. Now in her 60s, Joyce McKinney tells her story to the camera — talking directly to the audience, in a technique Morris pioneered. Along the way, journalists, Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-85463322226698096772012-01-04T21:27:00.000-06:002012-01-04T21:30:25.223-06:00Available on DVD: “Terri”
Jacob Wysocki and Hohn C. Reilly in Terri
Like its title character, an obese high-school misfit who wears pajamas to school because they’re comfortable, Terri grows on you.
It is a likable movie about a 15-year-old outsider (Jacob Wysocki) who doesn’t like himself so much. Over the course of the story Terri’s innate empathy endears him to the vice principal (John C. Reilly), then to a pretty Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-86777884856963881402012-01-01T01:30:00.000-06:002012-01-01T01:30:12.232-06:00The 25 Best Movies Reviewed in This Journal in 2011
1. Carlos. Bravura narrative filmmaking on a hugely ambitious scale, Carlos is a spectacular achievement. Part of the accomplishment of Carlos is the sheer accumulation of detail the movie amasses, and the long running time gives you a deeper sense of the terrorist lifestyle, and when and why Ilich gradually succumbed to ego and self-glorification without realizing it.
2. A Film UnfinishedPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-8931398772144570192011-12-30T02:48:00.000-06:002011-12-30T02:48:21.317-06:00Fascinating prediction: Obama-Clinton
Robert Reich, the chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, has come up with a fascinating prediction: That Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden will swap jobs next year. That means the 2012 Democratic presidential ticket will be Barach Obama - Hilary Clinton and if Obama is re-elected, a far more likely scenario with Clinton as his running mate, Biden will Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-84599397698995342452011-12-28T21:02:00.000-06:002011-12-28T21:02:08.370-06:00Available on DVD: “Bellflower”
Evan Godell in Bellflower
Like any well-made piece of nihilism, Bellflower is a contradiction in terms. If nothing really matters — if all we’re doing is sucking down beer until the apocalypse — then why bother making a movie about it? Why waste your time with art at all? Why expend time, money and effort on crafting such a visually striking portrait of sloshed losers building a flamethrower?
Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-10637720648844156532011-12-28T15:11:00.000-06:002011-12-28T15:11:28.577-06:00How hypocritical can Hair get?
Gov. Hair is a strong advocate for states’ rights, except when they interfere with his doomed presidential power grab.
According to Hair, the federal government has no right to interfere with Texas’s attempts to re-institute the poll tax institute voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise Democrats minorities and students.
According to Hair, the federal government has no right to interfere Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-84351989801810912092011-12-28T02:14:00.001-06:002011-12-28T02:14:37.670-06:00Take that Newt, Mitt, Ron, Michelle, Hair et alPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-47437667271371631512011-12-28T02:09:00.003-06:002011-12-28T02:09:55.139-06:00Republicans are bringing us back to the days of the poll taxPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-30952963395231745092011-12-27T12:26:00.003-06:002011-12-27T12:26:51.444-06:00Republicans doing their best to prevent students from voting.From the editorial pages of today’s New York Times:
Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Sorry, they will hear, you have an out-of-state driver’s license. Sorry, your college ID is not valid here. Sorry, we found out that you paid out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still can’t vote.
Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-66834661380727754832011-12-27T01:35:00.001-06:002011-12-27T01:35:26.864-06:00Celebrating the Mavericks’ titleUnfortunately, all the highlights of the Mavericks Sunday took place before the opening tipoff. Fortunately, they were some special highlights.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-90573966815175680932011-12-25T12:18:00.001-06:002011-12-25T12:18:52.153-06:00For your holiday enjoymentThis Christmas Can-Can, courtesy of my ever-vigilant South Florida correspondent, certainly puts this whole season into its proper perspective.
Happy holidays, everyone!Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-72843476519858194672011-12-24T00:55:00.002-06:002011-12-24T00:55:58.722-06:00Things that make a fella damn proud
The day my son officially became a doctor with his beautiful daughter
Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-1308837198866929042011-12-24T00:43:00.000-06:002011-12-24T00:43:19.897-06:00Available on DVD: “The Names of Love”
Sara Forestier and Jacques Gamblin in The Names of Love
How many years has it been since you encountered someone waving a placard or wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, "Make love, not war"? Resurrected in the French satirical farce The Names of Love, that hippie free-loving attitude is personified by Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier), a charming, insouciant whack job in her 20s who boasts that Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-58745550574678892362011-12-22T01:51:00.001-06:002011-12-22T01:51:48.568-06:00OK, so there will be eight for Oscar
Brad Pitt in Tree of Life
For months now I have been championing the fact that seven films will be nominated for Oscar’s top prize when the nominations are announced next month. That’s because I didn’t think the stodgy ol’ folks at the Academy could get their arms around Terence Malik’s The Tree of Life. I mean a film that digresses during its opening moments to give us the story of creation Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-41399619931387905362011-12-22T00:01:00.000-06:002011-12-22T00:01:48.931-06:00Is “Margaret” being criminally ignored
Matt Damon and Anna Paquin in Margaret
Those who have seen this movie are few, but they unanimously rave about it. However, here it is — that time of the year when "prestige" pictures grab all the headlines — and no one is talking about Margaret. It has a stellar cast: Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Allison Janney, Jeannie Berlin (who disappeared from my radar 40 years ago after she illuminated Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-86494133457840666232011-12-21T23:21:00.000-06:002011-12-21T23:21:00.715-06:00Available on DVD: “Page One: Inside the New York Times”
David Carr at his desk at the New York Times
Watching Page One: Inside the New York Times is like talking to a smart person with a severe case of attention deficit disorder: A lot of what they say is intriguing, but you wish they could stick to the point.
Though it's blessed with a strong subject and some memorable characters and situations, the drawback of this fitfully engaging documentaryPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-49421935744730790652011-12-21T17:37:00.001-06:002011-12-21T17:37:03.229-06:00City tells waste haulers they can dump their suit — the law is on the City’s sideDallas city attorneys have filed a response to the waste haulers attempting to stop the city’s perfectly legal move that would require all trash collected within the city limits to be taken to a city owned and operated dump site — either McCommas Bluff Landfill or the Bachman Transfer Station.
Dallas wants to replace this ...
The haulers filed suit seeking a temporary injunction to stop the Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-47861801095494956892011-12-21T02:34:00.003-06:002011-12-21T02:34:36.635-06:00This week’s proof that our governor is dumber than a box of rocks
In a debate at Sioux City Gov. Hair said the way to fight terrorism was to reinstate the Monroe Doctrine "just like we did in the ‘60s against Cuba." Say, what??? He didn’t even get the century right on that one.
Then he issued a release on the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, only he referred to him as Kim Jong the Second.
Can you imagine the worldwide embarrassment befalling Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-5641419568036588572011-12-21T02:18:00.001-06:002011-12-21T02:18:39.392-06:00Paul’s shoe leather strategy seems to be working
Front-runner Ron Paul
While Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Gov. Hair are spending more money than most of us will ever see in a lifetime on television adds in Iowa assaulting one another, Ron Paul is quietly, but effectively conducting an old-fashioned grassroots door-to-door campaign. The most recent polls have Paul replacing Gingrich as the front-runner in Iowa with 21.7 percent of those Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-49106275503004690992011-12-21T01:39:00.002-06:002011-12-21T01:39:25.073-06:00All I Want for Christmas is … JewsThis video is courtesy of my intrepid South Florida correspondent, who, I must note, celebrated his daughter’s bat mitzvah less than a month ago. I haven’t decided if the video is funny or in terrible taste. It probably splits the difference.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-79680930908306044102011-12-20T02:31:00.001-06:002011-12-20T02:31:35.450-06:00I’m not sure I can explain why I find this funnyPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-71119772930934449232011-12-17T00:58:00.001-06:002011-12-17T00:58:38.882-06:00Available on DVD: “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”
(L-R) Phife Dawg, Q-Tip and Jarobi White of A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest may be the first band ever fractured in part by a member with a sugar addiction.
That would be Phife Dawg, one of four members of the pioneering hip-hop group documented with tough love in Michael Rapaport’s Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest.
Phife suffers from diabetes. Fellow Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-56307766582645164112011-12-17T00:33:00.000-06:002011-12-17T00:33:20.273-06:00A college football playoff scenario I could live withAs regular readers know, I am not a supporter of a college football playoff for a couple of reasons. One, it dilutes the value of the regular season in which, as it stands now, every game really does count. Second, I don’t want to see teams with 8-3 or worse records having a shot at a national championship, which could happen with a 16-team or even an 8-team playoff. And finally, a playoff doesn’Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-59412662144676376432011-12-15T23:21:00.000-06:002011-12-15T23:21:02.155-06:00The Oscar race is over
Here's your Oscar winner this year for best picture
Around this time last year, I thought the Oscar was still a two-picture race between The King's Speech and The Social Network. The year before that I thought it was a tight race between The Hurt Locker and Avatar. There's no contest this year, however. What with the Screen Actors Guild nominations announced two days ago and the Golden GlobesPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-88914728827884146802011-12-15T22:43:00.005-06:002011-12-15T22:43:58.585-06:00The movies of 2011As a quick look at the films of the past year, I’m not sure we’ll get a better montage than this one.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-44245746661050030862011-12-15T22:33:00.000-06:002011-12-15T22:33:10.292-06:00Available on DVD: “The Last Circus”
Carlos Areces in The Last Circus
If you are the sort of person who finds clowns terrifying — and many people do — by all means steer clear of The Last Circus, or else risk being scarred for life. For everyone else — particularly viewers with a strong stomach and an appreciation for surreal humor that borders on horror — the latest film from Spanish wildman Alex de la Iglesia (Perdita Durango, Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-54401390558644255632011-12-15T19:14:00.000-06:002011-12-15T19:14:21.979-06:00One way to look at itPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-61991896157583344252011-12-15T19:12:00.001-06:002011-12-15T19:12:31.409-06:00Available on DVD: “A Better Life”
José Julián and SAG nominee Demian Bichir in A Better Life
At one point in A Better Life, an emotionally resonant film about how we live now, the director Chris Weitz opens a scene with a pair of adorable, gap-toothed little girls belting into karaoke microphones, giving their charming all to a song with un-self-conscious gusto. He then cuts to three bald men, crammed tattooed arm to tattooed Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-2765767628059084972011-12-14T02:19:00.000-06:002011-12-14T02:19:27.943-06:00Available on DVD: “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
Werner Herzog's film crew inside the Cave of Forgotten Dreams
If you’re looking for a filmmaker to document, for all of humanity, "one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human culture," the great Werner Herzog is your guy.
Especially if that discovery is deep in a remote cave. The legendary German director of Fitzcarraldo, Rescue Dawn and the documentaries Grizzly Man, and Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-68312032973057340612011-12-14T01:05:00.002-06:002011-12-14T01:06:18.769-06:00Here’s to the man who brought down The Man
Billie Sol Estes
I was in college when the Billy Sol Estes "scandal" broke and, at the time, I didn’t think it was any big deal. It had to do with non-existent anhydrous ammonia tanks in West Texas. Somehow Estes convinced gullible farmers in the Pecos area to purchase the tanks and then he would lease the tanks from them for the same amount as the mortgage payments. Got it? What’s the big Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-81362225439794373712011-12-10T23:02:00.001-06:002011-12-10T23:14:44.469-06:00Available on DVD: “Beginners”
Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor in Beginners
How often do you see a story about a grumpy young man and his frisky father? Beginners, Mike Mills’ captivating film, centers on an emo son, his buoyant dad, their romantic partners, and a most philosophical Jack Russell terrier. It’s a movie about untangling roots in order to grow.
This is the challenge for the melancholy Oliver (Ewan Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-20781413186201593972011-12-10T00:56:00.001-06:002011-12-10T00:58:54.625-06:00Might just as well cancel next year’s legislative, congressional electionsThe right-wing U.S. Supreme Court, which through its rulings on campaign financing has already turned over control of our electoral process to rich fat-cat Republicans, has now ruled that those same rich fat cats living in Texas are really the only ones who should have a representative voice in Austin and Washington. The court said Democrats, the poor, the middle class and minorities should just Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-75433623265328900842011-12-09T23:58:00.001-06:002011-12-10T00:05:58.500-06:00Available on DVD: “Mr. Nice”
Rhys Ifans as Mr. Nice
Howard Marks dubbed himself Mr. Nice as a means of evading the police of three continents during his career as a drug smuggler, which came to an end when he was imprisoned in the United States in the 1980s. After seven years in jail, he emerged to become an advocate for the legalization of cannabis and a raconteur who told tales of his drug-running years (complete with Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-33793403676114280132011-12-08T21:12:00.001-06:002011-12-08T21:15:12.186-06:00Kudos to Leubsdorf
Carl Leubsdorf
Excellent column in today’s Dallas Morning News by the paper’s former Washington bureau chief Carl Leubsdorf in which he correctly exposes the right wing-nuts’ charges of "judicial activism" when the court makes landmark decisions involving the political process. (I would try to post a link to the column, but, under the Morning News’s paywall system, readers would probably be Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-13104215268196554322011-12-08T16:25:00.001-06:002011-12-08T16:38:16.416-06:00Available on DVD: “Leap Year”
Monica Del Carmen in Leap Year
The deeply unsettling, psychologically acute Leap Year (Ano Bisiesto) won writer-director Michael Rowe, an Australian living in Mexico, Cannes’ Camera d’Or prize for best first feature.
Lowe and his co-writer Lucia Carreras wisely take their time establishing the character of Laura (Monica Del Carmen), a freelance journalist living and working in a Mexico City Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-19997341715014785172011-12-08T01:20:00.001-06:002011-12-08T01:37:43.085-06:00December's Oscar forecastPicture
No one will know how many films will be nominated for the top award. It can be as few asfive or, at the most, ten. I'm betting it will be these seven, listed, as all the others, in alphabetical order:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
War Horse
Director
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Steven Daldry, Extremely Loud and Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-37134726913868246612011-12-07T17:54:00.001-06:002011-12-07T18:08:07.857-06:00This season’s bowl matchups — from best to worst1. LSU vs. Alabama,BCS Championship, Jan. 9
2. Oklahoma State vs. Stanford, Fiesta, Jan. 2
3. Oregon vs. Wisconsin, Rose, Jan. 2
4. Arkansas vs. Kansas State, Cotton, Jan. 6
5. Nebraska vs. South Carolina, Capital One, Jan. 2
6. Georgia vs. Michigan State, Outback, Jan. 2
7. Michigan vs. Virginia Tech, Sugar, Jan. 2
8. California vs. Texas, Holiday, Dec. 28
9. Florida State vs. Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-33433056949573001312011-12-05T12:58:00.001-06:002011-12-05T13:12:19.600-06:00My semi-final top 25 college football teamsI don’t like it. I am convinced LSU/Oklahoma State would be a far more entertaining BCS Championship game than LSU/Alabama. But I have to admit that the title game will feature the two best teams in college football this year. I simply can’t get past the fact that Oklahoma State’s one loss was against a 6-6 Iowa State team while Alabama’s was against LSU. I was also chagrined by the ho-hum Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-20070412363046012562011-12-05T00:38:00.001-06:002011-12-05T00:51:16.113-06:00Available on DVD: “Beautiful Boy”
Michael Sheen and Maria Bello in Beautiful Boy
"We decided to use a campus shooting and yet write nothing about it."
So writes Shawn Ku, the director and co-author of the grim-times-10 Beautiful Boy. Premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Ku’s debut feature provides a fierce acting opportunity for co-stars Maria Bello, the least affected first-rate actress on the Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-70123457004113532622011-12-03T03:35:00.001-06:002011-12-03T03:46:46.733-06:00Available on DVD: “The Princess of Montpensier”
Gaspard Ulliel and Melanie Thierry in The Princess of Montpensier
Sixteenth-century France, the slaughter of heretics in Paris, the bloody war between Catholics and Huguenots, and a bunch of guys who can't take their eyes off a girl named Marie.
In Bertrand Tavernier's striking wide-screen costume drama, The Princess of Montpensier, Melanie Thierry stars as the beautiful Marie de Mézières, Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-42678303375788700672011-12-02T01:10:00.001-06:002011-12-02T01:15:09.150-06:00Court redistricting likely to standI may be wrong, but the way I interpret this is that the U.S. Supreme Court is not likely to overturn the legislative and congressional redistricting maps that were prepared by lower court federal judges in San Antonio. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is requesting an emergency stay so that the racially biased maps prepared by the racist Texas Legislature can be put into effect. Whatever the Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-14386214742426943492011-12-02T00:58:00.001-06:002011-12-02T00:58:28.509-06:00This week's top college football gamesAll games Saturday. All times Central
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State, 7 p.m., ABC
LSU vs Georgia, 3 p.m., CBS
Texas at Baylor, 2:30 p.m., ABC
Wisconsin vs Michigan State, 7 p.m., CBS
Virginia Tech vs. Clemson, 7 p.m., ESPNPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-49130272187001704072011-11-30T23:36:00.001-06:002011-12-01T01:43:39.731-06:00Gov. Hair on the voting ageThanks to the folks at D magazine for this hilarious compilation. It is a classic.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-7144700389599794322011-11-30T23:19:00.001-06:002011-11-30T23:27:01.792-06:00Available on DVD: “Putty Hill”
The young ladies of Putty Hill
In his impressive second outing — the deliberative drama Putty Hill — director Matthew Porterfield makes a simple but effective case that death isn’t quite so much about the dead as it is about those sorry suckers left behind to deal with it.
In this case, those grieving survivors are residents of suburban Maryland. They’re margin-dwelling Roseanne types, minusPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-6222946627403426632011-11-29T03:00:00.001-06:002011-11-29T03:00:42.204-06:00Truer words were never spokenPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-50885527120646979602011-11-29T02:20:00.001-06:002011-11-29T02:28:34.576-06:00Gov. Perry: The ultimate hypocrite
Last week in New Hampshire our own ridiculous Gov. Hair called for an end to Congressional "perks," saying "They’ve been living lavishly off the taxpyers"
Back in kindergarten, we had the perfect response to statements like the above: "It takes one to know one."
How lavishly is Hair living off Texas taxpayers? Well, forget for a moment that we’re footing the $500,00 in rent he we’re Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-79975196662510113302011-11-29T01:35:00.001-06:002011-11-29T01:37:54.927-06:00Why I am secretly hoping for an OSU blowout SaturdayThe BCS lost any sense of credibility when the Associated Press decided several years ago it no longer wanted its poll used to help determine the BCS standings. Now two-thirds of the formula used to determine the BCS standings come from the two least credible football polls in existence — the USA Today Poll which is comprised of football coaches who never get to see a game other than their own atPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-36790824009258994012011-11-27T19:03:00.001-06:002011-11-27T19:14:41.292-06:00My top 25 college football teamsLast week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU 12-0 (1)
2. Alabama 11-1 (2)
3. Oklahoma State 10-1 (3)
4. Stanford 11-1 (5)
5. Oklahoma 9-2 (4)
6. Oregon 10-2 (6)
7. Boise State 10-1 (7)
8. Arkansas 10-2 (8)
9. Houston 12-0 (10)
10. Southern California 10-2 (11)
11. Virginia Tech 11-1 (15)
12. Michigan 10-2 (9)
13. Wisconsin 10-2 (12)
14. Georgia 10-2 (13)
15. South Carolina 10-2 (16)
16. Kansas Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-60044575916045161842011-11-24T11:27:00.001-06:002011-11-24T11:28:16.152-06:00This week's top 10 college football gamesAll games Saturday unless otherwise noted. All times central.
1. Arkansas at LSU, Friday, 1:30 p.m., CBS
2. Texas at Texas A&M, Thursday, 7 p.m., ESPN
3. Notre Dame at Stanford, 7 p.m., ABC
4. Houston at Tulsa, Friday, 11 a.m., FSSW
5. Clemson at South Carolina, 6:45 p.m., ESPN
6. Georgia at Georgia Tech, 11 a.m., ESPN
7. Alabama at Auburn, 2:30 p.m., CBS
8. Ohio State at MichiganPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-68695824918020878412011-11-24T01:45:00.001-06:002011-11-24T01:45:51.336-06:00My friend and I would like to wish everyone a Happy ThanksgivingPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-81589809550475480882011-11-24T01:06:00.001-06:002011-11-24T01:15:57.379-06:00Bruce plans tour, CD for 2012
Bruce Springsteen has answered "yes" to the question of whether there’s a future for his E-Street Band following the death earlier this year of saxophonist and close friend Clarence "Big Man" Clemmons." According to his Website, Springsteen will release a CD of new material next year and kick off a tour in May with a series of concerts in Europe.
"Info on the US dates and the World tour datesPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-41275840914276287962011-11-21T00:49:00.001-06:002011-11-21T01:04:57.001-06:00Available on DVD: “Submarine”
Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige in Submarine
Submarine, the debut feature directed by Richard Ayoade, a well-known English television comedian, is as smart and self-conscious as its protagonist, a 15-year-old Welsh schoolboy named Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts). This is only fitting, since the movie, in the manner of precursors like Rushmore and Garden State, is more or less the movie Oliver wouldPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-40815067300805715662011-11-20T18:41:00.001-06:002011-11-20T19:39:50.824-06:00My top 25 college football teamsLast week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU 11-0 (1)
2. Alabama 10-1 (3)
3. Oklahoma State 10-1 (2)
4. Oklahoma 8-2 (4)
5. Stanford 10-1 (6)
6. Oregon 9-2 (5)
7. Boise State 9-1 (7)
8. Arkansas 10-1 (8)
9. Michigan 9-2 (12)
10. Houston 11-0 (17)
11. Southern California 9-2 (16)
12. Wisconsin 9-2 (13)
13. Georgia 9-2 (9)
14. Kansas State 9-2 (15)
15. Virginia Tech 10-1 (10)
16. South Carolina Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-83629862494455910492011-11-17T11:02:00.001-06:002011-11-17T11:11:06.305-06:00This week's top 10 college football gamesAll games Saturday unless otherwise noted
1. Oklahoma at Baylor, 7 p.m., ABC
2. Nebraska at Michigan, 11 a.m., ESPN
3. Southern California at Oregon, no TV
4. Kansas State at Texas, 7 p.m., FX
5. Mississippi State at Arkansas, 2:30 p.m., CBS
6. Penn State at Ohio State, 2:30 p.m., ESPN
7. Oklahoma State at Iowa State, Friday, 7 p.m., ESPN
8. California at Stanford, 9:15 p.m., ESPN
9. Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-50925853313278674302011-11-13T22:38:00.001-06:002011-11-13T22:56:59.492-06:00Available on DVD: “Buck”
Buck Brannaman
Buck, the story of the real horse whisperer Buck Brannaman, comes at you with the understated eloquence of the man himself — a soft-spoken cowboy philosopher changing lives as he gentles horses, an aw-shucks hero who never claims to be more than an ordinary man. What a relief in times saturated with news of the worst of humanity to see something of the best.
In her first Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-9867057718797425092011-11-13T19:51:00.001-06:002011-11-13T20:02:30.568-06:00My Top 25 college football teamsLast week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU 10-0 (1)
2. Oklahoma State 10-0 (2)
3. Alabama 9-1 (3)
4. Oklahoma 8-1 (4)
5. Oregon 9-1 (7)
6. Stanford 9-1 (5)
7. Boise State 8-1 (6)
8. Arkansas 9-1 (9)
9. Georgia 8-2 (14)
10. Virginia Tech 9-1 (16)
11. Clemson 9-1 (10)
12. Michigan 8-2 (19)
13. Wisconsin 8-2 (13)
14. South Carolina 8-2 (12)
15. Kansas State 8-2 (15)
16. Southern California 8-2 Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-19229506407084546772011-11-10T13:52:00.001-06:002011-11-10T13:57:25.966-06:00This week's top 10 college football gamesAll games Saturday unless otherwise noted. All times listed are Central Standard times.
1. Oregon at Stanford, 7 p.m., ABC
2. Texas at Missouri, 11 a.m., FX
3. Texas A&M at Kansas State, 2:30 p.m., ABC
4. Florida at South Carolina, 11 a.m., CBS
5. Alabama at Mississippi State, 6:45 p.m., ESPN
6. Nebraska at Penn State, 11 a.m., ESPN
7. TCU at Boise State, 2:30 p.m., Versus
8. Virginia Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-71106179798026686322011-11-10T00:57:00.001-06:002011-11-10T00:57:42.030-06:00The end of Gov. Hair's Presidential bidWatch him commit political suicide right before your very eyes.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-48118641684919460372011-11-10T00:30:00.001-06:002011-11-10T00:30:23.407-06:00Available on DVD: “Viva Riva!”
Patsha Bay Mukuna has the title role in Viva Riva!
Repackaging the revenge thriller in parakeet colors and distinctive African beats, the Congolese writer and director Djo Tunda Wa Munga gives Viva Riva! a playful sensuality that goes a long way toward disguising formula.
Opening in Kinshasa (Munga’s hometown) amid the bedlam of a fuel shortage, the story swirls around Riva (Patsha Bay Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-2948552063899849392011-11-09T14:28:00.001-06:002011-11-09T14:28:19.614-06:00Four things I need to get off my chestFirst: All those misguided football non-experts calling for a rematch of Alabama/LSU in the BCS Championship Game are either poisoned by the Southeastern Conference Kool-Aid or, even worse, they are shills for the SEC. There’s this myth out there that the SEC is always college football’s strongest. That’s simply not true this year. The Big 12, which lost only one non-conference game this year, isPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-4197759580045258382011-11-09T02:12:00.001-06:002011-11-09T02:12:59.965-06:00The bad news about American jobs: they're gone, all goneSo if you're gonna leave your town where the north wind blow
To go on down where that sweet soda river flow
Well you better think twice on it Jack
You're better off buyin' a shotgun dead off the rack
You ain't gonna find nothin' down here friend
Except seeds blowin' up the highway in the south wind
Movin' on movin' on it's gone gone it's all gone
–Bruce Springsteen, Seeds
The Boss was Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-40752534809504448582011-11-06T23:07:00.000-06:002011-11-06T23:07:21.679-06:00Available on DVD: “Bill Cunningham New York”
Bill Cunningham at work in New York City
A few moments into the film Bill Cunningham New York, its subject — the legendary street-fashion photographer and society chronicler for The New York Times — is seen darting into the maw of Midtown traffic, unconcerned about the threat of death by taxi. Fast, intensely focused and apparently able to tune out all but the shot he’s after, Cunningham callsPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-68362296158632579452011-11-06T18:04:00.001-06:002011-11-06T18:04:37.149-06:00My Top 25 College Football TeamsNote: If last night's LSU/Alabama contest was, indeed, the Game of the Century, we're in for a miserable century. Last week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU. 9-0 (1)
2. Oklahoma State 9-0 (3)
3. Alabama 8-1 (2)
4. Oklahoma 8-1 (4)
5. Stanford 9-0 (5)
6. Boise State 8-0 (6)
7. Oregon 8-1 (7)
8. Texas 6-2 (17)
9. Arkansas 8-1 (12)
10. Clemson 8-1 (11)
11. Houston 9-0 (13)
12. South Carolina 7-Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-51756338220191135852011-11-04T14:51:00.000-05:002011-11-04T14:51:18.441-05:00Top Oscar nomination contenders as of early NovemberOverall trends: Support for The Artist is rising while support for J. Edgar is falling. The best picture list may end after the first eight films. Jonah Hill (Moneyball) and Jim Broadbent (The Iron Lady) are very much in contention for the fifth supporting actor's spot.
PICTURE
The Descendants
War Horse
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
J. Edgar
The Help
Moneyball
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-13039030487891932082011-11-04T00:26:00.000-05:002011-11-04T00:26:36.878-05:00Available on DVD: “The Trip”
Rob Brydon (left) and Steve Coogan share one of their many meals
in The Trip
What on earth is The Trip, besides hugely enjoyable? It’s not a documentary, since actors have been cast in minor roles and the two leads, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, are playing comic variations on their established personas of Spoiled Prat and Lovable Noodge. It’s not scripted — no writers are credited — but Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-44461099924986928622011-11-03T17:02:00.000-05:002011-11-03T17:04:01.994-05:00This week's 10 best college football games(All games Saturday unless otherwise noted)
1. LSU at Alabama (Duh!), 7 p.m., Channel 11
2. South Carolina at Arkansas, 6:15 p.m., ESPN
3. Texas A&M at Oklahoma, 2:30 p.m., Channel 8
4. Kansas State at Oklahoma State, 7 p..m., Channel 8
5. Oregon at Washington, 9:30 p.m., FSSW
6. Texas Tech at Texas, 11 a.m., FX
7. Michigan at Iowa, 11 a.m., ESPN
8. Arizona State at UCLA, 6:30 p.m., Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-83717428151459313202011-11-03T00:11:00.001-05:002011-11-03T00:11:37.331-05:00Available on DVD: “Good Neighbors”
Emily Hampshire in Good Neighbors
Swerving from bland to brutal, endearingly coy to shockingly explicit, the Canadian import Good Neighbors finds pitch-black comedy among white-bread lives.
Set in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood of Montreal in the autumn of 1995, this third feature from Jacob Tierney unfolds mostly indoors yet leans critically on its time and location. Quebec is on the Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-70482162969032457682011-11-02T01:03:00.000-05:002011-11-02T01:03:06.100-05:00Another sign that the end of the world is nearThe Village at Allen shopping center installed its Christmas decorations yesterday. Hey, I'm Jewish, but even I know that in civilized society the Christmas season doesn't start until Santa makes his appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-26009521434611091092011-11-02T00:52:00.000-05:002011-11-02T00:52:57.870-05:00Time for another round of “College Football What If”What if Alabama beats LSU this Saturday night?
And what if, in the following weeks, Oregon defeats Stanford and Oklahoma knocks off Oklahoma State?
And, finally, in the only one of these hypotheticals that would really be considered a surprise, what if Auburn ends its regular season by shocking Alabama for the second year in a row or South Carolina upends the Tribe in the SEC championship Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-32900615911529858782011-11-01T01:50:00.000-05:002011-11-01T01:50:15.956-05:00The logo on the cap explains everythingPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-63560206642852763342011-10-31T01:59:00.000-05:002011-10-31T01:59:45.313-05:00Wash bears most of the blame for Rangers’ failureI always thought the 1961 Texas Longhorn football team was the school’s best, at least until the 1969 National Championship squad. That ‘61 team was far superior to the one that won the national title two years later. It featured three running backs who were the best trio to ever — ever — play for the Horns at the same time: halfbacks James Saxton and Jack Collins along with fullback Ray Poage. Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-2637939452080603772011-10-30T23:45:00.000-05:002011-10-30T23:45:16.961-05:00The “You-Don’t-Say” Dumb Headline of the Month AwardThis month it goes to the jump headline in Sunday’s "Arts & Life" section of the Dallas Morning News on a story about film critic Roger Ebert’s recently published autobiography: "Ebert is a writer, too".Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-19380709656572073732011-10-30T18:51:00.001-05:002011-10-30T18:51:37.647-05:00My Top 25 College Football TeamsLast week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU 8-0 (1)
2. Alabama 8-0 (2)
3. Oklahoma State 8-0 (3)
4. Oklahoma 7-1 (6)
5. Stanford 8-0 (5)
6. Boise State 7-0 (4)
7. Oregon 7-1 (7)
8. Nebraska 7-1 (20)
9. South Carolina 7-1 (13)
10. Michigan 7-1 (16)
11. Clemson 7-1 (8)
12. Arkansas 7-1 (15)
13. Houston 8-0 (19)
14. Virginia Tech 8-1 (14)
15. Wisconsin 6-2 (12)
16. Kansas State 7-1 (9)
17. TexasPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-76117140622636343992011-10-28T00:13:00.002-05:002011-10-28T00:13:47.203-05:00Anything for a smile after the Rangers blow it twice one strike from titlePete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-23056731872869591042011-10-27T15:51:00.000-05:002011-10-27T15:51:20.658-05:00If I were an all-day college football couch potatoHere are the games I would watch this Saturday:
11 a.m. Michigan State at Nebraska, ESPN
2:30 p.m. Oklahoma at Kansas State, ESPN
7 p.m., Stanford at Southern California, Channel 8Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-79242024877959709322011-10-27T15:45:00.000-05:002011-10-27T15:45:45.057-05:00Available on DVD: “Carlos”
Edgar Ramirez in the title role in Carlos
The term "epic" often gets bandied around to describe movies that don’t really fit the description. But Olivier Assayas’ Carlos is the real deal — a 5½-hour narrative, with more than 100 speaking parts, in eight languages, covering two decades in the life of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Edgar Ramirez), better known as the terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Born inPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-22502222187692642842011-10-26T16:41:00.001-05:002011-10-26T16:41:33.394-05:00Herb Wyans comes out of the closet. Any way we can stuff him back in?I’m not sure what to make of Herb Wynans of Denton. Either the guy is dumber than someone who thinks Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star is good movie or more completely out of touch than someone who sat through Bucky Larson and enjoyed it.
One thing’s for sure: Herb Wynans is a racist.
But is he aware of that? That’s the crucial question. I know this, however: By having this letter appear on the Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-74891318845383267412011-10-25T13:43:00.000-05:002011-10-25T13:43:07.111-05:00Not buying LaRussa’s communications storySt. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is blaming this for last night’s World Series loss to the Texas Rangers. Here’s what happened: Right-handed hitting Texas catcher Mike Napoli hit a two-run double in the eighth inning off left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski to break a 2-2 tie — the last runs scored in the game.
Mike Napoli
LaRussa claims Rzepczynski shouldn’t have been in the game atPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-7369786214857638922011-10-23T19:51:00.001-05:002011-10-23T19:51:54.631-05:00My Top 25 College Football TeamsLast week's rank in parenthesis
1. LSU 8-0 (2)
2. Alabama 8-0 (1)
3. Oklahoma State 7-0 (5)
4. Boise State 7-0 (4)
5. Stanford 7-0 (6)
6. Oklahoma 6-1 (3)
7. Oregon 6-1 (9)
8. Clemson 8-0 (8)
9. Kansas State 7-0 (10)
10. Texas A&M 5-2 (11)
11. Michigan State 6-1 (18)
12. Wisconsin 6-1 (7)
13. South Carolina 6-1 (13)
14. Virginia Tech 7-1 (15)
15. Arkansas 6-1 (12)
16. Michigan 6-1 (14)
Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-32907958698194240642011-10-22T02:22:00.000-05:002011-10-22T02:22:04.887-05:00Available on DVD: “Bride Flight”
Waldemar Torenstra and Anna Drijver in Bride Flight
Bride Flight is a retro, lusty bodice-ripper about Dutch emigrants to New Zealand after World War II. One man, three women, and the secrets that bind and come between them are the subjects of this one about pioneers who leave their war-ravaged country for the island nation to build a future.
The film introduces its principals midflight into Pete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769995499946972948.post-72580631817379234742011-10-20T13:00:00.000-05:002011-10-20T13:05:02.337-05:00Want more representation on the council? Then vote!I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no sympathy with Hispanic activists demanding another seat on the Dallas City Council when the Hispanic community doesn’t participate in the electoral process. For whatever reason, Hispanics don’t vote proportionately to their population. Some say much of the Hispanic population in the city is too young, below the voting age. That could be true. Others say much ofPete Oppelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016313601309034797noreply@blogger.com0