A Look at Eurobasket 2011

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Tomorrow the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket or the European Basketball Championships will begin in Lithuania pitting 24 of Europe’s best basketball nations against each other in 4 pools of 6 with 3 nations advancing out of each pool (or group) into the second round. Because the NFL is still in preseason, the MLB playoffs haven’t started yet and the NBA season is never going to start, this tournament will be the main sporting focus in my life for the next two weeks. It doesn’t hurt that mine and Daki’s national team (Serbia) is coming off an improbable silver medal run in 2009 and a 4^th place finish (should have been 2^nd but that’s what happens when you play Turkey in Turkey, honestly felt like the players who didn’t make the Turkish national team just became the referees instead) at the World Championships in 2010. So with a vested rooting interest for the entire tournament, a lull in the rest of the sporting world, and the fact that this might be the last time in a little while that we will get a chance to see NBA players face off against each other (seriously who doesn’t want to watch Dirk Nowitzki again? Or make fun of Jose Calderon again?) for some time I encourage everyone to watch what is sure to be an exciting tournament. Now on to our picks/preview:

Daki

Champion: Spain. Just too talented across the board, stacked at every position and the emergence of Marc Gasol as a legitimate beast will be too much for other teams. They can trot out a crunch-time line-up of Rubio/Calderon Navarro, Fernandez, Gasol brothers/Garbajosa, they have the depth to go with their talent and experience and should be the heavy favortes.

Sleeper: A tie between Germany and Italy. The Italians are bringing a strong team featuring the likes of Bellinelli, Bargnani, and Gallinari, if those three are clicking they could give teams legitimate problems. Germany on the other hand features the hottest player in the world at the moment in Dirk Nowitzki. If he catches fire in a game I can't see Germany losing said game, even if they have no one after Chris Kaman. Both of these squads are in group B (the hardest group in the tournament) and it is hard to believe that they may not even get out of their group. The fact that teams from groups C and D have a free ride to the knock-out round is a disgrace.

Team likely to dissapoint: France. They always have plenty of talent (6 players in the NBA or who have played there) but it never seems to translate, I pick them.

Player to watch: Again I'm going to pick 2, Dirk Nowitzki and Milos Teodosic. We already talked about Dirk and he is the best player in the tournament; but in any given game Teodosic is capable of amazing things, if he is at his best Serbia will be tough to beat

Match-up I would like to see the most: Serbia-Turkey, they owe it to the Serbs after the officiating disgrace last year.

Luka

Champion: Spain. Although I want to pick Serbia as they are my country and I will be cheering for them throughout, the talent of the Spanish team is simply too great in my opinion for any other team to match. The defending champions who the last time around beat their opponents by an average score of 18.5 points in the knockout rounds come to Lithuania with pretty much the same team except for the addition of Oklahoma City Thunder Center Serge Ibaka. For the talent disparity and the fact that this Spanish squad has been to big tournaments before and won (they would have even beat the Redeem team in the 08 Olympics if it wasn’t for Kobe’s heroics) I am picking them to win and they remain the favourites to lift the trophy on September 18. Will I root for them? Absolutely not. Not the most likeable team whose players all look like they stay in hotels that have non-functioning showers.

Sleeper: France. This pick could very well look stupid in a week’s time but looking at the French team from a talent level standpoint I don’t see why they can’t compete with any other nation at this tournament. With 4 NBA players on the squad; Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Nicolas Batum, and Boris Diaw (yes, Boris Diaw still counts, he should probably count as 2) and a decent supporting cast the French team can make some noise. In years past they have been known to disappoint and yet if Tony P and Noah start flying around on the court I would not want to play them in the knockout stages. If nothing else Joakim Noah is so unlikeable that he will start at least 3 wars.

Team likely to disappoint: Italy. Every time I watch the Italian national basketball team I feel that their entire playbook consists of one thing; “shoot the three”. This is no surprise when their three best players are Marco Bellinelli (never seen a shot he didn’t like), Andrea Bargnani (raises Raptors’ fans blood pressures at the mention of his name) and Danilo Gallinari. And when you live by the three, you also die by the three. Not the best strategy to have as a team in my opinon. Also, Italy is probably in the hardest opening group of the 4 where they must take either Serbia’s, France’s, or Germany’s spot in the next round and I just don’t see it happening.

Player to watch: Being a Toronto Raptors fan, the one player I will definitely keep an eye on as the tournament progresses is Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas. A player the Raptors drafted fifth overall in this year’s NBA Draft. Jonas is having a fantastic summer, one in which he led the U-19 Lithuania team to a gold medal at the Worlds averaging 23 points, 14 rebounds with 3 blocks per game and winning the MVP in the progress. He then proceeded to score 26 points and get 11 boards in his debut game for the senior national team. Definitely a player to watch, one who might use this tournament as his coming-out party for the world.

Match-up I would like to see most: I will have to agree with Daki on this one and say Serbia vs Turkey. I just want to see how the outcome of this match-up will be affected by fair officiating.

Follow us on twitter at @Daki_4 and @Luka_M91

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 7: "Problem Dog" Review

Tweet These reviews may contain spoilers so please do not read them before having seen the episode if you do not want to be spoiled.

Let me break down how I watched the last 20 minutes of this episode: in disbelief.  Every season has 'that episode'  the one you point to and say "yeah, that episode was really good" and nobody really disagrees. 'Problem Dog' is that episode (at least so far).  I legitimately could not move for a couple of minutes after it ended, I just could not process what I had seen.  Now that i have calmed down a bit I will try to write rationally about my thoughts on this masterpiece of an episode.

We started off with a really dark scene of Jesse playing a zombie killing game, but each time he killed a zombie he just saw Gale's head jerk back.  Clearly he is still recovering from the guilt, and we can see this clearly.  The scene itself was shot beautifully, it had no talking and minimal movement yet it perfectly conveyed what Jesse was going through still.  The expensive car Walter bought for Jr. last episode is quickly burned away... literally.  After joy riding in it and getting it stuck on his way to return it, Walter decides just to burn the thing!  Not the smartest thinking on his part and Saul managed to get him off free (if free is $52000).  Other than a slightly emptier pocket, Walter came to the conclusion that the only person who can get close enough to Gus to kill him is Jesse.  Jesse did not need much convincing and agrees to do it with our time tested method (ironically, their go to method, or the 'best way' is 0/2 so far) of poison, which Walter created in the lab in a spot out of the view of the camera.  Jesse hides the poison into one of his cigarettes and vows to poison Gus at the first chance he gets.  It was kind of nice to see Walter and Jesse scheming together again, but there is some awkwardness to it now that was not there before.  Maybe Walt's B.S. has finally caught up to Jesse, maybe Jesse no longer wants to be Walter's hit-man, the truth is we can't know.  Skyler's only involvement in this episode was to complain about how they can not launder 7.5mil (Walter's drug salary) in one year, not her brightest episode, but she has had her fair share of screen time this season, any more in this episode, it would have received a lower score from me.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 6: "Cornered" Review

Tweet Yes I do realize that this review is a little bit late, but that wont change the fact that there will be some spoilers but I seriously doubt that you have not seen the episode yet.


We opened up with another scene of a 'pollos' truck being attacked, this time the attackers were a bit smarter and the defenders were not Mike.  After a couple of minutes the truck is easily overtaken and the blue meth is stolen.  It took a bit of time to get back to this scene and what it meant due to other plot-lines but it was worth the wait.  The way the entire opening scene was filmed was very entertaining and well done by all parties involved.

Elsewhere, Skyler and Walt discuss Walter's behaviour at last night's dinner where Walt all but told Hank that Gale is not the guy he is trying to catch.  Walter attributed it to the alcohol but Skyler hit on an interesting point.  She theorizes that a small part of Walt wants Hank to catch him, just so all of this could be over.  I found this interesting because it offered up an alternate to the 'Walt wants to be in control' theory I made in the last review.  Could Walter secretly just be wanting this to end?  Another character also gave us something to ponder, Walter Jr.  It was refreshing seeing him get some screen time finally and he did not disappoint.  The scene where he compares Walt's 'gambling' to something he can not control, causing Walter to counter that whatever he is doing he is doing on his own free will was an excellent scene in my opinion.  I know that it is difficult to include Jr. more in these episodes but having him in periodically raises the quality of the show, he is the true voice of innocence and it is important to hear him.

We can't go on in this review without mentioning Skyler.  After seeing Walt's fury she decided to just run away... or at least it looked like she wanted to, but then she decided to head back and had a phenomenal line: "someone has to protect this family from the man protecting it".  At this point she is just like Walt from season one; willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that her loved ones will be safe.  Say what you will about her (and I still despise her as a character) but you have to respect the character (not like but respect) for the way she has grown this season.  Lastly we get to everyone's favorite plot: the growing drug war and Jesse.  Mike tracks down the stolen blue meth, and in a classic 'young gun does something reckless but succeeds causing his older, wiser partner to accept him more' scene Jesse helps Mike retrieve it.  I do find it cool that Jesse is proving himself to Gus and Mike (even receiving some props from Gus!) and that it may ultimately end the tension between them, but I can't help but think Walter's 'driving a wedge between us' theory might be right. We'll see.  On the war front, Gus tells Mike to set up a meeting with the opposing gang(s) so now it will be exciting seeing that unfold.  There are about a million ways the story could unfold, but we now know that Breaking Bad will not go beyond a 5th season.  So the end is coming, we just do not know how.  This was a very good episode and hopefully then remaining ones will be too

rating: 8.4/10
Best scene: The attack on the 'pollos' truck

What's coming to Millennium

Tweet With the NFL season fast approaching and little to no NBA news (unless you want to hear about a player 'thinking' of going to China for the 10,000th time) we here at millennium will focus our attention mostly on the NFL with the crew of writers, and myself each covering a team, and having weekly articles about the most interesting aspects of the 2011-12 NFL season.  We will still be covering the entertainment portion, but with the sports season kicking into full gear our focus will shift.  In addition, the NBA's ongoing lock-out will force me to expand my horizons as a sports fan and I will begin to follow the NHL for the first time.  Until now I never really enjoyed hockey, but through the years I've slowly grown used to it and even watching some games.  The last season was so good that I would be foolish not to jump into it (bandwagon move by me).  I will write about being a new fan and the team I have chosen is the Toronto Maple Leafs, apparently they never win, should be fun.  Of other major sporting events such as the EPL and champions league, we will cover those to the best of our abilities; after all, nobody wants to read an article by guys who don't know enough to be able to write solid articles, and believe it or not we care about quality.  We hope to exhibit this quality once the European basketball championships roll around, as it may be the last basketball that is easily available to watch, we will cover it.  The tournament looks to be stacked so it should be a lot of fun.  To those who are regular readers, there will likely be no articles in the following 7 days due to a staff vacation (yes I am insisting on calling us a staff)  So just be patient and know that good things are coiming

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 5: "Shotgun" Review

Tweet You probably noticed that episode 4 was not reviewed.  This was due to some circumstances, but had I written a review for it, the episode would have received a 9/10 it was the best episode of this season hands down.  As always, these reviews may (probably will) contain spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled go watch the episode first.

I have to admit, the last episode left me wanting to see this one quite a bit.  We were left with Jesse and Mike taking a drive to who-knows-where and Walter freaking out.  The writers did not disappoint us here, choosing to pick up right where last episode left off.  We are treated to some GTA style driving from Walt as he is telling Saul to leave all his money to his wife, followed by him leaving a very emotional message to Skyler at their voice machine.  This scene was done really well and more importantly felt realistic.  It was not just Walt weaving in and out of lanes, but cars were actually getting out of his way and pedestrians looked horrified.  The context of him leaving the messages told us that he was going to do something drastic and he did, getting out at the 'pollos' restaurant and demanding to see Gus.  But as we are getting accustomed to it this season, Gus was not there, instead we got the obligatory call from Mike assuring Walter that Jesse was fine and would not be in trouble.

Billion Dollar Movies and Future High Earners

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It doesn’t seem like a major accomplishment for a movie to surpass $1 billion at the box office anymore. Before The Dark Knight was released in the summer of 2008, there were only three movies to reach that milestone: Titanic, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Now the list contains ten films.

Avatar – I’m not sure if this comes as a surprise because I had no idea how people would accept a fully computer generated film. I knew the movie would make money because James Cameron had taken a 12 year hiatus from the movie industry in order to work on the film, and it promised a great experience. No one probably expected it to make $2.7 billion worldwide, and no movie will even have a chance of beating it until Avatar 2 is released.

Titanic – I really don’t see why Titanic was so incredibly popular. Everyone knew about the sinking ship, but what made it better than all the movies back in the 1990s? I read in a demographic novel that it was helped by girls who had seen the movie countless times just because of Leonardo DiCaprio, but it still seemed like a random film to be the first to reach $1 billion.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – This one is not a surprise because all of the other films had made close to $1 billion and besides being the last chapter in the series, it was helped by its post conversion to 3D which boosted ticket prices.

Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King – Again, the previous parts had made hefty amounts at the box office and this was the concluding chapter. It was praised by critics and was greatly successful overseas.

The Situation Room (Jersey shore Season 4 episode 2 thoughts)

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All right, the E-mail thing is actually making up for a lack of 'jerzdays'. We pick up where we left off from last time, first my thoughts:

If I were a coffee drinker and had to go through the process JWOWW did just to get a cup of coffee I would have gone to a cafe and just ordered, that just seems like the logical thing to me. I mean, you're already in Italy, and you've been lost once, why not go out and try to familiarize yourself with your surroundings by going and finding a place to eat/get coffee? On that topic, I thought Situation;s face was hilarious when the girls offered to cook, was it just me or did anyone else get the sense that he was a little mad that his signature cooking scenes would be taken away? The fact that the girls went out in the middle of cooking and then got offended when they came back was a little weird to me. I mean, if you volunteer to cook you're in it for the long haul, don't get offended because you were incompetent. I don't know why I care but it might have something to do with the fact that I work in a kitchen, Oh well. We had the Pauly and Deena story continue, and in my opinion, Pauly does not want it. His reasoning that it could turn into the Vin-Snook 'situation' (how is there not another word) is very solid, but at the same time I think he is also using it as an excuse. I wont get into too much right now because I'd rather get into the questions:

-Do you find Brittany good looking? I'm on the fence

-Did Deena's first fall remind you of A.I. crossing Antonio Daniels? For some reason it was the first thing I thought of

-I predicted episode 3, but it took just 2 episodes for 'SamRon' to rear its ugly head, how do you see this playing out? Do you even want to answer this question? If you don't that's completely fine

-finally, have Vinnie and Paulie given us a new saying? If... Then She too young for you! (it has a nice ring to it, like he cant guard you!!!)

-Daki

5 Things To Look Forward to In Matchday 1

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I wasn't sure whether to do a full preview of the upcoming Barclays Permier League or simply a preview of my "favourite" (all my friends have a vested interest in this league so I decided to pick a team to cheer on and because it is no fun rooting for your team to stay out of relegation I decided to go with one of the best in the league, yes it's a bandwagon pick but it's made me enjoy the league more so I have no problems with it. My actual team is and always will be Partizan but that's a whole different topic) team Chelsea. I then realized that i did not know enough about the entire league to do a preview justice and that late-summer fatigue (one that comes from sitting around doing nothing) had made me too lazy to even do a team preview. So here are my admittedly rushed and half-hearted (much like the plot in any Michael Bay movie) top 5 things to look forward to on matchday 1.

1. Can Sir Alex Ferguson and Man U. get off to a good start in the defense of their title?

It seems hard to believe but Manchester United has won 4 out of the last 5 Premier League titles. This quiet dynasty will look to kick things off with a win against West Brom. Even though the Red Devils are on the road I have to believe that anything but a win will be a disappointment. Also, with basically the same team as last year (only difference is a weaker defence, Rio Ferdinand's sucked for about 2 years now and a new goalkeeper in net) with a few key additions (Ashley Young, i watched him destroy Chelsea several times) this team will be the team to beat (they are also my pick to win it all again this year) and if the rumours of Wesley Sneijder (yes, i googled how to spell his last name) arriving are true. Look out.

2. How will Chelsea do their first game under Andre Villas-Boas?

The Blues will start their season on the road against Stoke (no pushovers at Brittania Stadium where they won 10 games last season) with basically the same aging squad they finished with last year. All eyes will be on Chelsea's new and charismatic coach who is coming off a dream season with Porto FC becoming the youngest coach (33 years old) ever to win a European Trophy (The Europa League) and on the worst signing last year hands down, Fernando Torres (seriously, Nnamdi Asomugha could kill Michael Vick in week 1 and still have a better year then Torres had last year for Chelsea). Both men will be looking to impress and since Torres has nowhere to go but up (hopefully) and Villas-Boas has already proven himself as a world-class coach I predict a win for Chelsea.

3. What will Dalglish and Liverpool do for an encore after last years great finish?

Go here for an answer.

4. How will Arsenal react to the impending departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri?

With Cesc basically a Barcelona player in everything but name and Nasri close behind him on a move to Man City, how will the young stars of Arsenal react in their opening match against Newcastle (who also have player issues with talented but strange midfielder Joey Barton)? One has to think that if Arsene Wenger doesn't at least contend seriously for some trophies this year or at the very least finish in the top 4 that he would be on his way out of Emirates. I mean how many great young talent can you stock up before fulfilling your potential? This must be infuriating for Arsenal fans who know that if their team went out and bought someone to push them over the top they could win the league (think Oklahoma City Thunder but worse). Going to be a very interesting season for this team.

5. Has Mario Balotelli figured out how to put on a bib?

Ok that was just a cheap excuse to post that video but really who can blame me?

Have a great weekend and enjoy the football. I know i will.

Luka Milanovic
@Luka_M91 on twitter

Previewing: Liverpool Vs. Sunderland

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If you  are expecting this article to be objective forget about it.  I consider myself a very passionate fan of Liverpool FC and writing about them objectively (especially when it comes to games that matter) is impossible.  Throughout the Premier League season, I will be writing about Liverpool on occasions that are appropriate, this being the start of the season seems like such an occasion.  Instead of previewing the entire season (of both the league and of Liverpool) I think it makes more sense to preview Liverpool’s opening game against Sunderland.  If you want full season previews, there are blogs devoted to Liverpool and the EPL which will offer far more insight than I can.

Liverpool comes in to this season with a sense of renewed hope.  I say renewed because the last two years have been nothing short of hell with awful defending, injuries, a terrible ownership situation, the worst big club manager ever (Hodgson), and allowing goals in the last 5 minutes at a rate that would make Arsenal blush.  Last year a new ownership group (also owners of MLB’s Red Sox) took over and in just a few months in charge made things much, much better.  They showed that they did their research when they brought over Luis Suarez from the Erdeviese, easily the best signing of last year.  They fired Roy Hodgson whose eye-gouging brand of soccer and insistence on playing dead-weights Joe Cole and Christian Poulsen made him one of the least popular managers in Liverpool history.  Of course, as the British media would have you believe, it was all Liverpool’s fault that Roy could not succeed, not his own incompetence and inability to manage a big club.  Lastly, they hired a guy who truly bleeds Liverpool red and actually won some titles as a coach to be the new manager, Kenny Dalglish (the best player of all time for Liverpool).   Those changes were made mid-season and Liverpool finally started playing well again, and had they not lost their last two (pretty meaningless) games, they would have finished with the best record vs. The top 6 sides of the table that year.  This summer Liverpool has spent cash like never before, actually signing a lot of players while selling none (something that was impossible in the Benitez era).  How the new signings will fit in remains to be seen, as do a few transfer sagas, but those are for another article and another time. 

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, on to the preview:

First of all, I hate Sunderland, I really do.  I hate their manager Steve Bruce (and his obvious racism to foreigners, best seen by how he spoke of Benitez vs. Any British manager), at one time rumours had him being the Liverpool coach, and I would seriously have considered not following the team any more.  I hate how recently, every time they play against Liverpool some sort of controversy must happen as this video, and this one will show you.  The fact that in the last two years Liverpool have not been able to get points off of them easily adds to the hate.  I do not know much about Sunderland (nor do I want to) but from the various previews I’ve seen experts have them anywhere from the top 8 to being relegated, basically, they have no clue either.  As for Liverpool they come into this game without captain Steven Gerrard who will be available after August.  This is a blow to them as Gerrard on form can win games by himself (sadly, these games are getting more and more rare as his age and injuries begin to pile up).  They also come in with a very scary Left-Back problem.  When Fabio Aurelio is fit (never) he is all class at the position, but in the last 4-5 years Liverpool have not really had anyone who could play there, guys were either too young or playing out of position as a result they have been routinely torched by opposing wingers.  The last time Liverpool had Fabio Aurelio play a lot of games they had an amazing season with this game being the cream of the crop.  Update: During the writing of this, Liverpool went ahead and signed Jose Enrique from Newcastle...so ah that left back situation now looks great!  Another thing Liverpool has now that they never had (slight exaggeration) is a true wing-player in Stewart Downing.  Having watched his performances in pre-season games I can safely say that I will really like him and what he brings to the side.  He should be an excellent compliment to Andy Carroll.  It remains to be seen how Dalglish will manage the team or even what the first 11 will be, but it is important for Liverpool to kick things off on a winning note, as this will be a very tight year in the EPL in my opinion.  I do not expect Liverpool to contend for the premier league crown, but a top 4-5 finish would be nice to see, and if they start the campaign off with a 5-0 trashing (wishful thinking by me, I really hate Sunderland) all the better.  My prediction for this game: There will be controversy.

Watching The Throne

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Well they certainly didn’t make it boring, did they? Of course with Kanye West and Jay-Z rapping together over a whole album, how could it be? Kanye and Jay’s much anticipated album Watch The Throne was released digitally on August 8 at 12 a.m. through iTunes to an eagerly awaiting public. What made the release that much more special and intriguing is that Jay-Z and Mr. West somehow managed to avoid a leak, something that has been plaguing the music industry and especially those in hip-hop since the invention of the internet. No other major album in the last several years has managed to keep fans completely in the dark up until the actual intended release date with some albums being leaked weeks (Eminem’s Recovery) and even months (50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct) before the scheduled date. The only other high-profile album that has managed to do this somewhat is Dr. Dre’s Detox album, considering Dre has been working on it for close to 10 years it is a miracle we haven’t heard any of the Doctor’s songs. Of course Detox might be a myth and the reason we haven’t heard anything is because there’s nothing to hear. Let’s just move on though because thinking about that makes my head hurt.

The original plan for this collaboration was to make it a 5 song EP but as the two hip-hop legends worked together they decided to scrap that idea and just make a full length album instead. Upon hearing the news I was extremely excited, how could you not be? But then H.A.M (Hard As a Motherfucker), the album’s first single was released in January of 2011 and doubts started to creep in. Maybe Kanye had gone too far with his musical experimentation after his wildly successful My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album and maybe Jay had lost it, the last thing he had released at that point in time was his commercially successful but critically polarizing The Blueprint 3 in 2009 and other than some stellar guest spots on songs (Rick Ross’ Free Mason, Kanye’s So Appalled) he had been absent from the musical spotlight. However as soon as these doubts started shaping in my head they were pushed away. If anyone deserved the benefit of the doubt, it was these two (Kanye made a whole album where he sang over 80% of the songs in auto-tune enjoyable). And sure enough, whatever doubts I had vanished completely after hearing Otis, the second single off Watch The Throne. The song sampled the Otis Redding classic Try a Little Tenderness to great effect giving the song a soulful feel that took me back to Kanye’s earlier albums and Jay delivered with lyrics such as Photoshoot fresh/looking like wealth/im bout to call the paparazzi on myself. I loved the song but others were quick to criticize the song by saying it lacked soul and made up for it in arrogance. I found this argument confusing because listening to a Kanye record without hearing at least some cockiness is like listening to a Wiz record without mention of smoking weed or a DJ Khaled record without him yelling nonsensically in the background, it’s just not going to happen. So how does the rest of the album shape up? Here are my thoughts:

Entourage Season 8 Episode 3

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

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This review is going to be somewhat shorter than the others because I don’t really have anything bad to say about the film and I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing too much about what I did like about it. I never fully watched the old Planet of the Apes films. I’ve seen most of the first one, but almost none of the others. However, I did watch the Tim Burton one starring Mark Wahlberg. To be honest, the movie is really not that good. The worst part about it is the ending. When Mark Wahlberg travels back to his original time, why is the planet still overrun by apes? He somehow traveled through dimensions. And secondly, why do the apes have the exact same history as the humans? Lincoln’s statue is still there, but it’s an ape, and all the architecture is the same. It’s hard to believe that the planet would look identical to ours if apes had ruled it. Thankfully, this movie is not a disappointment like the Tim Burton one was.

I’m not a big fan of reboots, because it seems like a cheap way to make money for movie producers. However, when the end result is a movie like this, I really can’t complain. Star Trek was terrific, as was Batman Begins and I’m really hoping the new Spider-Man will be too. This movie is not necessarily a reboot, because it dates back to the very beginning of the ape takeover, unlike the first Planet of the Apes movie with Charleton Heston. In the movie, James Franco develops a possible cure of Alzheimer’s and they begin the testing on apes. One of the effects, as you should already know, results in increased intelligence. After an accident, the apes are put down, but one of them gives birth to a baby (Caesar) before it dies. The genes are passed down to Caesar, who is taken care of by James Franco as he continues doing tests on his Alzheimer’s cure through studying Caesar. When an accident sends Caesar to a prison with a hundred other apes, Caesar begins to understand that he doesn’t belong with the humans. And so begins the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I was curious to find out how the apes would take over the planet since as you probably saw in the commercial, there are only about a hundred of them fighting against the humans. I have no complaints with the way it was done though.

One difference between this film and the Tim Burton one is the incorporation of CGI for the apes. In the earlier film, they are wearing costumes and look more like freaks than like apes. The apes are completely computer generated in the new film, and I have to say that it looks pretty awesome. There are some scenes where it’s not done to perfection, but Caesar really does look like a real life ape in a lot of scenes. It’s weird how you can feel so much for computer generated characters. You really do feel unfortunate for Caesar the way he’s treated in some scenes in the movie. I guess that’s why some critics have been saying that Andy Serkis (who played Caesar the same way Sam Worthington played Jake Sully in Avatar) should be nominated for an Oscar. You’re on his side the entire movie, and are going to be cheering for the apes to win the battle. In my opinion, I don’t think his performance was Oscar worthy, and I don’t believe the Academy will ever nominate someone for acting a computer generated character, but we shall see next year. In terms of the acting from the other stars, Freida Pinto wasn’t the best in my opinion, but the rest of the actors were solid. I’d also like the mention the director because a lot of the film was shot on green screen, and that’s never an easy task.

This movie surpassed my expectations and it’ll probably surpass yours. It is one of the best movies of the summer, one of the best reboots to an old franchise, and you shouldn’t wait to spend those $12 on a movie you won’t regret seeing. Even Armond White gave it a positive review…

Score: 8.5-9.0 (I’m not set on an exact score, but someone in between there)

Passports are here! OH YEEEEEA!

Tweet After last night's episode, Daki and I exchanged emails about the episode and the show in general. This is the conversation that occured (and yes emails, we sent them while wearing our Jeff Hornacek jerseys and watching saved by the bell on VHS). Daki led off:

First off, the fact that we were not able to watch this episode as a group is heartbreaking. I think this season has MJ-like potential right now. I mean, where to start? I have so many things on my mind about the show , I guess ill start somewhere and hopefully pull off coherent thoughts. I know you've been to Europe, how many bags did you pack? I packed 1 and I haven't even gone through half of it yet, how the J-shore cast can bring so much shit (9 bags Mike, really?) baffles me. Are they not rich? Just buy what you need in Italy. The fact that Snooki can drive stick and Deena seems to be the only one to understand how to use converters seem important to me? why? I have no clue, I guess I just never pictured them knowing those things. At various points they showed Mike, Vinny, Paulie, and Ronnie sitting together in one row of seats in a car, how they accomplished this I do not know. Now that we've gotten the little things out of the way lets get to the good stuff. For the first time I actually found myself saying "JWOW!" I mean, did she hire Turtle's personal trainer? Its a whole new person. The whole cast seems to be self aware enough to start taking care of themselves (never in a million years did I dream that Snooki would be running up stairs and doing crunches). The Situation Snooki 'situation' came out of left field, I mean the guy prides himself on grabbing Vinny's sloppy seconds, and single Ronnie and Sam...ahhh I want it to be true, I really do, but I'm not holding out hope, I say by episode 3 they have some drama that will take up 20 minutes of the episode. In all honesty, if they start another 'SAMRON' I say its time for 2 new cast members. Moving the show to Italy for this season turned out to be an absolute home-run, the show seems fresh and good again. But enough of random thoughts I have some questions for you.

Do you think that this season will live up to the clip 'this season on Jersey Shore' we were treated to at the end of the episode? And if so would that make it the best Jersey Shore season?

Are Pauly and Vinny the best Reality show room-mates of all time in terms of not causing Drama and just having fun?

How fast did you say "that wont last" when you heard that Snooki has a boyfriend? It took me 3 seconds.

If you had to spend a weekend in the house with the cast how would you manage?

-Daki

Entourage Season 8 Episode 2: Scattered Thoughts

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Ok, so this weeks show was a trademark Entourage episode. It had all the characteristics: Too many little story lines to remember, Ari storming around, Turtle and Drama going at it, and a one-liner for a conclusion. This list may sound condescending, but these are the things that make the show unique and as popular as it is.

I frequently forget how long of a run Entourage has had. It wasn't until I saw Turtle dressed like a wangster and heard Drama ask, "why are you dressed like it's 04?", that I realized that eight years have passed throughout the shows life span. In any other circumstance, this episode would have satisfied me, but the fact that there are only six episodes left makes me nervous.

I'm happy that some sort of closure was made with Sloane and E. I fully expect E to be in a funk for a couple of episodes because of Sloane's move to New York, but it would have been a nuisance to drag that storyline along all throughout season 8.

We got to see some traditional Ari fastwalk/storming around in this episode, and he regained his long running title as the best character on the show. His hilariously profane remarks were as sharp and hardhitting as ever. However, his marital problems seem to persist and show no signs of going away. I would be a bold IP address liar if I said I had any clue about how this problem would or would not be resolved.

Speaking of predictions, I'd also like to mention that I predicted Turtle and Alex wouldn't last, primarily because of her new found success. Although they have yet to break it off, I'm reasonably happy with the current progress.

An intriguing new story line is that of "Johnny Bananas". I think everyone knew that the show would be a great project and a success. The fact that it was a comeback project for both Walsh and Drama (and now Dice), was a near guarantee that it would be good. However, Dice's unpredictable personality may bring turmoil to the smooth sailings which were destined to lie ahead of the show.

Lastly, I have to reiterate the fact that I am a huge Billy Walsh fan. Everything about his character is unique, entertaining, and inexplicable. The scene in which he was reading and pondering Vince's script gave me a flashback to the first time he read Medellin. He locked himself up for a very long time while reading, then burst out yelling "PABLO F***ING ESCOBAR!!!". His facial expressions in this episode were hilarious and the nervous state he was putting Vince in was priceless.

Overall, the show was a good one. Not great, which is dissapointing because it's almost over.

P.S. Ari golden corn tamale?!?!?!?!

Until next time,

Stevan Sauce Manojlovic

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 3: "Open House" Review

Tweet As always, this review may contain spoilers, so if you have not yet seen the episode and do not wish to have anything spoiled stop reading here; come back when you have seen the episode.

Remember a time when you were younger?  More specifically, do you remember middle school?  I don't remember most of it but what I do recall is always looking forward to the first day of school.  The chance to see people you have not seen in a while, play some recess basketball, and all that good stuff.  Then a week in you realize that its not what its cracked up to be and you pray for the last day of school.  That is kind of what this season of Breaking Bad has been like so far.  We were so excited for it to start up again, but now prey that the Breaking Bad of old comes back.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a great show, with very good actors and a very interesting story-line, its just that...right now the show is in transition and its not as good as it was before.  That's not to say that it wont get there, it will just need some time to.  The writers know what they are doing and if these episodes are necessary, then so be it, I will wait.  So how has 'Open House' continued the trend of the other 2 episodes?  Lets examine things.  The problems I have with the current season are as follows: Walter has been reduced to a secondary character, Hank has been reduced to an annoying character, Jesse has been reduced to a one-dimensional character, Marie brings back an old (and boring) story line of hers, and the police (or lack there of).  You may have noticed that I did not take my obligatory shot at Skyler, this is because she actually displayed something in this episode (and that character development was a long time coming).  But more on that later, for now lets focus on the bad.