review Page 942 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
100 Thoughts About 100 NCAA Teams From The Basketball Prospectus Guide To The 2012-13 Season
The following previews were taken from College Basketball Prospectus. Buy the book as a PDF for $9.94. It's also available in paperback. For more, check out the Basketball Prospectus website....
Vincible. <em>Silver Linings Playbook</em>, Reviewed.
1. She's a grieving cop's widow, prone to nymphomania, locked away in a shed behind her parents' home, profoundly damaged—not broken, but close. He's a bipolar basket case who nearly beat a man half to death for showering with his wife, the same wife with whom he obsessively wants to reconcile, even...
Tim Lincecum Did Handstands And Puked At A New York Club, And Other Unconfirmed Athlete Stories From Yelp Reviews
Yelp is a helpful website if you want overly critical reviews of small businesses from people who have no other outlet through which to voice their long-winded frustration. After digging through some of the criticsm, however, Yelp is great for another purpose: finding weird stories about athletes. ...
Other Than That, How Was The Movie? <em>Lincoln</em>, Reviewed.
1. The opening scene of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln will probably ring false to you and confirm your preconceptions of a sweeping, soft-focus, John Williams-scored Steven Spielberg film about Abraham Lincoln. It features Lincoln, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, visiting troops right before a fierce Civil...
James Bond, The Dark Knight. <em>Skyfall</em>, Reviewed.
When Casino Royale came out in 2006, it was rightly praised for lots of reasons: Daniel Craig's franchise-rehabilitating turn as James Bond; the excellent action sequences; the fact that it was smart and compelling, unlike a lot of recent Bond movies that had gotten progressively sillier, almost sel...
Washington's Height. <em>Flight</em> Reviewed.
1. Until the last 10 minutes, Flight in large part resembles one of those tough, dark character studies they used to make in the '70s, like The Gambler or The Verdict, in which we watch a man who has lost control of his life face external circumstances that give him one last chance to save himself. ...
30 Paragraphs About 30 NBA Teams From The Basketball Prospectus Guide To The 2012-13 Season
The following previews were culled from the team chapters of the ever-incisive Pro Basketball Prospectus. Buy the book as a PDF for $9.98. It's also available in paperback. For more, check out the Basketball Prospectus website....
A Big Huge Ball Of Crazy. <em>Cloud Atlas</em>, Reviewed.
1. I've never read the book Cloud Atlas, but I bet it's good. Judging from the film, the book must be insanely ambitious—narratively and stylistically—clearly vying to be no less than some sort of grand binding theory of everything, throughout history, forever. That sort of ambition can work on the ...
The Monster Wore A Tank Top. <em>Paranormal Activity 4,</em> Reviewed.
1. Like Grierson, I'm a sucker for the Paranormal Activity films. I don't care that their stories don't make sense, that apparently there's some sort of mythology tying everything together behind them, that no one ever, ever turns that goddamned camera off. These movies work not as movies—they're ba...
Ben Affleck's Only Weakness As A Director: Casting Ben Affleck. <em>Argo</em>, Reviewed.
1. Argo is such a terrific, jaw-dropping true-life tale, with such a natural, seamless movie storyline, that anyone who knows the story would beg the filmmakers not to screw it up. So it's a relief that they absolutely do not do that. There are so many tones to juggle here; this is a film that veers...
God Bless Liam Neeson, He Sure Does Try. <em>Taken 2</em>, Reviewed.
If you liked the first Taken, it was probably because of Liam Neeson. With that unlikely hit, the Oscar-nominated actor established himself as a tough-guy action star, a development that was surprising not because he's a bad fit for the role but, rather, because he proved really adept at it. Anyone ...
Bruce Willis And Time Travel, Both More Alive Than Ever. <em>Looper,</em> Reviewed.
1. Looper is essentially two different movies spliced together at the midway point, but that's OK, because: a) the movies are thematically connected, with the second building off the windup of the first; and b) they're both excellent. The first half is a dark, thrilling time-travel mind-twister that...
Kill ’Em All. <em>Dredd</em>, Reviewed.
Even a truly morally reprehensible, super-violent movie has its place in the culture. I'm not talking about a film like Dark Knight Rises, which in the wake of the Aurora shootings was the subject of our most recent cultural spasm over Hollywood violence. That was actually a thoughtful, artistic com...
Paint Your Corners. Clint Eastwood's Baseball Movie, <em>Trouble With The Curve</em>, Reviewed.
1. Pretty much everything about Trouble With the Curve is a crock, but I couldn't help but like it anyway. It has a hackneyed, painfully overstructured screenplay; its motivations for its characters are stock at best and embarrassingly obvious at worst; and it knows so little about the game of baseb...
Desperate Characters And A Director In Utter Control: <em>The Master</em>, Reviewed.
1. The Master is a movie that leaves you vibrating for about 20 minutes after it's over, though you might be at a bit of pains to explain why. I've only seen the film once, which is a shame; it's the sort of film you want to hit rewind and go through again, immediately, right as the credits get goin...
Like A Meaner, Braver, Less Funny <em>Bridesmaids</em>. <em>Bachelorette</em>, Reviewed.
1. In retrospect, the "surprising" success of Bridesmaids should have been the furthest thing from a surprise. It was a big, broad, audience-friendly comedy that made sure, in between all the poop jokes and the rampant silliness, that you liked all of its characters. It was ribald and bawdy, but nev...
A Movie About Books Made By People Who Don't Read Them. <em>The Words</em>, Reviewed.
1. When my first book was published—and "published" is honestly being kind; it's probably more accurate to say it was "repeatedly photocopied"—perhaps the most common question family members asked me: So, are you going to go on Oprah? They were joking (I think), but something about their question wa...
Why Your Team Sucks 2012: New York Giants
Some people are fans of the New York Giants. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Giants. This final 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here....
Why Your Team Sucks 2012: Dallas Cowboys
Some people are fans of the Dallas Cowboys. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Dallas Cowboys. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here....
Why Your Team Sucks 2012: Washington Redskins
Some people are fans of the Washington Redskins. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Washington Redskins. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here...