2014 Top 5 Movie Preview

1. Sin City 2 A Dame To Kill For
     When "Sin City" first came out, it totally blew my mind!  The cinematography was outstanding, mixing black and white with just enough distinct colors, and how they blended the stories together was just so astonishing to me, it made me want to be a writer/storyteller.  Frank Miller's Sin City Graphic novel series definitely raises the bar, and Robert Rodriguez did a great job bring it to life.  The actors were cast so perfectly for each story, and most of them are returning, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, and Jaime King.  Joining them are Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, and Ray Liotta just to name a few.  I read a few of the Sin City books, and "A Dame to Kill For" was my 2nd favorite, behind "The Hard Goodbye", which was told in the first movie.  "Sin City" may be one of the most underrated films in history, and hopefully the new one can get the credit and recognition that the first one didn't.  Well, only if it's as or almost as good! Oh yea, and it does have my #1 Hollywood crush in it, Eva Green!

2. X-Men: Days of Future Past
     Bryan Singer, the director of the first 2 "X-Men" returns, and combines the original cast, the cast of "The Last Stand", and the cast of "First Class" into a whirlwind time travel, where Old Professor X (Patrick Stewart) sends Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, to the past to help young Professor X, (James McAvoy) prevent a war between humans and mutants.  This looks good, and all the actors have played their roles, respectively, in the other X-Men movies such as Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Sir Ian McKellan.  So this to me looks to be the most exciting movie of the summer.

3. Dumb and Dumber To
      With Anchorman 2 coming out to mixed reviews, a lot of people are going to be skeptical about the long awaited "Dumb and Dumber" sequel.  I will say that great comedies do take time to really be appreciated.  How many times have we seen them, and each time you almost discover something new.  That being said, it will take some time to let it sink in, but the excitement starts with Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, and the Farrelly Brothers returning.  We can only hope that it will be funny, and leave your expectations at that.  Don't expect it to be as funny as the first, because that's just not fair for this movie, and other comedy sequels.  I say just see the movie looking for laughs, and don't try to compare it to the original at all.  You'll probably be disappointed.




4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
     Before they can gear up and make another "Avengers" movie, they have to continue to build foundations for each character, and here we get to see Captain America in a modern day adventure.  And we get to see more of the beautiful Scarlett Johansson, so that helps a lot.  Here we get to see an old fashioned hero adapt, and the story of the Winter Soldier is a classic that has one hell of a twist.



5. A Million Ways to Die in the West
     Seth MacFarlane wrote and directed what seems to be a comedy, about a sheep farmer in the Wild West, who loses his girlfriend in a gun duel, and looks for the courage to win her back with the help of another gunslinger's wife, Charlize Theron.  It's Seth MacFarlane, so expect a lot of laughs to go along with some dark and twisted storyline.  It's another film from MacFarlane, and I did like "Ted", and MacFarlane has become a better story teller throughout his time with "Family Guy", and here he brings along most of his staff from the show.

Other Movies to Look Forward to:
The Amazing Spiderman 2

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Exodus

Transformers 4

22 Jump Street

Robocop

Special: Top 10 Actors Who Could Be Batman

     Well it looks like that Zach Snyder, the Director of "Man Of Steel", and the upcoming "Batman/Superman" movie is going to stick with Ben Affleck to be the Dark Knight, and has sparked so much controversy in doing so.  Affleck did turn down the role, twice, but Snyder kept pushing, and Affleck finally caved to the director's request.  I don't really like the decision, but I also didn't like the choice of Heath Ledger playing the Joker, and that turned out pretty well, (except for Ledger losing his life, R.I.P).  So we are just going to have to hope that Ben can do a good job, and not destroy Zach Snyder's career.  One thing we must first understand, is that these new movies are going to be totally different from Christopher Nolan's, and Christian Bale's "The Dark Knight" series.  It's a whole other universe, it won't continue where they left off, or relate to those stories at all.  Christian Bale said he would play Batman again only if Nolan was doing it, and Nolan has no desire to make more Batman movies.  That being said, I personally don't like the Affleck decision, and I composed a list of actors who I think would play a great Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Let's check it out shall we....

10. Bradley Cooper


9. Ryan Gosling


8. Clive Owen


7. Wes Bentley


6. Zachary Quinto

5. Andrew Lincoln


4. Karl Urban


3. Sam Worthington


2. Michael Fassbender


1. Jon Hamm

If Shua won the Mega Millions.......

     I had the opportunity to take an extensively long nap, and in my dream, I had the winning ticket to the Mega Millions $500 million jackpot!  Congratulations Shua!  What are you going to do with all that money?!  This is my plan;

     First of all, I'll go ahead and take the lump sum over the annuity, so after taxes, that would be $270,238,100.00 up front.  Here you go Mom and Dad, here's $70 million to help you retire, disperse throughout the family, and make sure that we will have money for forever!  Then, after my date with Eva Green and Anne Hathaway, it's time to get down to business.  I'm going to go ahead and buy a large portion of the Colorado Rockies and turn them into yearly contenders.
     Over the last 20 years, I have been apart of so much of their history, I was at the first ever home game, I was at the game when they clinched the pennant, I was there for Mike Hampton's 2 home runs, I was even at game 4 in 2007 to watch Boston celebrate on our field.  It is a fact that the Yankees are my favorite team, but there is a special place in my heart for the Rockies.  They're my hometown team, and really the only team that I will ever root for in the National League.  And if the Yankees and Rockies play in the World Series, I'll be pulling for the Rox.
     So, with that aside, I'm taking my $200 million left over, and I am going to turn the Rockies into serious contenders.  With quite a few of the free agents already taken, here's what I would do:
They already signed relief pitcher Boone Logan, that's a good start for the bullpen, and already picked up first basemen Justin Morneau.  These are moves that I would have done, but since the Rox already made them, this will save me some money.
     First, bring back Ubaldo Jimenez.  We should have never traded him away, and he is familiar with Coors field.  We have the money now, so let's give him a 4 year, $40 million dollar contract ($10 mm per yr.).  Then go get Francisco Rodriguez, and put him in a middle relief role, at a 2 years $8 million contract.  This would put Juan Nicasio, or Tyler Chatwood into the bullpen, and give us some good strong depth there.
     Now, let's get some fielding help.  I don't agree with trading Dexter Fowler, but what's done is done.  So let's get the best available outfielder, Shinn Soo Choo.  He's been waiting this long in free agency, so he may take a bit of a smaller contract than what he was first asking for.  At 31, we won't commit too long, but should still be able to get good production out of him, so let's do a 4 year, $55 million deal with him, about $13.5 mm a year.  Now that we have our outfield taken care of, let's plug that hole at 2B, and sign IF Stephan Drew.  With Morneau signing a 3 year deal, we should give him a 4 year, $40 million contract.  Now just sign a couple of key bench players, like catcher Kurt Suzuki, and OF Grady Sizemore to help with veteran presence and leadership.
     Boom!  There we go!  With some of the remaining money, invest in a top quality training staff to keep the players healthy all year long, so that would cost around $3 million dollars.  Total, that's about $160 million dollars to add to Colorado's salary, which is now only at about $85 million.  Then we would have a good mix of free agent acquisitions, and farm talent that should take us to the top of the division.
     Sure, some will argue that paying for top free agents may not be the way to go, but look at the top teams of the past 20 years, the Yankees, the Cardinals, the Phillies, the Red Sox.  If you do want to be successful in Major League Baseball, you will need to spend some money.
Here's the lineup under Shua's management:

Starting Line-up
1. Stephan Drew 2B
2. Shinn Soo Choo LF
3. Carlos Gonzalez CF
4. Troy Tulowitzki SS
5. Michael Cuddayer RF
6. Willian Rosario C
7. Nelson Arenado 3B
8. Justin Morneau 1B
9. Pitcher

Utillity Men
C Kurt Suzuki
OF Chris Dickerson
OF Grady Sizemore
IF/OF Tyler Colvin
IF Jordan Pacheco
IF Jonathon Herrera


Pitching Staff
SP Jorge DeLaRosa
SP Ubaldo Jimenez
SP Jhoulys Chachin
SP Brett Andersen
SP Tyler Chatwood

RP Boone Logan
RP Francisco Rodriguez
RP Juan Nicasio
RP Raphael Betancourt
RP Jeremy Butler

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly: NBA

     Now that the NBA season is almost a 1/3 the way through, here are some of the bigger stories and surprises of the season so far.

The Good
     The Pacers are establishing themselves as the team that can challenge Miami, and they aren't afraid to get into the 2 time champions face, and get aggressive.  Not only that, they also look like a team that has begun to gel together, and are playing comfortable with one another.  If they can stay healthy and somehow get home court in the playoffs over the Heat, they could see themselves in the Finals in June.
     The Trailblazers have jumped out to an early division lead over OKC, and seem to have the youth and energy to carry them to a top seed in the playoffs.  Which is going to be tough in the Western Conference, with so many teams emerging, such as Phoenix, and the Clippers, and the Warriors, and Houston, it will be a rigid run to the playoffs.
     The Nuggets have impressed their fans with their play, and Brian Shaw seems to be getting everyone on the same page.  Plus, strong bench play from Mozgov, and Nate Robinson has certainly helped.

The Bad
     Almost the entire Eastern Conference.  When the division leaders aren't even at .500, you know your in a 2nd rate conference.  The Brooklyn Nets are finding out that money can't buy chemistry on the court, Derek Rose is injured once again, and has serious questions about his playing career, and Boston is rebuilding.  Fan expectations for these teams should be set real low for the next few seasons.

The Ugly
     New York Knicks, it seems that Carmelo Anthony is tired of playing in New York, and with no coach to guide them, the Knicks are looking like they are going to be shooting for a lot of balls in the NBA draft lottery.  So much talent but no leadership on that roster, it's truly disappointing.  Hopefully the Knicks can open up some salary cap space and sign some Free Agents as they look for someone else to be the face of the franchise, because Melo's selfishness is shining bright under all those lights.

MLB Free Agent Tracker

     The baseball winter meetings are underway and the owners and GM's are beginning to shuffle free agents, and negotiating trades.  Some may never get past talks, and others will be approved in hopes of competing for a World Series title.  Let's take a look at some of the moves that have already happened throughout the league.


     The biggest name on the market was Robinson Cano, and with the Yankees not willing to give him more than 7 years, the Mariners stepped up and signed the check to bring the 2nd basemen to Seattle.  The Mariners do have good pitching but no run support and signing Cano should help, but can he win you games with his offense?  The answer is yes, Cano led the Yankees in most batting categories, and was clutch in many games.  But the Yankees didn't want to get stuck in another huge long term contract, a-la A-Rod.  The Mariners have to give those fans a reason to go to the park, and signing Cano will bring 'em.  The Mariners do have a ton of talent coming up in their farm system, and are also looking to trade for Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp.  The Dodgers are listening to trade proposals for Kemp, and it sounds like Kemp could be in a new uniform next season.  If he doesn't go to Seattle, I would not be surprised if Detroit makes an offer.

     The Yankees are looking to get back on top of the AL East, and after poor offensive production in 2013, they went after catcher Brian McCann, stole CF Jacoby Ellsbury from Boston, and are eagerly awaiting the return of Mark Texeria.  But their bullpen got thin when Joba Chamberlain signed with the Tigers, and the Rockies picked up Boone Logan.  If the Yankees are unable to find another quality starting pitcher, and some bullpen help, they're going to find themselves in a lot of late inning offensive shootouts.

     The Rockies traded CF Dexter Fowler, a young up and coming star in this league, for a minor league outfielder, and a 2nd rate reliever from Houston.  While I was shaking my head in amazement, they went and got 1B Justin Morneau, traded for SP Brett Andersen, and signed Logan from NYY.  The Rockies look to become a significant team once again, after a few years affected by the injury bug.  The Rockies can and will be able to put up 10+ runs a game, but they have not been able to keep leads late with a weak bullpen.  If they are willing to spend the money, they should get a solid SP, and push one of their current starters back for middle relief.  But, that's only if they will be willing to open up the wallet, and from the looks of their recent signings, they just may!