February 2008

Blue Chips

Nick Nolte as an old-school college basketball coach in need of help.  A script from the writer of Bull Durham, Tin Cup and White Men Can’t Jump.  Teams filled with former college basketball stars.  An unscrupulous booster.  And a look at the ethics of recruiting modern day players.  These are the ingredients brought together for Blue Chips.

Blue Chips
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“You took the purest thing in your life and corrupted it, for what?”

Pete Bell (Nick Nolte), a once great men’s basketball coach coming off his first loosing season, begins to feel pressure from the boosters, alumni, and university to make a change and hastily improve the record of his team next year.

Unable to sign the top recruits of today’s game who want more than just playing time (Anfernee Hardaway, Matt Nover), Bell gives into the pressure and allows the university’s #1 booster Happy (J.T. Walsh) to do whatever it takes to sign the players.

The film has much going for it including casting real players like Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal, Bobby Hurley and Calbert Channey, Chris Mills, Rex Walters, Rick Fox, and others as players, and providing cameos for real coaches including Jim Boeheim, Jerry Tarkanian, and Bobby Knight.  The real players add some drama on the court, especially during the movie’s climactic final game, but it’s lessened by quick-cuts and fast pasted camera work which make you unable to see the game unfold.

Although there’s much basketball on the court the film’s main story is Bell’s struggle against his own ethics, which is not helped by learning Happy has gotten to his players before.  Mary McDonnell plays Bell’s ex and conscience who helps him put his recent actions into perspective.

Part of the problem with the film is although Bell’s character is layered and given plenty to do, most of the players are little more than sketches who only come alive in scenes where they are directly interacting with their coach.  Sure there are a few scenes in the film involving the players in class (including a groan worthy Shaq moment discussing English Literature) and the like, but it’s nothing new or memorable from what you have seen in countless other films.

With a good set-up and some nice pieces in place the real question is why isn’t Blue Chips more memorable?  Maybe disillusionment of a college sports isn’t a crowd pleaser, or maybe the script (which doesn’t measure up to Ron Shelton‘s other sports films) could have used a bit more tweaking.  There are many basketball films, but few tackle the subject from this angle.  It’s certainly not the best basketball film we’re reviewing this week, but it does have something to say about the game on the court and, even more so, in the shadows which everyone seems to know about but doesn’t like to discuss.  Even with its various flaws it is a film worth seeing and discussing.

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The Umbrella Academy

“Forty-three extraordinary children were born to mostly single women, who had shown no signs of pregnancy, in seemingly random locations around the world.  The children were either abandoned or put up for adoption.  Enter Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a the Monocle, world renown scientist and wealthy entrepreneur…  For reasons unknown Sir Reginald set out with his bodyguard Abhijat aboard his private vessel The Minerva, rumored to be powered by the remains of King Amen-Kharej IV.  Using methods undisclosed, he sought to track down and adopt as many of the children as he could.  He only found seven of them…

umbrella-academy-apocalypse-1-coverThe first issue, “The Day the Eiffel Tower Went Berserk,” gives us the brief background of Sir Reginald before jumping into one of the team’s early adventures against Zombie Robot Gustave Eiffel (that’s right folks, the guy who built the Eiffel Tower has been living inside as a robotic robot zombie for years waiting for his opportunity to launch the Tower into space! – oh, did I mention that the Eiffel Tower is really a spaceship!!).

From here we jump 20 years into the future to the members of the long disbanded team who learn of the death of their mentor.  00.01 – Space Boy, the team’s leader, returns from his post at the moon for the funeral only to discover one more surprise – 00.05 has returned un-aged from his long disappearance with a terrifying tale to tell.

A great first issue that flushes out some of the characters, their origins, and the dynamics of the group while still moving on at a fun and brisk pace that isn’t lost under heavy narrative or exposition.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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The Animated Adventures of the Harlem Globetrotters

As a part of our Basketball Week here’s a look back at the early 70’s cartoon Harlem Globe Trotters from Hanna-Barbera which featured an animated version of the team touring the world, winning the game, and saving the day.  Here’s the intro to the show.  For a larger version, and a look at the team meeting Snow White, check out the Full Diagnosis.

Harlem Globe Trotters
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Intro

 

The team meet Snow White

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Comic Rack

Hmm, we’re about to talk about comics so it must be Wednesday!  Welcome to the RazorFine Comic Rack boys and girls.  Pull up a bean bag and take a seat at feet of the master as we look at the new comics set to hit comic shops and bookstores today from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, WildStorm, Vertigo, Dynamite Entertainment, IDW Publishing, and Image Comics.

This week includes Army@Love, The Authority: Prime, Batman, Captain America, Casanova, Hellblazer, Justice Society of America, Lazarus, Thor, the first issues of Kick-Ass, Project Superpowers, and Urban Monsters.  Also don’t forget the truckload of new graphic novels including Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter, City of Others, Hazed, Hellblazer: Joyride, Infinite Crisis, Onslaught Reborn, Orson Scott Card’s Wyrms, Spawn Vol. 5, X-Men: Supernovas, and much, much more.

Enjoy issue #61

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Highlander – The Source (of Crap)

  • Title: Highlander: The Source
  • IMDb: link

“I am Duncan MacLeod, of the Clan MacLeod.”
 

Highlander: The SourceSet in the post-apocalyptic near future the film finds Duncan (Adrian Paul) married and separated from his wife (Thekla Reuten).  Methos (Peter Wingfield) and Joe Dawson are both still around as well, and searching for their friend who needs rescuing from the unleashed Guardian of the Source (Cristian Solimeno) who has been awakened by other Immortals seeking the the source of their immortality.

The threesome take a trip to a monastery where an Elder (Patrice Naiambana) “explains” of their need to find the source and stop the Guardian.  The friends, along with Reggie (Stephen Wight) and Duncan’s wife, who is having visions of the Source, take on the quest.

Where to begin?  The film is cursed in every way possible including being set in an apocalyptic future that is never explained nor explored.  Obviously it isn’t set too far in the future as Joe Dawson hasn’t aged; so what happened to make things go downhill so quickly?

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