The Blackhawks' Third Quarter: Time's a-wastin'

For the short while I've been doing these quarterly updates, all four of the Bs have ended up making the postseason. And while I suppose it was inevitable that the ending to one team's regular season would really mean the end of the entire year for them, I never would have imagined it might be the Blackhawks—just one year removed from having won the Stanley Cup, no less.

And sure, while the 'Hawks are sitting in second place in their division at the moment I type this (and have also won four in a row), it's that time of the year when the newspaper begins publishing the standings according to the conference rankings that would determine playoff seedings. And today, the Blackhawks would currently be in ninth—on spot short of qualifying.

Now admittedly, only five points separate the No. 4 Phoenix Coyotes from the No. 11 Anaheim Ducks, so there's certainly the possibility that a strong fourth quarter to the season could catapult the Blackhawks considerably higher in the playoffs.

But at the same time, it's also feasible that with three-quarters of the season having gone by with often mediocre hockey, the defending champions might be hanging up their skates after the 82nd game and not playing again until next year's campaign begins.

2011 Oscar Predictions: The Last GIFbender

First, off laying out this post has been nothing short of a total pain in the ass. Here's hoping it was worth the trouble. Perhaps I would have been better off just using one of the many available GIFs of co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco, but after seeing the collection here and developing this layout idea, I had to try and get it done. So while I'm sure there's inevitable going to be some sort of spacing issue to frustrate me after these picks are done being typed out, who really cares. I would've broken this segment into a couple paragraphs as well, but that just would've meant more complications and at this point, we just don't have time. The ceremony's only a few hours from now and, after all, I've still got contests to enter. And in the long run, it's going to be the results of those predictions that I'll be incorporating into future posts. Although maybe I'll learn something from this year's attempt to coincide with the nominees and never fucking do it again. Anyway, on to the picks—which in case you forgot how I score this thing after all is said and done, is based upon the NFL confidence pool system in which the top pick and most confident of the 24 categories is worth 24 points, second-most is worth 23, and so on all the way down to least confident being worth only one point (For the record, the scores based on this system and picks posted on BMC were 277 252 [18/24] last year, 293 268 [18/24] in 2009, and 248 [17/24] way back in 2006—and no, I don't know why I didn't post picks in 2007 or 2008, but I'll go out on a limb and guess I was probably too drunk).

Here's the picks I'm entering in any contest I get the chance to enter:

My 2011 Oscar Ballot: Another pretty good year

Unlike when I did this last year, I was actually able to see all 10 of the films nominated for Best Picture before the show. It doesn't really make all that much of a difference—or, I guess we'll find out if it influences some of my predictions or not this Sunday—but purely for shits & giggles, this is now the annual part of the year in which I offer up how I would've filled out my own Best Picture ballot if I were a voting member of the Academy.

Last year I somehow stumbled upon what the ballot actually looked like, and while I didn't see a similar image floating around the internets this season, I don't think it was too difficult to recreate on my own. As a result, what you see there to the left, to me, doesn't look too dramatically different from the style last year. If I come across a legitimate copy of the ballot in the next couple days, maybe I'll change it, but I don't really see what difference it would make.
 
Anyway, I suppose that my cynical view of this year would be that no film really jumped out at me as the one I just flat-out loved immediately after viewing it. However, I did once again enjoy a majority of the movies—and unlike last year, at least this season we didn't have a nominee as wretchedly awful as The Blind Side. So once again, the 10 nominees are all, at the very least, worthwhile films—which is rather amazing when I think back to how often there were only five nominees and I inevitably found at least one's nomination every year to be rather baffling.

Again, this is not meant to be a prediction in any sense, just a matter of how I would rank the films if given the chance. Feel free to offer up your own rankings of the 10 films in the comments section if you're so inclined. Below the jump, I'll offer up links to my reviews and shed a little insight into how I ended up with the order I did—which was based mostly on the hypothetical situation being that all 10 DVDs were laid out in front of me and the order in which I'd put them in the player:

Movie Review: 127 Hours

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow orange (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "127 Hours," originally released September 4, 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival.

Movie Review: Winter's Bone

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "Winter's Bone," originally released January 21, 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival.

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "Toy Story 3," originally released June 12, 2010 at the Taormina Film Festival.

Movie Review: True Grit

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "True Grit," originally released December 14, 2010 in New York City.

Movie Review: Inception

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "Inception," originally released July 8, 2010 in London.

Final Thoughts on 2010 NFL Season: Steps forward and back

I should be enjoying the fact that in recent years, the Super Bowl has actually resembled more of a football game than it did when I was growing up and the spectacle was almost always an annual one-sided blowout. So while I wasn't particularly thrilled with either team in this year's contest, I do admit to rooting for the Packers based upon:

a) Not wanting to see Ben Roethlisberger emerge victorious and inevitably lead to many storylines about "all he's overcome" this season (*cough* ESPN *cough*).

b) Knowing that a Green Bay win ties Aaron Rodgers with Brett Favre for Super Bowl titles, and that's gotta be eating the old man up from wherever he was watching the game.

Oh, and I picked the Packers. That too. Anyway, this being the final football post of the year though, it's time to look back at how things went from the prognosticating standpoint this year.

Movie Review: The Kids Are All Right

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "The Kids Are All Right," originally released January 25, 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival.

Movie Review: The Social Network

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "The Social Network," originally released September 24, 2010 at the New York Film Festival.

Movie Review: The King's Speech

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "The King's Speech," originally released September 6, 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival.

Things I made while offline: Dirk Nowitzki

Because this blog will be dominated by football-related content for the next five months, your author has decided to make an effort to regularly post pictures his lovely and talented sister took of some of his artwork. These posts will include a brief thought or two about when the piece was made. 

This week: A pencil & charcoal collage of images of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

Super Bowl XLV Pick: Nobody cares about the weather

I guess that when it was first announced that this year's Super Bowl would be held in Dallas, many people immediately worried that it could end up being the Cowboys playing in the title game at The House Jerry Built. But I highly doubt many of us were thinking that instead of having that nightmare scenario, we'd instead end up with sportswriters complaining about having to put up with—prepare yourself!—snow.

Oh, the horrors of covering the Super Bowl in weather not ideal for golfing! Seriously, Yahoo's Les Carpenter is one fine example of these bitches, and if he can't endure a little bad weather then let him never cover any game again.

Most of us average types are of course more interested in watching the actual game than whining about the lack of sunshine, so let's get back to talking about what actually matters tomorrow.

Movie Review: The Fighter

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "The Fighter," originally released December 10, 2010.

Movie Review: Black Swan

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "Black Swan," originally released September 1, 2010 at the Venice Film Festival.