Pain and Gain: 7/10

Pain and Gain is a true story that was seemingly meant to be adapted into a Michael Bay movie. It has all the Miami sex, drugs, and rock n' roll violence required to satisfy a director that has seen his best work remain stuck in the 90s. It is a roughhouse movie that keeps no prisoners, has no heroes, has no winners, and ultimately gives you a sweet and sour taste in your mouth. The fact that all the macabre being true events gives it its sourness, but the underlying spoofing and parodying of the religion of the American Dream gives Pain and Gain its bite that elevates it beyond anything Bay has made since Bad Boys II---another movie that has the similar aftertaste.

Back in the mid-90s, a charismatic bodybuilder (Mark Wahlberg) creates a plan to recruit a couple people to extort richer clients out of all their money. And even though the plan had many holes, the plan actually goes through because of a surprising series of events. Without spoiling too much, as time progresses the holes to the original idea get bigger, even as they attempt to take their gang lifestyle to the next level. But just like in the real story, the movie takes an extremely ugly turn as our anti-heroes dwell deeper into more sinister territory.

What keeps the movie going and remaining entertaining despite the bitter tone is the intriguing storyline and the sharp (surprisingly) direction by Michael Bay—who learned to not take everything so seriously. Through an intriguing blend of shots and quick-cuts, Pain and Gain flows through zany moment to zany moment while delivering the Michael Bay touch that sometimes works (Bad Boys) and sometimes doesn't (All Transformers movi1es). And even though the main characters were not likable in the least, their scenario and downward spiral to evil definitely deserves a viewing.

While it became quite odd to take such a notorious and despicable act of violence by three deranged and truly desperate men and transform it into a satire of the American Dream and the pursuit of happiness through religion and the seven deadly sins, that's just a part of the mixed packaging of Pain and Gain. While it is hard to want to dwell deeper into a film with rape jokes and random gratuitous nudity, there is an underlying message about the pure selfishness and ignorance that might follow you while pursuing success. Layers in a Bay film never ever happen, but with a story as gruesome as the Sun Gym Gang, it really leaves you wanting an explanation for why all the madness happened.

Pain and Gain isn't just any cut-and-paste true crime tale because of the background content alone. While it lacks the Goodfellas likability, it still delivers an entertaining story that contains the rancorous taste of a Coen Brothers crime drama. This movie will entertain and might even leave you thinking, even if you may not like what you are seeing on the screen.

Flight: 5/10

Somewhere in Flight, there is a good movie waiting to pop out. Unfortunately, we never really got to see it. What could have been a nice display of the unraveling and the unveiling of an assumed hero becomes the typical drama about a broken man---except with an exhilarating turbulence sequence. Although the acting was fine and the directing was spot-on, the editing was convoluted and the movie was a bit lengthier than necessary.

Denzel Washington is one of the most dependable actors arguably in the history of film. So of course, he is the outstanding factor on this film, and kept the movie from becoming too unbearable. He is supported by a great staff that includes the also-reliable John Goodman, Don Chedele, and Kelly Reilly. The movie may have the Lifetime feel, but definitely doesn’t have the similar acting. During the darkest moments of the film, the staff delivers and deserves all the accolades it can get.

If anything hampers the acting, it’s partially the writing but mostly the editing. What really prevents Flight from becoming something special is that it reveals all its cards before having a chance to bluff. Detail scattered in the first third of the movie could have been hidden to not only subtract some predictability but could have also added some suspense and mystery into the movie. Knowing where Flight was going to go just a dozen minutes in was not a good sign.

In terms of writing, you must always be one step ahead of the audience, must always have a decent trick up your sleeve if the story ever lingers. Flight being over 120 minutes and already treading down a familiar road from the getgo, there was no way the decent directing from the amazing Robert Zemeckis or the great Best Actor nominated performance of Washington could save this from being a bit of a bore. By the time we get to the finish line, the Zs will start developing in your system. When the most thrilling and most entertaining sequence of the movie occurs within the first half hour and three half hours to go, we have a problem.




Mayday mayday, this movie is going down.

ESPN and NBA: A Love Affair

So a funky thing is happening in ESPN right now. It is absolutely irritating and is quite strong enough to be pointed out. This article was ultimately inspired by an article by the usually-reliable Bill Simmons when he claimed that the basketball game that featured the Bulls ending the winning streak of the Heat was the greatest regular season game of all-time.


That does it.



I am calling you out ESPN, I honestly am.

ESPN, you folks are caring more and more about basketball, neglecting the other sports not because of a so-called resurgence of the NBA, but because your company that runs you has full authority on the NBA Finals and access to most of the major basketball games. And while before it led to a few jabs and a few jokes, we are now seeing a rather dangerous pampering and protecting of the National Basketball Association that’s reached levels I’d never imagine.

I noticed the potential special treatment when your network was extremely quiet about the referee gambling situation (that led to the utter destruction of the extremely fun Sacramento Kings back in the early 2000s), even though it was a scandal that should have been approached and referenced constantly because of its destruction of a former dearly loved franchise known as the Sacramento Kings. The Kings should have gone into the NBA Finals back in 2002 as they were the better team in the latter half of that Western Conference Finals series. By the end of this year, they might lose the Kings altogether, while the NBA remains intact and incident-free because the leading network in sports news didn’t do much in covering the story of illegal gambling.

And now we have come to this season in which you can’t escape the NBA talk. It’s atrocious. The Super Bowl even calmly got supplemented underneath the marketing train of the NBA. Spring Training and the spectacular (Too many amazing moments to count) World Baseball Classic tournament got pushed to the side because ESPN was too busy trying to promote its NBA brand on the path to the NBA Finals----which will once again be broadcasted by the brother network ABC.

And good luck trying to escape and avoid the LeBron/MJ talk, and Lord only knows what will happen if LeBron and the Heat get that second title. What strikes me more is that they are two totally different players in terms of position, style, and technique. The 50th birthday of Michael Jordan was just a pure attack on the senses, dedicating an entire freakin’ week (seemingly a month) on the man’s birthday. Perhaps the most disgusting display was an entire Sportscenter presentation on just his shoe brand. Every, single, time, LeBron pulls off something we have to compare him to the greats, even though his path still doesn’t quite compare to that of Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan because the circumstances are different and he doesn’t have a rival. And P.S., Magic and Jordan never dreamed of joining forces with other superstars when the going got tough.

We can’t escape the talk about rivalries left and right and all over the place----when truthfully the only rivalries that currently exist are Lakers/Celtics, Knicks/Nets, Lakers/Clippers (Although that Heat/Bulls one may hold some merit if they meet in the playoffs). For the last time, LeBron and Durant do not hate each other; they are good friends that actually train together. Against ESPN’s best wishes, we are not seeing hated rivalries developing, no matter how much you try to spin this. You don’t see any attempts to make a rivalry out of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in Major League Baseball. The only true player rivalry I see in the NBA is Shaq’s odd decision to pick on Dwight Howard in a monthly basis, and ESPN blowing it out of proportion. Stop it.

ESPN, stop it. Stop the massive overhype. Stop the constant building on non-stories. Stop exaggerating the success of certain players. There. Are. Other. Sports. Stop trying to make us care so much about the NBA. Let the public become interested, don’t spoon feed so much of it to us.

I’m getting sick.

Why Magic fans should become Nuggets fans

Has this season of the Orlando Magic been a total disaster?


Yes and no.


On one hand, we have one of the weaker records in all of the NBA, in the history of the organization, and pretty much from the beginning showed no threat towards the Eastern Conference, even if the darn thing is layers weaker than the Western Conference (Let’s be serious, Carmelo Anthony is leading the Knicks into the top 4, that’s a sign right there). We lost to Dwight Howard’s Lakers at home, we didn’t make history by ending the Heat’s streak, and worst of all was the abysmal, disappointing, and downright treacherous trade of J.J. Reddick.And do remember, injuries absolutely killed any momentum we could have had---our start consisted of .500 basketball before people started getting hurt.


But on the other hand:

We have a good young core that’s a couple years of experience away from being a formidable threat. We have a coach whose optimism has actually sparked the late quarter rallies and will also improve greatly with experience. We have a fanbase that didn’t exactly crumble in a way that was expected—even though the loss of Reddick probably affected us more than Howard. We have a future; it doesn’t look as abysmal as say the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets, the Sacramento Kings, or the totally unlucky Minnesota Timberwolves. The momentum may start to build next season when the players are more aware of their roles or perhaps when the injuries stop mounting and hounding us.


And now I have a major plea: stop trying to get basketball stars. Stop going after the LeBrons, the Carmelos, the Duncans, the Chris Pauls, the Howards, we just have to stop as soon as possible and not ever start up this strategy ever again. We need to adopt the Denver Nuggets strategy, we need as a fanbase to totally root for this team riding a great winning streak and holding a #3 seed in the roundhouse kick of a conference known as the West. We need to root for them to at least hit the NBA Finals without a major star, without much fanfare, consisting of a good group of guys that can win backed by an incredible coach.



Name 5 players on the Denver Nuggets. Name their star player. I thought so. This is a ragtag team with a variety of great players lacking the star power for the commercials and are a few steps away from becoming the best team not named the Oklahoma City Thunder. And they have been doing stuff like this for the past couple seasons---after getting rid of Carmelo Anthony. 90-52 in the past two seasons, Post-Carmelo Anthony. This team has been proving that you don’t need to have a star or a major leader to enter the playoffs and become a threat. Technically, the Nuggets exited the first round only once with Carmelo. Now, they have a true-blue chance to reach the Western Conference finals with the Clippers and Grizzlies slipping a little.


The Orlando Magic has always been a fantastic team in terms of acquiring great role playing talent. The Pistons that almost won back to back championships in the mid-2000s consisted of several ex-Magic players. That Heat player that nailed all those threes in the clinching game against the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals? Mike Miller, who had his start with the Magic. The Lakers player that burned the Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals? Trevor Ariza….another ex-Magic player. Potential 6th Man Award might go to Matt Barnes of the Los Angeles Clippers who had a great run with…….the Orlando Magic. If you sit there and analyze, lots of lower-key players came to Orlando and left Orlando and became good acquisitions elsewhere. If we simply did a better job in focusing our future on these players as opposed to stars, maybe we would see a better chance of being a truly successful franchise.


After all, we saw the likes of Shaq, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Grant Hill, Rashard Lewis, and now Dwight Howard ultimately burn us (sometimes unintended) badly after years of depending on them to turn us around. And yes we did sometimes achieve great success, but they were usually short-lived and always came with questions. Even success with Howard (when the 2009-2010 team became arguably the best we had ever seen) came with some doubt because of his refusal to sign that darn contract to remain in Central Florida.


It is simple: we need to stop chasing after stars. We need to focus more on developing a team that can look threatening on paper without that one guy that everyone knows. We are not Miami. We are not New York. We are not L.A. We are not Texas. We are a state with constant competing fanbases, we are a city with not as much to offer as the bigger cities, and ultimately we aren’t as attractive a draw as your popular cities around the nation. We need to be realistic. Players sign with certain teams for the lifestyle as well as the money. Orlando is a wonderful place to live in, but we don’t appeal to the basketball players in the NBA right now. It can’t be coincidence that every single time big-time players can see an opportunity to go elsewhere they take it.


So it leads us to the Denver Nuggets current status as one of the 5 best teams in the NBA. We should root for them to go far. We should root for them to take down the attractive franchises like the Lakers and the Clippers. We should want to see them get close to the title. Because ultimately, we would benefit more to become like them. The Magic historically are more entertaining, more likable, and more durable when we surround ourselves with underrated talent. The 2009 team was successful primarily because of role players like Cortney Lee, Rafer Alston, and Hedo Turkoglu.


If the Nuggets win or go far, maybe the upper management would be less inclined to save money, sacrifice fan favorites like J.J. Reddick, and attempt to go after stars like Chris Paul, LeBron James, and maybe even younglings like Anthony David and Kylie Irving down the road. I see our flailing team and believe it or not I can see a future. Even if there are no icons. Even if their names aren’t household names. We can truly be Magical, as long as we shoot for the moon as opposed to the stars. Magic fans, let’s root for the Denver Nuggets. They are the team we could have been many times in the past decade, and they are the team that we can still become in the coming years.




Go Nuggets.