Hustle Review

By Paul Anthony

I have to admit that I don’t watch many sports drama films and I have to admit at times I try to avoid anything with Adam Sandler in it. Because at times it seems like he keeps hanging on his style of comedy that people just grow up from, but he doesn’t grow from. But the trailers caught my attention for some odd reason, and I had to watch it. The film has a mix of real actors and NBA stars either playing themselves or playing characters. Besides starring Adam Sandler and Queen Latifah, the film also stars Ben Foster, Robert Duvall and Jaleel White. Now with the NBA players in this film you have Juancho Hernangomez as the lead Bo Cruz, Anthony Edwards as Kermit Wilts. The film was released on June 8th and was 117 minutes long and it was released on Netflix.

The plot of the film shows Sandler as Stanley Sugerman a scout for the 76ers who travels the road to scout out fresh talent for the 76ers but the road life takes a toll not only on him but his family as well, until finally he is promoted to assistant coach which will have him home more with his family, but owner dies, and the team is taken over his son who puts Stanley back on the road as a scout. There he sent back on the road to search for talent and when that fails another door opens and he meets Bo Cruz a young man who is a construction worker but hustles on the basketball court for extra money to help his mom and daughter live. Vincent denies Bo basically so it up to Stanely to get this kid over to America and Play ball. This dispute ends up costing Stanley his job, but he made a promise to Bo’s family, and he is determined to keep that promise though it takes a toll on him financially. Though he doesn’t tell Bo that. But Bo has competition in the draft and that comes from Kermit Wilts who is determined to prove he’s the number one overall pick and he wins the battles by getting under Bo’s skin after a number of public games it’s a private game that he gets the Upper hand and proves his skills. Its then reveals that Vincent is fire and his sister is taken over who Stanley has a great relationship with, and she rehires him as a coach and it’s revealed that Bo did make a team and that Team is Boston though Bo and Stanley remained close friends.

Wow let me start off by saying the story alone was a powering one which involves redemption and the power to thrive and overcome anything and everything that you face. This film did delver a good message and Adam Sandler now this is the Adam Sandler that I want to see more often in movies because he did in fact put on a great performance that will be remembered for years to come. I don’t know where in this this film ranks among the best sports films but I will say this and that is this film was a pretty damn good film. In the end I am saying this film was a good A or 90 percent for me and I will say that this was a must watch film.

Advertisement

Sports are back!

‪https://www.buzzsprout.com/285696/4538606-sports-are-back‬.

Remember The Titans Review

By Paul Anthony

I want to make one thing clear and that is that I didn’t pick this movie as a random movie to review and talk about no. I picked this movie to review because of the unsettling times we are in. We have this whole virus thing going around but even more importantly we have people getting killed and turning us away from each other. One of things that actually brings us together is sports. We know sports aren’t going on right now when we need them the most but I decided look for a good film that through these troubling times could help us to see that we are one and united we should stand. In our country’s history we have seen this happen from time to time. the film I have decided to review is one of my favorites and that Film is called Remember The Titans. The film was released back in 2000 and starred Denzel Washington and Will Patton as football coaches. The movie is regarded as one of the best football films of all time. The film had a budget of just 30 million and a legacy that still stands after nearly twenty years after it was released.

The Movie starts ins 1981 and we see everyone attending a funeral but we don’t know whose, at that point we go back to 1971 where the town of Alexandria Virginia where a new school is formed from ending segregation. But there is hatred of course from both sides, no one is getting along there we meet Coach Yoast who is head coach of the team but also a future state hall of famer. Herman Boone arrives to be a coach under Yoast but the board voted him the head coach to make things look good which Boone felt unfair to Yoast until he sees how much this means to the black community, at that point Boone wants Yoast to join the team under him but Yoast pride as being an head coach prevents him until the players inform him if he doesn’t coach then they will quit the team which Yoast doesn’t want them to lose scholarships because of this matter. During a team meeting Boone introduces himself to the black players which they quickly learn he’s all about winning and nothing else. The meeting is interrupted by Yoast and the white players and tell Boone he wasn’t to join but full control of the Defense. The Day comes for the players to get on the buses to training camp Boone sees that blacks went on one bus and the whites went on another bus. It annoys Boone tot the point he orders one bus be for offense and one for defense and you must sit by someone of the opposite race. The players do and Boone orders them that they must get to know each other for training camp becomes easier. He then takes them on a long jog to the battle field of Gettysburg and explains the history when black and whites stood together and died for each other and it brings the team together. After camp though their newly formed bonds are testing but survives. However Boone is informed if he loses one game he is fired and Yoast will be the coach again but the team goes 13-0 and wins the state championship. It is revealed that the funeral is that of the former team captain who help bond the team was killed by a drunk driver and the movie ends with them saying their goodbyes to his coffin.

I couldn’t agree more with calling this film one of the better football films and even to this day brought tears to me to see how powerful people can be when we are together as 1. Everything was on point and it was hard to name something I didn’t like. In the end I am calling this a must watched film and giving it a grade of an A!

Saturday Sequel Presents D2: The Mighty Ducks

By Paul Anthony

I have to admit I am missing hockey and with my beloved Penguins already basically set to be in the playoffs before this mess even happen, and with the news that the NHL does have an plan and agreement to resume action, I needed to find another hockey movie to enjoy and another fun sequel came to mind. Of course I am talking about D2: The Mighty Ducks. Which was released in March of 1994 and became a beloved hit with fans and even spawn another sequel. Now sadly I was not able to find an budget for this film but the first film was ten million and it made 50 million for a gross. Part two didn’t do bad either and came close to first films gross and that gross was around 46 million. If I would have to put number on the budget I would say around 12 to 14 million, in any case I do believe it made a decent little profit.

Anyway let’s get to the plot. The film picks up just after the offseason when the Ducks won the State Championship and their coach left to be a minor league hockey player which he was so good that he was just one step away as the announcers would say from being called up to the NHL despite only playing one season. However a dirty player decided to ruin Bombay’s career by busting up his knee which ended his career for good. So he returns home to figure out what to do next and that when a sponsor shows up to recruit him to coach Team USA with some of his Duck players and some new talent around the country. The team heads out to Los Angles California where they begin to work as a team and win games. Slowly fame goes to Bombay’s head and he begins to change the way he acts and coaches the team and when he full out changes, the team gets crushed by Iceland which has become the number 1 favorite to win it all. After losing the game and losing his team Bombay begins to find himself and realizes the only way to win is to be himself and so it begins and team USA returns to their winning ways however they meet Iceland in the finals which goes to a shootout and uniform to spark the ducks to win the shootout and game and the team returns home where they enjoy a camp fire which happens during the credits.

I don’t think this film was bad not at all actually. I think the biggest problem was that it felt like the first film all over again and I think that was the biggest problem. Some elements like the timeline with Bombay’s career didn’t make sense like how was he so ready for the NHL. Some of the cast from the first film are missing without being explained. Then at the same time too many of the Ducks were on the team and not so many were around the country. Overall though it was still a fun family film to enjoy if you and the kids are missing hockey like I am and in the end I am giving this film a B plus for a rating!

The Main Event Review

By Paul Anthony

In This review will be going over a little movie called The Main Event which is made by WWE Studios and released on Netflix. Now currently Netflix is making headlines by a another movie I which we will review at a later date. now that film is a hardcore action film, so when I describe this film I am truly saying it in a good way. When I first saw the previews I have to admit I thought this film was kind of dumb. In part the trailer showed a kid beating a and lifting a pro wrestler. Now Wrestling is already under the light because of it being staged and etc, so I figured it would hurt that sport even more because they did in fact use real wrestlers. Then I did watch the film and it explain why he was able to do what he did. Now at this point this blog does contain spoilers so you have been warn!

The movie is about an eleven year boy named Leo who gets picked on by bullies and begins to lose his confidence. Leo lives with his grandmother and father and the film reveals not only does he get picked on but also his mom left them behind forcing his dad to work two jobs to keep the house running. But one day when Leo is getting chased by bullies he stumbles a crossed a wrestler’s mask but this mask is special which when Leo puts it on he has a strength and personality of a confident wrestler. At this point he learns that WWE NXT is coming to town for a tournament and the winner gets 50,000 dollars and a WWE contract. The money is the important part because Leo’s dad needs 20,000 dollars in order to keep the house and return to working one job and can spend time with Leo. As the tournament goes on Leo becomes the talk of the town and favorite to win, which causes him to do promos and sign autographs which takes him away from his friends, which then Leo goes back to having low confidence because he realizes he loves his friends and family more than anything. In The final match his opponent steals his mask before their match, which is something he should have noticed beforehand but never mind that. When Leo learns that the mask is fake, he begins to get scared which at this time his father shows up and guides him through the cage match where he tells Leo that everyone has a weakness and his opponent’s weakness is height which Leo coaches him to climb the cage and look down which basically causes the guy to pass out and fall allowing Leo to go for the pin and the win. When they discover that Leo is just a kid which means he can not get the contract but passes it to another wrestler, Leo keeps the money and saves his family’s home.

The movie was a good family over the top film with nice feel good story which I know we all need right now. Some things were over the top even for that type of film. The comedy did fall flat and I only caught myself giving a giggle here and there. Even the acting was stiff at moments but in the end I would say this was decent family movie. With that being said I giving this film a C for a grade yes it had it’s moments but it just felt like an average film.

Bad Week for the Employees of Vince! Part 2

By Paul Anthony

Last week I did a blog on the XFL shutting down and everyone basically got fired. At this point it was clear Vince was never invested in that league as much as he was suppose to be but in this blog we are going to talk about the employees that he is truly invested in. Last week WWE laid off more than 30 people from the producers to on screen talent in order to cut cost and by that you would think that this outbreak is killing WWE. However that isn’t actually true, yes with the live events being canceled they aren’t bringing in as much money but they are like any other league and that they are still in great shape but there was reason for the cuts which we will talk about in a second.

It has been reported that WWE does have 500 million in the bank at this point to keep the company float if it ever faced some real hard times. I am guessing Vince learned this from the issues WWE faced in 90’s. So they have reserve money basically. Now Vince we all know some times can sign people and over pay them for example and Brock and Bill Goldberg contracts pay them several million dollars combine for their thirty second matches that they do for a few times a year instead of building stars and that would actually increase profits and would actually cut cost but not people that work hard for him and give up their home lives to make him money.

Now the amount of money they saved by cutting people that they did would have only used up a few percent of their reserve money for a few months and they could have easily refunded their bank account once everything returned to normal. Charts showed that even with this shutdown going, they would have still made a profit for the year yet was there something behind this more than what we are to believe? Most likely this was a move to please the investors who want keep making more and more money and Vince who wanted to please them and not touch the reserve and cater to their needs. Down right shame if you ask me that in these hard times, people who have money still want make more money.

There have been rumors that some of the people that they let go would return. Sadly everyone that was on screen still had a 90 days no complete clause in their contract. Which leaves WWE their only option for the next few months. In which WWE would bring them back. Now When things return to normal I have to wonder if wrestlers will truly want to wrestle for Vince after they saw how the hard working employees got treated through these tough times. I hope AEW continues but there also other promotions as well that will treat these wrestlers better than this. In the end of this two blogs about Vince I have to say even if you the money, you can’t trust him.

Saturday Sequel Presents Major League 2

By Paul Anthony

How is life treating you as we spend another week inside? Recently and I do mean this, MLB has been in the sports news and I nearly forgot that we are nearly two weeks into the baseball season and I realized that I am missing baseball, even though my team sucks that is besides the point in any case this was the perfect time to watch a baseball film and one that has a sequel. Only one film franchise came to mind and that was Major League which for the first two films starred Charlie Sheen. Let’s do a little recap here. The first film came out in 1989 and a was a goofy comedy which was Rated R. The film focused on the Cleveland Indians and the team owner who wants to sell the team and no longer wants to spend money on the team. With the terrible payroll the team gathers a bunch of no bodies but with a little magic, the team actually starts to win and nearly heads to the World Series. The Movie was made from an 11 million dollar budget and grossed nearly 50 million dollars. Which meant a sequel was coming but did the film live up to the legacy of the first film?

The story made sense, which I was fine with. Here in the next season the team has changed their ways since becoming a winner, Many have cleaned up their image, which includes Rick “The Wild Thing” Vaughn ditching his bad image and now is wearing a suit! Willie Mays Hays in the offseason became an actor. Pretty much the whole team now look like the classic good guys, however their focus on their image made them lose their edge in their skills at playing baseball. The evil owner sold the team to their third basemen who retired and took over the team. The season starts with the excitement that they could head to the World Series. However that soon ends when the team starts to lose badly and the fans start to turn on them and they begin to lose their way and lose fans in the stands which means the team was sold back to the previous owner and she continues her wicked ways which with a few little trades sparks the team to get their mojo back and once again the team starts winning and even makes it into the playoffs but this time they win and head to the World Series which the film never shows.

Like I said before I was okay with the story because they did have unfinish business and the film showed us how winning changed their ways but the movie had a higher budget which was 25 million, that alone was 14 million higher than the previous film but the film barely made 30 million, 20 million less than the first film. Making it more family friendly, I believe did hurt the film, look the film had grown men in it and we couldn’t get a PG-13 rating at least. I did feel like the comedy which was the main thing that made the previous movie shine was hurt by the rating. I didn’t laugh at all and felt like the jokes were cheap. In the end I am giving this film a D rating it just wasn’t there for me

 

Friday Roundabout

By Paul Anthony

Welcome to this week edition of Friday Roundabout where we run through some of the week’s headlines! let’s waste no time and start with what we saw on Thursday and that was the release of the Candyman trailer and I think the trailer made me even more curious about the film. We were once under the impression that this was going to reboot but now it is clear this film wasn’t a reboot it’s the fourth film of the series and a direct sequel to the first film. I am not the biggest fans of these new part twos because they are always all over the place with filling in the blanks but I do know I am going to see this movie.

CBS has announced that the hit show Hawaii five-O after ten years and nearly 240 episodes. Now as of right now there is no reason given for why they decided to end the show after ten years. The show managed to stay very popular and even ran longer than the original show. The Series will end in early April so say goodbye and enjoy the show well you can.

Tom Holland has been making a name for himself once he got cast as Spider-Man, he’s becoming a hot item to cast but Holland recently let it slip that at one point he was in talks to star in a reboot of Back to the Future franchise. I am glad this was just talk because I feel like rebooting that series right now is a gamble and I don’t want to see Holland take on a project that could ruin or slow down his career but thank you Holland for sharing that people do want to reboot the franchise.

Okay I have to admit I didn’t watch WWE Super Showdown because I knew it would be a waste of time and sure enough I was write. Bill Goldberg beat the Fiend for the title now if you watch WWE , you know how much people love The Fiend and how over he is with the fans since he returned with the Fiend look and only to lose to Goldberg. Now this pissed a lot of people off and even Macaulay Culkin came out and said he is canceling his plans for WrestleMania plans because of Goldberg winning the title.

We have been wonder for awhile now if we would see Jared Leto continue his role as The Joker, Well we official know the answer and that is no Leto is out as The Joker and he will be recast. Leto as the Joker was short lived and maybe even under used. The trailer for Suicide Squad had us hyped but the film itself left a bad taste in our mouth and now we are looking for anther Joker.

XFL: Review so far!

By Paul Anthony

Sport leagues that we know like NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA. Have been around for a very long time and have earn the right to be at the top and then those leagues have minor leagues to groom their young talent. Let’s look at the NFL with 32 teams and each team has 53 men that makes a total of nearly 1700 players not counting practice squad. Now we know there are clearly more people who want to play pro football when they leave college either through being drafted or graduation. Look at how big the NCAA football system really is. It’s not fair to say those who don’t make it isn’t that good enough to make it, the sad point is there isn’t enough room for everyone to make it. There has only been one other true football league and that is the AFL or Arena Football league. Last year we had the AAF which folded midway through the season and left many players without a job. At This point we knew the XFL would be starting the following year, Which gave everyone hope or at least I thought so. XFL was around once before back in 2001 but folded just after one season. 19 years later they came back but will they last more than one season and will they grow?

I wanted to wait review the season after week 2 because the second week of these new football leagues are very important because now the hype is over, things are settled down and the season is in full swing. There is no doubt AAF folded because it ran out of money and we see the AFL teams fold as well because the league has shrunk but not folded. XFL is different though and that is because they have a little more money to work with and they have been drawing decent crowds which is averaging around 15000 per game and the ratings are around 1 million per game. these numbers sound low but things take time. With more money to spend and not spending like crazy which the average player makes 1000 dollars at the lowest each week and up to 2700 for winners with a salary cap of 4 million for each team it’s something the league can afford and I do hope they give us a second season.

Ratings are important and even at 1 million per average it’s still doing better than some tv shows that networks could use to replace it. Now If the ratings dip below a certain number then it could spell doom for the league. America loves football, we see that football in any market thrives. Just look now Las Vegas has a football team and a hockey team. XFL needs to use a good 5 year plan then see what happens, which I hope they can afford it and maybe even consider playing within the NFL season when people are craving Football more at. At this point XFL is doing good for being a baby league but they will need to grow but for now let’s enjoy more Football!

Saturday Sequel Presents Goon: Last of the Enforcers

By Paul Anthony

Now that the NFL season is over I like to focus on other sports and right now it is hockey because here in Pittsburgh our hockey team is doing very well so in honor of that I wanted to watch a hockey movie and recently I just watched the first film which was called Goon. Now little did I know this movie was out since 2011 and yet I just watched it how crazy then I saw that there was a sequel and I knew I had to watch it and what did I expect? Truth is with any direct to video film you have keep it on a lower standard until you watch it. Now this film was made in 2015 but was released two years later so 6 years in between releases but nevertheless when it is a direct to video film I guess it doesn’t really matter.

I didn’t figure out when this film takes place if it was 6 years later like the release or the next season after the first film it doesn’t make that exactly clear but that is besides the point. Here we have Doug the Thug becoming his team’s captain which is a big honor for an enforcer but it is shortly lived because he gets into a fight with the other team’s goon who just happens to be Doug’s team owner, Cain beats Doug down and wins the bloody fight, which shocks everyone because Doug never loses a fight. Doug just doesn’t just lose the fight he injuries his shoulder which would make his knock out punch with his right hand weaker, this injury forces him to retire because he wouldn’t be the same. At the same time Eve his wife now finds out she is expecting which forces Doug to move on from hockey all together and get a real job as a insurance salesmen which add insult to injury his office is in the basement. Now Cain becomes a member of Doug’s team and captain after the team goes on a long losing streak. Now At first this was working because the team was wining but Cain’s fights also hurt the team and just keeps them a few games out of the playoffs. Doug however kept missing hockey and soon meets up with his old rival Ross the Boss who is basically fighting on skates. Ross agrees to train him using his left hand so he can rejoin the team to help them win. Even though now Cain and Doug would be on the same team for a short moment both get suspended and soon Cain is released from the team which means a rematch would soon happen and this time Doug wins. Doug’s team wins while he watches from the back which he sees that his time is truly done and he lays his stick down and leaves.

I did like the story overall, I do wish they would have explain the time line to help show how important Doug was to the team. The one downside of this movie was Jay’s character who was over the top but besides that it was pretty good. This movie reminded me in the days where fighting was really so important and glad that the game evolve from that point. If you are looking for a good laugh and enjoy hockey this your movie I am giving this film a good 80 percent.