2007 Lists

The end of the year seems to prompt everyone to write all sorts of different "best of" and "worst of" lists. I figured I'd do the same thing. However, for many of these, I prefer to use the term "my favorite," since that is really all anyone's list is. Who is to say a movie is "better" than another movie? Anyway...

MY FIVE FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2007

I need to preface this by saying that since the little addition to our family came along in March, my movie attendance rate has plummeted a staggering amount. I almost never get to the theatre anymore, which means that I have not seen most of the late-year awards bait flicks that will grace most other "best of" lists. Netflix is now my dear friend. So...

5. Ratatouille. It's smart, it's cute, it's fun, and, as all Pixar movies do, it looks phenomenal. I've only watched it once so far and my only quibble is that it feels about 10-15 minutes too long. However, it's already in the collection and I eagerly look forward to watching this with A.J. in the not-too-distant future.

4. Live Free or Die Hard. Maybe it's because I was able to keep my expectations low, but this flick totally delivered on every level. If you're going to see a Diehard movie in 2007, this is exactly what you're looking for. Sure, some of the action set pieces go ridiculously over the top in the third act (*cough* JET *cough*) but it didn't detract from my enjoyment at all. Thank you, John McClane.

3. Superbad. And this actually might be #1, but I need to see it a few more times and see how its rewatchability compares to the top choice on my list. But this is a hilarious movie. Absolutely genius. I'm just happy that we live in a world where a movie like this can make $100 million. There's not enough good I can say about Judd Apatow and the movies he is involved with right now. He is making the world a better, funnier, more enjoyable place.

2. The Bourne Ultimatum. This is potentially the only trilogy in which each subsequent movie is better than the last one. Despite not getting to see it in the theatre, my expectations were really high and it came through on all levels. The story is compelling, the direction and editing is flawless, and Matt Damon is just so great it's ridiculous. His Jason Bourne is truly one of the great characters of the new millennium. Bourne would kick Jack Bauer's ass before that CTU flunky had a chance to whip out his uber-PDA and text for help. Bourne would pummel James Bond, to answer a question that apparently was posed to Damon frequently on the press junket circuit. Hell, Bourne could even take Batman. I see him ripping off the Dark Knight's cowl and beating him senseless before he knew what hit him. This is a guy who kicks ass with a rolled-up magazine, for god's sake, and completely makes you buy it. Long live Jason Bourne.

1. Knocked Up. Apatow again, naturally. I love this movie. I love that Seth Rogen can be the leading man in a huge box office success. I love Apatow's entire stable of go-to guys, including Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill. I love Katherine Heigl, although I love her a little bit less after her ridiculous negative comments about her experience on this blockbuster smash movie. I give this one the #1 slot because I think it will hold up and remain a movie that I revisit again and again.

NOT IN MY FIVE FAVORITE MOVIES:

300. Yeah, it looks cool. That's it. Tepid script, cardboard characters, and terrible acting-slash-horrible direction choices. Thoroughly underwhelming.

Ocean's 13. They're killing me with these sequels. It's not as atrocious as 12, thank god, but it comes nowhere near the perfection of the original. I had high hopes for this--Julia Roberts thankfully gone, Pacino as a baddie, a screenplay by the "Rounders" guys...and yet it falls painfully flat. Either this franchise is done, or 14 will have to be something incredible. I don't know which I want at this point.

Ghost Rider. AWFUL. Yes, I am complaining about the quality of a movie in which Nic Cage plays a comic book character who rides a motorcycle while his head bursts into a flaming skull. Somehow, they managed to cock this up enough to make it boring. This was a Netflix rental and I almost couldn't get through it. I think I watched an "extended" edition, and that only made matters worse. This was my worst movie watching experience of 2007.

MY FIVE FAVORITE HOUR LONG SCRIPTED TV SHOWS OF 2007

5. Lost. Season three was a vast improvement over the maddening season two. I just re-watched season three again (thanks, Netflix) and I really enjoyed it the second time around...maybe even more than through the first run. I picked up little bits and pieces I may have missed and it also looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-Ray. The big twist in the season finale is brilliant and I really can't wait to see what they have in store for season four.

4. The Sopranos. I loved the ending. I also think that Tony survived. I think I'm in the minority on both counts.

3. Chuck. I raved about this show pretty early on and I'm sticking with that call, as it is easily my favorite new show. I love everything about it, actually. I really hope that the strike doesn't do anything to mess this up, as NBC really needs to keep this one around.

2. Dexter. I had my concerns about season two, but the show completely delivered, taking the story in unpredictable directions and making the lead character even more interesting in the process. If you have never watched the show, start with the season one DVD. I hear that CBS is going to run an edited version of season one and I just cannot see how this show has any chance to succeed under those circumstances, on network TV. Clearly the strike is making people desperate, but I see no good coming of this. Don't watch that version, and don't let anyone else do it either. Hold out for the real thing.

1. Studio 60 (RIP). It's still hard for me to come to grips with the fact that this got canned after one season. Look around at some of the stuff that's on right now. And I don't even mean the reality shows, although those are getting more ridiculous than ever, and we're seemingly just weeks away from seeing some of the stuff in "The Running Man" come true. Climbing for Dollars, anyone? But honestly, this show was just too good. It got better in the spring, and ended on a beautiful roll...and NBC still bagged it. Smart writing, an amazing cast, great acting, compelling characters, engrossing stories...I just don't get it. How did this "fail?" I'm pained.

MY FIVE FAVORITE SCRIPTED HALF HOUR TV SHOWS OF 2007

5. Curb Your Enthusiasm. All told, this was probably Curb's weakest season and it still ranks as one of the funniest shows on TV. Larry hosted a family of hurricane survivors (named the Black family, of course) and while I wasn't sure if this was a device that could last a whole season, it worked very well. The season finale was especially solid.

4. Entourage. Once again, not its best season. But still thoroughly entertaining. The premiere was shot like a behind-the-scenes documentary during the making of Medellin and I really thought that was a cool idea done well. However, there were way too many side plots about Ari's family. Nobody tuning in wants a B story about his kids' private school, sorry.

3. Californication. Wildly entertaining. Duchovny really goes for it and he is incredibly fun to watch. I have no idea what they have planned for a second season, but I'm just happy that there is going to be one.

2. The Office. In hindsight, starting off this fall with a series of super-sized episodes was a terrible choice. First, they could have done regular half hours and had more fresh shows ready with the strike looming. Secondly, and more importantly, the hour-longs were just bloated and not as funny. It's still a brilliant show, but a couple of missteps knock it down to #2.

1. 30 Rock. I didn't watch this from the start, but once I picked up season one on DVD I was absolutely hooked. Tina Fey is great and Alec Baldwin is ridiculously funny. This show is great and it keeps getting better.

MY FIVE FAVORITE UNSCRIPTED SHOWS OF 2007

5. Survivor
4. The Biggest Loser
3. Rock of Love With Bret Michaels (maybe the most ridiculous show on TV)
2. Dinner: Impossible
1. The Amazing Race
honorable mention, since it is a game show: Duel. Loved it.

MY FAVORITE POKER ACHIEVEMENTS OF 2007

I didn't really play a lot of serious poker in 2007, so I only have two even worth mentioning: I won a 90 man No Limit tournament on Full Tilt early in the year, and I made the final table and cashed in the only live tourney I played all year, at the Gold Strike in Tunica.

MY FIVE FAVORITE SPORTS MOMENTS OF 2007

5. The Chatham Bluefish win the SWBA. Okay, you probably missed this one, since the team and the league aren't actually real. So here's the story (geek alert): it is a computer simulation baseball league that I'm in using software called Diamond Mind, which is an incredibly realistic baseball sim program. I joined the league five years ago, taking over a mediocre team and rebuilding it entirely. This is a hardcore league, with tough rules for bad teams since every team gets to keep their entire roster from one year to the next. So for five years, I have been building this team through the draft, selecting rookies such as Kevin Youkilis and Jonathan Papelbon. This year it all came to fruition, as my hand-crafted club stormed through the regular season with 110 wins, and then fought through three epic postseason series to claim the crown. It was awesome.

4. ASU football wins ten games under new coach Dennis Erickson. I really think he can take us to the next level, and this was a great first step.

3. The Boston Celtics become relevant again and roar out to the best start in the league.

2. The Red Sox win the World Series. Wow. How can this possibly only be number two?

1. The New England Patriots have the greatest season and the best football team OF ALL TIME. 16 down, three to go.

MY THREE FAVORITE ROAD TRIPS OF 2007

3. Arizona in September for ASU-CU. I was there for about 36 hours but I had a blast.

2. Las Vegas in October for Kev's surprise wedding. A great time with great friends.

1. The Whiffleball shoot in Chatham, May-June. One of the best months of my life.

That's probably enough lists. 2007 was quite a year.

Haven't been feeling bloggy

I haven't been feeling too bloggy lately because I've been consumed with editing Whiffleball, planning for a Vegas trip, and watching the Sox and Pats dominate. I plan to write long blogs on each of those topics in the near future, but here are some quick hits until then:

ALCS: Sox will win, and win a lot more easily than most people think.

Pats-Cowboys: I don't know if this is a Super Bowl preview, but I do know that watching Tony Romo toss five picks against Buffalo makes me feel pretty good. Pats by double digits.

Vegas was great. Shocking. I'm still catching up on sleep and piecing together some questionable decision making--thankfully, not by me--but, wow...what a great town.

And last but certainly not least, here is a recent shot of AJ modeling something from his fall collection.

Movie Camp - part two

So where were we? Pre-production on Whiffleball. In our case, this consisted of a couple of days to run around town, frantically locking down a couple of locations, buying some props and equipment, and doing what little we could to prepare for the shoot. As usual, we didn't have nearly enough time or enough money, but that didn't stop us. Before we knew it the cameras were rolling--we started a day early, in fact, in order to incorporate a ridiculous storm that blew through town.

Memories of the shoot are almost a blur at this point, but what stands out more than anything is the collaborative attitude demonstrated by everyone involved in the movie. A typical day would have us up early to shoot, while anyone not involved with the first scenes of the day would be helping prepare in any way they could. The garage became our prop shop and it wasn't uncommon to enter it at any time of the day or night and find a half a dozen people (all unpaid) at work on various stuff, ranging from hand painted scoreboard tiles to an insanely elaborate mascot costume. Meanwhile, everyone also helped lug equipment, cook meals, and do anything and everything that helped us reach the cinematic finish line.

We had some hiccups along the way, including an equipment breakdown that made our lives harder, some less than ideal weather on certain days, and enough neighborhood annoyances and distractions to drive us all to drink...honestly, how much landscaping do these people really need?!? We ran over schedule by a few days and only made that by drastically cutting some scenes...and yet, despite all of that, we feel great about what we shot. We're not sure exactly what it will end up being, but we know we've got "something." It was an incredible experience.

I'm editing a quick first trailer as we speak, so that will be the first glimpse of "Whiffleball" for just about everyone. After that, the rest of the summer will be spent on editing the movie itself. Our plan is to take it out to L.A. sometime in the fall and go from there.

Movie Camp - part one

It seems like ages ago that I set out from Little Rock at 5 AM, bound for Brooklyn in one shot en route to our final destination of Chatham, Massachusetts, in "the elbow" of scenic Cape Cod to shoot our no-budget wiffleball epic titled, appropriately enough "Whiffleball." The trip from Little Rock to Brooklyn was as uneventful as I could have hoped for. Key components at making the 20-odd hour drive manageable in one solo run included a huge thermos of Na'Nan's trademarked New Orleans style cold brewed Cafe du Monde iced coffee, a small cooler packed with a few healthy snacks to get me started, a cheesy five disc Star Wars book-on-CD that picks up with the adventures of Darth Vader at the conclusion of the events of Episode III--complete with a decent facsimile of Vader's booming voice and sound effects to boot--and, probably most importantly, a loan of my parents' fantastic plug-and-use GPS navigation system. I simply punched in Mike Poignand's address in New York and literally never looked back. Some late night roadwork in Pennsylvania slowed me down a bit so tantalizingly close to my arrival spot, but it was a minor hiccup in an otherwise very successful, long day.

Mike thoughtfully checked in for frequent updates as I made the stretch run to his fabulous new condo. I finally arrived sometime around 1 or 2 AM locally, thanks to what must have been a rather circuitous route that the GPS selected for me on the smaller side streets in Mike's neighborhood. He had a frosty, delicious Sam Adams White Ale waiting for me--a flavor I had never tried and could not have enjoyed more. We had a couple, chatted for a bit, watched the last night's "Entourage" episode on demand, and hit the hay relatively early in anticipation of our trip up to Chatham the next day.

Before we knew it, we'd be knee-deep in an all-too-brief, frantic period of pre-production...

Almost time to go

Okay, I haven't blogged in ages because A) I have a baby now, and apparently they actually require a pretty big time commitment, B), it's baseball season, which means I'm watching the Sox and playing lots of Diamond Mind, and C), it's crunch time for pre-production on Whiffleball. I leave on Monday to drive up to Chatham, via Brooklyn, where I'll be picking up co-star and co-producer extraordinaire Michael Poignand. Anyway, this will be a big, rambling blog hitting on lots of topics in no particular order.

TV: Did anyone happen to catch that show Drive on FOX? I loved it...so, naturally, FOX cancelled it after three episodes. Honestly, they couldn't possibly have done anything more to give this show no chance at success: for starters, they premiered it in April, when most things on the air are ramping up toward their season finales. That's terrible call number one. Then, they show the premiere on a Sunday night--horrible decision number two. Finally, they follow up the premiere two-parter with another episode the very next night. Now, I was anticipating this show literally more than anyone I know and this absurd scheduling even managed to screw me up, as I forgot to TiVo the Monday night ep right after the premiere. I even downloaded it from iTunes so I could watch it all. So there you go, FOX. Enjoy your cut of my 99 cents. This network is becoming an absolute joke.

So let's move on to happier TV stories. NBC has ordered half a dozen scripts for Friday Night Lights, and although that certainly isn't quite a rining endorsement for the show's future, at least it's something. HOWEVER (spoiler alert), I didn't like how they ended season one. Really, the only way to write it was to have Dillon lose the championship game. This would fit the tone of the show and it would give Coach Taylor real motivation to stay in town and finish what he started. I can see letting them win if the producers knew that the show had been or was going to be cancelled--fine, end it on a happy note. But where do they go from here now? Who knows. I just hope NBC gives us a chance to find out.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the return of Studio 60. If NBC has a clue, they should renew the show for another season immediately, as how the show fares now really has no bearing on anything. It's been off the schedule for weeks and they are throwing it back on late, on a different night, so what do they expect? Maybe it will do great numbers on Thursday, but that shouldn't be the deciding factor on if it returns. Just renew it already. It's a brilliant show.

I'm loving this season of The Sopranos and I honestly have no idea how it is going to end...and I love that. There isn't much out of the realm of possibility at this point: Tony in jail, Tony turns state's evidence, Tony gets killed by someone from New York, Tony gets it from someone in his own crew (Christopher???)...who knows. I can't wait to see how it all ends.

So, the Red Sox are pretty good. I thought that everything was in place for them to get out to a hot start and for the Yankees to flounder and that's exactly what has happened. I don't think that our out-of-this-world pitching can be expected to keep up this pace--a team ERA of 3.28 in the AL East is just ungodly--but clearly the staff is in good shape from top to bottom. Beckett has turned the corner and Okajima is the second great bullpen arm that we've been missing since...well, since Mike Timlin was younger and better. When the weather warms up our hitting will get even better, so all in all I'm really, really happy with how things look right now. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens has all but cemened the fact that his plaque in Cooperstown should have a dollar sign on the cap. And to think that I talked myself into getting excited for the happy ending if he signed with us. My bad. He remains nothing more than a greedy villain in pinstripes. When October rolls around enjoy coming up short once again, Rocket.

The baby and the movie

I could be a dad any day now. I had to stop and read that sentence again, as it is still sinking in nearly nine months later. All is going well, and all indications are that the baby could arrive any day now, or he could hold off for a few more weeks. Personally, I think it's the latter, but I'm not really basing that on anything. But the waiting process is getting weird, because there are so few times in life that something happens in which you have absolutely no experience or frame of reference. Usually, anything anyone does is at least similar to something else...but not this. I can't wait.

I'm also directing another movie this spring. Beth has graciously given me the green light to take a few weeks so the Chatham Light Productions boys and I are headed up to Cape Cod to shoot our comedy called "Whiffleball." It's another no-budget, guerilla production and we're really looking forward to it. Right now we're just about 100% locked on the script and we're knee deep in pre-production which, in our case, means trying to take care of any single detail that we can handle without actually being in Chatham to do so...which is pretty tough. We've got several of the major roles cast but we also have a few key parts still up for grabs, with no obvious candidates in the mix. We've also got some locations to secure, wardrobe and props to acquire, and a schedule to make. It's actually been nice to have this to occupy my brain and keep me from wondering when the baby will arrive. But we're now just shy of two months out from when we start shooting and all of the little things need to start falling into place. So if you're going to be around Cape Cod in mid-May, give me a shout. We can use some extras.