Williams lands in exile?

I am a pretty big sports fan. I absolutely love the NFL, but my favorite sport since the fourth grade (the day I started playing) has been basketball.

I am not what you would call a tall person, 5'10", so throughout my basketball career I have always been a guard. So naturally, I have always gravitated towards guards in the NBA as my favorite to watch.

When I first got interested in basketball, the Chicago Bulls were on top of the world thanks to Michael Jordan. But, everyone was a Jordan fan - and if they weren't then it was most likely Scottie Pippen. I, however, noticed the short point guard who was nailing all of the 3's - B.J. Armstrong. So, for a good while, Armstrong became my favorite NBA player.

When Armstrong retired it was right around the time that a pretty exciting player was entering the league for the Sacramento Kings - Jason Williams.

I had seen Williams a few times when he played for Florida, but was not fully aware of his capabilities until his rookie season for the Kings. He was like a breath of fresh air. His moves were absolutely amazing. He was like an artist with the basketball, and could see the entire court, which made for excellent and pretty crazy passes.

Williams landed in Sacramento the same year the Kings landed Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, and for the first time in awhile Sacramento was a challenger in the NBA's Western Conference.

Williams lasted four seasons in Sacramento, the Kings started to believe that due to Williams' sometimes erratic play that he could never lead Sacramento to an NBA title - so he was traded to Memphis for Mike Bibby (who also never led the Kings to an NBA title).

While a Grizzly, Williams, along with Pau Gasol and Shane Battier, actually made the team relevant for the first time in franchise history - even winning 50 games one season and claiming the sixth seed in the playoffs. They got swept each year in those playoffs, but for a team that had never been there - they were actually respectable.

Finally, Williams was again traded, to the Miami Heat - and teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal to win his first NBA title (as a starting point guard - didn't think it could be done Sacramento?) in the 2005-06 season.

Williams has fallen on hard times as of late in the injury department, but has still been plenty productive - finishing last season 12th in steals per game and eighth in assist/turnover ratio.

The Heat, who completely fell apart last season, have decided to go in a different direction - so it was unsure whether Williams would return, or where he would end up.

I frantically have been checking the transactions, but no deals for Williams have been listed - until last night. Williams has signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Yes, the Clippers.

I am not sure how to take this. Obviously, Williams is going to be the backup point guard to newly signed Baron Davis. But, the Clippers have had like one decent season in a decade. There looks to be some promise on the roster, but are they a playoff team?

I guess we will just have to wait and see. I am happy, however, that Williams landed with another NBA team and didn't take a deal that would have him playing overseas - which was apparently offered.

Good Luck in Clipperland, Jason. I hope to see you in the playoffs.

Top 10: Marijuana Films

Due to my not really having an idea for a Top 10 on Tuesday, I skipped it. I have noticed that it is pretty hard to come up with an idea each and every week - so I have decided to curb the every week idea - and just do one when it comes to mind.

So, with the release of The Pineapple Express yesterday it got me to thinking about the stoner comedy. And with that came this Top 10 list about films that use marijuana. A few notes first, I have not seen any Cheech & Chong film, so I could not include any of them in my list. I have also limited this list to the 'dumb' comedies, so some others may not have made the list due to those guidelines.

Here is the list (in reverse order):

10) Grandma's Boy

9) Detroit Rock City

8) PCU

7) Super Troopers

6) Friday

5) Fast Times at Ridgemont High

4) Knocked Up

3) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle

2) Half Baked

1) Dazed & Confused

I have set aside a special section for the Kevin Smith movies - I could not include just one on the list, so I have made a "lifetime achievement" award or something for the films that introduced us to Jay & Silent Bob: Clerks, Clerks II, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Chasing Amy, Mallrats and Dogma.

Hancock

I found myself yesterday with a whole lot of free time and a free movie ticket. I had a basketball game at 9:45 last night and did not want to have to drive all the way home and then back again - so I went to the theater to see what movie would fit both my time schedule and was accepting the free movie passes.

So, I went to see Hancock.

I'll admit, I went in a little skeptical. A few of the reviews I had read were not too kind, but I had no other choice (and my movie ticket expired on Friday).

The movie stars Will Smith as John Hancock, a reluctant superhero who does most of his crime fighting hungover or drunk. When Hancock makes good, there is usually a large bill that the city will have to pay in order to fix all of the damage.

Hancock's reputation has been tarnished - instead of being loved by everyone, they loathe him. When along comes Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a struggling PR executive. Embrey, on his way home, get stuck on the train tracks and is saved by Hancock. Hancock, however, gets harsh criticism from the onlookers - and Embrey breaks it up by announcing that he had just saved his life.

Embrey then takes Hancock under his wing and believes he can clean up his act and make the people of the city not only long for him - but love him.

I knew that there would be a wrench thrown into the gears by reading reviews of the movie - but I was unaware exactly how it would happen. Here is where I think the movie got a little sidetracked - and those of you saw the movie know what I am talking about.

Hancock had the potential to be an excellent movie - and if there is a chance for a sequel perhaps it still could be - but the change in directions that the movie took (despite me knowing right away what was going to happen) didn't seem absolutely necessary.

The performances of both Smith and Bateman were excellent as always - Charlize Theron plays Mary Embrey, or Rey's wife and was also very good in her role.

The roles of the 'villains' almost seemed secondary to the theme of the movie - although I think the movie may have been even better with at least a viable villain.

Overall I think this movie was decent - though it had the potential to be something special. The idea was great, but I think they took a wrong turn somewhere in production. But like I said, if there are plans for sequels things could be even better because the character of Hancock was a good idea.

Grade:

12 Movie Meme

So, while I was away on vacation Nick at Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob tagged me for a 12 Movie Meme blog. The idea came from Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre, who then chose five others to participate, including Fletch at Blog Cabins, who then tagged five more, including R2D2, who tagged me.

Apparently, I am supposed to act as if I am in charge of a movie theater for a six-day period. In those six days, I am to play 12 movies in total. Here are the 'guidelines'.

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

So, I have given it some thought and did a little bit of a theme night. Here are my picks:

Monday: College Night

The greatest college movie of all-time Animal House, must launch this six-day film fest. That film would be followed by what I would consider the best college film of the 2000's, Accepted. Each film is based around a single incident, and the characters from the lead all the way through the background, each give the movie something special.

Tuesday: Family Night

Tuesday will kick-off with one of the greatest films ever made, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That will be followed by The Wizard of Oz, the mack-daddy of fairy tale stories.

Wednesday: Disaster Night

Wednesday a couple of disaster movies will be shown. The first follows a group of tornado chasers as they search for the true reasoning for a tornado in Twister. 1998 gave us a pair of comet-to-end-the-world movies in Armageddon and Deep Impact. Armegeddon received most of the notoriety due to its stars, but Deep Impact gave a more believable scenario and is my choice to wrap up Disaster Night.

Thursday: Heist Night

I have become a huge fan of the heist films when done correctly. When a group goes in to do a job with their brains instead of their fists. In both The Italian Job and Ocean's 11 the 'thieves' are always two-steps ahead of their victims - and showing exactly how they were able to get away with it is always a fun and exhilarating journey.

Friday: War Night

The Great Escape is not your typical war movie, as there isn't very many scenes that actually deal with the war. For most of the movie, a group of POW's are trying to figure out how to escape from their prison. In Saving Private Ryan, again the focus isn't on the war, but you see a whole lot of it - and in probably the most realistic view of war ever seen in film.

Saturday: Psychological Thriller Night

To complete my six-day film festival I wanted to leave the audience thinking. I enjoy films where you have to follow every last detail of the movie to understand the ending, and The Sixth Sense and The Game are both perfect examples of that. If film is supposed to be art, than each and every aspect of it should be important - and with these two they are.

So there they are, my six-day film festival. Obviously, I would have a ton more choices - I could have a year-long festival I am sure - but I feel this event would be pretty successful.

Due to my not being a full-fledged movie blog site, and that most of the blogs that I read have already done this, I am only tagging one person: Aimee at The Refutation Process. Give it a whirl, it should be fun.

Return of the Kano

It has been over a week since my last posting. I have been away on a much needed and far too short vacation.

Every other year my family gets together in the Outer Banks for a semi-family reunion. I say 'semi' because not everyone is always able to attend. This year my sister and my cousin weren't able to make it because of their jobs.

The house we rented this year was pretty nice, but definitely not as nice as the homes we had rented in previous years. I did enjoy my room and bed, however - despite not having our own bathroom (which really didn't end up being a problem). The bed was very large and comfortable, and for the hours I was able to sleep each night, I slept pretty well.

I thought the overall layout of the house was pretty nice, but a few tweaks may have made the house even better. The pool, for instance, was way too small for the size of the family we have. In years past we were able to jump into the pool, horse around - but this year you would be looking for a serious injury. In fact, I smacked my foot on the ladder once just trying to turn around in the pool.

Also, the night that we all get together two of my uncles head out for a massive grocery shopping. In years past, we have always had an extremely large fridge, or perhaps two fridges. This year, we had one medium sized fridge, which wasn't large enough for everything that we had purchased.

But, those were my only negatives of the trip - that and that it takes so long to drive there and back (more on that in the conclusion).

Kasey had a blast on his first trip to the beach. He truly has no fear - which is nice, but also scares the crap out of me. He ran right out into the ocean each time we took him to the beach. He also believes that the sand is for swimming, because he constantly did full body dives in the sand. When we were in the pool, he loved 'jumping' in to our awaiting arms. Jumping wasn't really the word, as many times it was a side step which almost smacked his butt on the pavement.

He got along really well with everyone there, and I think they all loved him as well. I have another cousin who has a son, Grayson, and my aunt has a six-month old daughter, Kelly. He got along very well with each of them - which delighted me because he doesn't get to be with young children that often.

Kasey was amazing the entire trip, and it just cements how lucky we are to have a kid like him. We had another exciting day where Erika had to go to the hospital, and was diagnosed with a kidney stone - still waiting for that to pass - but she was a trooper and didn't really let it bother her week.

It was difficult to leave as we had a very nice time there - and we both knew that work was lurking around the corner.

We left on Saturday at around 9 a.m. and traveled the entire trip home - arriving at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday. Again, Kasey had a pretty solid go at it - being in the car for 16 hours will make anyone crabby, but for a 21 month old, it could be dreadful. But, he only had a few meltdowns, the last of which was because he was so tired and could not get comfortable in his car seat. The only other setback was that he peed through his diaper twice on the trip back - which also meant his car seat got wet and his pants. But, we made it work and we made it back in one piece. I was so glad that car trip was over.

Overall, the week was amazing. I don't get to see my extended family too often as they have spread out all over the country - I have relatives in Houston, Seattle, Kansas City, Chicago, San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Plattsburgh (us). Also, it was my first vacation in over a year - and it felt great. But, the trip back took a lot out of me so I am exhausted again.

I need a vacation.

P.S. - While I was away Nick at R2D2 has marked me for the 12 Movies Meme - and although I am not a complete movie blog, I do delve into my thoughts on movies from time to time - so I will give it a whirl and have something within the next few days. Thanks for including me R2D2.