From Mash Able... I do not own this picture. ESPN and/or LeBron James owns it all.
How can you get LeBron James to follow you on Twitter? Storm the court during one of his NBA games, it seems.
King James has more than 7.7 million followers on the microblogging
network, while following less than 300 himself. But huge LeBron fan
James Blair recently became the NBA superstar's 297th follow after running onto the court during a game in Cleveland earlier this week.
LeBron's Miami Heat played in Cleveland, where James spent the first
seven years of his career before leaving as a free agent, on Wednesday
night. During the fourth quarter of the game, a Cavaliers fan — later
identified as Blair — ran from the stands onto the court before quickly
being wrapped up and dragged away by security.
From SF Gate... I do not own this book cover. The Croods and/or DreamWorks owns it all.
With so many second-rate animated films falling back on crudeness and
bodily function humor when they lack a good script, it was fair to
worry that "The Croods" would set a low in the genre.
There are
signs of the apocalypse here, but those are only plot points. The
prehistoric family comedy from DreamWorks Animation is a creative romp,
light on focus but with plenty of ingenuity.
There is no shortage
of stock characters to adorn lunch boxes and fast food kid meals. But
even the gratuitous cute animal sidekick - a lemur-like creature named
Belt who is used as a fashion accessory - feels pretty original.
Directors
Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders seem hell-bent on avoiding "The
Flintstones" comparisons, creating an environment that's closer to James Cameron's
"Avatar" world than the Paleolithic era audiences are used to. This is
(sort of) explained later, but largely irrelevant. The filmmakers
establish early on that they're playing by their own rules.
I do not own this picture. Admission and Fandango owns it all.
In Admission,
Tina Fey plays Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton
University. Portia lives a life of seeming happiness – choosing the
nation’s best young minds by day, routine nights of intellectual pursuit
with her live-in boyfriend – until one by one, every element of her
world starts to unravel.
First, her boyfriend Mark (Michael Sheen) leaves her for an ice-queen
colleague (Sonya Walger), just as Portia’s career is poised to advance
with the departure of her mentor (Wallace Shawn). If that wasn’t
complicated enough, into Portia’s life walks John Pressman (Paul Rudd),
the free-spirited dean of an eccentric new-age school. John comes hat in
hand asking Portia to personally review the application of a student
named Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), a genius savant who has struggled to find
his way. At first, buttoned-up Portia wants nothing to do with the kid –
but as John begins to share more and more about this unique boy, Portia
finds herself questioning the entire college system she’s helped
perpetuate for so long.
Based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Admission is a
pretty successful movie adaptation that manages to capture a good
portion of the depth and complexity of its source material – which
ultimately results in one strange bird of a film. A character study
that’s not afraid to take its time developing its protagonist, narrative
and thematic arcs, the movie is probably not what most viewers
will expect – but may find pleasantly surprising, thanks in large part
to the presence of Tina Fey in the central role.
The story was adapted for the screen by Karen Croner, who hasn’t had a screenwriting credit since One True Thing. Admission
isn’t just a title, but rather a cornerstone term for what the story is
about, thematically speaking: the idea of “letting someone in” (the
same double entendre found in the film’s marketing), but also
“admission” in the sense of confession; confronting the reality of self.
From the LA Times I do not own this picture. .The Transcript and/or the NFL owns it all.
The Reggie Bush rumors appear to be coming to an end, as ESPN is reporting that the free-agent running back has agreed to terms on a four-year contract with the Detroit Lions. [Updated at 1:08 p.m.: Bush was introduced as a member of the Lions at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. Terms of his contract were not disclosed.]
Reports earlier Wednesday had the Lions as a leading contender for
Bush's services, after the former USC star visited Detroit on Tuesday
and was said to have left with an offer to become the team's full-time
running back.
I do not own this poster. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone owns it all.
In the Incredible Burt Wonderstone,
Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi play world-famous Las Vegas magicians.
Carell wears spangled red velvet and a poufy wig that makes him look
like Barry Manilow, and Buscemi sports an even more unreal-looking lanky
mop. Each night, they kick off their act by doing a smiley little dance
to ''Abracadabra,'' that cheesy-catchy Steve Miller Band classic. This
trademark fanfare places the two somewhere between Siegfried & Roy
and the head-bopping Butabi brothers from Saturday Night Live,
and I chuckled, with mild pleasure, at the dopey kitschiness of it. I
assumed (or at least hoped) that the dance would be a warm-up for the
much bigger laughs to come.
Carell's Burt Wonderstone and Buscemi's Anton Marvelton
have been partners ever since they were childhood geeks who began
inventing their own magic tricks back in the early '80s. They've been
doing their sold-out show at Bally's for so long now that they're sick
of it, and sick of each other, too. Burt, off stage, is a toxic diva who
makes groupies sign contracts and treats Anton like an indentured
servant. One night, the two are working with a brand-new assistant, Jane
(Olivia Wilde), performing a classic trick that requires Burt and Jane
to huddle inside a box, which Anton jabs with swords. Squeezed inside
the compartment, Burt asks Jane to sleep with him that night, and when
she turns him down, he throws a hissy fit. It should be an over-the-top
funny moment, as Carell lashes out with a faux-aristocratic hauteur.
He's going for a Will Ferrell meltdown, yet there's something a little
too controlled about Carell's bombastic nuttiness. The effect isn't
hilariously insane. Once again, it's just kind of mild. Burt Wonderstone seems to be reaching for the tone of early Farrelly brothers movies like Kingpin, and also for the madcap hostility of Zoolander.
Yet in too many scenes, the comedy doesn't quite ignite. The movie
rarely climbs out of the chuckle zone, except for a few times when Jim
Carrey is on screen as Burt and Anton's rival, a stringy-haired,
tattooed street magician who specializes in cable-TV stunts that
represent the new era: He's like Criss Angel as a Zen pain freak. The
gleam of madness in Carrey's eye finds a perfect home in this role,
which has him upping the ante on how far he'll go (holding in his urine
for 12 days, spending a night on hot coals), all as a way to bedazzle
jaded audiences.
From Newsday... I do not own this picture. The Hot Corner 78 or the NBA owns it all.
Just when Amar'e Stoudemire was back to playing his best basketball in more than a year, the Knicks announced Saturday that he will undergo left knee surgery and miss the rest of the regular season.
Stoudemire will have an arthroscopic
procedure known as a debridement performed this week and will miss at
least six weeks. He had the same procedure performed on his right knee
in the fall and missed the first two months of the regular season.
"It's a loss, it's a major loss to what we're trying to do," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said before Saturday night's 113-84 victory over the Utah Jazz.
Woodson's Knicks are in a virtual tie with the Pacers for second place
in the Eastern Conference, 2½ games ahead of the fourth-place Nets.
Stoudemire, who had two 22-point
games in the past week, missed the team's shootaround after complaining
of soreness in the knee. An MRI Saturday afternoon revealed the
swelling.
