Spielberg Introduces “The BFG” to the Next Generation

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I remember being in second grade and listening intently as The BFG was read aloud to our class. This was somewhat of a trend, you see, as our teacher had already shared several classic Roald Dahl tales with us: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, you name it. While those readings have faded from my memory, for whatever reason I can clearly picture hearing about Sophie and her Big Friendly Giant for the first time.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long for BFG to receive the big screen treatment. Nonetheless, I was admittedly nervous when I heard that it was finally happening, despite the fact that Steven Spielberg was chosen to helm the voyage into giant country. Adapting children’s novels into a feature length film is tricky. There is rarely enough material for a complete screenplay, which usually means that a lot of new scenes have to be added to get us from Point A to Point B. Sometimes this enhances the story and makes for a wonderful experience and other times you wonder why the filmmakers didn’t just leave well enough alone.

So did Spielberg pull it off? Well, that depends on what you’re looking for. Allow me to explain.

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Star Trek Into Darkness: Yeah, They Lied About Khan

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(Update: This was a review I did for Into Darkness back when it came out. Yes, I’m just as mortified as you that it’s already been three years. With Star Trek Beyond being released tomorrow, it seemed like a good opportunity to share my thoughts on the first two Trek films in this series. I just didn’t feel like writing a brand new post for it. Plus, it’s always interesting as a writer to revisit old material and see how your style and voice has grown. The original review will now commence)

Depending on where you fall in the whole Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate, you may view the upcoming slate of films to be a period of intense competition or a window of rare opportunity. I’m inclined to side with the latter. After all, it’s not every day that the same promising young filmmaker is chosen to helm the two most iconic science fiction franchises in modern history, much less tackle them back-to-back. Myself, I’ve loved Star Wars since the opening credits crawled across my screen for the first time, while I never quite saw the appeal in Star Trek (go ahead Trekkies, have at me). However, J.J. Abrams won me over with his 2009 reboot and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the sequel ever since. As it turns out, my enthusiasm was well-founded. Darkness is my favorite movie of the year so far and now I’m more eager than ever to see what Abrams can accomplish with Star Wars, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it (only 2 more years!). Minor spoilers below. 

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When J.J. Abrams Made Star Trek Mainstream

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Before 2009, Star Trek was about as cool and hip as a pair of men’s jorts or New Balance sneakers. It wasn’t something you admitted to liking if you ever wanted to get lucky with a girl. As a wrestling fan, I can identify with this. And like wrestling, Trek has a massive cult following of fans who may be unlucky in love but damn it, they are passionate about it and that’s never going to change.

Then J.J. Abrams showed up and made Star Trek… cool? A lot of people who normally wouldn’t have given Trek the time of day, including yours truly, found themselves completely immersed in Abrams’ 2009 reboot of the iconic nerd franchise. This accomplished two things: 1) It established Abrams as one of the most reliable blockbuster directors in the game and 2) Forever earned him the ire of hardcore Trekkies who resented him for altering something they loved in order to make it more accessible to general audiences.

To those Trekkies, I’d like to respectfully request that you give Abrams a break. He gifted us an entertaining movie series that is still going strong to this day and you guys still have all the old films and TV episodes to cherish and worship. Don’t you see? This was a win for all of us!

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With Von Back in the Fold, the Real Work Begins

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The Super Bowl is the hardest championship to win in professional sports. “Bunk!” you might say. “You have to play 162 games just to make the playoffs in baseball, or have to topple the superteam Warriors or the Lebron-led Cavs in order to win the NBA Finals.” If you said that, I would agree that you made some good points, but I’d stand by my opinion.

Sure, the NFL season is only 16 games long and at most you only have to claim four victories to get that Super Bowl ring, equivalent to a series win in other sports. Those games are hard to pull out though, people, and it only takes one bad day for everything to come crashing down. Stink out the joint in an NFL playoff game and your season is over. No game two. No series to tie or opportunities for redemption. It was this level of failure during the most crucial times that cost John Fox his job here in Denver, and why despite all of their domination over the rest of the league, the Patriots have lifted the Lombardi trophy just one time over the past 11 years.

Resigning Von Miller may have seemed like an arduous task, mostly thanks to all of the silly and media manufactured drama, but it’s a day at the beach compared to what it will take for the Broncos to be back-to-back champions.

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Rocky Mountain Low at 20th and Blake

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At some point today, maybe even before I finish this column, Von Miller will put pen to paper and become the highest paid non-QB in the history of the NFL. There are some of you who believe the Broncos will ruin their cap and mortgage their future by agreeing to such a deal (they won’t), but that’s beside the point. What you should take away from this is that the Broncos are going to steal all the headlines on the same day that the Rockies begin the second half of their season. And so begins the annual mid-summer transition, where the Rockies will be overlooked when training camp starts and almost entirely forgotten when preseason games get underway.

This is the path of the casual fan or those like me who bleed orange and blue. If you’re a diehard Rockies fan, you have every right to be pissed that it’s the same old song and dance every year. I’m just not sure what you can do about it.

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Game of Thrones: Prepping for the Endgame

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I had originally planned to review the last two episodes of Game of Thrones before offering up my opinion on season 6 as a whole. Alas, at this point I don’t think there’s much need or demand for my take, if only because I doubt it would be that dissimilar from your own. Season 6 was just fine through episode 8, then it hit the last two legs of its journey and provided us with a couple of brilliant hours of television. We were reminded exactly why we love this show so much and then were immediately faced with the agonizingly long wait until season 7.

That’s pretty much how we’re all feeling, right? Kevin recently recommended Shameless to me, so maybe I’ll see what kind of shenanigans William H. Macy has been up to in order to kill some time.

That being said, I’d still like to briefly discuss the road that Thrones is about to go on and speculate on whether or not the monumental series can deliver on all of the promises that have been made over the past six years. As Sansa and Jon Snow observed, “Winter is here, just like father always promised.” We’re off to a good start.

Spoilers will obviously follow, so if you’re not caught up on Thrones, don’t keep reading. Unless you enjoy having things spoiled for you, then let’s go!

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Nuggets Playing the Long Game After Flirting with Wade

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The Nuggets’ courtship of disgruntled and declining superstar Dwyane Wade was curious, to say the least. Not only did Wade represent an odd fit into a crowded and youthful backcourt, but it was pretty obvious to everyone, including Kevin and I, that Wade never had any intention of taking what’s left of his knees to Denver. He simply used the Nuggets as leverage to land a better deal with the team he really wanted to go to, which most of us thought was the Heat but actually turned out to be the Bulls.

Just to make sure that there were no hard feelings, Wade did send out this tweet to show his gratitude for the Nuggets’ interest in him. “Sorry guys, but I only want to be friends with you.”

On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time that a top free agent even agreed to sit down with the Nuggets brass, much less entertain an offer from them. So should we be upset that D-Wade spurned us to play for his hometown team?

Eh, not really. Hit the jump and I’ll tell you why.

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The Sandlot: When It was Cool to Play Outside

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This Pokemon Go thing is a real trip. It’s damn near caused as much of a stir as Pokemon did about 20 years ago when it first burst onto the scene. People are going out of their way to catch as many of these things as they can. As a result, they are spending more time outside, enjoying a healthy competition with their friends and are making new ones along the way. And when you get right down to it, that’s more or less what The Sandlot is all about.

Tonight, Film on the Rocks will be playing The Sandlot and making sure that all of the 90’s kids in attendance get the nostalgia trip that they are looking for. And yes, I will be among those frantically scurrying around in order to catch more Pokemon.

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Welcome to the Champ’s Asylum

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If you live under a rock and haven’t heard, last night was kind of a big deal for Cleveland. Lebron James, through sheer will and perhaps a little bit of help from God, led the Cavaliers to a title and sent the entire city of Cleveland into a frenzy. Nothing is getting done there for at least two weeks, and the fact that the Cavs became the first team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals is just the icing on the cake. Plus, most Warriors fans are Raiders fans, so them being sad today makes this writer extraordinarily happy. It’s the simple things in life that you treasure.

So what does any of this have to do with wrestling? Well, as you may or may not know, Dean Ambrose is also from Ohio. Cincinnati, to be exact. He is probably all too aware of the decades of suffering that Cleveland has endured, so I find it quite poetic that on the same night that Lebron brought a championship to his hometown, Dean Ambrose shocked the wrestling world and became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

I would say that you can’t write this stuff, but you can. And they did.

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Von Miller and the Broncos Will Find Common Ground

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Contract negotiations in sports are like relationships. You have to compromise, talk things out and come to an arrangement that makes both sides happy. Oftentimes, feelings are hurt and that will cause someone to lash out or send a not so subtle message about how disgruntled they are. Look no further than Von Miller’s somewhat comical cropping of a White House picture that left John Elway on the outside looking in.

Maybe these negotiations are more like high school relationships?

Nevertheless, from Elway “lowballing” Miller to Von supposedly threatening to sit out the season if he doesn’t get the deal he is looking for, the prevailing theory is that tensions are high between the Broncos and their franchise player, making the likelihood that a new contract will be reached dismal at best. It’s kind of pathetic how much drama the media tries to fabricate surrounding these situations every year. What’s really alarming is how many people seem to take the bait, hook, line and sinker.

My prediction? You will hear a lot more about how contentious these talks have been, only to watch as Miller signs a long-term deal by the July 15 deadline that will either make him very rich or super rich. A lot of journalists will feign surprise even though absolutely no one should be surprised. Here’s why.

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