Moving the site

I have moved the Adam Bomb blog over to http://crazyadambomb.wordpress.com/. Follow me over there for all my continuing adventures in following sports and entertainment.

And if you're interested in BYU sports, also check out the blog I'm doing with my brother, http://riseandshout1984.wordpress.com/.

Peace out.

Wesley Snipes in Star Trek?

You read that headline right. According to an article I read, Wesley Snipes was on the short list in 1987 to play the role of Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the role that eventually went to LaVar Burton. Was Snipes really being considered? Not sure. Even the article questions the authenticity of the report. But it does make for an interesting 'what if.'

According to Snipes' IMDB page, he would have been very available in 1987, playing bit characters on shows like Miami Vice. He didn't get his big break playing Willie Mays Hayes in Major League until 1989.

His career took off after that, with titles like New Jack City (1991), White Men Can't Jump (1992) and Passenger 57 (1992) quickly making him a household name. If I had to pick a favorite Snipes movie, it would probably be Blade (1998), though I think I've liked every Snipes movie I've ever seen (though I haven't watched most of his films). He has really dropped off the planet since 2004's Blade: Trinity, but at one point during the 1990s, this guy was one of the biggest stars.

But imagine if he had been cast as Geordi La Forge and made his career on the starship Enterprise. He may have become rich and famous, but now he would be doing Star Trek conventions and voicing cartoons. Very interesting.

New BYU Sports Blog: Rise and Shout

My brother Matt and I are starting a new BYU Sports blog called Rise and Shout, and you can read it over at http://riseandshout1984.wordpress.com/.

Today's topic: what BYU's 2011 football schedule could look like if we go all indepedent.

Revisiting Star Wars Episode II

Revisiting Star Wars Episode I

OK, so two months later I've watched the second one. It's been kind of a busy 60 days, with a family reunion, the birth of a child, and a lot of other things. Are these excuses to neglect my commitment to reflect on all six Star Wars films? Certainly not, but they are reasons.

When adjusted for inflation, 'Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones' is the 85th grossing movie of all-time, surrounded by such films as 'Aladdin', 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.' The 2002 film grossed almost $650 million world wide, so it would have to be considered a huge commercial success. But why do many people, including myself, view this as the weakest movie of the six?

Because the middle act is boring, and the dialogue is the worst George Lucas ever wrote. As I re-watched it and listed to some of the 'romantic' lines between Anakin and Padme, I wasn't sure if I should cringe or laugh. I ended up doing some of both.

But this is still an awesome movie, and here are the biggest two reasons: Obi-won in action, and the awesome battle on Geonosis.

As I did with Episode I, I'm going to start with annoying before I jump to the awesomeness:

• I already mentioned how bad the dialogue is. It is bad enough that it bears repeating. 'I deeply, truly love you.' As Harrison Ford reportedly once said to Lucas, "You can write this crap, but you can't say it."
• George Lucas deciding he needed one more action scene (Anakin and Padme storming the Geonosis factory) in place of some plot building scenes. If you look at the deleted scenes, there is a key bit between Padme and her family where you find out why Padme likes Anakin, and it's Natalie Portman's best scene. I understand that Lucas thought the second act was getting a little tedious, but he took out the one scene that could have lifted their love story from ridiculous to somewhat bearable.
• Too much CGI. The aforementioned scene of Padme and Anakin storming the Geonosis factory has not aged well, and a few scenes in the Jedi temple also look a little fake. A few more sets would have been nice.

Now, on to the good stuff.

Obi-won Kenobi: Jedi Knight
As a kid who grew up on Star Wars, I use to always wonder what Obi-won was like as a younger Jedi Knight during the days of the Republic. Though we get a good feeling for the young Obi-won in Episode I and his awesome victory over Darth Maul, this is where we begin to see the man who would eventually train Luke Skywalker and bring down his old apprentice Darth Vader and his old nemesis Emperor Palpatine.

What I didn't think about as a kid is that much of the fall of Anakin can be blamed on Obi-won. Surely Anakin's evil choices were his own, but Obi-won was very critical of his padawon, and though he did warn the Jedi Council about the danger Anakin might be, he was blind to some of the greatest seeds of Vader's birth: his secret marriage to Padme Amidala, and his violent reaction to his mother's death.

But you can see the wise Obi-won beginning to be born. Even leading members of the Jedi Council (Mace Windu and Yoda) council with him. He is renowned for his abilities. And then he single-handedly ferrets out the existence of the clones and tracks down Jango Fett.

Jedis in battle
Though the outcome was a little disappointing, seeing Jedi fight a full-out battle against a droid army on Geonosis was a dream come true. Mace Windu takes out Jango. Many Jedi die, but after a valiant fight against overwhelming numbers.

But you have to wonder why they were there. Yes, trying to rescue Obi-won (and subsequently Anakin and Padme) was a noble effort, but worth trading a dozen (or more) Jedi for? Mace knew from Obi-won's report that the separatists were building a droid army, so he had to know being outnumbered was a very good possibility. And though Yoda was headed to Camino to get the clones, Mace could not have known how timely Yoda's arrival would be.

Regardless of Mace's strategic misstep, seeing a bunch of Jedi in action was awesome.

Darth Sidious manages everything and everyone
Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious seems to have planned for everything. He was deftly manipulating the Jedi, spreading them thinly throughout the galaxy. He was manipulating the Senate, quietly grabbing more and more power. And why was he able to get so much power? By creating his own threat, a separatist movement led by his apprentice Darth Teranus, aka Count Dooku, the former Jedi.

But his masterpiece was his manipulation of Anakin. He understood the young man's motivations better than Obi-won or any of the Jedi. He knew that the key to pushing the young, powerful Jedi to the Dark Side (or destruction) were getting his mother dead (which makes me wonder if her kidnapping by was coincidental) and a romance with Padme. He knew Anakin was the key to bringing down the entire Jedi Order, and he fostered a mentor relationship that would bring an entire galaxy to its knees.

The Jedi blind spot
Maybe the most important dialogue in the movie is between Mace Windu and Yoda. They are discussing the fact that the Jedi power is waning, and that the Sith Lord was clearing obscuring their abilities. But Yoda says that they should not make this public, because it would weaken the Jedi and therefore the Republic.

This Jedi 'blind spot' is the key to the entire story line. In Episode V ('The Empire Strikes Back') it appears that Yoda's ability to look into the future is better than in Episode II. The wisest Jedi of all-time was helpless, powerless to see that the Sith infiltration was right in front of him, and that his trusted ally Palpatine was actually a Sith Lord. Did he see the danger of Anakin? Yes. But he didn't see how it would happen, and it happened too quickly for Yoda to stop it.

Count Dooku: Revolutionary or Terrorist?
Who is Count Dooku? Was he really an idealist who saw the Sith path as a way to end Republic corruption and create a new better government? Or was he just a power hungry Jedi reject who found in the Dark Side more power? I think hestarted out as an idealist who was turned off by the corruption of the Republic and passive nature of Jedi. But in the end he gave away his soul in a quest for more power.

His relationship with Palpatine is a curious one. Unlike Darth Maul or Anakin, Dooku is not a young apprentice, or clearly Palpatine's eventual heir. So what did Dooku think was going to happen? Did he, like many Sith before him, believe that he would become more powerful than Palpatine and eventually kill him, taking control of the Republic in the process? Certainly that must of been his motive, but it's clear this was never going to happen.

Why? Because he wasn't powerful enough. Though his talents with a lightsaber were undeniable, it's likely he would have met his end if Anakin had fought alongside Obi-won as instructed. And he only escaped his duel with Yoda through trickery. He was a stooge, he just didn't know it yet.

Yoda: Jedi Master
When Luke Skywalker meets Yoda on Dagobah in Episode V, Luke does not recognize the diminutive creature as a great Jedi Master. Part of it is Yoda's hermit act, but the bigger part is what Luke had in his mind: someone more like Obi-won Kenobi. He likely would have been impressed if an older Mace Windu had survived, or one of the more physically impressive members of the Jedi Council.

But Yoda was the greatest Jedi of his day. Even though he was already well into his twilight years in Episode II, we get to see him fight his former apprentice Dooku. His acrobatic, Force-aided fighting style was an awesome sight to see, and it one of the greatest scenes in movie history.

The Clone Wars begin
As Yoda points out at the end of Episode II, the victory on Geonosis was really not much of a victory. A war had begun against a well-armed and motivated foe. Count Dooku was in league with the Sith Lord, who was still unknown. Many of the Jedi had died, and many of the surviving Jedi were already spread throughout the Republic.

And, unknown to Yoda, another awful event was unfolding: Anakin's secret wedding to Padme.

What did she see in the guy?
My final section is one of the most puzzling. After Anakin comes back from killing an entire village of his mom's kidnappers, he admits it to Padme. At this point, wouldn't most women have run the other direction? The guy was unstable, and extremely powerful, especially when he gave into his anger.

But for whatever reason, she still loves him. Maybe she feels bad for him. Maybe she sees the desert dwellers as non-intelligent life. Maybe she was a little nuts herself.

Regardless, the galaxy would be glad she stuck around. Anakin was headed toward the Dark Side, and the one good thing that would come out of this series of tragedies was the birth of twins who would bring down the monster she helped create.

The Legend of Josh Hamilton

Do you know what the Most Interesting Man in the World wears to bed? Josh Hamilton pajamas.

Chuck Norris has only cried once in his life. That was while watching Josh Hamilton hit during the 2008 All-Star Game Home Run Derby.

Jack Bauer has only truly feared for his life once. He stood in an empty alley, fully armed. And Josh Hamilton stood at the other end with just his bat.

After watching Josh Hamilton this season, I understand why Tampa Bay made him the No. 1 overall selection in the 1999 draft. He is a true all-tools talent. He's fast, he's powerful, he's graceful, and his baseball IQ is high. Very few baseball players have ever played the game with his supreme combination of talents.

We also all know the story. What should have been a Babe-like career was derailed by powerful drug and alcohol addictions, and injuries. Tampa Bay got so fed up with him they left him unprotected in the 2006 Rule 5 draft, and he was sent to the Reds for $100,000. Imagine that. One of the best athletes ever to put on a baseball uniform basically given away because of personal issues.

He broke through in 2007 with the Reds, amassing 337 PAs, a 292/368/554 line and 2.5 WAR. In a sense, he had arrived. Finally clean, Hamilton put together a very good partial season and established himself as a potentially legitimate major leaguer. And then the Reds traded him to the Texas Rangers for Edison Volquez and Danny Herrera. The Reds were selling high.

2008 was the dream. Hamilton made the All-Star team, finishing first among American League outfielders. In the first round of the Home Run Derby, he hit 28 home runs, though he lost the contest to Minnesota's Justin Morneau. He finished the season with a 304/371/540 line and 3.8 WAR. He was a legitimate All-Star.

If 2008 was the dream, 2009 was the nightmare. Hamilton was dogged by injuries and only had 365 PAs. His 268/315/426 line was a shadow of his previous two seasons. And his personal life was again in the spotlight, as it became public that he slipped back into alcohol for at least one night.

This past weekend I was again amazed by Hamilton. At full strength again this season and with a couple years under his belt, Hamilton has become a force, a one-man wrecking crew. The play of the series was during Game 1 on Friday night. With Boston flamethrower Daniel Bard on the mound and the Rangers behind 9-8 in the bottom of the 8th, Hamilton doubled with two outs. Vlad Guerrero then hit a weak ground to second. Jed Lowrie made the play, but his throw to first pulled Mike Lowell off the bag.

Where was Hamilton? Almost to home, all the way from second. Lowell's reaction was a little slow, he turned and gunned it home, but the tag was too late. Hamilton had scored, and the Rangers had tied the game. Texas would go on to win the game in the 11th on a Nelson Cruz no-doubt bomb.

My brief description does the play no justice whatsoever. You can watch video highlights of Hamilton's big night at MLB.com.

Do you know who's been the most valuable player in the AL this season? Josh Hamilton, and it's not particularly close. Is this an aberration? Is this his true talent? Is this the Hamilton we've been missing? Jack Moore at Fangraphs pointed out last weeks that Hamilton's BABIP is a little high (and likely unsustainable), but even so, he's mashing.

I hated watching Hamilton decimate the Red Sox this weekend, further dampening the team's postseason dreams. But he is currently my favorite player to watch, joining a rarefied group that includes Rickey Henderson, young Barry Bonds, and young Griffey Jr. Unfortunately his career won't likely hit the true legend status of any of those Hall of Famers (or should be HOFers).

But however long he players, and wherever his career lands, Josh Hamilton has arrived and is the most exciting player in the bigs.

On DVD: Up

If I was rating Disney/Pixar movies, here's how I would put them:

1. The Incredibles (2004)
2. Toy Story (1995)
3. Toy Story 2 (1999)
4. Up (2009)
5. Finding Nemo (2003)
6. Monster's Inc. (2001)
7. Cars (2006)
8. Ratatouille (2007)
9. A Bug's Life (1998)

Haven't seen: WALL-E (2008), Toy Story 3 (2010)

What a fabulous roster of movies. A Bug's Life is at the bottom, but I like it. And I've found Cars to be very re-watchable (my daughter went through a phase of watching that one). The Incredibles ranked as my 8th favorite movie of the past decade, and Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were 11th and 17th on my best movies of the 1990s.

And they did it again with Up. Most people who love Pixar probably already saw it last year. I didn't because my daughter was 2 at the time, and friends and family said that the movie was probably a little too old for her. I meant to take my wife in the theater or rent it shortly after it was released on DVD, but that didn't happen.

It's a lot different movie than any of the others. The deep tones remind me more of Pixar's short films than the other longer films they have made. And who but Pixar could have pulled off a story where the main characters are an old man and a boy scout.

Yes, the film had the requisite child movie silliness, including some slapstick comedy and talking dogs (though this was the best group of talking dogs ever). And my friends and family were right: this is not a little kids movie. Besides it being a little scary at parts, the themes are really more adult, or better said, a better fit for older kids.

But as always with Pixar, you get a kid's movie that rises about the silliness and gives you something more, something real. The premise of the movie, like all Pixar movies, it's complete fantasy. Talking cars. Talking toys. A world full of friendly monsters. Rats that love to cook. Or an old man moving his house to South America using balloons. Yet the characters and the feelings they create are more real than a lot of 'real' movies.

The biggest missing piece in this one was the villain, who was a little too cliche and was introduced too quickly. Other than that, I have no complaints. It was a movie worthy of the Pixar legacy, and I'm not sure I can pay it a bigger compliment than that.

Movie Review: Inception

Most of your who wanted to see Inception have probably already done so. Going into this weekend (it's 4th weekend in theaters) it had been the top grossing US movie each weekend, which is quite uncommon in today's movie market. The timing couldn't be more perfect: late July is usually after most studios have released their big tentpoles, and it's been up against fairly minor competition. I went to it on Friday night for a 9:30pm showing in Appleton, Wis., and my wife and our friends Megan and Brad were joined by about 15 other people (at most).

There should have been more. This was a incredible movie, one of the best movies I've ever seen. The story, the cinematography, the directing, the acting, the effects; everything came together to create a phenomenal film that continues to stick in my brain. It's one of the movies you can't shake, and you don't want to.

So what made this movie work? I'm glad you asked.

• Christopher Nolan. Everything begins and ends with the creator. Nolan wrote and directed this film, and his fingerprints are all over it. He has hit that rarefied moviemaker air for me, that is only breathed by one man: Stephen Spielberg. What Nolan makes, I will see. His Batman movies have been superb, The Prestige (2006) was awesome, and I've been talking about seeing Memento (2000) for so long, I feel like I've now cheated myself by not seeing it. So the success of Inception begins and ends with Nolan.
• The Story. This story is one of the most original, intense, and mind-wrapping stories since The Matrix (1999). From the first 30 seconds, you are confused, enthralled, intrigued and completely absorbed.
• The actors. I used to say I didn't like Leonardo DiCaprio, but I think I misstated. I just didn't like his two breakout roles: Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). I haven't seen him in much else, and I really liked him in Catch Me If You Can (2002) alongside Tom Hanks. He is awesome as the main character in this film, perfectly cast. When I heard that Ellen Page was the female lead, I was unsure, but she nailed it. The rest of the cast is equal to the two stars.
• The effects. With one exception that I can remember, the effects in this movie were seamless, which is exactly how it should be. There are some zero gravity fight sequences I'm still trying to figure how they did. The complexity and bizarre nature of this story required killer effects, and they were delivered.
• A true climax. After building up the tension for 2 hours, the movie delivers in the final 30 minutes. Even the last 5 minutes took the breath out of the theater. The ending was simple yet complex. Sublime.

Did they make any mistakes? No, nothing substantial. There was one scene where the effects looked fake, but that lasted for like 3 seconds.

The one caveat to this is that the movie is rather violent, pressing the limits of a PG-13 rating. There are some dark themes in it, so it certainly is not for kids.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. And while I gushed over Avatar last year, Inception is its superior in every way except for visuals, and that is in no way an insult to Avatar. I cannot wait to see it again, and sometime soon I need to think about where this film fits among my favorite films of all time.