The Event

Two minutes earlier: I've been torn for weeks on what to say about this new series on NBC. I keep watching it hoping that it will get better and threatening each week to delete from my DVR if it doesn't.

No, you don't need to get your eyes checked.

Five weeks earlier: I just saw the season premiere of The Event. It started off with great promise, but soon I found the story bouncing all through time. After the hype and promos, and with the exception of the time-jumping narrative, I found it for the most part, very uneventful. It was more like a romance story between Sean (Jason Ritter) and his girlfriend Leila (Sarah Roemer) who go vacationing on a cruise ship with a stop off on a tropical isle.  

The only thing that set this episode apart from other TV series was when a jetliner (on a collision course to kill the President no less) vanished in a coruscation of light.

Huh, where did it go?

Two weeks earlier: I was reading how the series came about and found out that the role of Sophia (Laura Innes) was intended for a man and that the series wasn't originally written with a sci-fi element to it. I'm conflicted on whether this series works better as a sci-fi show or as some sort of political terroristic detention drama. I'm leaning towards the latter. 

Laura Innes as Sophia

One second earlier:  I had a thought about how confusing, disjointed and unnecessary most of the flashbacks are in this show. One minute the main character Sean (Jason Ritter) is running down a hallway trying to elude the police and then suddenly we're seeing a flashback of 5 years ago when he first meets his girlfriend. Is there a correlation between him running and first meeting his girlfriend? No. Do any of the flashbacks make sense?  Sometimes.

 

Three weeks earlier: The show hasn't gotten much better.  There's too much shifting back in and forth in time--too many flashbacks. The story is actually good enough to stand on its own in a linear fashion. Tragically I think the producers are trying to be too clever for their own good. It's ruining the show.  Too many questions and not enough answers, although I read that this series is supposed to answer questions and not leave people hanging like Lost.  So far it hasn't lived up to it's promise.

Ok, so is this a love story or a sci-fi adventure?

Five minutes earlier: I read The Event has been getting some decent ratings and has been picked up for a full 22 episode season. I guess there's no accounting for taste. 

1995: The Atlanta Braves won the World Series, beating the Cleveland Indians.

One week earlier: I forgot to mention that The Event also stars Blair Underwood as the President of the United States. The strange thing about this President is that he's supposed to be from Cuba, even has a Hispanic last name. Yet, he doesn't speak with even a trace of an accent. Honestly, does he even look Cuban to you?

We all know by now if there's a black President then we're all doomed. Think Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact. President Obama in...lets not think about that. 

President Elias Martinez. I didn't vote for him.

24 hours earlier: I've been torn for weeks on what to say about this new series on NBC. I keep watching it hoping that it will get better and threatening each week to delete from my DVR if it doesn't.

5 years earlier: I was out in my back yard firing up my charcoal grill thinking we needed another TV drama that dealt with captured aliens on Earth. I was also wondering if we'd ever really elect a black man as President.

3 days earlier:  The series is about human-looking aliens who crash landed on Earth and have been held in a detention center for over 60 years. It's the typical government cover up.  Lucky for them they're an extremely long-lived species and haven't aged a day since the unfortunate mishap in 1944. 

Jason Ritter looks so much like his Dad, the late John Ritter

1 day earlier:  I forgot to add that not all the aliens are in the detention center.  Some of them live and walk among us. I know this is going to come as a shock, the very notion of such a thing happening is completely implausible, I mean this never happens on a TV show, but some of them have even infiltrated our government.

30 hours earlier:  I had a thought about how confusing, disjointed and unnecessary most of the flashbacks are in this show...

Now: If you haven't been suckered into this time jumping, love story, sci-fi drama, action, alien detention series, then consider yourself warned and stay away. I'm giving this series 2 fingers out of 5.  It's actually a passable story, just very, very poorly told. For the rest of us suckers, I can only wonder if we can hang around long enough to get to the payoff. After enduring all these senseless flashbacks and poor storytelling, there has to be some kind of payoff--doesn't there? 

 

Armored

Available on DVD, I found Armored to be an absolute snooze fest. The plot centers around a cadre of disgruntled veteran armored car security guards who hatch a scheme to rip off their own armored car and blame it on someone else. (What a concept!) They take along a new security guard Ty Hackett who at first flat out refuses to take part in the heist but falls on hard times and is left with little choice.

Laurence Fishburne is in this one playing the character Baine. I found this character not too dissimilar from the mentally disturbed character (Nolan) he played in Predators. He needs to be careful not to get type-cast playing this type of role.  Matt Dillon is Mike Cochrane, Jean Reno (The Professional) is Quinn who should really be looking for better roles. Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli from Heroes) stars as Eckehart and finally Columbus Short (The Losers, Stomp The Yard) as Ty Hackett who is really the star of the movie.

Ty is assured by his co-workers that no one will get hurt.  How many times have you heard that before in a movie? So what’s the first thing that happens? Yes, that’s right.  Someone gets hurt.  In a not too unexpected reversal of allegiance Ty turns hero and saves a wounded cop Eckehart and turns against his former friends.  Somewhere in between all this I took a sound nap.

The only positive thing I can say about this movie is that it serves as a vehicle for Columbus Short to showcase his acting ability, which was not too shabby.  Aside from that, this movie can be absolutely skipped. The movie was predictable and dry. Out of 5 fingers I’m giving this DVD rental a 1.5. 

NBA 2K11

It's all about Michael Jordan. At 11:50pm, Oct 4th, I went to Wal-Mart for the midnight release of NBA 2K11. I thought I was the only one this excited about the game. I intended to park, run in and grab a copy and head home.  Instead I was greeted by a line of 50-60 grown men who also had the same idea. After a 45 minute wait, multiple scares that they weren't going to have enough copies (when they start counting the number of people in line, you know you're in trouble). Normally I'm not so lucky, but at check out I had the fortune of receiving the last limited offer Michael Jordan poster along with my copy of NBA 2K11. I have to admit, it was fun, exciting and worth the wait. I also got the chance to meet people that shared a common interest. It's good thing I went too, when I checked a couple of stores over the weekend NBA 2K11 was completely sold out!  

No, this isn't the unemployment line. Wal-Mart just after midnight. Just as many grown men in front as there were behind me.

Derek Rose is so hyped about NBA 2K11 he baked a cake for MJ and let 2K Sports film the commercials in his apt.

"The fact that 2K Sports did so much more with this game and improved it so greatly over last year's title is stunning. This isn't just the best basketball game ever; it's the best sports game of this generation". --IGN 9.5/10

I'm in complete agreement.  This game has seen an almost total overhaul in AI, graphical color-palette, presentation and game play since the previous version. I bring attention to the color-palette because before NBA 2K11 the colors of the jerseys were often dull and washed out.  Black jerseys looked gray, white accessories such as arm-bands and calf-sleeves looked gray and on some teams, red looked like pink. With this version of the game, the color of the uniforms and the stadiums is now deep, rich and incredibly vivid. Black is black. White is white and red is red.  I don't think any sports video game has ever seen this much innovation and improvement in a one-year development cycle.

The game has a brain. Gone are the days of running coast-to-coast and dunking the ball on your opponent and throwing passes from one end of the court to the other. Try that in this game, and your pass is sure to picked off or deflected. Run straight to the hole for a dunk and you'll be cut off. The CPU defenders don't meander around on the court anymore barely aware of your presence. The game forces you to think and play real basketball. No more button mashing and running around the court like a chicken with it's head cut off. Your movements must now be deliberate. To be successful in NBA 2K11 you must be proficient in play calling, using dribble moves to break down your defender and master the timing and release of the shot stick.

For those of us who came from the dunk-fest era of basketball video games, this is quite an adjustment. This game gives you an unprecedented about amount of control over the movement of your player. In the past you were subject to the whims and unpredictability of unbreakable canned animations and incomprehensible button presses and analog stick moves (although there are many gamers out there who were able to master these techniques.  I unfortunately, wasn't one of them).

Many of you may not like these changes because it forces you to learn if you want to win. There have been posts on various forums about how hard the game is. Passing is too difficult. Too many passes get deflected or stolen. Too many turn-overs. They even go so far as to suggest that the CPU players possess clairvoyance and know when you're going to throw a pass before you do. Well, I'm here to tell you there are no psychics in this game. Intercepted passes are bad passes, plain and simple.  When I throw a pass and it gets picked or deflected, I can feel it in my "gut" that the pass was bad. Visually I can tell it was thrown at a bad angle, in traffic or too close to a defender. Seldom am I surprised when a "bad" pass gets picked off. Yes, it does get frustrating, but this is the game of basketball.  Finally, the CPU can punish you for making a bad pass.

Fortunately for the frustrated, there are difficulty settings. This game is completely customizable. If you find it hard to adjust to this new style of play you can set the play style from Default or Simulation to Casual. Casual play style takes the game back to yesteryear where you can abuse the CPU defenders and pretty much score at will. There is also a middle-ground: Custom play style where through sliders, you can tweak any of the three play styles to your liking.

I only play Association Mode which allows me to take a struggling team and build it into a contender over the course of years.  This mode was given a huge overhaul this year, visually as well as improvements to drafting and trade logic. New is the ability to scrimmage with your teammates in practice uniforms.

This year my team of choice is the Indiana Pacers who haven't had a winning season in over 10 years. As an Indiana University alumni, its probably a fitting choice since the Pacers are only an hour up the road from the Bloomington campus. Especially since one of my favorite parts of  the NBA 2K series is creating myself in the game. The create-a-player feature in this game is deep. You can give yourself all sorts of signature moves (layups, dunks, fade-aways) from Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. Don't worry though, I start myself off as an average rookie looking to get a break in the NBA just like everybody else and hopefully rise to stardom. 

Sometimes I just like to throw down.

Are those stars in my eyes?

Yeah, that's me. Rookie shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers.

Pass me the ball, I'm open!

I'm not sure I'm the answer to the Pacers championship aspirations though.  With the new game play, I'm already off to a losing season and I'm playing on Pro-Default settings out of the box.  This is far cry from previous versions of the game where I could dominate on even the highest levels. I'm glad I've finally found a game that gives me an incredible challenge. I actually have to take my players into the practice gym to run plays and learn the fundamentals of the game. Is this the NBA or what?

My main man Chris Smoove makes some of the most entertaining 2K videos

I haven't tried any of the other modes yet, such as the Jordan Challenge, Online, Blacktop or My Player, but hopefully I'll at least get around to the Jordan Challenge. I want to get better at playing the game before I take on trying to re-live Micheal's greatest moments. Another cool feature about NBA 2K11 is that the more you play, the more Jordan shoes you unlock. There are 40 in all. The unlockable shoes all have attribute boosts, such as +2 speed, +2 off hand dribble, and +4 offensive awareness to name a few.

NBA 2K11 is by no means perfect, but it comes close. There are a few bugs I've encountered that could be addressed in a patch but aren't critical. When time-outs are set to AUTO, the CPU will only call 20 second time outs for both teams for the entire game instead of the normal 60 second ones.

There are a few issues with the custom arena music (this is where you can add your own music to play during tipoff, halftime, time outs, etc.) where the songs aren't given enough time to play. Certain songs repeat instead of shuffling randomly through the entire playlist. Some songs don't play at all during events such as when you're taking the ball up court. Where the custom arena music is implemented beautifully is during halftime and at the end of the game when the Jordan Player Of The Game is introduced. I use the theme from the NBA on NBC at halftime to give the game an authentic broadcast feel. My Jordan Player Of The Game playlist is comprised of my favorites from different genres of music from hip hop to rock and roll. I like the type of music that makes you say "ooh" and "ahh" as you're treated to some incredible visual highlights complete with all manner of extraordinary special effects.

NBA 2K11 is one of the most incredible games I've ever played. For the past few years many sports games, including NBA 2K needed patching to fix glaring issues out of the box.  I'm happy to say that this game doesn't really need one. Unquestionably I rate this game 5 out of 5 fingers.