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Is this crappy summer almost over? Thankfully yes. Hollywood isn't exactly out of ideas. Its just too timid about the bottom line to try anything new.

That's why we are now stuck in this pathetic period of safe, name brand movie making. I will refer to it as the Recycle Era. If its not a sequel it's a remake. If its not a remake it's a feature film adaptation of a popular TV series. Or an UPDATED version of a feature film adaptation of a popular TV series. If its not that it's a film version of a comic book…or a film version of a popular toy…or a film version of a popular series of books particularly of the fantasy or vampire variety….or a film version of an amusement park ride….or a film version of an arcade game…am I forgetting anything? And if its not any of those it's an American version of a great foreign film, even perhaps a recent one, which is tailored made for the damn, fat, stupid, lazy, brain dead Americans who consider watching a foreign language film to be worse than water boarding. Back in the day when I used to earn cash while in school working at the monstrosity known as Blockbusters I came across a lot of those folks who were allergic to foreign language movies. They used to commonly say to me stuff like "when I rent a movie I wanna see it, not read it".

Anyway as my examples of Hollywood filmmaking point out, this is a bad time for American films, especially the "fun" popcorn films. I wasn't inspired to see much of anything. But why should I be? The trailers were crap. I suppose I'm not wired like the average American moviegoer but, my God, all the trailers look alike. A clear blue sky shows up on the screen and then five to ten seconds later the screen is full of explosions and the next thing you know the Eiffel Tower is falling over. Then some, well, white dude (unless it's a Will Smith film), almost always under the age of 35 these days, runs past the chaos and screams to others "Run! We gotta get out of here!"….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..and, oh, then I wake up after my eyes and ears were bored as hell. Get my drift? Same. Garbage. And I've gotten to the point that I won't see much of this stuff anymore.

The first film out of the gate in this increasingly stretched out summer period for films (in a few years it will begin in early March) was the Star Trek film. Now I admit to being a big fan of the Trek TV series not named "Voyager" and "Enterprise". And I love the original movies (or at least the even-numbered ones) of the Original Star Trek cast (The Next Generation flicks sucked). But I had little interest in seeing this new Trek. Despite all the glowing reviews and the good word of mouth passed on by family and friends, I refused to see the movie. Why? Well, I hated the idea that Star Trek was now becoming James Bond. Its one thing if every ten years studios decide to bring in new actors to play Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, etc. Those characters wee first created for books and comics and they were known/experienced by consumers only through those mediums for years or even decades. But Kirk, Spock and McCoy are icons that were first introduced to us through the actors that were chosen to play them on TV. I wasn't born yet when the original Trek series first aired and to be honest its not even my fave of the Trek series. But I have tremendous respect for what it accomplished and the actors who brought those characters to life. Shatner may be corny but he is the only one who will ever be Kirk in my eyes. I will not give credit or praise to the filmmakers of this latest Trek film. Its easy to write characters with such compelling relationship dynamics when you are simply recycling a series of established characters with, umm, compelling relationship dynamics. All the work about forming a chemistry on the page between Kirk and Spock, even if they are antagonists in the movie, has been done for these new filmmakers decades ago. The only thing these new filmmakers had to do was update a few things, tweak a few things, create some new phony back history and blow up Vulcan. Give me a break. And of course when I look at the trailer I thought it came across something like Teens In Space since every one looked like they just got out of high school. It reminded me of the old Tony Kornheiser Show when he used to complain that all the people working for CTU on the show "24" looked to be under 30. From what I can tell now all the characters went to Starfleet Academy at the same time and now ….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry. Couldn't do it. I happily missed out on that blockbuster.

Kids and tens and young adults used to have new characters and new icons created for them on the big screen. They had names such as Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones and Sarah Connor. Now increasingly all the new screen icons are characters that had been introduced in another medium (or in the original films) years before these new films hit the theaters. Again its safe because its Hollywood relying on established, brand names. There is nothing fresh about it. And more is coming. More remakes, more sequels, more brand name filmmaking. The nadir should have come when it was released that Hollywood is doing movie versions of the popular board game Monopoly and the bubble gum comic Bazooka Joe. I kid you not.

So my only guilty pleasure this summer was "Terminator Salvation" which was merely a 6 or 7 out of 10 in my rating. Everything else was mostly independent. Goodbye Solo. Sugar. Food Inc. The Brothers Bloom. Moon. The Hurt Locker. Any of you guys hear of these? Probably not. There isn't much press for anything that doesn't star Megan Fox's lips. But these were the best films I've seen this summer. The Hurt Locker is actually the best movie I've seen all year.

Don't get me started on Transformers 2 by the way.

As for TV the pickings are even slimmer. Entourage has been worthless for awhile. To be honest ever since The Wire ended I've pretty much lost track of what's on HBO anyhow. I do admit to watching more of True Blood but I think that may be because I find many of the women so sexy. But other than the fact that in this universe vampires are out in the open and existing amongst humans, the handling of vampire culture and history and the type of folks they choose to be the vampires are so predictable and mundane. As for Showtime I refuse to watch Weeds anymore (just terrible writing which the creators mistake for being increasingly edgy) and while I still like Dexter the show has not been the same since the premature death of Doakes (I know Dexter hasn't aired any new eps this summer but I had to throw it into the conversation). I don't watch any of the reality TV nonsense and I tried my best to watch that BET awards Show but 15 minutes in I was racing for the remote. The best thing I've seen on TV all summer was actually something I played on my DVD. I finally got around to watching the 1985 NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Celtics. I purchased the DVD set from Amazon last year but hadn't looked at it I its entirety until now. What a great series played by two truly great teams (there wasn't one great team in this most recent NBA season). And what is so fascinating is to see big men like Kareem, The Chief and McHale get their teams points by displaying a back-to-the-basket game. Real post moves, real go-to moves, real footwork, real craft. And to think we now have Dwight Howard and his dunks representing post play.

Didn't see any movies this past week but I did manage to transfer some more of my games from video tape to DVD (a process I've been undertaking off and on for about a couple of years).

-One game was one I've been looking for awhile. Georgetown at Syracuse in 1995. And its on CBS (I treasure the old CBS stuff). This was a great win by the Hoyas at the Carrier Dome against a ranked Syracuse team. The Hoyas were in bad shape midway through the BE season but around this time they started to go on a run which helped get them into the NCAA tourney. A very good game by frosh Iverson who was strong for Gtown down the stretch. Othella was the player of the game for Georgetown, though, with 27 points.

The Gonzaga Classic 2003 (Georgetown Prep vs Gonzaga). Another game I had been looking for for years I stumbled across by accident this past week. This is the finals of the Gonzaga Classic played in December of 2003. That means the team includes Roy Hibbert who is playing in his senior year of high school. Gtown Prep won the game and Roy was the leading scorer but oh, man looking at Roy now its amazing just how much he has come in a short time. Looking at Roy again in this game nearly six years later and remembering how Ruben Boumtje Boumtje looked during his senior year at Carroll, its clear that RBB was easily the much better prospect coming out of high school and looked to have much more upside to boot. This reminds me you can never be 100% certain which playes will thrive and which will put in the work to reach their potential. Hey, you know if Roy becomes really good in the NBA maybe this early game of his becomes valuable or a collector's item. Kinda like a comic book when it introduces a new character who eventually becomes a popular fan favorite or a new hot comic book artist whose work would eventually become the talk of the industry.


Suns vs Sonics December 17th, 2004. This game on Friday night on ESPN was simply one of the best sports events I've seen on TV this decade. Too early in the season for much to be at stake and neither team ended up wining any championships, but the two squads put on a back-n-forth show that kept me glued to my set that evening. I think this is around the time I started adopting the 7 Seconds Or Less Suns as one of my teams to root for.

St. John's at Georgtown 1989. This is the game that virtually introduced Mutombo to the nation (thinking of it like a comic book again) because in this one he came off the bench to set a Georgetown record for the most blocks by an individual in one game. Despite the tape being 20 years old the picture quality is great because I never wore it out by watching it much and I always kept it safe and covered from the elements. Also one could see Jason Williams of St. John's long before he went crazy and started killing limosine chauffers. That's a cool bonus. The one major flaw is that ugly red floor of the Cap Center/US Air Arena. Oh, well. At least St. John's in its road unis looked at home playing on it.

Lakers vs Kings Game 4 2000. In this best of five NBA playoff series (remember those?) my beloved Kings defeated the evil Lakers to send the series back to Los Angeles for the final game.

Lakers vs Kings Game 7 2002. Uugghh. Great game, great atmosphere but its almost too painful to watch. I probably never despised the Lakers more than I did after they won the series. Frankly the Kings were more entertaining to watch and played like a real team. And their coach was not a jackass. But the Lakers were mentally tougher and unlike the Kings they made their free throws. Lakers win a classic game (that went into overtime) of a classic series. And then all of America stopped watching the NBA the rest of the way that summer because the following four game sweep of the Nets was a snooze fest. And though I never cared much for the "NBA on NBC" I must admit that NBC at least knew how to put together great openings which would reel in even casual sports fans. ABC though is HORRIBLE at this. Seriously ABC has got to go. It is so bad and lacking in creativity that the NBA wouldn't be any worse off if its Finals were shown on BET. And that's saying something.



Hey maybe balla can create a classic game subforum for future discussions about our favorite games of the past (regardless of the sport). Until then this is the only place I know to post this stuff....and when the summer is over I'm just out of luck.

R.I.P. John Highes