Movie time.

Last night, it was "The Natural" at the Palace. Part of the annual Cinema at the Square series from Playhouse Square. Of course, it was good to see it on the big screen. I was perplexed by some of the crowd reaction, but I sensed there was a portion of the crowd that hadn't seen it before. And, yes, it is preposterous that a guy can sit out 16 years and then be the toast of baseball. But, then again, he's Roy Hobbs. There was actually applause after Hobbs did this.

Roy Hobbs First At-Bat



I also thought it went faster. When you watch it on commercial TV, well, you're doomed to at least a three-hour window. Last night, though, it was like they left out a reel, it was moving along so nicely. "The Natural" is an old favorite of mine. Great cast, the Oscar nominations of Randy Newman's score and Caleb Deschanel's cinematography, a real throwback to a much simpler time. When men wore hats and ties and women dressed up to go to the ballpark.

Today, it was over to the Cinemark to see the Mark Wahlberg-Will Ferrell comedy, "The Other Guys". Ferrell didn't have to carry this comedy by himself and with the help of Wahlberg, they cranked out quite a few laughs. Ferrell was obviously Ferrell, but the lines were distributed throughout the cast, which was surprisingly good. Steve Coogan, Eva Mendes and Micheal Keaton, who actually showed some of the old Keaton comedic chops here, were along for the ride. Keaton, especially, tossed off philosophy culled from TLC songs. Samuel L. and the Rock were unbelievably funny as a Supercop duo, as well.

My favorite Ferrell line was: "Gator needs his gat, bitch." Without context that means nothing, but I thought it was the funniest line of the film.

Kind of a shock, but the closing credits give us a lesson on the financial crisis. Very cool design. Odd place for a very effective statement, but we get to hear Rage Against The Machine sing "Maggie's Farm" and another song from the film, "Pimps Don't Cry".

Meal of Links

Fuel that car. With whisky?

Celebrity Spotting Saturday. I saw Marc from Marc's at the Ridge Park Square Marc's.

Creepy fish. Great, I just know that stone crab is going to show up in a dream of mine.

5 cinematographers on the rise. Some good stuff there.

Not exactly "Behind the Music". But sort of, with Tears for Fears.

Exercise Yard

Did we learn anything from the Browns-Rams game tonight? Maybe some things. At first, the Browns, trying to be a bad weather team, couldn't hang onto the ball in the bad weather. I thought the Browns should have been embarrassed, trailing 13-10 at the half. They didn't have a first down until the end of the first quarter.

A solid NFL team would have had a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. The fact is the Browns have faced starters who have thrown only two incompletions, thus far. Uh oh. They couldn't stop Steven Jackson in his only series. If it were not for the ineptitude of the Rams play-calling, this would have been a rout. As Bernie Kosar noted, it had to be frustrating for Sam Bradford, who really was not given any chance to shine.

Jake Delhomme, once again, was solid. Not throwing the killer interception. Benjamin Watson had a lovely one-handed catch on an awful throw by Delhomme that went to replay, but was obviously a TD.

We will be hearing a lot about Peyton Hillis this week. The Browns seem to want to establish Hillis as the "tough yards guy". But I gotta pump the brakes on that one a bit. Hillis had an early run that kind of woke the crowd up. He bulldozed several guys and refused to go down on a 9-yarder. Instant fan favorite. Actually had several touches during the Browns first scoring drive. Same for the Browns second scoring drive.

But I gotta tell ya, there were two plays regarding Hillis that stood out for me. The Browns were on the Rams 24 in the first half and Hillis had blocking that was TD-worthy. I mean, they cleared out everyone. Hillis got tackled in the open field for about a 2-yard gain. A quicker back is doing an endzone dance. Later on, he failed miserably on a 4th down call. When they needed three, he got about half that. Listen to the call-in shows this week. His name will be prominently mentioned. I need to see a lot more before sainthood is in the offing.

Colt McCoy and Brett Ratliff need work. Chansi Stuckey was as slow as dirt on his first big catch, as he ran 28 and was timed with a sundial. Hate to keep harping on speed, but we have none on either side of the ball. Get used to it. This team is not throwing the deep ball. Again. Other than that, it was quite the yawner.

Browns lose, 19-17.

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