Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

The Pick-and-Pop: ‘The Doctor,’ and ideas for future NBA TV documentaries

Posted by Andrew Unterberger under Movies, Pick-and-Pop on Jun 10, 2013

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I was lucky enough to attend an advance screening last week in the City of Brotherly Love for “The Doctor,” the new documentary on basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving, promoted to death on NBA TV and finally debuting tonight. In fact, so merciless has the promotion been for this documentary that the first thing Erving did in his pre-showing press conference was to apologize for how “shamelessly advertised” the movie had been. Hell, if you’ve been watching the last few rounds of the playoffs at all, you can probably do a pretty good impression of Magic’s unavoidable “When greatness … meets class … that’s what God created in Dr. J” quote by now.

But the promotional blitz makes sense — NBA TV clearly took a step up in terms of prestige for its original films with last summer’s rapturously received “Dream Team” documentary, a fantastically fun, impressively deep look into the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled on one squad. Archival clips of the team playing were a blast, everyone showed up to be interviewed, everyone shared hilarious and revealing anecdotes, and watching some of the rarely-if-ever-before-seen footage felt like getting to listen to bonus tracks from Nirvana’s “Nevermind” for the first time 20 years later. It was a slam dunk of a doc that raised the bar for the channel’s feature-length documentaries, especially considering how rote and by-the-numbers most of their original programming had been to that point.

“The Doctor” can’t possibly live up to “Dream Team” in terms of star power or behind-the-curtain revelation, but it does do a fairly good job of demonstrating the many strengths and few weaknesses of the NBA TV doc format, and what should be a model for the channel’s original docs moving forward. Like its predecessor, “The Doctor” is littered with visual goodies (clips of Dr. J playing at Rucker Park in an old-school adidas shirt, with shots of kids perched on the roof of a nearby school to watch, like something out of “The Birds”), great interviews (Magic gushes about Doc like a 10-year-old who just saw “The Dark Knight” for the first time, Sixers teammate Darryl Dawkins basically steals the show) and awesome footage of the Doc in action (even doing it on the defensive end — seriously, he looked like Serge Ibaka getting up for blocks back in the day). That’s the good stuff, and it makes Doc’s doc a must-watch, or at least a really-should-watch, for NBA fans of all eras.

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Video: Scot Pollard is the villain in a horror movie

Posted by Trey Kerby under Movies, Random, Score Video on Apr 04, 2013

Or to be more exact, he is the Axeman in “Axeman at Cutter’s Creek,” which is something I will not be seeing any time soon. That being said, if you were picking any NBA player ever to be in a horror movie, Scot Pollard is a pretty solid choice. He’s scary enough as is, but when he’s licking faces things are even worse. No thanks.

(via ShamSports)

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The Heat still call Ray Allen ‘Jesus’ when he gets hot

Posted by Trey Kerby under Miami Heat, Movies on Feb 26, 2013

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At this point in his career, with a championship, 10 All-Star appearances and a bunch of other first ballot Hall of Fame credentials under his belt, it’s kind of weird to think that Ray Allen had a starring role in a Spike Lee movie once upon a time. But he did, and since he looks the exact same today (minus a fade) as he did then, people are always going to call Ray Allen by his character’s name, Jesus Shuttlesworth.

Those people include the Miami Heat apparently. From Fox Sports Florida:

Miami guard Mario Chalmers called ["He Got Game"] “one of my favorite movies.’’ He said Allen’s teammates sometimes call him by his character’s name.

“We do it sometimes during games when he catches a hot streak or he does something crazy,’’ Chalmers said. “We’re like, ‘Jesus.’ Sometimes he just looks over and smiles.’’

This is one of those things you love to hear. We all will drop a Jesus Shuttlesworth every now and then, so it’s good news that the Heat do it to. They’re exactly like us in every way, shape and form. Really good to know.

Even better, Ray Allen is totally OK with this persisting. Or he’ll at least act like it if you say it to him. So if you see him in the streets, yell “JESUS!!!” at the top of your lungs at him. I’m sure he’ll love it.

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Udonis Haslem wants to be called ‘Django’ now

Posted by Trey Kerby under Miami Heat, Movies, Nicknames on Jan 03, 2013

Sounds like someone went to the movies over Christmas. From ESPN’s Michael Wallace:

From now on, Haslem says no longer wants to be called Udonis or ‘UD’. He said address him in 2013 as Django, FWIW.

Well, the D is silent, so calling him “UD” is kind of pointless anyways. So I guess it’s Django Haslem now. He asked for it, so let’s grant this minor wish.

In return, however, let’s all call LeBron “Jules Winnfield” because he strikes down upon the league with great vengeance and furious anger. Seems fair to me.

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Don’t worry, Gordon Hayward found Nemo

Posted by Trey Kerby under Movies, Quickies, Utah Jazz on Nov 14, 2012

Gordon Hayward at 2:34 pm:

Bout to hit up this aquarium now see if I can find nemo

Gordon Hayward at 4:18 pm:

Found him!

The next mission, should he choose to accept, is to make some ratatouille with an actual rat. At the very least, he looks the part.

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Doug Collins wants to be Evan Turner’s Bagger Vance

Posted by Trey Kerby under Movies, Philadelphia 76ers on Nov 05, 2012

In the annals of history, “The Legend of Bagger Vance” will go down as an unremembered movie in the careers of both Will Smith and Matt Damon. When you’ve got legendary films such as “Wild Wild West,” “Stuck On You” and “Hancock” on your IMDb page, some things are bound to be overlooked.

But not if you’re Doug Collins. There’s no way he could ever forget “The Legend of Bagger Vance.” And he can’t forget it for one simple reason — he’s living it. From CSN Philly:

A couple of weeks ago, Sixers coach Doug Collins was watching the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance and it immediately put his mind in motion.

Collins thought, what if he could mentor third-year guard Evan Turner and help him get “unlocked” the way Will Smith’s character, Bagger Vance, worked with golfer Rannulph Junuh, played by Matt Damon. [...]

“I thought Evan rebounded the ball well today,” Collins said. “But other than getting ‘unlocked,’ he just needs a breakout game. Just a breakout game where the ball goes in and he’s in a good rhythm. Right now, he’s just not in a great rhythm, but then again, our team is not [in a great rhythm].”

The best part of this plan, obviously, is that Bagger Vance is an owner for the 76ers, as Will Smith recently bought a piece of the team. Who better to give Bagger Vance advice (ad-Vance) than the real Bagger Vance? Literally no one. I assume Doug Collins and Will Smith will be working hand-in-hand to “unlock” Evan Turner, probably via text.

Then again, is this really the most inspirational Will Smith movie that Doug Collins could have picked for Evan Turner? (And why was he watching “The Legend of Bagger Vance” in 2012?) I’d think “Ali” might be a better choice, since there’s that whole being the greatest angle that Dougie could push. Or maybe he could have went the “Shark Tale” route and told Turner that the only way he can succeed is by being himself. Both are more concrete concepts than being “unlocked,” which theoretically should have happened when Turner went for 29 and 13 against the Bucks late last season.

Nonetheless, Turner is going to be a huge part in determining where the Sixers go. Is he part of core with Andrew Bynum and Jrue Holiday? Will Evan Turner be able to replace Andre Iguodala? Can Evan Turner beat Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen in a golf and/or boring names match? These are all questions the 76ers need answered this season, and if that means sucking up to the owner by watching one of his most blah movies and then asking him for advice about it, then so be it. If Evan Turner can find his authentic swing shot, then it’ll all be worth it.

(via PBT)

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Video: Corey Brewer is going to be in a terrible movie

Posted by Trey Kerby under Corey Brewer, Denver Nuggets, Movies on Oct 04, 2012

If you watch the entirety of this trailer, it’s going to be NSFW, so be warned. But if you just watch the Corey Brewer part (0:45 to 1:02), it’s just a preview for a really terrible movie. A dumbfoundingly amazing cast, but an equally terrible movie. Sure, I’ll accidentally watch it late at night when it’s on HBO but not on purpose.

Good for Corey Brewer though, I guess, for getting that gross out comedy money, early 2000s Clippers style. Somebody has to get yelled at about being black by Terrence Howard, so why not him? Nice credit.

(via Scott Walkinshaw)

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