Friday, October 2, 2009

DVD Review: Blood and Bone

Here’s another flick that you’ve probably seen advertised on television, once. Seeing the preview, we didn’t know what to think of it. It stars Michael Jai White, the black martial arts dude that played Spawn many, many, many years ago, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, Trois 2: Pandora’s Box, and a slew of other movies. You’ve seen him before. The movie also stars the sexy Nona Gaye, daughter of soul and R&B legend, Marvin Gaye; Eamonn Walker, who played Minister Said from the old HBO show Oz, and a few recognizable names and faces from the MMA world.

The movie starts out with Bone (Michael Jai White) in prison and talking to another inmate; then a group of other inmates surround him with the option of joining their group or suffer. Bone turns around and tells the group “they have until the count of 5”, and they all think he’s joking as he starts the countdown. When he gets to 3, he proceeds to mash the entire group and wants the group’s leader to deliver a message, “I want you to tell every motherfucka behind these walls, if they get the notion to fuck with me……….don’t”. Now that’s some go-hard shit.

Once Bone is released from prison, he finds a place to stay. He takes up with an old man and a woman who take in children to keep them safe from the streets. The woman lays down the rules of the house and he humbly obliges. As Bone stays in the house, he befriends the old man by playing chess with him and taking an interest in why the children are in the house to make the woman feel easy about him being in the house. Bone befriends a small Asian dude named Pinball after going to an underground Fight Club. Pinball is a promoter and Bone takes an interest in fighting under Pinball’s management for money. From this point, Bone’s mission is about to take place.

Introduced during the first pit-fight, we have the villain, James, played by Eamonn Walker. He’s a well-suited individual with a look in his eye of a man who gets what he wants when he wants it. There is a moment where Bone and James make eye contact where you know something is up between the two. James leaves the event to take care of some other business and Bone convinces Pinball to get him a fight with the last $200 in his pocket. Bone wins the fight in quick and impressive fashion and goes on to become the craze of the underground circuit after winning several fights over time. Word gets back to James and he has a proposition for Bone to fight for him. Bone tells James he’d think about fighting for him and from this point, Bone becomes his own man and James has a problem with that.

There is a reason why Bone and James’ lives become intertwined. It’s a deep story of a man who sets out for revenge for all the right reasons. Bone is a man who keeps his word to a friend and unites those lost in the storm with those who are looking for guidance. He doesn’t lose his cool throughout the movie, even in dire situations, which we find pretty funny, but that’s cool. The fight scenes are pretty good, and the final battle is pretty entertaining to watch. The storyline is pretty solid and not too predictable, so it’s a movie you can sit through and not get bored with it.
We recommend this film for those who are interested in martial arts movies with a pretty solid storyline, good fighting, and OK acting.

Contact us if you’re interested in reviewing Blood and Bone for yourself.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Commentary: Washington Redskins

Well, what can we say? The proof is now in the pudding that the Washington Redskins, our beloved Washington Redskins are officially one of the worst teams in the NFL. We're not saying they ARE the worst team in the league because they lost to the Detroit Lions, a team that hasn't won a game in 22 months, dating back to December 2007; we're saying they're the worst team in the league because they walk with an arrogance as though certain down-and-under teams are below them, then turn around and lose to them. Also, if you really pay close attention, many-a-good thing happens to other teams and players at the Washington Redskins expense. Bad teams beat us, individual players and teams have record breaking performances against us, just the league in general get their nut off on the Redskins. Look at highlight reels from ESPN or NFL Films, the Redskins are always on the receiving end of something negative to us and positive to someone else. We haven’t seen a Redskin yet do something big against some other team in the league yet, or at least in recent memory. And the players have the nerve to walk with swag?

The players on the team do not deserve to walk with the swag they think they can walk with because they are a bunch of overpaid, underachieving millionaires. Just because they have deep pockets don't translate into respect from the local community or on the football field. They need to win games. Just because they hustled Daniel Snyder doesn't mean they can sit back and relax, and play a little bit of football, knowing that a good portion of their contracts are guaranteed. That's the mentality these kats have on the Washington Redskins. Winning a championship isn't the first thing on their minds; nope, it's throwing an after-party someplace in the District, trying to become a local television celebrity by showing up in Eastern Motors commercials, or tricking their money off on some broad that's along for the ride. That's not swag at all. How about winning some football games and earning the respect of the fans and not getting laughed at by the entire NFL for losing to a team they should have crushed? Remember, according to Clinton Portis, the Washington Redskins are one of the most, if not, thee most talented team in the NFL........on paper. He got that right, on paper.

The team is littered with highly regarded athletes who are either living off past accomplishments on other teams, then got paid, or over the hill players, who can't stay healthy, and are now overpaid because their contracts drag out for so long, they can be "injured" for as long as they please and they still get paid without playing. Shawn Springs played the oft injured role to perfection here in Washington. We're surprised no one called him on the game he was playing. Every year he would come into training camp injured, sit out most of the season injured and only play in the big games like Dallas, Philadelphia, or when some high powered team comes into town like New England or Baltimore. It was like he was picking and choosing when he wanted to play and no one called him on it. Well Springs is water under the bridge now. He's gone and playing nice and healthy for New England, go figure. But he's the type of player this franchise has attracted or drafted since Daniel Snyder bought the team ten or so years ago. The team has some good names on paper, but when you get them on the field, it's a different story. It's been proven through history, having a "stacked squad" doesn't translate to winning anything. You may win a few games here and there, but when it all counts, that chemistry must work and this team has no chemistry.

The mad scientist, Daniel Snyder, is to blame. The issues of any franchise, whether it positive or negative, starts with ownership/upper management, all the way down to the equipment manager. This team has had no chemistry since Snyder took it over by trying to create a fantasy football team of big names and over-the-hill players, and signing them to huge contracts that they'd have to be completely brain dead not to sign. Over the years, Snyder has continued this trend until it's to the point he can't even spend money on free agents because all the money is locked up on players he's signed to high-end deals and they are totally ineffective. Either the player wasn't what the franchise thought he'd be, he took the money and sat on it, or he got traded away and the team still pays a good portion of the remaining contract, while that player is contributing with another team. Players around the league know, that if they want a big payday, sign with Washington. That's a known inside thing in the NFL. The owner of the Washington Redskins has a open wallet and if you have a decent season during the last year of your contract with another team, Snyder is going to come calling. And after making so many of these phone calls, the teams he's put together over the last few years are nothing but a motley crew of pieces that don't fit in the grand scheme of trying to maintain a winning franchise. On paper, it's supposed to work. They have players that other teams could use, but here in Washington, for whatever reason, those players don't work well together. The chemistry just isn't there or is it because the effort to win isn't displayed on the field?

What happened this past Sunday at Detroit was that the Washington Redskins gave up in the first half of the game. The swag they think they posses was all gone because they thought they were going into Detroit for an easy win. When they saw that they were going to, now gasp, play to win, their spirits were broken. The same thing happened to them last season when the 1-6 St. Louis Rams came into FedEx Field and won their second game of the season 8 games into the season against the 6-1 Washington Redskins. After that loss, several Redskin players admitted that they were over-confident and overlooked the Rams; and said it with a smile on their faces. How can you overlook any team in the NFL, let alone, any sport? You still need to suit up and go out and earn the victory, no matter who the opponent is, and what their record may be. This disgusting attitude has landed Washington’s team in the situation it’s in now. The media and management may blame Coach Jim Zorn for not preparing the team for games, as well as questionable play calling, and a whole lot of other stuff, but when it comes down to it, it’s execution that gets the win at the end. Execution is something this team does not know how to create.

What are the factors for this teams inconsistency? Truth be told, the Washington Redskins have been an inconsistent franchise since…….forever. They may have a few Lombardi trophies in the case, but almost every team in the league does. At some point in time, a bad team gets a run going and wins something, and then there are the teams that are consistently good. Over the 77 years the team has existed, they only have a .515 winning percentage. From where we come from, a .515 winning percentage is average. Average, to the Washington fans isn’t acceptable, because the Washington fans want to see a consistent winner. We aren’t spoiled by any means; we just want to see our team win. And losing to the door mats of the league in consecutive seasons isn’t going to make the fans happy, nor will it bring some sort of stability to this franchise.

Now with that loss and even before that loss, Coach Jim Zorn’s job security is tested. He has to do something to bring life back into this franchise and the fan base. P³ Entertainment has talked to several diehard Washington Redskin fans and they are ready to “walk away”. We know they’re not going to start supporting other teams, but they are going to ignore the team and focus their time and energy on other things. There is no reason to continue to watch this franchise fail time and time again, when “on paper” they are the best team in the NFL. If you watch “the best NFL team on paper” actually play, they are not the best team in the NFL in any fashion. They may be in the top 10 in a majority of the offensive statistical categories, but they can’t score when they get into the Red Zone. That’s been their problems for the past few years. Red Zone offense is an issue that needs to be resolved, and quickly. And not only is the Red Zone offense a problem, their corner and defensive backs are getting burned game after game. They can’t cover an old lady using a walker in a route and any decent quarterback who studies film should know to go at the DBs every game with malice in their hearts. The offensive line is only good for so many games before they start to break down, because the franchise refuses to draft young backups for the offensive line positions and utilize them sparingly so they can gain some sort of experience. They trade away their high draft picks for players who were a problem child for other teams and then lose them to free agency a year later or trade that player away for another player of no value to the team. That’s why the problems of the team start at the very summit and works it way down. The very attitude of how the franchise is run trickles down to the players and even lower. The fans now see this and wish for a change, but there will be no change as long as Daniel Snyder continues to own the franchise and micro-manages the player personnel. He’s going to run the franchise as he sees fit and in his vision; no matter how convoluted his vision may be. And in the meantime, the players are going to get paid then chill, and we as fans are going to continue to see this bullshit of a football team and be pissed off every other Monday because they can’t get it together.

P³ Entertainment wish the Redskins well during this young season. We hope Coach Jim Zorn doesn’t lose his job because the players just don’t fit and he doesn't have much to work with. Maybe he should step up and tell Daniel Snyder to get him players that he knows will work in his scheme, instead of using the parts that Snyder sees as his play pieces to a winning team. Sometimes stepping to the boss isn’t a bad idea when all other ideas just don’t work. Good luck Redskins.

This is P³ Entertainment with a commentary, straight, no chaser.

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