Salute Friend

There have been thousands of sports movies throughout the years. Some have been absolute crap and most are mediocre at best, but there are that select few that remain deep-seated in our memories. Those movies not only invoke our passion of sports, they manage to cross over and teach us greater life lessons. They teach us the importance of hard work and learning from our mistakes. They teach us that the impossible can come true. That’s what I consider a great sports movie. Well, either that or it has to be really funny.

Below are my Top 10 sports movies of all time. There are some popular movies missing - either because I don’t think they are as good as everyone else, or because I haven’t seen them.

10. Major League - This one falls under the comedy category. Willie Mays Hays, Jake Taylor, Pedro Cerano, Rick Vaughn, and Jake Taylor somehow manage to band together to win the pennant in spite of their owner. It’s not the best comedy ever, but it’s certainly the best sports comedy ever. Major League 2 is equally as good. Let’s pretend that Major League 3 was never made.

9. Remember the Titans - The best part about this flick is that it shows how sports can transcend society. The unification of the black and white high school is successful only because of the bonds formed between the two schools on the football field.

8. Rudy - How can you not be inspired watching this? No one believed in this kid and he not only got into ND, he made the football team. Most people would have given up long before Rudy, and it is a testament to his character for enduring and being able to live his dream.

7. Miracle - I am a huge ‘Miracle on Ice’ fan so I was a bit skeptical about the movie. Usually they find a way to screw up history. But amazingly, Disney stuck to the story nearly perfectly. By involving everyone from the original team in the making of the movie, including the late Herb Brooks, they made sure the movie was accurate. I love having Al Michaels call the action; it feels like I’m actually watching the real game!

6. He Got Game - This film chronicles high school senior Jesus Shuttlesworth, the best college basketball prospect in the country, as he deals with pressures from his father and girlfriend who are trying to influence his decision for their own benefit. Ray Allen is the perfect choice for Shuttlesworth because Allen WAS Shuttlesworth in real life a few years before that. How many actors can make that claim?

5. Eight Men Out - The best part of the movie was that they didn’t try to dumb it down for Hollywood - they made a point to follow the story as it was told in the book. This meant that it had the feel of a documentary, which is probably why this movie isn’t that popular, but true sports fans will appreciate that what they are getting is close to the truth.

4. Field of Dreams - This movie will appeal to sports fans and non sports fans alike. Sports fans will love how they work in Shoeless Joe and other classic greats. Non sports fans will appreciate the fantastic journey that Ray takes to build the field of his dreams. “If you build it, he will come” is one of the great movie quotes of all time.

3. When We Were Kings - I’m too young to remember Ali as a fighter, but this movie truly shows his greatness. Forman is the superior fighter, but Ali uses his wit to defeat Forman in “The Rumble in the Jungle”, one of the greatest fights ever.

2. Hoosiers - If you ever need to get pumped up, watch this movie. Nothing seems impossible after seeing Coach Norman Dale lead his team to the Indiana state championship.

1. The Natural - I own the DVD of The Natural and I’ve seen it more times than I can remember. Yet, anytime I see it on TV I immediately freeze and watch. It captivates me like few movies do. Roy Hobbs gets that second chance that we all want. He had the talent to be the best pitcher ever, but had it taken away by a mysterious shooter. Years later, he reappears as an outfielder and leads his team to the top of the league with his famous “Wonder Boy” bat.

Disagree? Rate and review sports moviess at Movies.SportsLizard.com.

Adam McFarland owns the SportsLizard.com Network - a network of sports sites including collectibles, movies, books, video games, and more.

SportsLizard.com recently won honorable mention in the Microsoft Start Something Amazing Awards and was featured in the February 2006 issue of Tuff Stuff Magazine.

With so much misery going on in the world, it’s nice to have a feel-good escape from it all. Television has always been a good diversion, but lately it seems the schedule has been inundated with gross-out procedural dramas that involve examining dead bodies… not exactly my idea of feel-good entertainment. One show that succeeds in the mission of creating a warm fuzzy is “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” A family facing hard times and receiving a glorious new house always tugs at the heartstrings and delivers with a happy ending. While this program provides great escapism, I find it very flawed and, at times, wonder if the producers think the viewing audience is made up of idiots.

While “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is considered to be a reality program, it could not more scripted. The show makes it look like these families are totally shocked by their selection for the makeover, but in actuality, the show’s producers notify about four families they are in the running and that the bus might be stopping by “unannounced.” Do these people not wait with bated breath, peeking out the window in hope of their dreams coming true? They act surprised when the always-annoying Ty Pennington greets them with the unnecessary bullhorn, but you just know they heard that loudmouth and his crew coming a mile away.

The overly-peppy design team would like us to think they are miracle workers, but I doth protest. Sure, they come up with some great ideas, but they surely don’t so on the spur of the moment. After the family is sent off on a week-long vacation, the producers of the show create a scenario with the design team putting their heads together for an idea on the house after taking one short look at the property. Uh, ya think these people actually have these ideas pop into their heads in mere minutes and not once argue over what to do? What about permits, zoning laws, architecture, and the hiring of the hundreds of people contracted to do the physical labor? This has got to take months of planning, but we are supposed to suspend all belief and go with the notion that Ty and company are working magic before our very eyes. They haven’t fooled me one bit.

As much as this show bugs me, I still watch it every week. Do I view every frame of it? Hell no. I check out the intro to see what plight has afflicted the selected family, then I fast forward (thanks TiVo) to the part when the family comes back to the amazing transformation. They cry; I cry; everyone seems right in the world again. Enjoy the wonderful moment, but don’t, for one second, fall for the illusion that is being shoved down our throats.

About the Author: When not watching TV, Brian Kohlmeier is a co-founder of SwapThing.com, which changes the way people exchange goods and services through the Internet. SwapThing http://www.swapthing.com is a site focused on building a strong swap community online. The ShareThing http://www.swapthing.com/user/Nonprofit.jsp program helps non-profits get access to item & cash donations as well as volunteers and professional services. This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it, as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is included, and that the links above is intact.

Long before The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson directed another cinematic masterpiece, Braveheart. Filmed against the backdrop of majestic mountains and rolling meadows, it tells the historically-based (yet not entirely accurate) story of William Wallace, a common man’s warrior who led the Scottish people in rebellion against King Edward I, also known as “Longshanks”. Written by Randall Wallace, an American tourist fascinated with a Scottish statue of his namesake, the script collected dust in Hollywood for over a decade before Gibson made the brilliant decision to put it on the big screen. Just like The Passion, it’s a decision he would not regret…

Set in the 11th Century, Braveheart catalogues the struggle of Scottish serfs who labor under the brutal oppression of English occupation forces. Amidst these terrible conditions, William Wallace (Mel Gibson) falls in love with Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack). Insistent on not sharing his wife (a proclamation by the king gives local rulers “first-night rights” to new brides) Wallace secretly marries Murron. Nevertheless, an English knight assaults her, sparking a fight with Wallace. Fleeing the village, Wallace believes Murron has escaped and will soon meet him at a secret rendezvous point. But Murron is captured and executed by the king’s emissaries.

Angered by his wife’s murder, Wallace instigates a local rebellion, slaughtering all the king’s loyalists in his village. As his rebellion grows, a distraught Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan) dispatches his fabled Northern Army to destroy it. But the heroic Wallace delivers a stirring speech to rouse his men, while deploying an ingenious battlefield trick to defeat the king’s cavalry.

With the power and legend of Wallace growing day by day, Longshanks relies on his daughter-in-law, Princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau) to broker a truce. But Isabelle’s power is limited, and Wallace realizes his people can only win freedom if backed by the Scottish nobles. Their appointed leader is Robert the Bruce (Angus MacFadyen) who vacillates between his own idealistic views and his father’s pessimistic pragmatism. Will the nobles join with Wallace? Will the Scots win their freedom? Only history tells us the answer…

With elaborate costumes, vivid battle scenes, and a noble hero as its focal point, Braveheart is more than your typical run-of-the-mill action movie. Part history, part Hollywood heroism - its timeless idealism strikes a cord with every viewer. In fact, the movie itself led to a revival in nationalistic pride that fueled the successful Scottish independence movement of the 1990s. It’s a testament to the strength and character of the real life William Wallace. A thousand years later, his enduring legacy continues to transform the European landscape, and Mel Gibson captures the noble warrior’s passion with an awe-inspiring Academy Award-winning masterpiece…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Braveheart (DVD).

Nominated for three Golden Globes, Good Times premiered in mid-season 1974 to widespread critical acclaim and audience popularity. A spin-off of the Bea Arthur (of Golden Girls fame) sitcom Maude (1972), Good Times became the fourth of five highly successful sitcoms brought into being during the 1970’s decade by Norman Lear. In addition to Maude, those sitcoms were All In The Family (1971), Sanford & Son (1972), and The Jeffersons (1975). The second of three to focus exclusively on African-American family life, Good Times became a source for groundbreaking social commentary in compliment to its penchant for hilarious family comedy…

The Good Times (Season 3) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “A Real Cool Job” in which James, having taken a number of courses at a trade school, is finally offered the high-paying job of his dreams. But there’s a catch, the job requires a transfer to the frozen tundra of Alaska… Other notable episodes from Season 3 include “Love in the Ghetto” in which Thelma announces she’s engaged, much to the chagrin of James and Florida, and “The Mural” in which J.J. paints a mural for a bank in order to earn the money necessary for Thelma to attend college…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Good Times (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 38 (A Real Cool Job) Air Date: 09-09-1975
Episode 39 (The Family Gun) Air Date: 09-16-1975
Episode 40 (Operation Florida) Air Date: 09-23-1975
Episode 41 (Love in the Ghetto) Air Date: 09-30-1975
Episode 42 (Florida’s Rich Cousin) Air Date: 10-07-1975
Episode 43 (The Weekend) Air Date: 10-14-1975
Episode 44 (The Baby) Air Date: 10-21-1975
Episode 45 (Michael’s Big Fall) Air Date: 10-28-1975
Episode 46 (The Politicians) Air Date: 11-04-1975
Episode 47 (Willona’s Dilemma) Air Date: 11-11-1975
Episode 48 (Florida’s Protest) Air Date: 11-25-1975
Episode 49 (The Mural) Air Date: 12-02-1975
Episode 50 (A Loss of Confidence) Air Date: 12-09-1975
Episode 51 (Cleatus) Air Date: 12-16-1975
Episode 52 (The Family Tree) Air Date: 12-23-1975
Episode 53 (A Place to Die) Air Date: 12-30-1975
Episode 54 (J.J.’s Fiancee: Part 1) Air Date: 01-06-1976
Episode 55 (J.J.’s Fiancee: Part 2) Air Date: 01-13-1976
Episode 56 (Sweet Daddy Williams) Air Date: 01-20-1976
Episode 57 (The Investigation) Air Date: 01-27-1976
Episode 58 (J.J. in Trouble) Air Date: 02-03-1976
Episode 59 (Florida the Woman) Air Date: 02-17-1976
Episode 60 (The Break Up) Air Date: 02-24-1976
Episode 61 (The Rent Party) Air Date: 03-02-1976

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Good Times (Season 3) DVD.

With a recent article in the La Times, Star Wars has gone political. George Lucas has attended a Capital Hill meeting for Democrats.

“Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas joined House Democratic leaders at a town hall meeting on Capitol Hill to roll out an “innovation agenda” that aims to prepare the next generation of technological entrepreneurs.

Star wars has always been in our collective unconsciousness since its inception after Lucas read Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. But has this movie entered the political arena?

Students asked Lucas what he meant by the line from “Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith”: “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” Lucas answered that when Rome, Nazi Germany, and after the French Revolution, “In all of those countries, a democracy fell through nefarious manipulations behind the scenes, and the people didn’t seem to mind.” Is he pointing the finger at us, the american public with our crossed messages. Support the troops automatically means you are for war, in this mixed up country it is not sure. Also strikes the cord is Anakin’s line to Obi Won, :”If you are not for the Empire, you are against it!”

Further more Anakin is persuaded by the Emperor, vaguely disguised as a rising Senator much like the younger Bush Senior, to bring in a reign of terror and death to bring safety to the Republic. Another one nudge for the French Revolution and our modern Freedom Fry eaters on Capital Hill. For true Patriots like Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and Thomas jefferson; today would be called terrorists. For indeed if they lost the war, history would of gone to the victors and they would of been called so.

In olden days we might walk away from a Myth like Star Wars or the Matrix, and know that some how it pertained to our real lives. But for too long now, media such as TV and the movies have been art for art sake. No longer do we hear the words of Pinnochio or Plato’s Cave and find our lives informed on a better way of life. Or do the papers offer a voice to the workers and the people. This has been replaced by the tabloids on cable and the check out line. Maybe we should go back to believing in our myths handed down for thousand of years throughout the world, and give incredulous glances to the tv news and newspapers. For Myths worked for us since we crawled out of the ocean, of our minds!

So what is this latest episode of the famous trilogy trying to tell us. Or how does Lucas emphasize this by going to Capital Hill. Watch the movie again and see what springs to mind!

Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is propietor of Docspond Life Coach Services providing Individual Counseling, Group facilitation, and key note addresses that speak to the heart of the mission while delivering the bottom line finacial growth. Helping millions find their bliss and return meaning to success! Guaranteed 20% improvement in your quality of life after the first meeting!

Also is the propietor and designer at Norgeforge Illumination Studios that will SEO illuminated design giving Aesthetics to traffic driven sales. So get out of the cold and get Norgeforged!

Nominated for 12 Golden Globes and 61 Emmys, including 4 for Outstanding Drama Series, The X-Files is one of the world’s most popular science-fiction drama shows. Premiering in the Fall of 1993 on the Fox Network, home of popular programs such as The Simpsons (1989) and King Of The Hill (1997), The X-Files created an entire fictional world of conspiracies and secret organizations, building a legion of fanatic followers as devoted to the series as Trekkies are to Star Trek. Creator Cris Carter, a former writer for numerous TV shows in the late-80s/early-90s - The Nanny (1993) is one example - brings together the finest aspects of suspense-laden spy novels and alien science fiction. The result is one of the top sci-fi franchises ever produced, spawning its own line of merchandise and even a full length feature film - The X-Files: Fight The Future (1998). With nine successful seasons to its credit, The X-Files is one of the longest-running sci-fi series in television history…

The X-Files follows the exploits of four FBI agents assigned to investigate a series of unsolved and mysterious cases known only as “The X-Files”. FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), John Doggett (Robert Patrick), and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) are the primary agents investigating these unusual cases which could never be solved by conventional investigatory methods. But Mulder and Scully in particular play prominent roles in the series. The partnership and friendship the two develop during the course of the series sets the tone for their investigations into the paranormal with Scully, a medical doctor, playing the skeptic to Mulder’s deeply held beliefs in widespread government conspiracies and alien abductions. Through the course of the series, The X-Files covers a wide-range of frightening and mysterious subjects from killer insects and secret world government organizations to the colonization of Earth by parasitic aliens. In so doing, it adds its own unique brand of humor and an original blend of creativity that fans of the genre will certainly appreciate…

The X-Files (Season 3) DVD features a number of suspense riddled episodes including the season premiere “The Blessing Way” in which Mulder remains missing from last season’s finale and Scully must track him down with her job on the line and while the cigarette-smoking-man pursues the stolen X-Files. When a group of Navajo Indians discover Mulder’s body in a cave, they must summon the forces of the spirit world in order to breathe life back into his empty shell of a body… Other notable episodes from Season 3 include “Nisei” in which Scully and Mulder’s investigation of a videotaped alien autopsy leads them to the doorstep of a World War II-era series of experiments by Japanese scientists, and “Pusher” in which Mulder matches psychic wits with a dying serial killer who harbors a unique power to practice mind control on his victims…

Below is a list of episodes included on The X-Files (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 50 (The Blessing Way) Air Date: 09-22-1995
Episode 51 (Paper Clip) Air Date: 09-29-1995
Episode 52 (D.P.O.) Air Date: 10-06-1995
Episode 53 (Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) Air Date: 10-13-1995
Episode 54 (The List) Air Date: 10-20-1995
Episode 55 (2 Shy) Air Date: 11-03-1995
Episode 56 (The Walk) Air Date: 11-10-1995
Episode 57 (Oubliette) Air Date: 11-17-1995
Episode 58 (Nisei) Air Date: 11-24-1995
Episode 59 (731) Air Date: 12-01-1995
Episode 60 (Revelations) Air Date: 12-15-1995
Episode 61 (War of the Coprophages) Air Date: 01-05-1996
Episode 62 (Syzygy) Air Date: 01-26-1996
Episode 63 (Grotesque) Air Date: 02-02-1996
Episode 64 (Piper Maru) Air Date: 02-09-1996
Episode 65 (Apocrypha) Air Date: 02-16-1996
Episode 66 (Pusher) Air Date: 02-23-1996
Episode 67 (Teso Dos Bichos) Air Date: 03-08-1996
Episode 68 (Hell Money) Air Date: 03-29-1996
Episode 69 (Jose Chung’s From Outer Space) Air Date: 04-12-1996
Episode 70 (Avatar) Air Date: 04-26-1996
Episode 71 (Quagmire) Air Date: 05-03-1996
Episode 72 (Wetwired) Air Date: 05-10-1996
Episode 73 (Talitha Cumi) Air Date: 05-17-1996

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The X-Files (Season 3) DVD.

(277 words)

It’s amazing how many movies require a mega doze of “disbelief suspension” on the part of the audience. Unless you become a willing “partner in crime,” many thrillers and murder mysteries just plain don’t work.

As a screenwriter I would never have dared to include such “plot devices” for fear that it would be found out immediately and would help my script fly to the waste basket in a hurry. But it actually helped a lot films become frequently discussed and much admired classics in their own time.

CHARADE (1963) — the killer poses as a CIA agent (a totally miscast Walter Matthau) who meets with the heroine Audrey Hepburn in his office within the U.S. Embassy compound in Paris!

How can a guy who is not even a diplomat maintain an office in the Embassy? Well, we learn that “during the lunch hours” the control is so lax anyone can walk in and pretend they are a US Foreign Service official.

Good lord! How did THAT one got written by a consummate professional like Peter Stone and got through the director Stanley Donen? You can drive the whole city of Paris through that hole.

The SIXTH SENSE (1999). Yes, the famous and the brilliant one. One of the best films with the strongest twist I’ve ever seen. But…

How can a ghost that cannot even open a door because he cannot establish contact with matter (obviously) carry a briefcase in the beginning of the movie?

What is the “logical” explanation? None. But it works beautifully as a ruse to divert our attention. And it works, until you walk out of the movie theater and start to think a little bit…
——————————————

Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases and hi-tech documentation.

He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

Please visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for customer testimonials and more information on his multidisciplinary background and career.

The last book he has edited: http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

One of a handful of essential, “must-see” animated Christmas classics, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a Dr. Seuss holiday masterpiece. Created in 1966 on the heels of the phenomenal success surrounding such TV specials as A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), the Grinch has morphed into a sacred annual Christmas rite perfect for any child from one to ninety-two. The narration and singing voice of Boris Karloff breathes life into the 1955 Dr. Seuss tale of a dark and miserly heart’s redemption, thus revealing the true meaning of Christmas. Based on Charles Dickens’ literary classic A Christmas Carol, it creates a uniquely memorable caricature of the Scrooge personality we’ve come to know so well…

How The Grinch Stole Christmas follows the life of a lumbering green cave monster with a heart seven-sizes-too-small. Living with his dog in a mountaintop retreat high above the town of Whoville, the Grinch (voiced by Karloff) hates all the Whos, but what he hates worst of all is their incessant happiness and celebration come Christmas. So the Grinch, smiling his evil Grinch grin, hatches a plan to steal Christmas. Fashioning crude reindeer horns for his dog and a Santa suit for himself, the Grinch drives a makeshift sleigh down into Whoville while the Whos lie sleeping on Christmas Eve. He steals their lights, their ribbons, and their bows. He steals their boxes, packages, and bags. He steals wreathes and Christmas trees and even their Roast Beast - why that evil Grinch even stole the Who hash! And the only thing he left behind was a crumb far too small for even a mouse… But when the Grinch is caught by the most innocent of Whos, his master plan begins to unravel. He discovers that Christmas isn’t quite what he thought it was. In fact, Christmas might be a whole lot more. But with the trimmings of Christmas hanging in the lurch, what the Grinch finds out about himself just might be the key to saving all of Christmas for the Whos…

Created under the direction of Chuck Jones, the famed creator of such Warner Brothers characters as the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe Le Pew, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a masterful production with stellar voice-overs, imaginatively drawn characters, and Boris Karloff’s impressive narration. In fact, the facial expressions and movements of the Grinch mimic Wile E. Coyote in numerous ways. Several songs interspersed throughout the story, such as the song “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” have become holiday classics in-and-of themselves. In a nutshell, no celebration of the Christmas holiday is truly complete without at least one viewing of this brilliant cartoon…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the How The Grinch Stole Christmas (DVD).

1. Where’s my Hollywood Mansion? Contestants of the Biggest Loser reality fitness show are moved into a Hollywood Mansion for three months. It is undoubtedly a heck of a lot easier to maintain fitness focus when you’re sequestered in a Mansion for 12-weeks. Plus the cash incentive is huge: the winner banks $250,000. Cash and isolation make it far easier to maintain a commitment to the transformation process. Participants are not bothered with any of life’s distractions: work, family, stress and dilemmas.

2. Beat the hell out of them — Whoever dreamed up the training regimen for this torture-fest ought to be indicted as a war criminal. If US Army personnel subjected Guantanamo Bay terror prisoners to the forced labor insanity the Biggest Loser personal trainers do show participants they would be subject to court martial. One day the little female personal trainer made 400-pound men (miserably out of shape) run - not walk not jog - while carrying her on his back. Can you imagine the heart stress for a man who could generate a 90% age-related heart rate maximum walking to the mailbox and back? On the distaff side the metrosexual non-gender specific male personal trainer had his female fat babes run up the side of a mountain! To make matters worse, both PT’s inflicted psychological torture by taunting there respective crews with clichéd fitness platitudes. Oh the horror! They’re damn lucky someone didn’t keel over dead.

3. Then starve them — After making the obese people work like political prisoners in a Soviet Gulag circa 1952, participants are fed next to nothing. 350-400 pound men were allotted 1500 calories per day. This works out to 3.75 calories per pound bodyweight. Again, the Red Cross and Amnesty International should be alerted. This savage combination of over-work in the gym and under-feeding after the fact causes a metabolic condition known as catabolism. Any 1st year medical student would know that combining sustained and intense physical effort with starvation-level calories is physiologically disastrous and dangerous. When the human body senses starvation primordial hardwire circuitry triggers and the body will preserve body fat at all costs. Cortisol is dumped into the bloodstream as a result of physical stress and a lack of nutrients. The body cannibalizes muscle tissue to cover caloric shortfall; the body literally eats its own muscle tissue in order to spare body fat. What a revolting development.

4. The winner was easily spotted from day 1 — The deck was stacked. The ultimate winner was an athletic protegee; a guy who’d wrestled for Iowa, Matt, was a national level athlete who had a shot at making the Olympic team. He’d allowed himself to get badly out of shape. Any athlete of this caliber has so much “muscle memory” that when I saw his credentials I knew he would be the ultimate winner: it was a foregone conclusion. At his athletic peak, weighing under 200, he was light years past the qualifications of show’s “personal trainers.” It was clear how superior an athlete he was when on one episode the prison guard female PT worked the men to exhaustion then challenged them to a sprint: how delicious a moment when the exhausted 340-pound fat man whipped her soundly. She was shocked speechless. Wrestlers know all about deprivation and anyone who wrestled at that level has the athletic work ethic of a machine. Give a guy like that 20 weeks to beat himself into shape, wave $250,000 in front of his face and watch the “normal” people get trampled in his path. If they were serious they should have chosen untrained people of various ages and not allowed out-of-shape athletic wonders to compete. Plus it didn’t hurt his weight loss regimen that he simultaneously kicked the booze.

5. Twenty weeks is a long time — Twelve weeks were spent isolated at the Mansion and eight weeks were spent at home. Is there any greater training and dietary motivation being in the final three with a quarter of a million bucks on the line? Normal obese people living regular lives are not provided that type of motivation. It’s a lot harder to maintain focus and drive when no one is watching, when no one cares (other than concerned friends and relatives) and there is zero financial incentive. With its dubious methodology its doubtful any aspect of the Biggest Loser approach has the slightest applicability to real people leading real lives.

6. Not to cast stones without offer alternatives — Purposefully Primitive Obesity solutions provides real results for real people leading regular lives.

Marty Gallagher is a former fitness columnist for washingtonpost.com. He is also a former national and world champion powerlifter. Marty’s articles have been featured in Muscle Media, Muscle & Fitness, and Powerlifting USA magazines. His website, http://www.martygallagher.com, assimilates years of accumulated knowledge from the athletic elite and makes them accessible to the common person. The “Purposeful Primitive” way has been proven effective time after time after time for weight loss, increasing muscle tone, and complete physical transformation.

Before Leslie Nielson became one of the funniest men in the movies with such classics as “The Naked Gun” series, he was actually a very serious actor. Most people today would have no idea of this fact. But yes, there was a time. One of his greatest films was the classic science fiction “Forbidden Planet” which was made in 1956. It was directed by Fred Wilcox and written by Irving Block and Allen Adler.

The premise of the story was actually very simple. A spaceship, commandeered by Commander John Adams, played by Nielson, was sent to the planet Alta to investigate the strange and sudden silence from the planet and the colony that was living there. When the spaceship arrives, they discover that all but two of the colonists have died. The survivors are Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira. Somehow, they survived the attacks of a terrible monster. Morbius was played brilliantly by Walter PIdgeon and his daughter was played by the beautiful Anne Francis. The movie did a great job of showing her off.

Morbius explained to the crew what happened and all might have been well with his explanation but when Adams decides that they’re going to stick around for a while Morbius almost goes into a rage and practically orders them to leave the planet, telling them that he couldn’t be held responsible for what might happen to them. Well, that’s all Adams had to hear. Now he was more determined than ever to stay and find out what was “really” going on.

Needless to say, this prompted the “monster” to come out and attack one of the crew members in the ship itself. Morbius, upon hearing of this, told Adams that he was warned to leave. But Adams took it as more of a threat and was convinced that Morbius knew more than he was letting on.

Finally, Morbius gives Adams and Doctor Ostrow, played by Warren Stevens, a tour of the facility. This is when he tells the story of the Krell, the civilization that lived here millions of years before, a civilization more advanced than anything they had ever seen. When asked what happened to the Krell, Morbius gave a vague answer. But during the tour he showed Adams and Ostrow a mind booster machine. This would ultimately lead to Adams discovering the terrible secret.

If you haven’t seen the movie, we won’t ruin the ending for you. It was one of the most intense finishes in movie history and a film that even today stands up to anything that modern day film makers put together.

It should be noted that in this movie we see for the first time Robbie The Robot. While Robbie wasn’t anything more than a man in a suit, he was very realistic as robots go and turned out to be one of the most famous robots in all of movie history.

This movie has everything that anyone could want in a science fiction. Robots, pretty girls and a great story with a real surprise ending.

Don’t miss this one the next time they show it on the Sci-Fi channel.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Films.