News broadcasting in the fast lane

What happens in a newsroom? Does anyone besides those who work inside the concrete walls of a news broadcasting station really know? Probably not. The Newsroom, created by Aaron Sorkin, dives into this topic. Scratch that. He slams face first into this topic.

The show doesn't begin like most others. Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, starts off running right from the start. If you've ever watched some of Sorkin's most recent work (The Social Network, Moneyball, etc.), it's not hard to predict that The Newsroom is a fast-paced, quick-witted show with endless amount of dialogue. Viewers are not eased into what they are about to see. No, they are forced to decide right then and there whether or not this show is for them. Just watch and see. What do you think?

This isn't the one time throughout the show's first two seasons where this kind of thing happens. The entire show is actually based off of this kind of behavior. You see, Will McAvoy isn't the average news anchor. He actually cares what he's reporting about. So does his crew. Unlike the large majority of network stations you see today--whether in television shows or in real life--McAvoy and his team really fight for the truth and nothing but the truth, no matter how damaging it is to the station's or their own reputation.

The most amazing thing about this show is that pretty much every single story ACN (the fictional network stations known as Atlantis Cable News) reports, is a story that has actually occurred in the recent past. Stories span from the attack on the Twin Towers to the 2012 Presidential Election. Occupy Wall Street and the killing of Osama Bin Laden are also covered in this revolutionary show.

There's really not a whole lot this post can do for any of you. Simply go and watch an episode of The Newsroom. It's the only piece of advice I can give you.

Pulling off a sports movie

As an avid sports sports fan, every time a sports movie comes out I have to go see it. Whether the movie be about golf, baseball, hockey, basketball, etc., I must see it. I finally got to see the most recent blockbuster sports film to come out, Moneyball, on Friday night. While the performances were awesome (Brad Pitt kills it as Billy Beane), I couldn't help but come out of the movie disappointed. The main problem with the film is that while it is based on the book, it is also based on the 2002 Oakland Athletics 2002 season. While it may have appeared to make sense to a regular movie goer, there were so many holes in the story. Several key players were left out of the movie and many of the motives and and key plot points that drive the story line simply didn't happen.

This is what poses the main issue for sports films that are based on true stories, the outcome is already decided. Whenever I go into a sports movie, if it's based on a true story, I always know the end. It makes the film less exciting for me because I want it to look and feel just like the real thing did. An example of this is the film Miracle. The movie is about the 1980 USA mens hockey team that beat the USSR in the Lake Placid olympics. While the movie was good, I didn't get the excitement I was looking for because I already knew the final result.

One of my other favorite sports films is Eight Men Out, the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, better known as the Black Sox. Eight members of the team famously took bribes from Chicago gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series and were promptly banned from baseball the following year. Another main problem with sports films is finding actors who are athletic enough to play professional athletes. This is an example of a film that does a marvelous job at simulating game action.

Maybe I take sports films a little to seriously because of my fandom and attention to detail when it comes to the quality of what I am seeing related to sports films, but thats probably why my favorite sports movie doesn't take itself to seriously.

My favorite sports movie of all time is the Sandlot. It's the classic story of the new kid on the block that finds friends through the game of baseball and the magical sandlot where they play. Yes it's corny and silly but the movie is heartwarming and a true classic for any baseball fan .

Moneyball

A film that has been getting a lot of press lately is "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The Film, based on the best-selling book by Michael Lewis, is about the sabermetric statistics revolution the devoured baseball in the late '90's and early 2000's. The movie centers around Billy Beane, Pitt's character, the much maligned general manager of the Oakland Athletics. The cash-strapped franchise was looking for ways to stay competitive without the financial resources of high-market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox. In turn, Beane and his staff revolutionized the way baseball statistics came to be interpreted. The film is an absolute must-see for any sports fan and will hopefully live up to the hype it has generated since the movie began pre-production more than two years ago.