Entertainment Wrap #17

Summer keeps chugging along, with yet another batch of new releases. There are also big things going down in the world of MMA this weekend. Looks to be another great week, here’s a look…

THEATERS

New movies hitting theaters this week are: Bruno, I Love You Beth Cooper, and Blood: the Last Vampire.  Bruno is the latest from Sacha Baron Cohen, who is best known for Borat and Da Ali G Show.  Bruno follows the exploits of a gay fashionista from Austria who comes to the US. This is one of Cohen’s funnier characters and it seems ready for the transition to the big screen. Some of his humor falls flat, but when he is funny I find him to be flat out hilarious. While his brand of humor relies heavily on shock value, I feel that Cohen is perhaps the ballsiest comic in the game right now with all of the risks he takes.  I actually really want to check this movie out since it is almost guaranteed to shock you with some craziness you have never seen before and nobody pushes the envelope of controversy more than Cohen.

I Love You Beth Cooper is another high school comedy starring Hayden Panetierre (TV’s Heroes) and some other people. It looks like your typical HS flick.  While it doesn’t really promise anything new or original, it looks like it may be good for a few laughs and might be worth checking out.  Blood: the Last Vampire is a live action movie based on the popular anime of the same name. The story is about a young Vampire girl in post WWII Japan who is enlisted by a government agency to help them hunt down and destroy demons.  The movie has had some pretty bad reviews, mainly citing the poor special effects and the noticeable lack of blood from the comic.  I’m still interested in checking this out, but I have a feeling it won’t be until it hits video.

Then there is the movie whose name we dare not mention…but I will anyway- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which comes out later this coming week.  This flick looks to be the best Potter yet. I’ve never read an HP book before, but I’ve been following the movies since the start, and they’ve definitely grown on me with each film getting better and better (with the exception of the last one). The latest movie seems to have the darkest themes so far and I can’t wait to check it out.

DVD

New DVDs this week are Knowing, Push, and The Unborn. I’ve written reviews for all three of these, so for more in depth info definitely go check those out. I will take time to talk about the Unborn briefly. I was tricked in watching this because, like a few other people, I mistakenly thought that the lead character was played by Megan Fox of Transformers hotness. Don’t be fooled, she is NOT Megan Fox.  On the plus side, she is very hot also and the movie is pretty good.

GAMING

Nothing going on in the gaming world this week really worth noting. There is a re-release of Bio-Shock/ElderScrolls Oblivion in a bundle pack for the price of one game. This is a pretty solid deal for Bioshock alone. While the game doesnt have a multiplayer component, the SP is worth the price alone as it is one of the best games to come out in 2007. As far as Oblivion, I really know nothing about how good it is, since I dont really play serious RPGs like this. However, the game got a few Game of the Year nods, not to mention the fact that it comes with Bioshock in this bundle so it should be well worth trying out.

MMA

It seems like only yesterday I was a young teen watching a scrawny guy in a gi submit numerous opponents in a No Holds Barred fighting tournament. That man was Royce Gracie and that tournament was the Ultimate Fighting Championship I. At the time it seemed like a real life Bloodsport, but it was so amazing to watch Royce overcome such adversity using a lion’s heart and superior technique.  Back then they didn’t even wear gloves, there were no weight classes, hell you could even pull hair! Here we are a whopping 99 events later and MMA has most certainly evolved to a high level of sophistication. This brings us to the appropriately titled UFC 100: Making History, which features one of the best fight cards to date.

The card has a triple main event and you’d be hard pressed to pick the most exciting matchup out of the three, as they all have the potential to be dynamite. The rest of the card is no slouch either, but here I’ll just look at the big three and give my picks.

Middleweight fight: Michael “The Count” Bisping vs. Dan Henderson

Standup: Bisping’s strikes are crisp and he has excellent footwork to go with his boxing. He is very technical on his feet and he picks his shots well. Compared to Henderson, he is definitely the more refined and technical of the two.  Henderson has a crushing overhand right that he has used to change the tide of many of his fights, but he also has a ton of power in his left. Not to mention his titanium chin. He has stood and banged with some of the hardest hitters in the world, and to date he has never been knocked out and I highly doubt Bisping will be the first to do so. If he can trick Bisping into standing and exchanging with him, chances are Bisping will pepper him with a lot more shots, but all Hendo needs to do is withstand the barrage and connect flush one time and its lights out.  Edge: Henderson

Grappling: Bisping has gotten better at his ground and clinch game.  In previous fights, good wrestlers like Matt Hamill and Rashad Evans were able to give him trouble with their superior wrestling. Henderson’s wrestling pedigree speaks for itself. An Olympic wrestler, Henderson will definitely use this to his advantage to clinch and pin Bisping against the cage or hold him down on the ground and just grind the life out of him. While Bisping has improved in this aspect, he has never faced a wrestler of Hedo’s caliber in the octagon. Edge: Henderson

Cardio: Bisping is always well conditioned in all of his fights. He’s been in a few wars, but never showed signs of fatigue or slow down. Bisping is also a lot younger than Henderson, so that may work to his advantage cardio-wise. Henderson is usually incredible for the first couple of rounds, but tends to slow a bit as the fight goes on. This has hurt him in close fights like the Rampage fight or the time he fought Anderson Silva. He was doing good in both of those fights, but was noticably more and more slow towards the later rounds, not to mention the fact that the guy is getting old. If Bisping can withstand Hendo through the initial rounds, he may be able to take advantage of this later in the fight. Edge: Bisping

While it is pretty close to call, I’m going to go with Henderson. Both men are great fighters, but I think that Hendo’s wrestling and experience will prove too much for bisping.

Prediction: Henderson via TKO Round 3

Welterweight Title Fight: Georges “Rush” St. Pierre vs. Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves

Standup: Both of these guys are very well rounded strikers. St. Pierre likes to utilize his karate background throwing a lot of kicks, following up with punches. GSP has a bit of a reach advantage in this fight and can utilize that to stay outside of Alves’ range while landing shots of his own. Alves is just devastating on the feet. St.Pierre can definitely hurt you standing up, but Alves’ strikes just destroy people. His Muay Thai pedigree is evident in his devastating kicks and knees. Thiago has already stated that he is going to knock out GSP, so look for him to come out guns blazing. Edge: Alves

Grappling: GSP is the best wreslter in MMA. Everytime he has faced a bad ass wreslter (Hughes, Koscheck, Fitch, Trigg, etc) he has outwrestled them and imposed his will on them. Even BJ Penn, who’s takedown defense is from another planet, couldn’t stop GSP’s shots. Alves has improved tremendously in his grappling and ground game, as he has shown in his previous fights, most recently when he pinned Hughes to the mat like a tail on a donkey.  But his bread and butter is his ability to get back to his feet after being on the ground. Alves is definitely the stronger of the two fighters, but I don’t see him denying GSP’s wrestling…unless of course its with a killer knee to the face. Edge: GSP

Cardio: Both fighters are cardio machines. I see them as pretty evenly matched in this department and capable of going the full 5 rounds. I will give a slight edge to GSP as I feel he has the ability to just sap the energy out of his opponents. St. Pierre will most likely use his wrestling to pin Alves against the cage or the ground and just drain the energy out of him. Edge: GSP

This fight is a bit too close to call. GSP is the more rounded of the two, but Alves has devstating KO power and accuracy. I’m really hesitant to pick one, but I’m going to go with GSP. I love Alves’ style and his hunger, but I think St. Pierre is just too complete.

Prediction: GSP via submission Rd 3

Heavyweight Title Unification Fight: Brock Lesnar v. Frank Mir

Standup: Mir is definitely the more technical of the two fighters and his improvement was demonstrated in his most recent bout against Nogueira. It will take a hell of a lot for him to really hurt Lesnar, and the outcome of an exchange does not favor him at all. Lesnar only needs to connect once or twice to put Mir on his back or knock him out, so Mir would be smart to employ a stick and move strategy and try to point his way to a victory.   Lesnar is just too strong to be damaged by Mir, unless he connects with something serious. Edge: Lesnar

Grappling: The same problems Mir faces on the feet, he faces on the ground. While he has way more submissions than Lesnar, Lesnar is a lot stronger than Mir. Lesnar will look to use his NCAA wrestling champion pedigree to hold Mir down and just ground and pound the life out of him. As crafty as Mir is, his only real hope on the groud is to set Lesnar up for a submission. Since their last meeting, Lesnar will be very cautious against any submission attempts and will most likely just hold Mir in place and pound him out rather than risk getting submitted by trying to advance his position. Edge: Lesnar

Cardio:  Mir has had gas problems in the past, however he seems to have a new found focus on MMA and should show up game and ready for 5 rounds. Lesnar has never really been pushed to 5 full rounds, but his wrestling pedigree indicates that he is more than capable of going the distance. I have to give the slight edge to Lesnar, seeing that Mir will expend way more energy trying to control a beast of Lesnar’s stature. Edge: Lesnar

I’d like to see Mir somehow pull this one out, but all signs point to Lesnar taking this fight. Physically, Lesnar is a specimen the type of which has yet to be seen in the UFC.

Prediction: Lesnar via TKO Rd 3.

There you have it. My picks aren’t always the best, and this UFC looks to be one of the closest as far as match ups go (at least on paper). Regardless of who wins, the event looks to be a killer with three action packed events that promise to deliver.

That’s the week in entertainment and that’s a wrap.