The Punisher Needs Quentin Tarantino

Fan casting is extremely popular on Movie Pilot. As fans, we all have our wish list of actors to play certain roles. I’ve even seen some fan casting for certain directors to be attached to different projects. This is one of those fan casts.

Marvel movies have become the biggest box office draws in recent years. Some of their properties haven’t succeeded as planned though. Both Fantastic Four movies were critically panned. Same goes for some of the X-Men movies. Daredevil was a flop. Elektra was a flop. The Ghost Rider films weren’t good and The Punisher films were just as bad.

I’d like to talk about that last one though; The Punisher. I see the most potential in this property. I don’t think the character fits in the Marvel cinematic universe, but as a stand-alone film, I think he can succeed.

He’s essentially Keanu Reeves in John Wick or Denzel Washington in The Equalizer or Liam Neeson in Taken. He’s a one man wrecking crew. That should be easy to translate to film. Why hasn’t it though? I think Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson did fine in the role. Where the movies failed was everywhere else. Story, dialogue, direction, production, marketing, etc. have let the character down.

I think the perfect director to properly portray the character on screen would be Quentin Tarantino. He’s an admitted comic book fan. He almost directed a Luke Cage movie. He’s even admitted to having parts of his movies influenced by different comic book properties. The one thing holding him back is that he’d want to more or less create the character and storyline himself.

I say, let him do it. Give him The Punisher, Frank Castle, and let him reshape his origin story to best fit the big screen. The character is right up Quentin Tarantino’s alley. He’s an ultra-violent man seeking revenge. This sounds like a match made in Heaven to me. It’s not likely to ever happen, but a fan can dream right?

I love The Walking Dead

Full disclosure, I love The Walking Dead. Not everyone does though. I get it if zombies, blood, gore, horror, etc. are not your thing. Some people (mainly critics) claim it is not a good show though. That is where I draw the line. The Walking Dead is a great show.

The show has a great take on post-apocalyptic life. It gives a realistic take on how people would react to a world over run with zombies. The show is less about zombies and more about morals though. It gives a great “what if” to viewers. What if there were limited food and supplies? What if some people weren’t as friendly as others? What if you had to make decisions about life and death as a leader or follower? The show has so many facets to it.

I understand the criticisms; some of the acting isn’t great, the story repeats itself sometimes, it doesn’t follow the graphic novel exactly, some of the actions and dialogue aren’t believable, etc. I hear the concerns, but I don’t agree with them. The show has had many different cast members, show runners, producers, and directors. If the criticisms were warranted, someone would surely pick up on it.

The Walking Dead is about life. Life has its ups and downs. Life has its exciting and dull moments. Life has its good and bad. The show tries to address all facets of life, while still entertaining audiences. It deals with relationships of family and friends. It deals with love and loss. It deals with survival.

The show is currently on season 5. There is no reason to believe it won’t make it to 10+ seasons. Due to the structure of the show, that means criticisms can be addressed. Things can be improved. I feel as though people who don’t like the show are not catching onto all of the themes it possesses. It’s television. It’s acting. It’s a form of art. Things are not always as they appear. If you’re not a fan, that is okay. If you think the show is bad, look closer and analyze what’s happening. You may be surprised by what you see.

A Different Look At Losing

Does your team always seem to have an injury problem? Does your team always seem to draft or sign the wrong players? Does your team always lose? Most people blame these things on team management, coaches, or just bad luck. It may go much deeper though. You always hear about teams being celebrated or criticized for their coaching hires, trades, and free agent signings. Those don’t always produce winning results though. I firmly believe professional organizations need to hold their athletic training staff and scouting department more accountable. You never hear about a team making changes to the athletic training staff or scouting department. Think about how important those two are though.

The athletic training staff assists with injury prevention, injury recovery, medical history, etc. If this part of the team is inadequate, players will miss games and have shorter careers, which leads to losing in most cases. The scouting department is just as if not more important. They lend their voices to drafting players out of college and signing free agents from other teams. If their scouting reports are wrong, it leads to players being ineffective and being considered busts.

It’s easy to blame problems on the general manager, coaches, or players, but really look at a team’s problems. You’ll find that things are not always as they appear on the surface. Most losing franchises have an organizational problem. Everyone in the company needs to be evaluated.

NBA season opener thoughts 10/28

Last night I watched 2 of the 3 NBA season opener games. Here are some thoughts.

-Great win for the Spurs. Dallas will make the playoffs and normally plays them hard. They won without Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter.

-I’m not sure Matt Bonner is an NBA player anymore. If the whole team is healthy I don’t think he gets any playing time.

-Speaking of still being in the NBA, how are Austin Daye and Charlie Villanueva still on rosters?

-It’s just one game, but Chandler Parsons looked bad. Without Dwight Howard inside to draw away defenders it will be interesting to see if he can create space and score on his own.

-Devin Harris on the other hand looked great. He has the potential to be a great scoring 6^th man. He could play a Jason Terry type role for them this season off the bench.

-The Rockets CRUSHED the Lakers. It wasn’t even close. The score says they won by 18, but it was a lot worse.

-Trevor Ariza is an upgrade over Chandler Parsons. He’s a better 3 point shooter and a better defender. Those two things will help the Rockets be better this season.

-I’m not sure who is going to score off the bench for them though.

-The Lakers are bad. VERY bad! This is the worst Lakers team I’ve ever seen.

-Julius Randle is likely out for the season, which sucks. I was really looking forward to watching him play.

-Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer are the only starters on the Lakers. Byron Scott needs to tinker with the other three positons to see who is going to play the best this season.

 

Washington Football Team

For 25 years I lived in Northern Virginia. That means I supported the Washington Redskins as my home town football team. I’m still close by in Maryland and follow the team, but I no longer support them. This is for two reasons; I don’t think Daniel Snyder is a good owner and I’m mature enough to realize the team name is racist. This isn’t an article about Daniel Snyder though, so I’ll skip over that. This is about the team name. Many people don’t view it as racist or demeaning. Those people are wrong. Some view the name as representing pride or tradition. Those people are also wrong. I didn’t always think of the team name as being bad. For most of my life I didn’t think about the team name at all. Once you reach a certain intelligence level though, you should be able to comprehend why the term “Redskin” is bad. As a society we should not be calling different ethnicities by the color of their skin. Walk around a crowded area and call out, “Hey, black skin”, “Hey, yellow skin”, “Hey, brown skin”, etc. Gauge people’s reactions. See what kind of looks you receive. If you are not willing to engage in this exercise, ask yourself why. It should become apparent that merely identifying people by the color of their skin is wrong. That is why I will not support my home town Washington Football Team until the name is changed.

 

A Ryan Reynolds Rant

Ryan Reynolds is a Hollywood star. He’s a big time celebrity. He’s famous for his good looks and physique. He’s also a talented actor. Why don’t his movies do better at the box office though? One could argue script, direction, or marketing are the reason for this. I believe it’s something else though. I think his popularity works against him. While he’s well known, I’m not sure he is well liked. It’s possible his brand of sarcastic acting doesn’t resonate with movie going fans. He’s been in 9 movies since 2010. Only 3 have performed well for him. 2 are animated and 1 was opposite fan favorite Denzel Washington. 33% success is not a good percentage in Hollywood. This is why I don’t think he should be cast as Deadpool, even though he probably will be.

We as fans want the movie to succeed, so we can see the character in other X-Men movies and sequels. Ryan Reynolds’ movies don’t tend to perform well. While it’s possible the character is bigger than the actor, I don’t think the movie studio should take that chance. This may be why he hasn’t been officially announced by the studio to be playing Deadpool yet. They are probably looking at other options. They don’t need a famous actor as much as they need a memorable voice who can deliver the lines of dialogue. This could be quite a few people. Deadpool should be wearing his mask most of the movie and a stunt man will likely perform all the action scenes. That means if you cast Ryan Reynolds, you primarily want his name on the marquee. That may scare away more fans than it brings in.

 

Caption that Google image - Silva/Sonnen 2

Sonnen: “Shit just got real!”

Crowd: “Finish him!”

UFC: "God, thank you for Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.”

Assassin’s Creed 3: “Perfect advertising spot!”

“That awkward moment when you know, you have lost.”

Silva: “I hope this knee to the chest I’m about to do is legal.”

Referee: “Shit just got real!”

My basketball movie idea. No title yet

A Father (Tim Bryant) must raise his two sons (Patrick Barkley and Karl Barkley) alone after their Mother (Lisa Barkley) dies during labor. He teaches them basketball, as he was a former NBA player who won multiple championships. The two brothers win AAU championships, high school championships, and a college championship during their freshmen year. A series of terrible tragedies start to happen though. Their Father is killed and Patrick gets hit by a car and becomes paralyzed. Karl goes into a depression and considers dropping out of college and quitting basketball. Patrick advises him against it. He instead tells him to continue playing basketball and win as many championships as possible. Karl struggles to do it without his Brother and Father though. He doesn’t win another championship in college, as a NBA player, as a NBA coach, or as a NBA general manager. This drives him crazy. It drives him into another depression. He can’t shake the feeling of being a failure, a loser, and not living up to the winning pedigree established by his Father and Brother. Karl later decides it’s either suicide or he’s going to murder the man that beat him (Michael Russell) for numerous championships.

Washington Wizards Q&A

Point Guards – John Wall, Shelvin Mack
Shooting Guards – Jordan Crawford, Bradley Beal
Small Forwards – Trevor Ariza, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely
Power Forwards – Nene, Trevor Booker, Andray Blatche
Centers – Omeka Okafor, Kevin Seraphin

- These 12 players are the only ones I see making any kind of impact this upcoming season. The roster could and probably will change, but as of right now these are the only players worth mentioning. How good will they be? It’s hard to tell. It all depends on a bunch of variables. Let’s do some Q&A for the Wizards.

1. Will Jordan Crawford or Bradley Beal start at Shooting Guard?

ANSWER: I think Crawford will start at the beginning of the season, but he is an ideal 6th man. Beal will eventually supplant him.

2. How good will Bradley Beal be?

ANSWER: I don’t know. If I had to create a stat line for him, I’d say as a rookie he will average 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. The main thing I’m looking for is how many minutes he plays and what his shooting percentages are. Those are two very underrated stats that tell a lot about a player.

3. Will Andray Blatche contribute this season?

ANSWER: Yes, but not that much. He’ll get some minutes at Power Forward and Center, but as soon as he does something dumb he’ll be back on the bench. He is what he is. I don’t see him changing and now that we have better players at his positions, he won’t see a lot of court time.

4. Can Nene and Omeka Okafor play together?

ANSWER: I don’t think so. They’ve both played Center primarily throughout their career. I feel as though they both are going to clog the middle and make it hard for others to drive and slash to the basket.

5. How will the young team develop?

ANSWER: The Wizards are now a team of young veterans. Ariza, Nene, and Okafor are solid additions who should help the team mature in the right direction. They’ve all be to the playoffs and have had success in the league. The development of the younger players ultimately comes down to the coaching staff though.

6. What needs to be fixed?

ANSWER: Everything! I see only 30-35 wins for this team as presently constructed. I like all the pieces, but I don’t like how they fit. I also think each position needs improvement. The success of the team hinges on how everyone develops. If Wall and Beal are superstars, Crawford produces as a 6th man, Nene and Okafor can play together, and we get some solid production from the Small Forward position, than this team may sneak into the 8th seed. It’s highly doubtful though. Use this season to evaluate the younger players, see if Nene and Okafor can co-exist, and draft/sign/trade for an All-Star Small Forward.

2012 NBA Who-Should-Go-Where Draft

These are not my picks for the 2012 NBA Draft. These are who I think each team should select. This is based on every team's current roster. It is not taking into account free agents to be. And yes, I took this from ESPN. Please don't sue!