2017 NFL Preview

As per tradition I'm posting my NFL preview during opening Sunday, so I won't waste your time with some expanded prelude discussing the greatness of the NFL, or its shittiness, or my past success with predictions (Half of the Super Bowl teams the last 8 years, & 3 of the winners). Let's get to it...

Will Tom Brady be celebrating again this season?

AFC

East

1. Patriots (1) 13-3
2. Dolphins      7-9
3. Bills            4-12
4. Jets              2-14

The Patriots may have lost their opening game, but their balance across all three facets of the game, plus their coach & QB, remain the envy of the league. That, & this terrible division, should allow them to grab home field advantage. Tannehill to Cutler doesn't make any difference in my feelings about the Dolphins, they simply aren't going to go 8-2 in one score games again. They were a mediocre team that got lucky last year, they'll just be mediocre this year. Ah, the Bills. A few months ago I might've taken them as a wildcard, now they've traded away half of their good players. Tyrod & LeSean will keep them competitive in a number games, but only for so long. The Jets are going to be so so so bad, two wins might be optimistic. 

Baby Driver: You Don't Want to Miss this Ride

We're now midway through the summer movie season &, with all due respect to the original Princess Diana, Baby Driver has sped past the competition to stake its claim as the best film thus far.

The poster is pretty kick-ass too.

Edgar Wright is one of those directors that film critics & aficionados hold in high esteem, but that the American public hasn't fully caught onto. Of his four previous films released in the U.S. none scored lower than 81% on Rotten Tomatoes or 69 on Metacritic, yet none of them made more than $32 million or finished in the top 90 in yearly domestic box office. Whether it's because of the overt Britishness (& R ratings) of his Cornetto Trilogy, or the consistent lack of star power* in his films, Wright's been unable to break through with mass audiences the way he has in the industry. Ant-Man was meant to provide that opportunity, but creative differences led to his leaving that film. Perhaps that was for the best, Baby Driver is more distinctively Wright than any Marvel film could ever be, & if things go well it will have exceeded the domestic box office office of any of his previous works by the end of the weekend. 

*With Brie Larson, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, & others, "Scott Pilgrim" has a lot of retroactive star power but at the time only Evans might've been a bigger draw than Michael Cera, crazy as that sounds.

And, by God, it should. Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jamie Foxx, & Kevin Spacey, have all had major roles in $100 million hits, with the latter two having three Oscars to their names, & between his Emmy win & overwhelming handsomeness Jon Hamm's no slouch either. It's easily Wright's most high profile cast. Sony has ensured the film has had plenty of publicity & it's received the best reviews of Wright's career. More to the point, it's a ton of fun.

Wonder Woman: DC Finally Gets One Right

Wonder Woman's success this weekend was blinding.

Being the first female led (of the MCU/Justice League era), & directed, superhero movie makes Wonder Woman a great leap forward, but the actual film fits squarely within the confines of the genre -- with all of the strengths & the flaws that entails (most notably a listless CGI finale against a less than compelling villain).

Thankfully Wonder Woman is more reminiscent of the MCU than DC's previous oppressive slugfests. The film boasts a strong sense of humor throughout, with Gal Gadot & Chris Pine both showing off expert comedic deliveries, & the casting of the two leads proves to be the best move the film makes.