Hijinks Inc.

Category: Entertainment

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin

    Even though this card features a title unification bout, I’m not particularly worked up about the card this weekend at UFC 116, but that’s hardly the UFC’s fault. They originally had big names like Wanderlei Silva, Nate Marquardt, and the Ultimate Fighter 10 winner Roy Nelson, but a variety of things went wrong and they had to be replaced or moved to later events. Perhaps some of the biggest news regarding this event is Chris Leben filling in for the injured Wanderlei Silva and fighting on two weeks notice, after winning Knockout of the Night at the Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale on June 19.

    As the event stands now, we’ve got 5 match-ups on the pay per view main card and 2 preliminary fights to be aired live on Spike TV, check your local listings for time and channel information. Here’s the lineup per Wikipedia:

    Main card

    After a pedestrian 2-2 on my picks last week at Strikeforce, I hope to fare a little better this time around, although I’m going with quite a few underdogs. I’m picking Carwin over Lesnar, Leben over Akiyama, Brown over Lytle, Soszynski over Bonnar, and Sotiropoulos over Pelligrino.

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Shutter Island

    Welcome to our first movie review! (Well, technically the 2nd movie we’ve reviewed I guess, but the first from our ‘new look’ Hijinks Inc. And even then, that movie was reviewed twice as you’ll find here and here… and I’ll be wrapping up this rabbit trail right about…. now)

    Shutter Island is based on a book by the same name and was released in theaters February 19, 2010 and on Blu-ray and DVD June 8, 2010. A quick lookup on Wikipedia will give you this blurb:

    Shutter Island is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based on Dennis Lehane‘s 2003 novel of the same name. Production started in March 2008. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels, who is investigating the psychiatric facility on Shutter Island.

    I’ve always had tepid anticipation for pretty much every Leonardo DiCaprio movie because I still kind of hold it against him that a crappy movie like Titanic (the boat sinks people! We all knew that going in and it STILL held the box office record!) sat atop the box office mostly due to little girls repetitively attending and fawning over Leo. However, he’s been in some really good movies lately, The Departed being my favorite, so maybe I need to re-evaluate my opinion of him. The fact that this was another Martin Scorsese film also grabbed my attention, but still, it looked like it was just trying to be the next creepy horror-ish type movie, probably with a twist at the end that nobody was supposed to see coming. I guess, to an extent, this holds true, but it’s done very well. More after the jump, including possible spoilers.

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  • Hijinks TV Reviews: The Good Guys

    I mentioned The Good Guys in my recent post as a show that I had downloaded but hadn’t watched yet. The debut season is now 4 episodes in and I took the opportunity to get caught up this week. I went into it with very modest expectations, because I hadn’t heard wonderful things about it, but I must say, I came away pleasantly surprised.

    The Good Guys is created by Matt Nix, the same guy who brings us Burn Notice. Although this is a bit of a different show as it is more in the buddy cop vein, whereas Burn Notice is more spy vs spy. You get the occasional laugh from Burn Notice, but overall, it’s a bit more of a serious show, it’s a lot of fun, but not really in the ‘comedy’ sense. The Good Guys is definitely out for the laughs.

    Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks are the stars of the show, playing Detectives Dan Stark and Jack Bailey respectively. Dan Stark and Jack Bailey… pretty basic straight-forward detective names. One of them is more by the book and the other breaks all the rules… pretty straight-forward roles. They open each show with the climax of the episode and then flash back to how we got here, again, pretty standard fare here. Long story short, The Good Guys is nothing you haven’t seen before, it’s all been done a million times before, but it’s done well enough, and with enough funny stuff thrown in that it’s worth the ride. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – Strikeforce 26 Aftermath

    It was a night of greats. The best male and female fighters in the world were on display, one of them exhibited that greatness, the other was shockingly upset, possibly the biggest upset in MMA history. It was also the night that one of the all time greats officially retired as Frank Shamrock hung it up for good and will turn to full time broadcasting.

    Quick  recaps of the main card and a Frank Shamrock highlight video after the jump

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  • The MMA Minute – Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum

    Not sure if we have any fight fans out there, but then again, nobody is twisting your arm to read this either. Haha, that’d be funny to you if you were a fight fan… but I digress.

    This Saturday night we are treated to an event that features the widely regarded best male and female fighters in the world. Fedor on the men’s side and ‘Cyborg’ Santos to represent the women. Admittedly, I follow the UFC a bit closer, but I’ve been doing my best to watch the recent Strikeforce cards, ever since they absorbed most of EliteXC. Here’s the main card, per Wikipedia:

    Main Card

    And for my quick picks? Fedor over Werdum, ‘Cyborg’ over Finney, Smith over Le, and Thomson over Healy. Regardless, here’s hoping for some good fights.