1. the age of our daughter (4) preventing us from going to the movie theater often (babysitters cost mucho dinero these days)
2. higher quality television choices, and
3. a generally uninteresting slate of films released across the entire year.

So with these caveats, I’ve decided to write a little bit about what were my favorite and least favorite films of the year. Granted, these aren’t “the best” or “the worst” but the ones I personally would recommend or chastise.

My Favorites

Beginners

This film will probably get a little more attention in the upcoming weeks, as it has been predicted by many film lovers that Christopher Plummer will receive the Academy Award for Supporting Actor for his performance in this film. That’s probably a good thing, because I simply thought this was a very well-written movie and perhaps the most convincing portrayal of how the world works in all of my movie-going experiences from the year. That being said, this is probably not a film for everyone.

Ewan Macgregor plays the central character, an artist in his 30s whose father (Plummer) recently passed away from cancer. Through a series of detailed memories and flashbacks, we learn that his mother had also passed away several years earlier. After this occurs, his father decides to come out of the closet as a gay man and gradually proceeds to take up with a live-in boyfriend. Meanwhile, in present time Ewan McGregor’s character meets a charming woman at an artists’ Halloween dress-up party, and she is intrigued by his cute, yet deeply troubled demeanor.

The movie interweaves the present romance of Macgregor with his experiences with his father during the later years of his father’s life. We slowly begin to understand why McGregor’s character acts the way he does, why commitment and the risks associated with a serious relationship can be so challenging, and how his approach to this new romance makes him just as much of a “Beginner” as his father was to being openly gay. There’s also a talking dog. Don’t worry, it talks in subtitles and says thoughts that it seems a dog would actually say.

So if you aren’t scared away by this description of the film, then you would probably like Beginners. It’s a hard film to write about, because there’s so much more to it than simply Plummer’s character coming out after the death of his wife. But I’m excited to see more films from Mike Mills, the writer / director.

Win Win

An attorney attempting to keep his family from financial ruin (Paul Giammati) becomes the legal guardian of an affluent and senile client who seems to have no family in Win Win. This unethical choice takes an unexpected turn when the troubled teenage grandson of his client suddenly appears. Just like Beginners, a basic description of Win Win doesn’t seem to do it justice.

I’ve never really liked Paul Giammati as an actor because his performances have always felt like someone laboring to show us he could “act.” You know what I mean. But his skill in a complex role won me over in this film that never felt over-the-top.

It might also be because my job relates so much to “disconnected youth” that I liked this film and its portrayal of a young man with lots to offer, but who had received little of the care and support he needed from adults to succeed.

Between Beginners and Win Win, the later is definitely the more accessible film. It pauses for more laughs and probably is easier to relate to for the masses. I don’t think it received any award nominations, so it’s definitely in need of some more attention given its high quality as a film.

My Idiot Brother

Quite possibly the lowest-stakes movie of the year, watching My Idiot Brother is like going out to breakfast on a Sunday morning. It really goes down easy and doesn’t demand much of a viewer in a good way. Sure, as one relative put it, it has “a couple of chuckles” and is never really laugh out loud funny, but Paul Rudd’s performance is hard not to like. He plays a kind, friendly, biodynamic organic farmer who goes to jail in the 1st scene for attempting to give pot to an undercover cop at a farmer’s market. When he gets out of jail several months later, he tries to get his life back on track and seeks refuge in the homes and families of his 3 sisters. Some funny things happen. This is probably the type of movie that will be played on tv endlessly for years to come, as it’s pretty harmless entertainment and has a warm aesthetic.

Moneyball

In any other year, Moneyball would have been easily left off of my list, but as I said earlier, it seemed like a particularly weak year for films. The movie, however, takes on a subject that only rarely seems to get covered in movies and yet it is probably a universally appreciated topic (and no, I’m not talking about baseball). Simply put, there are very few movies about work. Moneyball is largely about how it takes some cojones to stand up for new ideas and new ways of doing things in the workplace.

The movie is based on true events involving Billy Bean (played by Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland A’s professional baseball team. He adopted a more robustly statistics-driven method of evaluating baseball players and their value. In the past 10 years this strategy has become normalized across all professional sports, thanks to Beane and others who paved the way. It’s hard to believe that what nows seems like such a “duh” idea was rejected as controversial only a decade ago. But I think many people can relate to how challenging it can be for new ideas that seem unconventional to gain support in the workplace. Conservative tendencies and a lack of desire to “rock the boat” can make even the more open-minded shrivel in fear, even when not much is at stake. Of course, there are bad ideas, but Moneyball happens to cover one of the good ones.

Cedar Rapids

Much like My Idiot Brother, Cedar Rapids is a low stakes movie. Nonetheless it was one of the movies I enjoyed watching the most in 2011. Ed Helms, known for his roles on The Daily Show, on The Office, and in the Hangover movies is the lead here, and plays a naive, unworldly insurance agent who through a variety of new circumstances is forced to go represent his company at an annual regional Conference for insurance brokers. After arriving at the Conference, our hero is forced into confronting his inexperience with the underbelly of life, and must navigate a world of insurance agents where some appear to be friends and others foes. Alright, so perhaps that doesn’t really describe what this movie is about in any specific way that would make it seem like a comedy, but it’s definitely fun, has some good laughs, and like most good comedies of recent years, takes time to develop characters that eventually possess a depth that is relatable and humane. It’s also just a movie about the power of making new friends, and the funny things that can happen at big conferences.

Honorable Mentions

The Way

In the hands of a better director, The Way could have easily been a Best Picture nominee for the Academy Awards. At times amateurish and confused in its messages, The Way nonetheless has a great vehicle for its story that help the film to overcomes its weaknesses and be memorable.

Emilio Estevez (yes! the one you are thinking of) directs his father Martin Sheen in the story of a father who travels to Spain after his estranged middle age son (Estevez in a small, but important role) freakishly dies. His son had commenced a coastal pilgrimage / backpacking trip known as the Camino del Santiago (The Road of Santiago), also referred to as The Way of St. James. On his first night out, the son dies of unusual cold weather in the mountains.

In honor of his son, Sheen’s character chooses to complete the pilgrimage using his son’s backpacking gear. He meets others who are making the trek for their own reasons. We gradually learn what motivates each character’s trek across the course of the film.

One of the strengths of the movie is its cinematography. The beautiful scenery and countryside of Spain made me want to also make the journey. But it’s dialogue like “You don’t choose a life, Dad. You live one” that made the film seem riddled with cliches from time to time (I also see that it was used on at least one of the movies promotional posters). On occasion, however, Estevez has scripted some great scenes that suggest if he keeps making movies he will get better.

The Big Year

Despite all of its flaws, of which there are many, I still found The Big Year to be somewhat memorable in a year when movies seemed to be lackluster. It’s based on a book about birders, people who love birds so much that they count and track how many species they see in a calendar year. The person in the United States who sees the most species has “The Big Year” and gains tremendous recognition among fellow birders. The movie has Jack Black, Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Rashida Jones among its stars. You really could put Rashida Jones in just about any movie and it will make me happy (but, hey, why aren’t they putting my wife in movies too?*) Anyhow, all of our comedic stars and others are competing to win The Big Year. The movie is destined to become Sunday afternoon fodder for TBS or TNT. It’s pretty easy to palate, but also is a little bit of a one-trick pony movie. The flow is a little tedious, the stakes are low, the jokes are minor chuckles, and  it could have brought a little more nerd to the movie than it did. But then again I’m a “birdnerd,” an enthusiast not quite at the level of a birder, but still pretty high up there in my adoration for animals and birds– perhaps someone else might find the skim the surface level of ornithology slowly permeating throughout the movie to be appropriate. Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed the movie.

The Least Favorites

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

How can you fuck up a pirate movie so badly? Seriously, this movie was so boring we turned it off with about 15 minutes left to go. There are few things in this world that have the inherent magic of pirates. It is the sort of thing where if you just say the word, it will instantly get people excited and bring a smile to their face (think dinosaurs, spaceships, magicians, etc…) I’ve always found that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies have been a bit middling (although I thought the 2nd movie was fun). My guess with this one was that the bad reviews would lead me to have such bad expectations that the movie would turn out to at least be entertaining. But boy was I wrong. The movie was without any sense of joy or wonder. It appears that this 4th Pirates of the Caribbean film has a new and amateurish director at its helm. The pace of the movie is one speed the whole way through. The only thing good about this movie was looking at Penelope Cruz– but we can look at her in any movie right? The movie was also about journeying to the FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH! How did they fuck this up so badly? Strongly recommend avoiding this one.

Friends with Benefits

Can men and women have sex and just be friends? This movie explores the novel topic with less gusto and heart than the similarly-themed and rather crappy No Strings Attached, the Ashton Kutcher / Natalie Portman movie from earlier in 2011. If that line doesn’t scare you away, you should know that Levi Novey thinks the script for this movie was incredibly bad, lazy, and a waste of time. He stopped watching at about the 45 minute point, angry that he had wasted 45 minutes of his life. At least Mila Kunis isn’t that hard on the eyes. Here’s an idea: how about putting her and Penelope Cruz together in a movie with Rashida Jones about birdnerds walking the Camino del Santiago that’s actually good. If you understand this idea, I’m proud of you for reading this article so completely.

Your Favorites and Least Favorites?

So what were your favorite and least favorite movies of 2011? Any you are looking forward to in 2012? I’m looking forward the most to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Alright that’s it! Thanks for reading.

* Token note to get cover for making that statement. Love you honey!

As a crowd-pleasing family film, Dolphin Tale takes few risks but will still most likely be enjoyed by its target audience.

It tells the “based on true events” story of Winter, a dolphin that lost its tail after getting caught in a crab trap off of the Florida Gulf Coast. After rescue and recovery, Winter learns to swim anew, in part thanks to a first-of-its-kind prosthetic dolphin tail.

To craft a movie around this core story, a fatherless, alienated young boy is employed as the film’s protagonist. He makes initial contact with Winter and develops a bond with her as well as the animal rescuers who facilitate her rescue and care. As we expect in this kind of film, the experience transforms the boy from a quiet, anti-social, wounded loner who is disengaged in school into a happier, gregarious, conservation nerd who rallies his community.

To its benefit and eventual detriment, Dolphin Tale only develops the supporting characters as necessary. We rarely stray from the foreground and the movie is more efficient in its storytelling because of it. That being said, I can’t help but feel that this is a case where an additional five minutes of character development for one or several characters would have elevated the film considerably.

As the chief marine biologist and director of the marine conservation center / aquarium where the majority of the movie takes place, Harry Connick Jr. is vastly underutilized in a role that could have been meatier and memorable. Likewise, Kris Kristofferson and Ashley Judd get little time to exercise their acting chops even though they deliver sincere energy to their limited roles. Even Morgan Freeman, who gets one brief scene to shine a tad more than the basic plot demanded, feels like he is there to simply lend the film’s credits some extra starpower.

So while competently made and engaging, the makers of the movie ultimately chose to take few risks. Of the film’s subplots (of which there were 4 by my count), one was at least partially successful in lifting the movie beyond its cliches and emotional manipulations. Without going into too much detail, the film shows how one character who sustains a major physical disability through war finds inspiration through the shared challenge faced by Winter, the injured dolphin. In the film’s closing credits, we see footage of the real-life rescue of Winter and also see how several people with disabilities interacted with Winter, creating templates for scenes that made it into the film.

An additional flaw to the movie is its lack of ambition toward providing any sort of ocean conservation messages. Even though the source of the movie’s plot is the direct result of a crab trap and fish nets, we never hear these matters given even a moment of discussion. Given that the movie portrays the enchanting appeal, magic, and sense of place for a conservation center / aquarium as well as any film I can remember, its an odd choice not to even give a token mention along the lines of “hey, our oceans are in pretty bad shape. We should protect them.”

In a post-Cove world, this is surprising for a set of filmmakers that obviously care enormously for their subject matter and bask it in a positive glow that will make many kids want to work with animals. The stakes are high for our oceans, and yet the film loses an opportunity to actually connect the dots for both children and adults. Sure, the movie isn’t intending to break new ground, but I felt happy that my 3 year old daughter was watching the film with me, and yet also felt like the kid-gloves were a little too soft for even her eyes.

As something of an aside, Ashley Judd has become an outspoken environmentalist in recent years. Most recently she has worked to end destructive mountaintop removal coal mining. I wonder if she is also disappointed that the movie opted to take a pass on providing some conservation messages beyond its intrinsic appreciation of dolphins and the natural world.

All of these criticisms standing, most people who go to see Dolphin Tale are going to be happy with what they get. It’s a film that doesn’t set its sights too high, but also energetically and competently tells a story that many people will  enjoy.

As the parent of a 3 year old girl,  I am seeing a lot of Disney movies these days. The latest one is Tangled, which is actually just the classic story of Rapunzel. We saw it in the theater and thought it was great.

When the opening credits rolled, I was surprised to learn that it is Disney’s 50th animated motion picture. That’s pretty impressive. Disney’s animated competition has increased over the years, so it might eventually seem like an important bookend to an era. On a more personal level, it made me wonder how many of the 50 animated films I had seen.

Luckily for me (and perhaps you too!) I just found a 2 minute rapid-fire video from Disney that shows the 50 films in order. I have added it directly below, but for some copyright reasons you might have to click through to YouTube <sigh>.

Can anyone out there name all 50 movies? Has anyone seen them all? Any favorites that stand above the rest?

As for me, I think I have seen only 22 of them in entirety. That’s pretty surprising! I would have figured to have seen more of them.

As a child, some of my favorites were The Fox and the Hound, 101 Dalmations, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and The Black Cauldron (a movie that according to some was so bad it almost killed Disney animation).

What are yours?

So we all have those weird things about us that happen in our lives. One of mine is that when I was in college I suddenly started liking country music. Until that point, I really despised country music even though I grew up in Georgia.

I was going to college in Boston, so maybe it was a function of me missing my regional identity. Watching CMT suddenly felt right, and so I watched country music videos on a near-daily basis, eagerly learning the rich history and classics of the genre.

Along those lines, I’m excited in kind of a youthful way about the new movie Country Strong. It looks like a Walk the Line rip-off set in modern day, but with Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow in the leading roles instead of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Gwyneth Paltrow sings in the movie,  starring as a mid-career country music star who is in a period of crisis while married to her manager (real-life country music star McGraw). Several new, younger stars enter the picture, and tomfoolery ensues as well as some inevitable reckoning and life lessons. Did I say that the movie also has trains? I love trains!

Based on Paltrow’s singing performance on the Country Music Awards several weeks ago, she ain’t half bad. That makes me more excited for the movie, and I think that the title song (also named Country Strong) is pretty good.

I’ll post the preview for Country Strong below, but before I do I’d like to talk about another classic country music movie.

If you grow up in the South, like country music, and play the guitar (as I do), there comes a time in your life when the appeal of Nashville, Tennessee strikes you like a plague (later on it’s Austin, Texas).

My cousin lived in Nashville for a while, and I visited him during college. At the time he had a movie poster on his wall for a movie called The Thing Called Love. He told me that a girl he was friends with worked on the movie. I kind of idolize my cousin (still do actually!) so I KNEW that movie must be really cool. So sometime soon thereafter I watched it.

The Thing Called Love stars Samantha Mathis, River Phoenix, Sandra Bullock, and Dermot Mulroney. Mathis plays a young singer-songwriter trying to make it in Nashville. She meets other young musicians, and quickly falls for Phoenix’s character, a talented, mysterious, and dark rebel. The movie has good music and a hit song from Patty Loveless. It glamorizes the Nashville experience (to a young person it looks really fun!) and the movie charts a predictable course.

It’s definitely one of those movies that makes you understand how much of a waste it was that Phoenix died of a drug overdose (see Running on Empty as well to see how talented he was). Of course now we can also lament the similar, “is it a stunt or not?” downfall of Joaquin Phoenix. Hopefully he makes a comeback.

So without further ado, here are the trailers for The Thing Called Love and Country Strong.

P.S. I kind of miss the old style previews, they still kind of do it for me.

One of the oddest things about the new science fiction film Monsters is its name. The film takes place in a world that is entirely familiar, except that we learn in the opening sequence of the film that aliens came to Earth in a NASA probe six years earlier, started breeding, and reaking havoc. Since that time, Mexico and the U.S. have attempted to contain the aliens in a large fenced area referred to as the “Infected Zone.” It is by no means a spoiler to tell you that the “monsters” look like giant walking squid because we learn that early in the movie.

Last year’s District 9 begins with a similar premise, yet humans begin to quickly call the human-sized aliens in that movie “prawns” based on their respective appearance. So why wouldn’t people in the world of Monsters call these aliens “The Squid” or something like that? Especially after six years? I guess we will just have to wonder why such a logical jump wasn’t made.

While Monsters is being compared to both the aforementioned District 9 and the more traditional monster film Cloverfield,  it stands on its on merits as unique. The film opens with an a night time clash between military forces and one of the monsters in central Mexico. We don’t see much, but basically come to understand that the monsters are able to kick some serious butt and can easily wreck buildings and cities. They are also only active at night.

The next day we meet a 30-something American photographer named Andrew. He shoots photos for a magazine and has been working just south of the infected zone, attempting to get images of the monsters. On the morning after the attack he is looking for Samantha, the 30-something daughter of the magazine publisher he works for. She was present during the attack, but Andrew finds her and discovers that only her arm was hurt. His boss asks him, however, to get his daughter back home safely. Andrew accepts the task reluctantly, especially since it doesn’t really seem like Samantha wants to go back to the U.S. This first 15 minutes sets up the rest of the film.

As a viewer might predict, the journey back to the United States quickly becomes more challenging than Andrew anticipated. The monsters are expanding their range, and all forms of transportation out of central Mexico become scarce.  During their journey, an attraction quickly grows between Andrew and Samantha, and their back stories slowly are revealed to us. That’s about all of the plot I will reveal about Monsters, as I shouldn’t give anything else away (I will add the trailer below though).

Based on a limited scanning of reviews about Monsters, many film critics seem disappointed by the lack of clarity in the film’s message. While it’s fair to say that there definitely isn’t a central message to the film’s story, there do seem to be a lot of smaller messages. Teasing out whether this is a movie making a point about immigration, otherness, the United States, or humankind’s militarism seemed kind of besides the point to me. From my perspective, I had no problem with this lack of a central message because I thought the film was highly entertaining as a “story” alone.

As for the film’s mechanics, the cinematography, special effects, and aesthetics of the film are impressive considering this is not a big-budget production. It cost only around a half million dollars to make and was shot throughout Mexico and Central America by a crew of only 7 people.

The pacing is good and I enjoyed the mysterious, pensive soundtrack (it’s not in the trailer, but can be heard at the film’s official site). Character development is strong and the way it occurs seems effortless rather than contrived (sadly a rarity in many films). The performances are also very good.

If there is any flaw to the movie (aside from the aforementioned muddled message aspect that might bother some viewers) it would perhaps be the ending. I can understand how some people might be dissatisfied, but then again there are only a couple ways this film could end. I personally liked it, but I might be in the minority.

Oh and there’s one other thing: come on directors! Why do all monsters have to sound so similar in movies?

So is Monsters an instant classic like District 9? Probably not, but I would still give it a strong recommendation. If you think the preview below looks cool, then I bet you will like it.

By David Ferrell on July 19, 2010 9:22 AM

While I enjoyed Inception greatly, I had one nagging question after I finished watching it, which is “What do the shared dreamers do if they want to, um, relieve themselves?” I mean, I guess it could be explained by the (spoiler) sedative, but if I’m on a 10 hour flight, I’m going to need to use the bathroom during that time.

But, yeah, overall, I thought it was a brilliant, thought provoking film that dared to engage the minds of its audience, unlike the majority of films that Hollywood has been cranking out this year.

Ebert: Characters in movies never enjoy an ordinary pee. Toilets are for the purposes of stashing guns, killing people, overhearing conversations, Meet Cutes, escaping from the party, taking drugs, or fleeing through the window.

I think Ebert is dead-on. I can’t recall a single movie where a character is depicted going to the bathroom for a normal reason. Can you?

It’s hard to know exactly what to think after seeing the Argentine crime film El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret of Their Eyes), but it is clear that this is an outstanding film with profound ideas about how we should pursue our passions despite the inevitable tragedies of life.  It is storytelling at its most compelling and the pacing is just right. With two charismatic leads, it’s no wonder that this film won the 2010 Academy Award for best foreign picture.

The story begins in 1999, when retired federal justice officer Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darín) decides to write a novel about the most memorable case of his career. It concerns a young woman who was brutally raped and murdered 25 years earlier in her Buenos Aires home. We quickly learn that the case was not resolved in a tidy manner, and we begin to view what happened through extended flashback sequences.

Intermittent breaks between these flashbacks take us back to present day, where Benjamin is not entirely confident about his ability to articulate what happened on paper. He begins visiting his former boss, the beautiful and powerful Irene Menéndez-Hastings (Soledad Villamil) who worked with him on the case. He seeks her advice on how to write his story. Of course, we sense that Benjamin and Irene also have unfinished business. Only through our gradual understanding of this important murder case do we begin to witness the smoldering under-the-surface romance that for mysterious reasons seems to have never been consummated between them.

There are not many movies that come to mind that are similar to this one, although the gritty, slow police work depicted in the terrific suspense film Zodiac bears a resemblance to what we see here.  What Zodiac did not possess, however, was a romance of such epic proportions. There is even an archetypal sequence involving a farewell at a train station that seems utterly genuine, despite the enormous potential for failure with this kind of scene. Perhaps that is because we know that when it comes to trains, art imitates life and vice-versa in an iterative cycle that makes them an endless source of drama fodder for movies.

There is a lot of credit to be spread around for this masterpiece of film-making, and much of it should go to director Juan José Campanella. Campanella uses a large diversity of settings to tell his story, ranging from a lively soccer match, to small village streets, to a crowded office. Each feels authentic and as if it was filmed with great care. Beyond the expert direction, big credit should go to the principle actors.

As Irene, the gorgeous Soledad Villamil brings a strong confidence to a role that demands a woman who can be sexy, intelligent, intimidating, and approachable all at once. Few women can pull this kind of role off and be convincing– mostly because we unfortunately see these kinds of characters so rarely in films.

But the intense, nuanced performance of Ricardo Darín defines the film. We see Benjamin as a fearless pursuant of true justice, whose personal self doubt later catches up with him. You cannot help but root for the guy. This kind of powerful acting is no doubt why Darín is such a huge movie star in Argentina and explains why Campanella had chosen to work with Darín on several other films.

It is a shame that we don’t get more crime films like this one. Usually directors choose more of what I would describe as “an underbelly of life” approach to crime films. They use violence, perversion, and vile behavior to cheaply garner our interest. It’s only a matter of how stylishly they can do it or how well they can write a villain’s monologue. The crime we see in El Secreto de Sus Ojos is a vehicle for telling a larger story about how we should live our lives– and it’s a story that I highly recommend.

In some cases it is undoubtedly true that “ignorance is bliss.” We all must pick our battles in life if only to maintain our sanity. In other cases though, there are simple, easy things we can do that will profoundly better our world– and this is why you should watch The Cove, an exciting, emotional documentary that suggests that we really have to do very little to keep over 20,000 dolphins from being pointlessly slaughtered each year in Japan.

Click here to continue reading on GreenUpgrader

When Sean Aronson began telling people that he was filming a short documentary about great white sharks, he received two typical responses.

“There were always those people who were excited– the shark fanatics. They live and breathe sharks. But there were also a lot of people who sighed and asked, ‘what can be said that hasn’t already been said?’ It’s kind of like celebrity news. You have people who can’t get enough of Brad and Angelina and then you have people that are just completely turned off from it. White sharks have gained that kind of notoriety.”

Now that his film has been released, Aronson thinks he has added something valuable and new to “what has been said” about great whites.

Continue reading on The Huffington Post

Mark Murray, NBC's Deputy Political Director

What the heck is the William Zabka Principle you ask? Here’s how Mark Murray explains it.

Zabka is the actor who played the villain in quite a few ’80s movies — “The Karate Kid,” “Back to School,” and “Just One of the Guys.”

And just what is the Zabka Principle? In those movies, Zabka played such an unlikable character that he forced audiences to root for the protagonist — even if you didn’t like him/her.

For example, how many young boys in the ’80s didn’t want to like Ralph Macchio’s Daniel Larusso (especially since the girls in their classes thought Macchio was cute)? And there was plenty to admire about Zabka’s Johnny: He was the better athlete; Zabka’s dojo, Cobra Kai, was the superior dojo; and they certainly had the cooler uniforms.

But after Zabka and his crew jumped Macchio for the umpteenth time, and certainly after Zabka swept the leg, you had to side with Macchio — no matter what.

William Zabka-- you remember this guy right? He was definitely the emblematic prick of a recent cinematic era.

And what does this have to do with American politics? As Republicans work to oppose the Democratic agenda — and, just to be clear, that’s what minority parties usually do — they don’t want to go TOO far where they become unlikable.

Opposition is one thing; becoming William Zabka is another. And that’s true for the Democratic Party, too…

Finally! Someone who can explain the politics of this situation in terms we can understand!

In all honesty I am torn because I thought this post was hilarious, but at the same time some people probably don’t think it’s exactly the type of analysis that NBC should be paying Mark Murray to do. Without doubt though, Murray needs some way to keep himself from going crazy after having to report on the health care debate for the thousandth time– and it’s also a political blog, rather than a frontpage story. So I say keep doing it, Murray!