Batman Forever

Up next on my Batman quest is the first live-action Batman movie I ever saw. Batman Forever came out in 1995, was directed by Joel Schumacher and stars Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey.

This will be a more complicated review because I kept trying my hardest to add points for things, but was forced to take them away faster than I could add them. I think that's because this movie has a nostalgic place in my heart, but I remember that even as an 8-year-old, I was upset with many things in this movie not being "right" because they were different from the animated series. I do think I've grown up a little bit and realize that not everything has to be the same from the cartoons, but they really are just better in a lot of ways. OK, on to the review.

I have to take away a point for the nonsensical opening scene. A lot of this is because of Dr. Chase Meridian, played by Nicole Kidman, who I think is the worst Batman girlfriend of all the movies. Here, Two-Face is causing trouble and she is wasting Batman's time by flirting with him and explaining psychologic terms to him that he already understands. The scene gets worse when Batman gets trapped in the safe with the security guard and borrows the guard's hearing aid to crack the combination on the door. Why would Batman need to borrow a hearing aid? He should already have equipment like that on him. Anyway, Batman gets out, and cuts the chain holding the safe to Two-Face's helicopter, causing the safe to all-too-conveniently slide back exactly to where it was before. Not a good way to start a movie.

The score drops to a 3 when I realize that Tommy Lee Jones is, in fact, not playing Two-Face, but rather the Joker pretending to be Two-Face. He is literally laughing in every single scene and only acts like Two-Face in that he will occasionally flip a coin and annoyingly refers to himself as "we" throughout the film. It's especially annoying when he continues to flip his going over and over again until he gets his desired result. Sigh ... another Batman villain ruined. If only there was a movie that could do Two-Face right ... Also, wasn't Harvey Dent supposed to be Billy Dee Williams in this continuity? I guess since we have a new Batman it's OK to have a new Harvey. It still would have been really cool and unique to have a black Two-Face with his bad side bleached a scary white. Oh well.

I do get to add a point for the businessman Bruce Wayne. We get to see Wayne Enterprises and a direct path to the Batcave from Bruce's office (although the actual method was a little cheesy, I do like the concept). Later, we see Bruce surrounded by paparazzi when he goes on a date, just like he should be.

Now back to taking away points. Dr. Chase Meridian snuck up onto the roof of the police department to turn on the Batsignal just to flirt with Batman. Can someone please get rid of this skanky girl?

We fall to a 2 with another stupid Dr. Meridian scene. Bruce Wayne has scheduled an appointment with her, but when he gets to her door, it sounds like she's in trouble. For some reason, the door is locked, so he heroically knocks the door down, only to see that she was boxing a punching bag. Why was she doing that right before an appointment with Bruce Wayne? Even if he is early, she should have been sitting ready, waiting for this appointment with the richest and most powerful man in Gotham. Also in the same scene, Bruce points to a framed ink blot on her wall that obviously looks like a bat. He asks her if she has a thing for bats, but she says people see what they want to see from that picture, as if only the obsessed Batman would think that picture was a bat. Don't give me that crap! It's obviously a bat!

I will add a point for the re-imaging of Robin. I really hate his earring, but it made perfect sense to make him older, and I think they pulled it off quite well for the most part. Chris O'Donnell was quite serviceable in his role. I also liked that they gave him a brother, just because I get tired of every single comic book character being an only child. Seriously, think of any comic book character and nine times out of 10 they will be an only child.

We fall back down to a 2 when Two-Face walks into the circus and demands to know who Batman is, but never really gives anyone the chance to tell him Batman's secret identity, if they would happen to know it. For some reason, Bruce decided to stand up in his seat and yell, "Harvey, I'm Batman!" Luckily, all the people sitting right next to him didn't hear him, since that would have been awkward. After Bruce's pathetic yelling doesn't work, he jumps down to the floor and instead of walking up to Two-Face to reveal his secret identity, he begins to fight Two-Faces goons. Again, he's lucky that no one calls into question Bruce Wayne's ability to easily fight and defeat these criminals.

They don't really do a good job of explaining why and how Bruce Wayne is bringing Dick Grayson to live at his mansion for a while, but I thought it was fine because Dick wanted to get out of there really quick and Bruce and Alfred had to twist his arm to get him to stay. But then comes one of the stupidest scenes in all the Batman films, I scene I like to call "Intense Laundry with Dick Grayson." I understand that they wanted to show his independence and his athletic abilities, but showing it with this? Completely retarded. The score is now a 1.

Luckily, Alfred comes to save the day! Dick asks him what's behind a locked door, to which Alfred replies with a straight face, "Master Bruce's dead wives." This is the funny Alfred we've been missing! Michael Gough played Alfred in four Batman movies, and was pretty decent in all of them, but I think this was his best performance. He's funny and supportive of both Dick and Bruce, while also being stern when he needs to, yet in a gentle way. Actually, Alfred was my favorite character in the whole movie.

Sadly, the score falls back down to a 1, partly because of Alfred. He sees Dick sneak into the Batcave, but for some reason is unable to prevent him from stealing the Batmobile. Dick goes joyriding and runs into who I call the Glow-in-the-Dark Gang. This Gotham City isn't nearly as interesting as Tim Burton's dark Gotham. Here, it's very colorful, with random bright neon lights everywhere. Every single wall is either a translucent green or magenta. And tough gangs like to cover themselves with fluorescent paint. I guess they think it's scarier if their victims see them coming from a mile away. Anyway, Dick saves some girl from some supposed danger, who says, "Wait! Doesn't Batman kiss the girl?" So he kisses her while I try not to vomit.

There is one thing that Two-Face does right in this movie that was lacking in the other two. He puts Batman in actual danger. He creates an elaborate trap that sends a wall of fire at Batman, which was actually kind of cool looking. Batman survives, of course, and then gets buried in a pile of gravel. The only other time I remember Batman really being in danger before this was him hanging on to the edge of the cathedral with the Joker trying to stomp on his fingers, so it was nice to see an actual threat for once.

Well, Batman got himself a new girlfriend, so he obviously must tell her that he's Batman. This time it was done in a very stupid way, with even stupider dialogue. Bruce tells the story of him running away from his parents' wake with his father's journal. He then fell forever into a cave that "must have been there for a million years." He sees a bat flying at him and says, "I was scared at first, but only at first." He then says how he vowed to avenge his parents' deaths and fight all crime. The idiotic Dr. Meridian is confused by this, and asks, "Bruce, what are you trying to tell me?" But before he can answer, she passionately kisses him. Argh! We're back to a 1.

I will add a point for the riddles. The answer wasn't really that earth-shattering — the Riddler is Edward Nigma (Batman should have figured that out on his own) — but I did like how they reasoned through and solved the riddles. They were just a tad more realistic than ball-point bananas and rushing people, although those were very good.

The score goes up to a 3 because I couldn't help myself from laughing when Robin said, "Holy rusted metal, Batman!" It is a stupid line, but it is funny and a nice homage to Burt Ward and Adam West.

I tried my best to not let Jim Carrey's portrayal of the Riddler bother me, and for the most part, he didn't. But at the end, I just got tired of him. It was the combination of the stupid Battleship scene and the ridiculous white spandex suit he wears at the end. This movie really just had five minutes too much of the Riddler. We're down to a 2.

We do back up to a 3 because Batman actually becomes kind of competent at the end, something that was seriously lacking from the other two movies, where he usually seemed to win by pure luck. Here, he has to save his stupid girlfriend and Robin at the same time. He cleverly distracts the Riddler by asking a riddle of his own, and then he very easily saves both the victims as he should.

Sadly, the death of Two-Face takes away a point. Two-Face never should have to be reminded to flip his coin. Also, Batman didn't even try to save Two-Face, when he probably could have. This is especially frustrating after he spent so much of the movie yelling at Robin for wanting to kill Two-Face. Luckily, this movie does end and don't have to see Val Kilmer or Nicole Kidman ever again! Unluckily, the next movie is actually worse.

Truthfully, I was a little surprised at how low a score I gave this one. But then I realized that I didn't like Val Kilmer as Batman, absolutely hated his girlfriend, was appalled at the treatment of Two-Face, annoyed with the Riddler, and really didn't like Robin too much. With all those problems, how could this score any higher? Well, wish me luck on the next Batman film, I'm not quite sure if I will survive.

Final score: 2 out of 10

Batman Returns

Well, now it's time to get to some not-so-good Batman films. Today it's Tim Burton's 1992 sequel, Batman Returns, starring Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Right off the bat (get it? ... Bat? It's a pun! Oh, nevermind), I have to take off a point because Penguin is not a monster! But this movie certainly thinks he is. At the beginning, he's a baby that, while locked in his cage, grabs the house cat and eats it. As an adult, he is nothing less than grotesque. He's filthy, greasy, slimy, constantly drooling black ooze and dirty in every conceivable way. That is not the Penguin!

But this movie did get a couple of aspects about the Penguin right, like the trick umbrellas. He had a nice array of sword umbrellas, machine gun umbrellas and helicopter umbrellas. In fact, I liked them so much that I'll raise the score back to a 5.

Now it's time to go back to taking away points. Catwoman is not a monster! But in this movie, she is a lowly secretary who is pushed out of a window by her evil boss after she discovers his evil plans. The fall does kill her, but she is brought back to life by cats licking her. Yeah ... This revival not only made her go insane, but also gave her incredible fighting abilities to the point where she can beat up Batman. She also somehow figures out that she has nine lives, and she actually does die eight times in the movie. Lame!

Shortly after Selina Kyle becomes Catwoman, we get our first glimpse of Penguin's giant rubber duck. I don't know why I like it so much, I have absolutely no reason to like it so much, but I do, and I'll add a point for it. If anyone disagrees, they're wrong! It's awesome!

Remember how in Batman nobody knew who Bruce Wayne was or what he did for work? This movie fixed that problem with a short, but nice scene with Bruce playing the tough businessman against the evil Max Shreck, played by Christopher Walken. In this scene, it's established that Bruce is on good terms with the mayor and will do everything in his power to stop Shreck from building his fake power plant (it is a nonsensical evil scheme, but it's nice to see Batman fight it). Bruce even comes right out and tells Shreck he knows he's working with the Penguin, who he knows is a criminal. It was nice to see them finally understand the character of Bruce Wayne. The score is now a 6.

This movie really does have better fight scenes than Batman, and I was about to add a point for it until Batman started killing people again. He kills Catwoman once, indirectly kills Penguin at the end, and very deliberately destroys two henchmen. One of them was a fire-breather and Batman turned the Batmobile around and blasted him with the jet engine, engulfing the guy in flames. Later, Batman was trying to get rid of a bomb (not in a funny way, unfortunately) and he ran into a big tough guy. Batman punches the guy, but it does nothing. So he put the bomb in his pants and pushed him off a bridge. We see the bomb go off and Batman smiles. Who is going to stop this murderous vigilante? Where's Superman when you need him?

But I will add a point for a nice bit of continuity and the movie producers admitting they made a mistake. When Bruce is on a date with Selina, he tells her about Vicki and how he scared her away by telling her too much. Later, he chews out Alfred for bringing Vicki into the Batcave. Good job! You can't undo what has been done, but you can admit it was a mistake. We're back up to 6.

We fall back to a 5 after one incredulous scene, where Penguin somehow gets the blueprints to the Batmobile and takes over its controls. This is not a bad idea in itself (Batman: The Animated Series did a good job with it), but it has to be properly executed, which it wasn't in this movie. They never explained how Penguin got the blueprints and for some reason Penguin took the time to build a miniature Batmobile ride (complete with a bat-shaped steering wheel) to sit in while controlling the real Batmobile. Batman is able to locate the controlling device under the car, which he gets to by punching a hole through the floor of his car. Come on, Batman's strong, but not that strong.

One thing I have to compliment the film on (and all Tim Burton's films) is that it is visually interesting to look at. I know that's not very refined, allow me to explain: I like the use of contrasting colors, most notably the white snow set against the dark Gotham City. One scene I'll add a point for is when Bruce and Selina attend a masquerade ball without masks. Everyone is wearing a mask except for them — but they really are disguising their true identities. They even say they're tired of wearing masks.

At the end of the movie, Penguin reveals that his big plan the whole time was to kidnap every first-born son in Gotham and throw them in the sewer, like what happened to him. We see his clowns picking up a bunch of kids and then we see a monkey deliver the Penguin a handwritten note from Batman, saying the children will regrettably be unable to attend. It really feels like a scene was missing here because Catwoman suddenly showed up out of nowhere, looking all beat up. Regardless, it would have been really nice to see Batman actually save the kids. It would have added some action to this lackluster climax.

When Penguin realizes his initial plan was thwarted, he initiates his contingency plan, which is to send an army of penguins into the center of the city with rockets on their backs. He delivers a long and windy speech to his birds and then watches as they slowly make their way to the town center and then sit there and wait for a 15-second countdown. Finally, Batman is able to jam the signal and tell the penguins to walk back home. This was just a bit much for me. The score is now a 4.

Finally, I have to take off one more point for the cheesy and dirty script. I tried to ignore most of the cheesy lines, but they got to be too much after a while. The one that put me over the top was Batman telling Catwoman to eat floor because it's high in fiber. Adam West can say that line, but Michael Keaton shouldn't. I was also really put off with how dirty the movie is. When Penguin isn't thinking about murder, he's thinking about sex, which was just wrong and gross.

I really did forget how bad this movie was, and I now know why nobody talks about it anymore. I should have realized this sooner, seeing how Batman Forever is missing Michael Keaton and Tim Burton, and really can't be considered a direct sequel as this was to Batman (even though Havey Dent was nowhere to be seen). All in all, Batman Returns left a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully the next adventure with the Caped Crusader will be more entertaining. Hopefully.

Final score: 3 out of 10

Are you ready for some football?

Above is a picture of Barry Brunetti, who was just named the starting quarterback for Ole Miss (largely thanks to another quarterback getting arrested). Below is a little story I wrote for The Daily Universe about us and Ole Miss.

It’s been a year in the making, and now it’s almost time for the BYU football team to get its first taste of independence.

With the move to independence, BYU not only secured an eight-year deal with ESPN, but also gained considerable freedom in scheduling games, which fits into coach Bronco Mendenhall’s desire to take the Cougars to tradition-rich places to play.

“I would like when we consider games to play, I would not only like it to be a great team, but I would like it to be a great place that will enhance the kids’ life experience,” Mendenhall said. “I’d love to see them play in the Horseshoe at Ohio State. I think that would be cool for them.”

While the Cougars will not be traveling to the Horseshoe this season, their road schedule is full of plenty of prestigious locations — Texas, Oregon State, Hawaii and TCU in Cowboys Stadium.

BYU’s season opener on Sept. 3 at Ole Miss is no exception.

The Ole Miss Rebels have a deep and storied tradition in football, dating back to the late ’50s and early ’60s, when the Rebels won three national championships. This set up an intense passion for football in Oxford, Miss., which continues strong today.

The pregame tailgating party at The Grove has been referred to as “the Holy Grail of tailgating sites” by Sporting News. Many fans arrive a full day before the game and often dress in their Sunday best.

Ole Miss has also produced some big-name football players including Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher (of Blind Side fame) and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Eli’s father, Archie Manning, also played for Ole Miss and left such a mark on the university that not only is his No. 18 retired, but the official campus speed limit is 18 miles per hour.

But despite their storied history, the Rebels have fallen on tough times recently.

Last year, Ole Miss finished 4-8 and won only one conference game. This year, the Rebels were picked by the media to finish last in the SEC.

Heading into training camp, the Rebels faced a dilemma familiar to Cougar fans last year — trying to pick a starting quarterback.

Fighting for the job were Randall Mackey, Barry Brunetti and Zack Stoudt. However, coach Houston Nutt’s job was simplified when Mackey was recently arrested for disorderly conduct and subsequently suspended by the team for the BYU game.

“I am still looking into everything, but the bottom line is that he got into a fight,” Nutt told the Clarion-Ledger.

With Mackey out of the picture, sophomore Brunetti will get the start against BYU. Brunetti transferred to Ole Miss from West Virginia and is considered the best at running the option among the Rebels’ three quarterbacks.

“Barry has been the most consistent and accountable with things, which is why he was named the starter,” Nutt said.

While Brunetti is getting his feet set, the Rebels’ main source of offense may be senior running back Brandon Bolden, who ran for 976 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. Their top receiver should be junior Melvin Harris, who had 408 receiving yards last year, which was the second most on the team.

Other team leaders for Ole Miss include senior offensive tackle Bradley Sowell and defensive end Kentrell Lockett, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility because of injuries.

Today the Cougars begin preparing for Ole Miss after taking a day off practice on Wednesday. Their Sept. 3 game will be broadcast by ESPN at 2:45 p.m. MDT.

Batman

Today I got to review the first serious Batman movie ever made, Tim Burton's 1989 classic, simply titled Batman. Most of the movie posters and video cases were even simpler, only using the Batman logo. The main actors for this were Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger.

The first point I'll add will be for the opening sequence. Danny Elfman's Batman theme is as iconic and recognizable as John Williams' Superman theme, and the music throughout this movie is really good — even the Prince songs aren't too bad. Gotham City is very dark and dirty and overall quite interesting to look at, which really helps with the overall mood and tone for the film.

There was a nice little fake out with a well-dressed couple and their boy, but we quickly find out they're not the Waynes, but just some tourists. It was a bold move to not show the origin of Batman here, but I kind of like it. Everybody knows how Batman became Batman and we really don't need a whole lot of time retelling that story — we just want to get right to Batman beating up bad guys, which is exactly what happened here.

Although I think his cape was a little too small, I really liked the concept here. He's sneaking around in the shadows, playing up the mysterious and superstitious element of his role. When he was holding the guy over the edge of the building who screamed, "What are you?!" and he answered, "I'm Batman," we knew without a doubt that this is not Adam West's Batman.

I will have to drop a point for the handling of Bruce Wayne's character. I don't mind that Bruce is really awkward when he's trying to be Bruce — I think that's rather interesting — but I don't understand why nobody in the city seems to know who he is. Vicki Vale receives invitations to a big party at his house, but she doesn't even know what he looks like or what he does for a living. Isn't he the head of Waynetech Enterprises, the largest and most powerful company in the city? Apparently not because even Knox the reporter and the Joker and his goons knew who he was. It even took Knox some serious investigating to find out that Wayne's parents were killed when he was a little boy. Shouldn't that be common knowledge, especially for a reporter?

Well, don't worry, the score will quickly go back up to a 6 thanks to Batman's second fight scene, where he had two classic Batman moves. The first was a no-look punch to a guy sneaking up behind him. The second was quickly disappearing when Jack Napier bent down to pick up his gun. Those two moves were cool in 1989 and they are still cool today.

I now have to add another point for one of the best comic book movie scenes of all time — the unmasking of the Joker. It is so chilling and awesome with him demanding the mirror, violently smashing it, and breaking out into creepy laughter. Jack Nicholson at his finest.

The movie goes up to an 8 for having Bruce place two roses on the spot of his parents' murder. I've always liked the imagery of this — it's one of my favorite aspects of the Batman character. He never forgets — he can never forget — and he'd keep putting roses on that sidewalk even when he's 90 years old. It is an obsession, but a tender obsession.

I will add one more point for the Joker's main plot here. I thought it was rather sophisticated to have a combination of products trigger his Joker toxin. I also think it's a really scary and awesome thing to see people laugh themselves to death and die with huge, grotesque grins on their faces. There also was a nice element of the Joker spreading chaos and fear throughout the city very quickly, slightly similar to the effect he has in The Dark Knight.

Unfortunately, this score of 9 is the highest it will ever get. The last half of the movie has a rather disjointed feel. From what I understand, this is because there was a writer's strike at the time and the producers had to hastily scramble together some kind of ending. The end result was not very good.

The beginning of the lacklusterness is marked with a very confusing scene. Alfred is so desperate to get Bruce married, that he convinces him to reveal his secret identity to Vicki. So Bruce goes over there and is just about to tell her, when they're interrupted by the Joker. For some reason, Bruce decides to pick a fight with the Joker (after protecting himself with a large metal tray). The Joker shoots Bruce, then leaves. Vicki goes to check on him, but sees that he vanished. Then she opens the box the Joker left her, which contains a plastic hand holding dead flowers.

What is going on here? Am I missing something? So the Joker went to deliver some dead flowers to Vicki and happened to bump into Bruce? What was Bruce's motivation in this entire scene? Even worse, in this scene the Joker utters the same phrase that Bruce heard the night his parents were killed. The score is an 8 and it drops to a 7 because ...

The Joker is NOT supposed to kill Batman's parents! Actually, I probably wouldn't mind it so much if it was handled better. It's not until after Bruce hears the Joker say his "devil dance in the pale moonlight" line when he stares at the Jokers disfigured face and recognizes him as his parents' killer. Wouldn't he have recognized Jack Napier when he fighting him earlier? Shouldn't that face have been burned into the mind of Bruce Wayne, the greatest detective in the world? And the trouble doesn't end there.

Right after this revelation, Alfred commits the greatest sin a butler can make by bringing Vickie Vale into the Batcave. OK Alfred, we know you really want Bruce to get married, but this is not the time! The Joker just announced he'd be hosting a huge parade in Gotham that night — Batman is too busy to talk to girls, especially annoying girls like Vicki Vale.

Luckily, the score does rise back to a 7 thanks to, "He stole my balloons!! Why didn't anyone tell me he had one of those ... things? Bob, gun." BOOM! I don't know why I love this line so much, it's just fun, which the Joker really was all throughout the movie. I liked his cheesy commercials he used to announce the death of hundreds of people. I also liked his gag props, especially the acid-shooting flower. Unfortunately, he never got to squirt it in someone's face.

Sadly, though, the score quickly falls back to a 6 because of Batman's terrible targeting computer. He has tons of guns and rockets and not one of them could hit the Joker. Maybe he should have turned off his targeting computer like a certain young farmer from Tatooine. But then again, Batman really shouldn't be trying to kill the Joker — Batman doesn't kill, although he does kill a least a couple of henchmen in this movie. Anyway, I did like the Joker's really big gun, but it's not enough to redeem the Batplane's terrible targeting system.

And the hurting doesn't stop. I have to take off one last point for the confusing and discombobulating ending. For no reason at all, the Joker decides to walk Vicki to the top of a cathedral. During the fight, Batman knocks a couple of henchmen down far enough that they had to have been paralyzed at least, if not killed. When Vicki sees Batman, she decides to distract the Joker by kissing his coat and telling him she loves the color purple. I'll say that again. She kissed his coat and told him she loves purple. Then Batman and Joker fight, each blaming each other for who they turned out to be and then Batman somehow wraps his grappling hook around the Joker's ankle and a gargoyle. The weight of the gargoyle sends Joker to his death and Batman does nothing to stop it.

The movie ends with Harvey Dent (played by Billy Dee Williams, who unfortunately did nothing in this movie and did not appear in the next one) reading a letter from Batman, which says if the forces of evil strike back, then all you have to do is call me. Kind of cheesy. But the movie does end with the iconic image of Batman standing in front of the Batsignal with great music and chimes in the background.

It is fun to go back to these older movies and see if they stand the test of time. In some ways, this movie really doesn't. I think we may be spoiled with the newer movies, but this one really seems stale and flat, especially Batman's fighting style. He's so stiff and rigid, he mostly just kicks people. He also allows himself to be shot multiple times, probably because he can barely move in his suit. But despite that, this was an incredible movie until the tortured ending where one frustrating scene followed another.

Historically speaking, this movie absolutely deserves a bonus point. The Batman comics did become more realistic and serious in the '80s, but mass audiences needed a major movie like this to convince them that Batman really wasn't a goofy Adam West. Not only did this movie revive the franchise and launch three direct sequels, but it directly inspired Batman: The Animated Series, the most perfect cartoon series ever, which also launched many more DC cartoons. So, despite its flaws, Batman deserves a lot of credit.

Final score: 6 out of 10

Where is Harvey Unga?

Hey, another sports post finally! That's right, this is sports and superheroes, not just superheroes and definitely not just Marvel. So anyway, today I wrote a very quick and not very good story about Harvey Unga. I know I've been wondering whatever happened to him, and I'm sure many other people have been, too. So here's my story as it appeared in The Daily Universe.

Though it’s been only a few weeks since the NFL lockout ended and teams have been back on the field, former BYU running back Harvey Unga has already taken two personal leaves from the Chicago Bears, according to ESPN.

Both absences — the most recent came on Thursday — have been excused by the team, but they may hurt Unga’s chances of making the Bears’ 53-man roster before Chicago’s regular season opener on Sept. 11.

In 2010, BYU’s all-time leading rusher decided to forgo his senior season after violating the Honor Code and entered the NFL Supplemental Draft. He was picked up by the Chicago Bears, but a pulled hamstring kept him on the injured reserve and out of the spotlight during his rookie year.

Now, a year later, many Cougar and Bear fans are asking, “Where’s Harvey?”

One fan recently wrote in to the Chicago Tribune, asking, “What has become of Harvey Unga? … No one, in any article mentions Unga. Does he still exist?”

Reporter Dan Pompei answered, “Unga still does exist on the Bears roster. You should see a good deal of him in the preseason. Unga is not going to make the Bears as a tailback. If he sticks, it’s going to be as a fullback.”

Unga definitely has his work cut out for him trying to earn a spot on Chicago’s roster. On the Bears’ unofficial depth chart, he is listed behind Matt Forte, Chester Taylor, Marion Barber and Kahlil Bell.

Forte, the Bears’ top running back, rushed for 1,069 yards and six touchdowns last season and has 3,236 yards in his three-year career. Taylor is a nine-year veteran, with his best year in 2006 with the Minnesota Vikings, when he ran for 1,216 yards. But Taylor had a disappointing debut with the Bears last year, picking up only 267 yards.

Barber was acquired from the Dallas Cowboys, where he spent the last six years, running for 4,358 yards and 47 touchdowns. Bell has 220 rushing yards in his two-year career in Chicago. In the Bears’ first preseason game last week against the Buffalo Bills, Bell had 13 carries for 73 yards and Barber ran seven times for 45 yards.

However, it looks like Unga has seemed to gain some headway recently.

Dominique Blanton, a blogger for a Chicago Bears blog, the Windy City Gridiron, wrote that, “Unga could step in for Forte from time to time without there being a big drop off because defenses will have to play him a lot like they play Forte since he’s also a pretty good receiving back.”

Unga made a good case for himself last week in Chicago’s preseason game. Unga had nine carries for 27 yards, which was third best on the team. He also had one play where he took a carry inside the opponent’s 15-yard line and carried a pile of players down to the 5.

Steven Schweickert, another blogger for Windy City Gridiron, praised Unga, writing, “I still can’t get that image of the ‘pile of bodies’ moving toward the end zone out of my head.”

But even though Schweickert was impressed with Unga, he also added that “if Barber does what Unga is supposed to do, which is run with power and pick up short yardage, Unga might be left out to dry.”

There is some speculation that Chicago may cut Taylor, leaving an open spot for Unga, but he has to be around to prove himself.

Unga’s next chance to show the Bears what he can do on Monday in a preseason game against the New York Giants. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN.

Batman: The Movie

Yay!! I finally get to do a DC movie! And, of course, I have to start at the beginning, with the 1966 masterpiece, Batman: The Movie, directed by Leslie Martinson and starring Adam West, Burt Ward and Lee Meriwether.

Although this is technically the first major superhero movie, I will treat this mostly as a comedy movie that happens to have Batman in it instead of a Batman movie that happens to have comedy in it. I have to do it this way because that is how this movie was intended to be viewed. It was funny the whole way through, every line was tongue-in-cheek and it never took itself seriously. If the movie ever strayed from this course, even if just for a minute, then it would have been a terrible superhero film. But as it stands, it is a wonderful comedy that is still enjoyable to watch more than 40 years later.

Almost every line made me laugh, as well as the sheer ridiculousness of everything. To try to simplify things, I'll focus on what I thought were the exceptionally funny moments.

The first point I'll add will be for the Shark Repellent Bat Spray. Batman not only had a can of that in his Batcopter, but also separate repellent sprays for manta rays, barracudas, and whales. Never go to sea without them!

The second point is for the reasoning used to figure out the four super villains were teaming up. Hmm, this all seems very fishy. Penguin! Wait, the crime happened at sea — C for Catwoman! Yes, but that shark was pulling my leg. The Joker! Oh, this is all a riddling mess. The Riddler!

Then they follow this up by figuring out what their goal is. Take over the city? No, any one of them would do that. The country? If it were just two or three of them, I would say yes, but with four of them, their minimum objective is the entire world!

The next point, bringing it up to an 8 is for Batman calling the Navy to see if they recently sold any war surplus submarines. The Navy officers have to put their tiddlywinks game on hold to look it up. Why, yes, Batman, we sold one to someone named P. N. Guin, but he didn't leave a return address. Say, Batman, you sound rather grave. We didn't do anything foolish, did we?

The next point I'll add is for Batman trying to get rid of the bomb. First there's two fat women refusing to leave their enormous piles of food. Then Batman runs outside where he only sees innocent people everywhere he'd want to throw the bomb, including the Salvation Army, some nuns, a woman with a baby carriage, some lovers in a boat and a bunch of little ducklings. Then the wonderful line: "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"

I won't add a point here, but I have to mention Batman crash-landing the Batcopter on a pile of rubber in its crude form outside the Foam Rubber Wholesalers Convention. Batman did admit he thought he saw the rubber out of the corner of his eye at the last second, but said the odds against it would make even the most reckless of gamblers cringe. Only a movie like this could get away with such absurdity.

The last point I'll add to make it a 10, is the test tubes full of the dehydrated world leaders shaking violently back and forth during the final climatic battle, but never falling until Commodore Schmidlapp comes in, trips, wrestles the tubes away from Batman, slams them on the table and then sneezes.

This was a wonderful film that keeps you laughing throughout the whole thing. My favorite villain was the Penguin, but the Riddler had some lubricous riddles, and Catwoman made an excellent reporter for the Moscow Bugle. Alfred was great, especially when he wore a mask under his glasses. Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara were also great as they stood in awe of Batman the whole time. The Joker didn't do much, but was fun, as was Commodore Schmidlapp.

Now I come to a great debate in my head. Should I knock a point off this movie for historical reasons? This was many people's first exposure to Batman and superheroes in general, and a lot of them didn't think the genre could ever be taken seriously. It took more than a decade for the next major superhero movie to come out (Superman: The Movie) and it took more than two decades before a serious Batman movie was ever made. That's a lot of damage.

On the other hand, I don't think we can blame this movie entirely for that. It had a small budget and knew it couldn't be serious, so it never tried. It also was making fun of the really cheesy Batman comics of the '50s and '60s were Batman and Robin periodically went into space and back in time to Camelot. However, I kind of think more people would have understood this movie was supposed to be a spoof if they did it like Space Balls and changed the names slightly, like have Ratman and his sidekick Sparrow fight Feline Female, the Puffin, the Questioner, etc.

So, should I take away a point for historically causing damage to the Batman franchise? Yes. But, I've found a loop hole. Remember when I said I wouldn't add a point for the crude rubber? Well, I've changed my mind. It's my blog and my rules. The score stays a 10. Long live Adam West!

Final score: 10 out of 10

Captain America: The First Avenger

This blog is quickly becoming a Marvel-only blog, but that's what happens when they keep making good movies. This is also what happens when you go to San Diego but can't go to the temple or the beach. So here is my review of Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan, directed by Joe Johnston. Because my second viewing of this movie was in the theater, I didn't take notes, so this might be a shorter post, like Thor. Also like Thor, I really enjoyed this movie, which also might make the post short.

The first point I will give this movie is for Hugo Weaving's portrayal of the Red Skull. He really does an excellent job of playing bad guys. He was a good Elrond, but sometimes unnecessarily mean. Anyway, he was the perfect Red Skull and had great dialogue. I loved one of his first lines, when he takes the cosmic cube and is told it's not meant for ordinary men to see. I can't remember exactly what he says (was it 'precisely,' 'I know,' 'exactly' or 'indeed?') but whatever he says it shows how he doesn't consider himself to be ordinary. It was perfect. Throughout the movie, he is intelligent, strong, ruthless and never cheesy. I can't wait to see him again (and I'm pretty sure we will).

I'll add a second point for continuity and respect for the source material. I haven't read very many Captain America comics, but from what I saw, they got everything right. They also did a great job of tying everything in with the rest of the movies. We got to see the original Human Torch in the background of a big fair where we also see Howard Stark. This Howard Stark is younger than the one we saw in Iron Man 2, which makes sense, because Tony Stark isn't old enough to have been alive during World War II even as a little kid. This Howard Stark also had a much larger role than I expected, but it was really great. It might have been a little much having him fly the plane, but that's a really minor complaint.

It was also nice to see the Howling Commandos. I don't know much about them and we don't learn much about them, but I thought that was fine. This is a movie about Captain America and he shouldn't be overshadowed by minor characters. I also liked them making Bucky older. Having Captain America with a kid sidekick would have been very odd. They also did a good job of having him be captured and then fall to an ambiguous death, leaving things open for him to return as the Winter Soldier.

Another good homage to the comics was Dr. Zola. When we first see him, his face is on a big green screen, like it will eventually look when he turns himself into a robot with a camera for a head and his face on his chest. It is strange, but I would like to see him come back again in that form. Speaking of comics, it was pretty fun to see the first issue of Captain America with the classic cover of him punching Adolf Hitler.

One last continuity note: I loved how this directly ties into Thor. Red Skull called the cosmic cube a jewel of Odin's and we also see him get sucked up into Asgard. The best part of these references is their subtlety. Geeks like me will catch and love them, but those who don't know or care won't be bogged down by them.

My next point (raising the score to an 8) is for the first fight for Captain America where he's cashing the Nazi through New York barefoot. It just kept getting better and better with him jumping over a fence, crashing into a store window because he's not used to his size and strength, and then ultimately diving in after a submarine. It was incredible. It immediately gave us a good idea of what Captain America is capable of. It also set the tone for the rest of his adventures, even to the point where the audience almost believed that he could chase down a big plane preparing for takeoff.

I'm going to add another point for Captain America's character as a whole. Chris Evans was previously known for his goofy role as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies and a lot of people doubted whether he could pull off such a serious role. Well, he can and he did. He nailed Captain America's personality perfectly — a humble guy who always does what's right. The one line that summed him up just right was, "I'm nobody special — just a kid from Brooklyn." They also did a remarkable job of making him look smaller and still look like the same person. I was also a big fan of how the romance in the movie wasn't overdone. I guess I did have one little complaint about how he cheated to get the flag, but that's not near enough to take away a point.

Now for just a few more little praises. Tommy Lee Jones took the role that he is best at, and he did an awesome job. He also reminded me of Men in Black when he pushed the red button on his car to go faster. Stan Lee also had a nice cameo — any Marvel movie without a cameo from him is going to suffer a little bit.

As a whole, the movie did a really good job of making me excited about World War II. I wanted to go back to New York in the 1940s. It was just so exciting. The action was solid, but never overdone. I admit I was worried about how they'd have him throwing his shield around, but it never became a problem. All in all, a very solid, fun film. I can't think of anything they could have done better.

The teaser at the end was pure awesome. If this movie wasn't a 10 before that, then the teaser definitely put it over the top. As hard as it is to believe, I'm giving my first perfect score to a Marvel movie.

Final score: 10 out of 10