SnoTap Netflix Reviews: Face/Off

I have sort of decided this is the part of the SnoTap Netflix Review where I explain myself as to why I wanted to watch this movie. I am not a huge action guy thus this movie is a little puzzling and clouds my judgment honestly when I am talking about the ratings. But I thought maybe a classic 90's movie featuring two of the most notable actors at that time with John Woo, the king of action movies in that era, the movie would be something to talk about when I finished. Apparently, I am one of the few who did not like this movie.

Cast: John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon

Genre Action. 

Charlie's Rating: 2 out 5 - I have multiple problems with this movie but let's start with the length of this one. It is 138 minutes long meaning two hours and 18 minutes officially. That's too long for almost all action movies including this one. There are multiple major action scenes in the movie, but the one with 45 minutes left should have been the last one. They could have ended the exact same way, and added the final 10 minutes of the movie. My whole point is the final fight scene is way too long and it is highly uncalled for as we already had all the pieces in place. It would have been much better movie had it been 30 minutes shorter in time.

My other major issue and probably why my rating is so low is the whole premise is whacked out of this world. These men switch faces to basically become the other yet they have the same attitude. On all sorts of levels, this might be one of the dumbest plots of a movie I have watched in the last five years. I put up with a great deal of shit with "24" and "Homeland" where the plot could not be more unrealistic, but this feels like the pinnacle of CIA/terrorist ideas although I would not be surprised if this or a future administration tries it before the year 2025.  

Since we are complaining the supporting cast here really hurts Travolta and Cage. There is nothing to be desired from any of them. Gershon basically recycles every cliche thing you could say in an action movie, and Allen as Travolta's wife does absolutely nothing for me. I have no idea if this movie becomes better with improved supporting roles, but it is clear the movie's budget clearly blew their load on their first two actors and big explosions.

I do see some good things from this movie. Cage and Travolta have to play two characters in this movie, and they are polar opposites. I have to think that's hard to do, and both show off great acting skills by being able to handle both roles. Furthermore, this is their element as actors. Both men are made for action movies, and it clearly shows with this film.  

IMDB: 7.3/10    

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% 

Charlie. 

DOY: Reggie Jackson

We should all be very #blessed that amid the horrible basketball played for 80 percent on Christmas Day we still got a DOY.  This belonged to Reggie Jackson of the Oklahoma City Thunder. I could make some joke about his namesake and New York City, but I will chose to leave it alone.  I knew Jackson had some hops, but I did not he could do them like he did on Amar'e Stoudemire late in the Thunder's blowout win against the Knicks. I have to think the old STAT probably blocks Jackson's shot, but since right now, Amar'e plays and looks like the old man who should hang it up at the gym, it figured he would get dunked on by Jackson. The Boston College product had a nice game off the bench with 18 points.

Charlie.

First Taste: Young Auburn fan gets a War Eagle-sized Christmas Present

We see these videos all the time since the Alabama fan gave his father tickets to the National Championship last year leading to tears and many more feelings than I was ready for on Christmas morning in 2012. People started doing this all the time now on YouTube. This is the best one for the holiday season with a young buddy going completely nuts getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to see his favorite team play in the National Championship. I think I would act like the N64 kid if this were me and college football was my first love. Hope this family enjoys the game either way.  One of the best things after Christmas is how good college football gets with each passing day. (H/T @Barstool U)

NFL Liquor Cabinet Week 16: Everybody is drunk

For the entire NFL season, we will be breaking down the rest of the NFL not named Green Bay by looking at it like a liquor cabinet. Why did we choose this method? I like to booze and it makes things really easy to determine what's great, average and poor. 

I usually do not put a tag, but I really think I have no idea what's going to happen in the playoffs. Like we are heading for a 'Red Wedding' style playoffs where no one is safe. I cannot believe I said multiple times on Sunday, 'Philadelphia might be the best NFC team.'  Let's talk about it I guess and try to make sense of all that happened this week. 

TOP SHELF 
Talk me out of a New England-Philadelphia Super Bowl -  Here's where the NFL season has left me folks. These are the two best teams right now in both divisions. San Francisco is pretty good, but giving up 350 yards to Matt Ryan at home worries me a bit. Philadelphia seems to be cooking on all cylinders, and I feel like the Minnesota game is a blip on the radar. New England keeps winning games no matter who is lining up on both sides of the football. Tom Brady's statistics might not be great, but he's playing great this season for what's he's been given this year.

Cam Newton's big balls performance - While Robert Griffin III suffered all the criticism after he had a successful rookie season, Cam Newton received it during the draft process, his first season, second season and to think there are still losers whom still call him Scam. He led Carolina down the field late in the game trailing and notched a victory for the Panthers. I do not care if he only threw for 181 yards. That took massive testicular fortitude, and I am impressed with his season. Cam Newton is winning an MVP award before 2018.

Indianapolis leaves me uneasy like an STD - That might be a little too extreme, but I do not know what to make of the Colts. I am starting to think Indianapolis plays down to their opponents hence the reason why they have some brutal losses in juncture with impressive wins against Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and others. They will get a home game against this Kansas City team, but I also wonder if Andy Reid played a vanilla offense/defense showing nothing to Indianapolis which is very possible. We have seen this before with teams.

Cowboys come back and Romo gets hurt? - Dallas made a valiant comeback against Washington with Tony Romo leading a comeback to beat Washington and set up an NFC East showdown next Sunday. But they could be without Romo as he has a back injury. First, it was a herniated disk, then it was day-to-day injury and now it is back spasms. I have no idea what to think about this Dallas team although I will admit it would be the most Romo thing ever for Kyle Orton to lead Dallas to a playoff appearance.  

MIDDLE SHELF 
I feel legitimate bad for Arizona - As someone who cheers for an NFC North team, I feel bad Arizona might miss the playoffs with an 11-5 record. That would be insane. I mean the NFC West is an excellent division, but still it feels wrong in all sorts of ways for Arizona or New Orleans missing the playoffs although more so the Cardinals who have been playing great of late.

Peyton breaks the record, but how much meaning does it have? - I am really happy for Peyton Manning's season because it in large part won me 260 dollars so for that I thank him, but at the same time, passing records post the new NFL rules will be looked at like the steroid era numbers in baseball. All of these records being broken and re-broken by others in the last couples years is honestly pathetic, but it is not Peyton's fault for taking advantage.  

Somehow Andy Dalton is sixth in passing - See what I mean about what I just ranted about above?

Jeff Fisher is the king of .500 - I probably should not call him the king, but he is the prince of it. In eight of his 18 seasons of a full-time head coach, Fisher's teams have been either 7-9, 7-8-1 or 8-8. That's incredible. I do not know what that says about his teams or his coaching. Just find it interesting how it always seems to Ihappen with Fisher.

BOTTOM SHELF 
DETROIT..... Football :( - We were at Lambeau, and they showed the highlights of New York-Detroit... Right before they did it, my buddy Seth goes 'I bet Stafford threw a pick-six here.' and sure enough, he did throw that interception and sure enough, Detroit lost the football game.

Miami pulls a Dan Marino - For as long as I could remember, Dan Marino was famously known for choking in December football games on the road. He could not win in the cold to save his soul.  Apparently, this version of the Dolphins do the same thing as they were shutout by the Bills, the same team who gave up 33 points to Jacksonville. Thankfully, Miami has New York Jets at home.

I have no control in Week 17 - I absolutely hate how I have no idea how things will pan out next week. I am exhausted from this season.

Charlie.

SnoTap Bowl Predictions: Aloha

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl 
Boise State vs. Oregon State 7:00 pm ESPN - You would not think Oregon State and Boise State would have many storylines, but wrong, good sir and ma'am, as Boise State quarterback Joe Southwick made things interesting. He was sent home from Hawaii after he allegedly peed off a hotel balcony. Southwick is trying to clear his name like he murdered somebody saying he has lie detector tests clearing Southwick's name. Nobody is in the Twitter streets saying #FREESOUTHWICK. I also do not understand why Southwick is so adamant about this unless he did in fact pee off the balcony. Who cares? It happens, we sometimes piss in places we are not supposed to because well nature makes it happen. Let's just call a spade a spade and say you got faced in Hawaii. Not mad at you, Joe.

We all make mistakes.

Oregon State is not a great football team, but I think they are better than Boise State whose now without their starting quarterback and their head coach. I realize Oregon State has not won a game since October 19th, but the teams they have played are all bowl teams. Beavers get it done.
OSU 45-37

Bowl record: 3-2  

DOY: LeBron James

LeBron James is starting to become the king of another thing... DOY. As I mentioned on Saturday when I featured his dunk on Ben McLemore, James is really not known for dunking on people. I mean we obviously know he can dunk on people, but the fact of the matter is his dunks were more just very powerful and people stayed out of his way. Paul Millsap of the Atlanta Hawks decided he did not value life in late late in the game, and James' dunk brought Miami down one with under 20 seconds left then Heat forced overtime leading to a Miami win in the extra period. James had 38 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Charlie.

SnoTap Packers Classroom: Pittsburgh v. Green Bay

We give grades to the different aspects of the Packers game from Sunday or Monday.  Am I too critical sometimes? Yes.  Am I also too nice sometimes? Yes.  I do not have a teaching degree in case you were wondering. 

A-Game
Eddie Lacy- Despite his injury, a good day to be Eddie Lacy. I feel like he has made his case to be Offensive Rookie of the Year. I realize Keenan Allen had a great year, but Lacy deserves it for essentially being a big part of keeping Green Bay in the division title hunt. Lacy's jump into the end zone was one of the coolest things I saw live at Lambeau Field. It happened right by our seats and it sent the Packers fanbase into excitement. (h/t @gifdsports) 

Andy Mulumba - Am I alone here in thinking the rookie played really well when Matthews went out with injury? Le'Von Bell did have a big day, but it seemed like most of it came in the first three quarters of the game. Mulumba gave some great effort out there having six tackles with four of them being solo. We see it all the time with rookies where they round into form as the season finishes up. I think Mulumba will obviously not be Clay Matthews, but he can definitely contribute for them in the following year.

Micah Hyde - I thought this was Micah's best game of the season overall. He became a game-changer on special teams with a big kick return at least giving Green Bay a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, and then on defense, he played really well. There were not many major plays through the air, and Hyde played a large part of that. Hopefully, his shoulder injury he suffered at the end of the game is not serious, and he can play against Chicago next week.

B-Game
James Jones - One of Jones' best games of the year. He really seems to come and go with major games for Green Bay (That's not a bad thing for Jones, it is more so Green Bay's system rather than Jones being inconsistent.) Matt Flynn looked the most comfortable when throwing the ball to Jones, and I do not blame him for it with some of the incredible catches Jones made on Sunday. I would expect him to take over more of the number one role on Sunday if Flynn remains at quarterback.

A.J Hawk - As we sat at Lambeau with Green Bay trailing 10 points and the crowd deader than roadkill, my buddy Seth goes 'We need something to get the fans back in.' Sure enough, Hawk makes a big balls interception of Ben Roethlisberger leading to Green Bay getting a field goal. The middle linebacker for the Packers overall has had an above average season, but one of the bigger things with Hawk is the increase in impact plays for this Packers defense.

Jarrett Boykin - Another good game for Boykin including a fantastic catch for a touchdown where I yelled he 'facialed' Cortez Allen which was probably inappropriate for Lambeau's crowd. With Jones' contract up, I have no idea how he will remain on the team with wanting more money plus the emergence of Boykin. I doubt they will keep both players. Boykin has been one of the best surprises of this bizarre Green Bay season.

C-Game
Matt Flynn - Man, he did some nice things in this game, but holy hell did he do some bad things in this game. Let's start with throwing the hitch route... Hey Matt, STOP THROWING THE GODDAMN HITCH. He does not have the arm strength for it, and they kept begging for a pick-six which sure did happened changing the landscape of this game. Flynn also had a back-breaker fumble when he needed to escape the pocket and you wonder if he would have got the first down if he slid down. I have no idea because I am a slave to technology and could not see it from my vantage point at Lambeau.

Mike McCarthy's playcalls - Most notably the hitch route, but I had no idea at times what McCarthy was thinking out there. He seems to forget Eddie Lacy and James Starks can definitely hammer it into the end zone. When Aaron Rodgers was still at quarterback, I wondered if McCarthy would overthink about play calls trying to decide whether Rodgers or Lacy deserved the ball.  The fact Green Bay only had two plays with a minute left to go in the game is pathetic. Mac deserves some of the blame, but also the quarterback is at fault.

D-Game
Clay Matthews - This is not really for the game, but more for Matthews' season as he fractures his thumb again knocking him out for the year. It was a disappointing year for Matthews whom started off so strong only to come up with multiple injuries. It will be interesting to see what the narrative will be about Clay in the following off-season. People will start saying he is injury-prone because people are goddamn idiots. Breaks are so much different than strains, sprains and tears.

F-Game
Nick Perry - Man oh man. Perry jumped offsides on a field goal attempt at the end of the game. It led to the game being 38-31 instead of 34-31 (Let's be realistic) and costing Green Bay their final timeout. I could not believe a second-year player like Perry would make such a rookie mistake. It was the story of the game with Green Bay's special teams though. Granted, they had some nice kick returns, but from the fake punt to Perry's offsides just a disaster for defensive special teams.

B.J. Raji - This is a guy currently on my shit list. If I were Santa Claus, Raji is getting coal in his stocking. He is a man whom we see on this football team as a leader and he did not look like one on Sunday with a horrific personal foul call after the play against Pittsburgh. Instead of the Steelers being third and six from Green Bay's 39, Pittsburgh got the ball from the 24 and got a score out of it. Completely dumb and something Raji hopefully will never do again.

NFC North - I am going to write more about this tomorrow, but I really have no idea how Green Bay has a chance at this division yet I do not know if I want the title. I will take it, fine, but this has been a real frustrating season. I do not want it to end, but I feel like a boxer in the 12th round where I have been beat to hell yet there is still a chance for the belt even if I do not know if I can take it anymore.

Charlie.