MTV Rough Cut: Angelina Jolie
MTV Rough Cut: Angelina Jolie 
The action star dishes on what the additional tattoos from "Wanted" mean, negotiating acting schedules with Brad and more.
2008 Action Movies
Action movie fans are going to love 2008. Big action films set to hit theaters in 2008 include Bond 22, Iron Man, Speed Racer, Prince Caspian, Cloverfield, The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
NY Times: Get with the program
After EliteXC’s giant failure in terms of production and action on Saturday night, the New York Times decided to finally begin running some articles on the sport of mixed martial arts. It became apparent that the famous newspaper and its MMA writers aren’t true fans of the sport, and have the smarts of the typical casual fan that has only been into the sport for about a week. Here’s some great opinionated drivel from NYT:
The announcers — Gus Johnson and Mauro Ranallo, in particular, and Frank Shamrock — usually sounded like teenagers besotted by the brutality that fists, elbows, forearms, knees and feet can inflict. But if the action is compelling enough and if M.M.A. truly is the world’s fast-growing sport (Johnson’s claim), why did the three sound like such in-house lackeys?
YAMMA must not have been on this guy’s schedule of MMA to watch. I thought Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, and Frank Shamrock as a team did a fine job. It wasn’t the greatest commentary performance ever, but it was fairly crisp for a nationwide show. In-house lackeys? Yeah, let’s talk complete crap about how bad the promotion is while broadcasting. Give me a break.
Richard Sandomir continues to blast the show for the lines of outrageous claims that CBS/EliteXC made during the event. CBS is on the “dawn of a new era in American sports” and “leading MMA out of the shadows and into the light of prime time”. It isn’t like those statements aren’t true, but they are a bit over the top. Mauro Ranallo is over the top, and that’s why he’s one of the best.
Then there was Johnson’s assessment of Robbie Lawler, who was on the undercard, as being “one of the biggest punchers at 185 pounds on the planet.”
Actually, Robbie Lawler probably is one of the biggest punchers on the planet at 185.
Maybe I’m too used to boxing, but M.M.A. seems more violent. Boxers have died. A death in the cage is almost certain.
So, you’re too used to a sport in which more men die per year than have ever in the sport of MMA? I won’t compare each sport since I love both, but a “death in the cage is almost certain” is a copout statement. MMA has had two deaths already in its existence, a much, much smaller number that boxing has per year.
If M.M.A. is about safety and honor, why whine about protecting the fighters’ health, just because Thompson didn’t go down in a more conclusive pool of blood?
This comes down to actually having some knowledge of the sport. The blood was from Thompson’s cauliflower ear exploding, which isn’t a serious injury. The blood wasn’t in his eyes, it wasn’t impeding his progress, and it wasn’t stopping him from protecting himself. You just saw blood and thought “how horrific, stop the fight”. Interesting, we see movies every single day with blood and gore all over them and people want more, but a little cauliflower ear breaks open and its blasphemy.
Richard Sandomir, get a clue. If you are going to inaccurately portray the sport, do it on someone’s blog. If you want to report on it, maybe the NY Times should find someone who actually likes the sport and wants to watch it. Someone with some knowledge of the history and the fighters.
I would have given EliteXC and CBS an unfavorable review, but I wouldn’t nitpick at the commentary. If you’d have watched some PRIDE, you’d have known that Mauro Ranallo was exactly in character. Gus Johnson did a fantastic job in his commentating duties, and Frank Shamrock worked well as an analyst from time to time. Stop covering MMA, NY Times.
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