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For the longest time, going to the movies has been an empty experience for me. The combination of ridiculously high prices, small screens, poor quality projection and the sound from the next theater of the multiplex bleeding into my theater have all made going to the movies a chore, instead of a treat. Indeed, for the last seven or eight years, my preference was to stay home and wait for the DVD.

There have been some exceptions, of course. "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was made to be seen on the big screen. But for the most part, going to a movie theater and paying anywhere from $50-70 for a movie that might suck has not been something I enjoyed.

It wasn't always like that. My love for movies developed at an early age for me, and I became a full-fledged film buff while I was in high school. I'll never forget the wonder and delight I experienced the first time I saw such movies as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Planet of the Apes", and "2001: A Space Odyssey." They weren't just movies, they were experiences. I was taken to a new world, and I was totally removed from my reality and surrendered to the magic of the movies. I never got over that sense of wonder. And that, of course, is what has been missing from my movie-going experience lately.

So, with that cynical approach, I went to go see James Cameron's "Avatar" in IMAX 3D. I really wasn't sure what to expect, I am generally turned off by hype toward anything. And 3D movies, with those stupid glasses you have to wear, never really impressed me. It always seemed like just a gimmick.

Until now. All those expressions I used above, the "magic of the movies", "the sense of wonder" was all there right up on that huge screen. The 3D was tremendous, it didn't detract from the movie but added to its effect. By the time the movie was five minutes old, I forgot I was wearing the glasses. The IMAX screen is so large that you can be swept in if the film is good enough. And the movie itself? It was simply wonderful.

At a length of two hours and forty-five minutes, it is not a minute too long. I never found myself squirming or looking at my watch. I was completly engrossed and totally engulfed by this incredibly entertaining film. Like the original "Star Wars", it is not a "deep" or "important" drama with compelling performances, but an enthralling and exhilarating entertainment. It has a wonderful plot, which pulls you in and touches you to the core. And, unlike many movies, it has a climax which pays off.

But it's the look of the movie which makes it such a cinematic milestone. You are transported to an alien world, the likes of which has never before been rendered so well in a movie. Every shot is rich with detail and wonder. The CGI and other animation effects are seamless. Everything looks so real and believeable. A whole new world is presented, with humanoids and animals that all look so real and believeable. It is all so breathtaking.

It's been a long time since I felt like I got my money's worth at the movies. Finally, with "Avatar" in IMAX 3D, I can honestly say it was worth every penny. Thank you, James Cameron. Nice job.

The Monday after

So, once again, the Jets will not be going to the Super Bowl. I should be depressed, but I am not. It's hard to get upset at this Jets team, which so thoroughly exceeded expectations, which was so fun to watch and root for, which made us all so proud. We have a good new coach who preaches defense first, a wonderful rookie quarterback who will only get better, a terrific-looking rookie running back, and an absolute stud in the defensive backfield. The future looks bright indeed.

Despite being massive underdogs, the Jets came out with fire and emotion to actually take a second quarter lead, 17-6 yesterday. I don't remember when I've ever seen Peyton Manning sacked on successive offensive plays. But when Manning finally figured out how to attack the defense, and marched down the field in only three plays right before halftime, I knew it was all over. It was just a matter of time before Peyton assumed total control. The difference between this Colts team and those of the past is that this one has an awesome defense, to go along with the great Peyton Manning. I believe that Peyton will go down as the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, if he is not already there. All he really needs is a couple of more rings to cement his legacy. I think he will have number two in a couple of weeks, the Colts should dominate the Saints. I only hope it's a competitive game.

And the Jets? They should be nothing but proud. Nobody picked them to make it to the AFC Championship game. They have nothing to hang their heads about. They just lost to a better team on the road. It happens. Their time will come.

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS

I was 10 years old when Broadway Joe Namath made his infamous prediction that his underdog New York Jets were going to beat the heavily-favored Colts in Super Bowl III. Namath was one of my idols, the leader of my favorite football team, and a guy who was just the coolest person on the planet. If you were a kid living on Long Island in 1968, you were a New York Jets fan because of Broadway Joe. And when he made good on his boast, and won the Super Bowl, well, it was just too good to be true.

Yeah, no kidding. Since then, we Jets fans have waited 41 years for the Jets to repeat. They've made it as far as the AFC Conference championship game twice. In 1982, they lost to Miami, after it had rained for two days straight, soaking an uncovered Orange Bowl field, and rendering Richard Todd and his passing attack totally useless. The Dolphins won 14-0. It was crushing.

And then, in 1999, the Jets suddenly found themselves back again, with Vinny Testaverde in the saddle and Bill Parcells as coach. They actually led the Denver Broncos 6-0 at halftime in Denver, when John Elway woke up in the second half and took control, won the game, and ended up winning the Super Bowl.

And that's it. The Jets have only gotten that far twice in 41 years. They've gotten into the playoffs several other times, only to fall short. Most years, they have just sucked. And now, all of a sudden, we have the new Jets, the Jets of Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez and Darrell Revis. A team with a blistering defense and a tremendous running game. A team so unlike any other Jets team that we fans don't know what to make of it.

A month ago, the Jets were plodding along at 7-7. They needed to win their last two games to make the playoffs, and they were losing to Peyton Manning and the Colts in Indy. That's when the Colts, inexplicably, decided to forego their run at a perfect season and pulled all their regulars, including Manning, at halftime and basically handed the game to the Jets. The Jets then dominated the Bengals in the final game of the season, and surprise, surprise, they made the playoffs. Then, to really confound things, they beat the Bengals again in the Wild Card round, and upset San Diego yesterday to move on to the Conference Championship for only the fourth time in their history. And who will the Jets be playing on Sunday? None other than Peyton Manning and the Colts. You couldn't have scripted it any better.

And if the Jets win on Sunday? I don't even want to get my hopes up. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I found myself grinning stupidly all day today, and saying in my head "J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS"!!! Thank you, Indy, for laying down in Game 15. Here's hoping you end up regretting that decision big time!

Poker, Bruce, and other stuff

Mrs. Brucefan and I just got back from a much-needed vacation. Tonight we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the night we met, so this was sort of a second honeymoon. It was wonderful. And I am happy to report that one of the highlights of the vacation, during the Las Vegas portion, was a second place finish in a poker tournament by yours truly. It was a nice conclusion to what has been an awful year for me poker-wise. In retrospect, I played very well, and got some nice breaks. As always, with Texas Hold'em, I also got some luck. About midway through the tournament, I was holding my own, with a medium to low stack. The blinds were increasing, and I needed to make a move soon. Ahead of me two players went all in, I had them both covered, and I looked down at A-J suited in spades. Normally, I would not call an all in with this hand, A-J not being a particularly strong hand. But I needed to make a move and I just had this gut feeling. I called. One guy turned over pocket 8's, the other guy had A-8. An ace came out on the flop, and the "case" 8 did not show up, so my pair of aces with the Jack kicker won the hand. I tripled up and knocked both guys out. It was the turning point for me.

From there, I continued to win some small pots, never with much of a hand, as I picked my spots and made moves at the right time. Soon we were down to the final table, but only six places paid out. The big stack did not want to chop, so we played it down, and then there were three of us. I got crippled with pocket deuces, when the board showed two higher pair, making the other guy's Ace kicker suddenly the winning hand. I then went all in three times in a row, winning all three times to get healthy again. Then, the guy in second place went all in, I folded and the big stack called. Second place had pocket queens, the big stack had an Ace, and when the flop showed an ace, number two was knocked out, and now it was just me and the big stack. We traded pots for a few hands, but I was low stacked to him, by almost 10 to 1. When I looked down at King-rag suited, I went all in. Absurdly, the big stack had A-K, the dreaded Big Slick. He called my all in, he paired his ace, and it was all over. Second place, a terrific finish, an extremely well-played tournament, and I was on cloud nine. I never did have to dig into my pocket for Vegas playing money after that, and I even donated to Mrs. Brucefan's fun in Vegas. Sweet!!!!

I caught The Boss's receipt of the Kennedy Center award the other night on TV. As a Springsteen fan for the last 34 years, it was somewhat shocking to see my rock hero sitting next to the First Lady, and to see the Obamas rocking out to Bruce's music. With this recognition and the Boss's performance at the Super Bowl last year, it's clear that Bruce has once again stepped up in the pantheon of icons. Jon Stewart's introduction was great, but the musical tributes to Bruce were somewhat lame, other than Sting's interpretation of "The Rising." And I still have to ask this question: has there ever been a top 40 hit quite like "Born to Run?" Thirty-four years later, that song still sounds fresh and exciting. Happy New Year, Bruce.

The Arizona Wildcats embarrassed themselves on national TV last night in the Holiday Bowl. What in heaven's name happened? Didn't the coaching staff realize they were there to play a football game and not to be on vacation? I'm sorry, I understand they had a nice year and were three seconds from playing in the Rose Bowl, but last night was an absolute disgrace. Mike Stoops is a bad coach, and an idiot. How do you not have your team prepared to play? I get it that Nebraska was the much better team, but the showing last night by the team from Tucson was horrible. It was painful to watch. I'm glad I didn't fork up the money to go to San Diego for the game, I would be furious right now if I had.

The honeymoon seems to be over for the Obama administration. This latest national security mess has turned out to be a fiasco. I think the President needs to make someone the fall guy, and that someone is Janet Napolitano, my former boss. Looks like our former governor bit off a bit more than she can chew with the new job in Washington. The Republicans are screaming for her head, and I think President O needs to comply to resurrect the viability of his Presidency. Bye bye, Janet, you should have stayed in Phoenix where you could do no wrong.

And finally, a few words about Stephen King, my favorite author. I previously wrote on this blog that King had been in a major funk for several years, until he came back big time last year with "Duma Key," his best book in a long time. Now, he's followed that up with "Under the Dome", a 1,000-plus page opus about a small town in Maine, and what happens when an invisible dome suddenly comes down and closes off the town to the rest of the world. It's a return to the kind of work King did with "The Stand" and "It", combining multiple characters and solid story-telling to churn out a solid page-turner. It's a bravura return to form for King, and I highly recommend it to all the "constant readers" out there.

All things considered, 2009 was a pretty good year. Happy New Year, everyone.

The Curse of the Wildcat, Part Two

Following the gut-wrenching defeat against the Oregon Ducks, the Arizona Wildcats had to play their arch-rival, Arizona State in Tempe. They were clearly the better team, as the Sun Devils are experiencing a serious decline these days. Nevertheless, a spirited Sun Devil team rallied in the second half to tie the game and wrenched the momentum away from Arizona. Late in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were stuffed once again by the seeemingly reborn ASU defense, and the Cats had to punt away. The Sun Devil receiver signaled for a fair catch, the ball bounced through his hands, hit the turf, and ended up in the arms of the nearest Wildcat. Arizona ran the time down, kicked a game-winning field goal, and escaped with a lucky win against their in-state enemies.

The final regular season game of the year was at USC in the intimidating LA Coliseum. For those of you who don't follow Pac-10 football, USC has owned the conference for the past six years. They have won the conference each of those years in dominating fashion, and have often been in the BCS title picture. Needless to say, UA Coach Mike Stoops had never beaten them. For most of the game this past Saturday, the Wildcats looked good, but not quite good enough. They led for most of the first half, then fell behind as USC seemed to regroup. And then, after being stuffed on every possession in the second half, Arizona quarterback Nick Foles led the Wildcats on a fourth quarter drive, tossing a 39-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Juron Cryner for the go-ahead score with three and a half minutes left. The Wildcats then stopped the Trojans, and proceeded to run out the clock to finish the regular season with a statement victory. The U of A's final record was 8-4, 6-3 in conference play, good enough for a tie for second in the conference. They owned the tie-breaker over the other two teams, Oregon State and Stanford, since they had beaten both those teams head-to-head. Stoops finally had his victory over USC, the Cats and their fans were overjoyed to finish second in the conference, and the team will move on to the Holiday Bowl on December 30th, to once again face Nebraska (how's that for irony?).

But, oh, what might have been. There were so many little things in that Oregon game that could have turned out differently. So many bounces, so many freakish plays. This Arizona team should be headed to the Rose Bowl, to play Ohio State and be part of the BCS. Damn! The Curse of the Wildcat. What else can I say?

The Curse of the Wildcat

From 1982 to 2007, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. If you're a sports junkie like myself, and you live in Tucson, there is only one game in town, the University of Arizona Wildcats. During most of that period, I got to experience the era of Lute Olson basketball, as the U of A became a national power, garnering four Final Four appearances and one national championship.

As much as I may have enjoyed UA basketball, my true love was football. Since my first season in 1982, right up until I moved to Phoenix in 2007, I went to at least one game, and usually more. I often had season tickets, and watched the Wildcats tear my heart out every season.

The U of A plays in the Pacific 10 conference. The winner of the conference plays in the Rose Bowl, and since the Wildcats entered the conference, they are the only team to never play in the Rose Bowl game. They have been close, tantalizingly close, but they have never made it. There was the Desert Swarm team of the early 90's, the team of Tedy Bruschi, which came close, but blew a big lead in a game against Cal which lost them the conference, and had to console itself with a New Year's Day whipping of Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Then there was the equally dominant team of Chris McAlister in the late 90's, a team that, but for a fourth quarter meltdown against UCLA, would have gone undefeated and made the Rose Bowl. Instead, that team went to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and beat Nebraska.

After that, the Wildcats imploded. Long-time coach Dick Tomey was run out of town, his replacement, John Mackovic, was an unmitigated disaster. The school then hired Mike Stoops to helm the football team, on the assumption that he would be a carbon copy of his brother, Bob, the head coack at Oklahoma. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

It's been a hard road for Stoops. He inherited a program in shambles, and has built it back to some semblance of respectability. His recruiting ability has been exceptional. His in-game coaching, however, leaves something to be desired. He's something of a loose cannon, and can often be seen screaming on the sidelines at his players, his coaches, or the refs. If he gets a lead, he then goes into a conservative, play-not-to-lose shell, and that more often than not leads to disaster.

Last year, Stoops led the Wildcats to their first bowl game in ten years, as the Wildcats went to the Las Vegas Bowl, and came out with a victory. This year, they found themselves at 6-3 last night, in second place in the conference, and able to win the conference and go to the Rose Bowl if they won out their last three games, starting with last night's game at home against the conference-leading Oregon Ducks.

The Wildcats would have, should have, could have won last night's game. They played toe to toe with Oregon all night long, they put up 41 total points, and led 31-24 with four minutes left in the game. They stuffed Oregon on fourth down, and took over in excellent field position. All that was left was a couple of first downs and a field goal to ice the game. Yeah, right. Instead, quarterback Nick Foles threw a desperation pass into the end zone, which glanced off his receiver's hands into the arms of a defender for an interception. Oregon marched down the field, converted twice on fourth down, and scored the tying touchdown with six seconds left. Sheesh.

The Ducks scored in the first overtime, as did the Wildcats, but instead of going for the win right then and there with a two-point conversion, Stoops opted to tie the game and go into a second overtime, which is where Oregon won the game. I am heartsick. Looking back, the following things occurred in this game:

---Oregon fumbled twice in the first half, and despite an Arizona defender being right there to pick up the ball, the Ducks recovered.

---Arizona was driving for a first quarter touchdown, when the receiver fumbled the ball at the two, once again an Arizona player was right there, but the ball ended up on the arms of an Oregon defender.

---Early in the third quarter, Arizona missed a chip shot field goal, after they had made a 47 yarder to end the first half.

---Late in the fourth quarter, an Arizona defender dropped a sure interception. Oregon ended up trying for a field goal, the low kick hit the crossbar, bounced up in the air, and fell over the bar for a field goal.

It was sickening. It's bad enough to get beat, but when luck and every bounce goes the other team's way, it is heart-breaking. If any one of those things mentioned above happened differently, the game would have most likely turned out differently.

Instead, the Wildcats lost again. They broke my heart again. Their Rose Bowl hopes were dashed by a bunch of Ducks. From Oregon. Quack, quack.

My ten favorite scary scenes in horror movies

Happy Halloween. To celebrate, here is a list of my ten favorite scary scenes in horror movies, not in any particular order. Beware of spoilers, since I can't make this list without revealing some.

1. I have to start this list with the granddaddy of them all, so my numero uno is the legendary shower scene from "Psycho." Even today, almost sixty years later, when you know what's coming and perhaps have watched the scene dozens of times, like I have, it never ceases to rivet my attention and scare me. If you watch closely, you'll see that never once does Hitchcock show the knife entering Janet Leigh's body. And that soundtrack is simply unbelieveable. In my humble opinion, the best of the best.

2. The arm coming out of the grave in "Carrie." It sounds so lame when you type the words like I just did, but really, there is no other scene in the history of cinema with the power to make you jump right out of your seat as this one. With the serene, lovely, build-up, and the sweetly innocent music on the soundtrack, this is an incredible illustration of the power of cinema.

3. The creepy little girl coming out of the TV in "The Ring." These days, it takes a lot to scare me when I watch a movie, but this was the creepiest and scariest in a movie filled with creepy, scary scenes.

4. Danny on his Big Wheel in "The Shining." For the most part, the classic scary Stephen King books just don't translate well onto the big screen, and Kubrick's film is nowhere near as scary as King's novel. But when little Danny rides his Big Wheel through the Overlook Hotel, rounds a corner, and sees those two creepy little long-dead girls, who then say "Come and play with us, Danny", man, it gets me every time.

5. "The Exorcist." I suppose you can take your pick of scary scenes from this movie, but my favorite is when Father Karras goes into the bedroom and sees the written message "Help Me" slowly materialize on Regan's chest. Much more effective than all the split pea soup/vomit scenes.

6. The first appearance of Pennywise, the Clown in "It." Like "The Shining," Stephen King's novel is far more scary than the TV mini-series, but the scene where Little Georgie chases his toy boat along the puddles in the street, then watches it go down the storm drain, only to see a creepy, scary clown down there in the drain, is scream-out-loud frightening.

7. The opening sequence of "Halloween." There are many terrifying moments in John Carpenter's classic, but it's hard to top the terrifying sequence of little Michael Myers spying on, and then massacring his older sister and her boyfriend, all shown from his point of view. A virtuoso piece of film-making.

8. The birds gathering on the playground while Tippi Hedren obliviously smokes a cigarette in "The Birds." This scene is not scary, per se, but is an excellent example of how to build suspense. We can see the birds gathering behind her, and we want to shout out to her to look out, but obviously we can't, and we can only watch as the danger ratchets up, while our heroine has no clue what's about to happen. Hitchcock was truly a master.

9. The wolf attack in "American Werewolf in London." Until this scene, the movie is light and funny and goofy. Sure, the patrons of the Slaughtered Lamb are creepy as they tell our two heroes to be aware, but it's played for laughs and hard to take seriously. And then comes the realization that Jack and David are lost on the moors, something is following them, and all of a sudden..... Truly frightening.

10. The scene in the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" when Miles realizes that his girlfriend, Cathy, has given in and fallen asleep and is now one of the aliens. The expression of pure horror on Miles' face is classic, and the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness is palpable.

I'm sure I've left a bunch of classic scenes out, but for now, this is my list. Hope you enjoy it.