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My wife and I watched John Carter on Friday. For fans of the Martian series who have not yet seen the movie, there are understandably quite a few liberties taken by the director with the story, but I thought that other than the airships, the visuals were very well done indeed. Adapting a science fiction novel published in 1917 to modern sensibilities understandably requires some changes.
The characters were not particularly true to the book, at least in character. A chivalrous-to-a-fault 19th century Virginia southern gentleman might not exactly resonate with today's moviegoers, so the director opted for a more general action hero type instead. Also, the over-the-top romantic aspects with which readers of the series will be familiar is missing in this movie, replaced by more fundamental motivations such as greed, lust for power, and good, old-fashioned hate.
That's all I'll offer. There are other places for movie reviews, and John Carter has nothing at all to do with Kentucky.
The Tweet of the Morning comes from James Lileks, which also has nothing at all to do with Kentucky:
Never understood the motivation of "Hellraiser" characters. "Hey, I'd love to go to Hell. Based on the brochures alone it sounds awesome."
— James Lileks (@Lileks) June 24, 2012
Hellraiser is one of my movie guilty pleasures.
Your Quickies follow the jump.
Ridgeview, First Coast football players commit to Kentucky, South Florida // jacksonville.com
Two players from the First Coast verbally committed to college football programs on Saturday.
Kentucky is hitting the state of Florida hard this year recruiting.
Kentucky Derby Winner I’ll Have Another to Stand Stud in Japan - NYTimes.com
I’ll Have Another, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes last month, will head to Japan to stand at stud.
Win two big races and retire to stud. That's what I should have done some years ago ... :-)
UK basketball notebook: Experience might be Miller's edge in draft // Kentucky.com
"We prayed over it," his father, Brian Miller, said of the NBA Draft. " ... I pray that the person who wants him gets him."
That's a prayer we can all get behind.
UK lands two football commitments // Jody Demling – Recruiting
After a slow start, Phillips & Co. seem to be rolling along now. I sure hope this kicker is as good as advertised.
Anthony Davis learned the value of working hard day after day from Calipari | vaughtsviews
In case you missed it, likely No. 1 draft pick Anthony Davis gave a great answer to the Shreveport Times (http://www.shreveporttimes.com) during a recent interview when asked about what was the biggest thing he learned at Kentucky under John Calipari.
"Just working hard. You don’t work hard then you won’t be successful. He always pushes us to work hard before practice, after practice. Work hard every day, don’t take any plays off in practice or the game. He made sure we were in great shape and didn’t lose focus," said Davis.
It doesn't matter if people recognize it or not -- in fact, I prefer that they don't -- Calipari is quite possibly the best coach in college basketball for the way the game is set up right now.
Cheering Sandusky verdict understandable, but no one's a winner here // CBSSports.com
I understand the relief that came with this verdict. I'm feeling it too. Too many monsters have escaped too many jail cells because a jury of 12 couldn't reach the verdict they were supposed to reach. It could have happened to Sandusky, but it didn't. So there is relief here, for me personally.
But cheering? I can't cheer. Nor can I pontificate on the danger of absolute power on a college campus, how the worshipful culture that surrounds so many coaches -- not just Joe Paterno -- can lead to lying, cheating, even covering up a g-ddamn pedophile.
This column encapsulates very much how I feel about the Sandusky horror. Nobody wins, everybody loses, the world is a worse place for having experienced this.
Juwan Howard is first member of Michigan’s "Fab Five" to win NBA title | CollegeBasketballTalk
It took Juwan Howard 18 years, but he finally won an NBA title. Not only is it the first title for him, but it’s the first title for the famed "Fab Five" of Michigan in the early 1990s.
Karma? Or just star-crossed?
RTC NBA Draft Profiles: Terrence Jones // Rush The Court
2012 Freshman Projections // Kenpom blog
That said, they’re pretty good. Better than I expected, at least. They say Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel will probably block the most shots, and they say N.C. State’s Tyler Lewis will probably get the most assists. Plenty of recruiting guys would be on board with that, and most of these numbers at least look ballpark accurate. But there are also some issues. It’s tough for the current system to figure out shooting, for example – nobody’s currently projected above 74 percent on free throws.