My take on Adrian Peterson

I love the sport of football. I love the sport more than I should.  I grew up around the sport and some of my very first moments at a young age are of watching football with my Dad. 31 years later and it's still the think I talk to him the most about. I started writing this blog on Monday and like probably most of you my opinion changed back and forth and I changed many things in this blog as I learned more information.  I feel I could write a novel about my opinions and tried my best to narrow it down to the main talking points.

The first thing I will say as most of you know I have a bias view on much of the NFL and the actions they take.  I am not going to stop watching football because of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, or the few other bad apples that have on-going issues.  This is mostly because I love the sport more than the players themselves.  What Adrian did and the Vikings reaction to it I have little control over so why should that stop me in doing they thing I love to do on Sunday.  The main issue I've had with all this Adrian Peterson issue is the media reaction to everything and the pitch fork mentality they are taking.

I want to start by saying on Monday I felt that Adrian should be arrested and serve time behind bars.  I feel what he did was child abuse and unless he serves time I don't think he will fully learn from his mistakes.  I feel he shouldn't have to go to prison for life but maybe a six month sentence and counseling to have a better knowledge of more parenting tactics that are less physically harmful to a child. Here is the thing though, he isn't in prison right now so I don't know if the Vikings or even the NFL for that matter need to be the judge, jury, and executioner of the situation. He is a free man and I think in or society that should be worth something.

A common theme that came up on Monday was the Vikings saying they are going to wait for due process to take its course.  This caused many people to want to throw their arms up because all the evidence is out there and Adrian isn't denying what he did.  No I wouldn't be upset if the Vikings said that was enough for them to say they wanted to suspend Peterson because there is a clause in his contract about ethics and a code of conduct about how to act off the field.  By Adrian being indicted for reckless or negligent injury to a child that does fall under the code of conduct.  The fact that I believe many people are over looking is the Vikings also have the right to look the other way, which I understand may sound stupid but different players are giving different rights.  The NFL is like many jobs in the World in that the more you achieve the more rope you are given. More accomplished people are held to a higher standard but are also given more slack when negative things may come out.  The Vikings just last year had a player AJ Jefferson get accused of domestic abuse and the Vikings cut him right away.  Why act so quickly on him and wait for due process from Adrian is simple, Adrian is worth more, which is not only true in sports but in life. If a CEO at a fortune 500 company sends out a negative email the company will most likely send out an apology and the CEO will do different positive PR moves, but if an intern sent it out they most likely would get fired. A basic example but just trying to show that different people are held to different light.  So the Vikings cut AJ right away because he wasn't very valuable and hang on to Adrian because he is.  I'm not arguing if this is right or wrong just that it happens on every level.

I want to now get to my main issue I have with this whole story and that's the media's coverage of the situation. I love freedom of the press and I know without them we would live in a country like North Korea.  Reporters ask the tough questions and get the answers that the people of this country deserve on many levels, and of course this isn't just sports.  I think the media however took this story out of control and actually is a great example of the World we live in.  After 9/11 24 hour news channels boomed in popularity and it wasn't long after that the viewers learned it's hard to come up with news 24/7.  Stories would get more airtime than normal and things had a way to become more main stream because more people would hear about them.  Then the Twitter age came about and not only everyone had to be the first to post something and everyone had an opinion on everything.  I'm not saying 24 hour news and Twitter are bad things, they just changed how we handle things.  How this is all tied to the Adrian story is every day the media changed its tune and feelings and I felt were mostly not listening to what the public thought, you know the main people that they are working for.  Everywhere I listened wanted Adrian gone and the Vikings were making a huge mistake, which is a fine position to take but I feel they were mostly saying that because it was a better story to fill their airwaves.  If the media says, well let this all play out and let AP play, that really doesn't fill their talker time does it.  I decided to do some research so I talked to my friends and family members, read different message boards, and listened to callers on talk radio.  What I found out is that right or wrong about 80% of people were fine with Adrian still playing.  No one said what he did was right but many felt that due process was a good thing to have in our society.  If average Joe would still be able to work at his job while this was all going on, why couldn't Adrian.  I will admit many of the people I talked to were probably bias like me and knew Adrian gave the Vikings the best chance to win.  I do think a fair point was made by a caller that in a case like Adrian's intent should play a big role.  If Adrian intended to hurt the boy and that's why he was hitting him feels different than if he thought the boy did something wrong and was trying to punish him.  Adrian can't learn from the incident if those scars are what he wanting to give the child, but can learn if it was an incident that went to far and he is sorry for.  That is why there is a legal system and a judge that can decide when hearing all the facts what is the best course of action for Adrian to learn from his mistakes.

I want to end by saying that by not playing Adrian in football games on Sunday teach him a lesson?  I think yeah they do because it will hopefully show him how serious his actions were.  But on the other side, I do think he also could have learned those lessons by playing on Sunday and going to counseling.  Either way we need to know that sometimes there are gray areas in situations and different people will have different views.  Don't just attack someone that disagrees with you and make them out as a bad person.  We need to work better as a society to work together in all things and not just hate the people that don't agree with what we believe in.  Different people in this Adrian story had different views on how to discipline children and what punishments should be given out. Who really knows what views are right and what views are wrong.  Because it's something you believe is that what makes it right, why do you know so much more than the next person.  People say they were hit as a child and they turned out fine and better for it, while other people said they were hit as child and now they are aggressive towards their own children.  So I feel there is no right or wrong way in anything, just your own opinions.  We need to as a society realize that most people want what's best for everyone we just might have different ways of coming about to it.  The only thing that was common in all this Adrian news is that every single person felt for that poor child that was hurt.  So instead of calling the Vikings organization horrible people for flip flopping, changing their mind, not knowing what to do at first, and worried about winning a football game. Let's instead make this about ending child abuse so people like Adrian Peterson realize they harm it does and we as a whole become better at life.

I will now step off my soapbox, thanks for reading, or at least skimming.

15 Greatest Sports Movie Moments

It's that time of the year when sports die down for a bit and not much is going on.  This is the time every year that the ESPYs honor some of the greatest moments of past year in sports.  So I figured now would be a great time to look at the greatest moments in sport themed movies of all time.  I need to point out these are actual moments and not the whole movie.  For example you have movies like 61* or Remember the Titans which are great sports movies but don't really have a great moment in it so they don't make the list.  I should also note that a lot of these need spoiler alerts because a common theme to great sports movie is they usually happen at the end. So I give to you the top 15 greatest sport movie moments.....

15. Space Jam- MJ is ready to play- Nothing like Jordan lacing them back up and head to Toon Town to win a basketball game.  Many believe it was this movie that got Michael itching to come back to the NBA.

14. Major League- Wild Thing Vaughn enters the game- Sure the end is great when the Indians win the pennant but it doesn't give you chills like the moment when Wild Thing enters the game. You can't help but stand up and cheer.

13. Karate Kid- The crane kick- A move we have all tried to reenact but none of us have come even close.

12. Happy Gilmore- The final putt- It looked like an impossible putt but nothing Happy couldn't handle.  It's good to see Sandler at his finest before he turned into the Sandler we know now.

11. Cool Runnings- The final race- When their bobsled crashes you can't help but look away.  This scene is the ultimate in never giving up and quitting. Also one of the greatest slow claps.

10. A League of Their Own- There's no crying in baseball- A term that has sense been overused but still a true statement none the less.

9. Little Big League- The pick off play- A move that every little league team tried to pull off after this movie came out.  Of course it was cool too because it was the Twins.

8. Mighty Ducks 2- The ducks fly together- Before Miracle this was the hockey movie that gave passion to USA hockey.  Also pretty impressive to have a sequel make the list and no great moments from the original make it.

7. Bull Durham- The mound visit- Before this movie I always wondered what when on when they had a meeting at the mound.  This scene gave us all the answers.

6. Hoosiers- The final shot- Great story told throughout the movie.  I still look back and like to compare this to what could have been the modern day story of Gordon Hayward hitting a half court three at the buzzer down two that would have given little school Butler the win over the dynasty of Duke.

5. Field of Dreams- People will come Ray- This scene made us all want to build a baseball field in our own back yard, or at the very least go play catch with Dad.

4. Miracle- Herb Brooks speech- One of if not the best speeches in all of movies, let alone sports movies.

3. The Natural- Roy Hobbs hits a home run- Many argue the greatest home run ever hit, right above Babe Ruth's called shot.

2. Angels in the Outfield- The kid sees an Angel- Don't tell me every time you watch this movie that you don't stand up and wave your arms.

1. Rudy- Rudy enters- When Rudy finally gets into the game gives me chills every time.  The best musical score of any movie I personally feel.

Let the debates begin......

Top #11 Disney villains of all time

A couple months ago I posted my top 50 movies of all time and it was one of the most read blogs I posted.  People came up to me and would give their opinions on what they thought of my list, and the most common arguments were those about the Disney films.  On my list I had the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Earlier this month the movie Maleficent came out and it did amazing at the box office. I thought to myself well that makes sense since people do love Disney films.  Then I thought to myself in honor of the movie I should rank the top eleven (sounds better than a top ten list) villains of all time from Disney movies.

11. Prince Hans (Frozen)-  He was a back stabber and liar, you just can't trust that.

10. The Ringmaster (Dumbo)- The way he treated all those animals made you feel sad when going to the circus.

9. Sid Phillips (Toy Story)- He was so mean to all those toys and they really did nothing to him. 

8. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)- He fought little kids, I mean really dude.  Fight someone your own age.

7. Jafar (Aladdin)- He was really power hungry and for whatever reason was really mean to a genie.  The genie wanted to grant you wishes and he was just so overly abusive.

6. Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmations)- She wanted to skin and kill little cute puppies.  The definition of no soul if you ask me.

5. Scar (Lion King)- Either his parents were really mean when naming him or he has a sense of humor and likes to make fun of himself. Also his evil did kinda make sense, I mean who doesn't want to be king of the jungle? You have to kill a lot of people to make it to the top.

4. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)- He seems cool most of the movie but then when he finally gets to Beast he becomes vicious.  Also he is higher on this list because he keeps going for Belle even though she is not interested and really does not understand that no means no.

3. The Queen (Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs)- Trying to poison someone just because they are young and pretty.  Well that's not really cool at all, it seems like desperate measures just to be the fairest in the land.

2. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)- She took away Ariel's voice, I mean you ask me and that seems a little over the top. Sure she gave Ariel legs and all so she could walk. And it is Ariels fault for not reading the fine print, so guess you really could say this is a lesson for all of us to read the fine print.

1. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)- She turns into a dragon and makes people sleep forever. Look it up in the dictionary, that is your definition of evil.

The 10 best days of the year

A couple weeks ago Jared posted his favorite days of the year after I told him that he claims every day is his favorite day of the year, and he really couldn't really argue with me.  The NFL draft is getting oh so close and this also got me to think that I should do a post on my favorite days of the year because once upon a time NFL draft day was my favorite day of the year.  The NFL has since ruined it and it's no longer an all day Saturday event and instead a Thursday night affair and no longer in my top 10.  It is probably however number 11 on the list. I also decided that I had to change it up a little from Jared so I ranked mine 1-10, since we all love list form blogs.

10.  April Fool's Day- A day where I can joke with people and it's no big deal.  Yeah, that's my kind of day.

9. Halloween- I loved this holiday when I was a kid and was able to get a ton of candy.  I love this holiday now as an adult for the ton of eye candy.

8. Election Day- You may think I'm joking because most of you don't know the hard core political buff I am.  That is mostly because I hate when people talk politics and talk about who they voted for because I feel that defeats the whole purpose.  Because of this most people know very little about my political views, well unless you are my father who I will debate with all the time.

7. New Year's Eve/Day- I combined these two because they go hand and hand.  This time is so great because it's such a time of hope and looking forward to the future.

6. Super Bowl Sunday- If anything most of you probably thought this would be higher on my list.  As great as I love football it's just one game so that ends up hurting it.  Still a fun time had by all.

5. Valentine's Day- A day of love.  Desperate girls all over. Enough said.

4. 4th of July- Usually if I can I go to the horse track because they have a lot of things going on and the weather is always so perfect.  I always top it off with watching fireworks as well, and who doesn't love that.

3. Christmas Eve/Christmas Day- Much like the combo of New Years Eve/Day I kinda treat this day as one day.  Christmas eve we always got to open one present and I see my Mother's side of the family.  On Christmas day we open the rest of the presents and I get to see my Father's side of the family.  It's just really nice to see both sides of my big family in a short period of time and I get tons of presents.

2. First day of March Madness- The first day is better than the second day even though they both have the same amount of games.  This is mostly because I am burnt out almost by day two and I can never afford to take both Thursday and Friday night off so I end up working during some of the games.  That Thursday I watch basketball all day and my bracket isn't ruined yet.

1. My Birthday- For about 10 years now I have gone to the State Fair all day so it extra sweet for me.  The State Fair is the place I really love more than anywhere, well besides Vegas.  Lately I have gone with my friend Brett and we usually meet up with people throughout the day.  I really like being the center of attention so only fitting my favorite day of the year is the one that centers around me.

My vacation blog with a twist

Recently I went on a vacation to Las Vegas and Southern California for nine wonderful relaxing days.  When I got back people were asking how it went and to tell them all about it.  At first I thought why would you care what I did on vacation because you people weren't there, so that seems pretty boring.  But more and more people asked about my trip so I figured I would blog about it and make those people happy.  I didn't want to write a normal travel blog though and post pictures that you have all seen a thousand times.  Everyone knows what the Hollywood sign looks like so why would a picture I took of it be any different?  I wanted to think how can I make this travel blog different and that's when I thought of what is popular.  I am on Instagram, and people on there are taking pictures of the food they eat every day.  So knowing that people like pictures of food, and stories of what happens on a vacation, I decided I would take a picture of every meal I ate and give a description of what was going on at the time.

I didn't take any pictures of my food in Vegas as it was mostly buffets and hangover food.  So I started the morning of my trip to Southern California when at the airport I saw a Wendy's that offered breakfast.  The egg sandwich was very tasty but the fries had a seasoning on them that had a strong basil taste that ruined the rest of the meal.  

Once I arrived to California I wanted to keep it simple as I wanted a light lunch before the family joined me.  I was coming straight from Vegas and they were coming from Minneapolis so I had some time to kill.  I walked around Newport beach after my cabbie dropped me off but I couldn't check in yet.  There was a Taco Bell about two blocks from the hotel so I walked there and bought two chili cheese burritos.

For dinner that night the family went to a seafood place across the street from our hotel called Billy's at the Beach that specialized in Hawaiian food.  I ordered the fish and chips which was fresh Hawaiian fish Ono that was lightly breaded with fries.  I had never had fresh Hawaiian fish before and wasn't a big fan.  There breading which was beer battered by a Hawaiian beer was clumpy and the fish didn't have much flavor.

The first morning we were there we went on a breakfast cruise buffet in the Newport Harbor.  The tour lasted about two hours and showed some cool places like John Wayne's house, which was also pretty cool because the cruise itself was on John Wayne's old yacht.  The buffet was pretty good as it had the breakfast staples of eggs, bacon, and sausage and also lunch options such as prime rib and shrimp. I also tried an egg burrito but it had a very strong onion taste.

After the cruise we drove around and checked out places such at Venice Beach and Balboa Island. That night we stopped at the popular California base In and Out Burger. I had heard of this fast food joint before but didn't know how simply it really was.  They had a choice of single, double, or with cheese and came with fries.  No chicken options, or onion rings or even mustard.  Overall the burger was pretty solid but honestly would have expected a little more since it was literally all they do.  It also wasn't as fast as I thought it would be.

The second morning we were there was the first time I tried the continental hot breakfast the hotel offered.  I decided to get oj with a cinnamon roll, sausage patty, toast, and an egg and cheese omelette.  Overall it was very fresh and was pretty good.  And you couldn't go wrong with the price.

The day was when we went to Universal Studios which was a pretty cool place.  We went on all the rides there although they are only about 10 to ride.  I really liked the Simpson ride, probably because of my love for the show, and the tram tour we went on.  It was a tour of the studio but also a ride which was pretty unique.  For lunch at the park we all got a slice of pizza, Caesar salad, and pop.  There wasn't too many food choices at the park and the pizza was pretty greasy but the salad was tasty.

That night when we got back from LA we went to a local seafood place that had gotten rave reviews.  It was called the Crab Cooker and was my favorite meal during the whole trip.  I ordered the shrimp and scallops that were on skewers with rice and coleslaw and it was all delicious.  I got the clean plate award easy.  I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area but I would suggest not getting the fried crab, my brother got that and it was disgusting.  He didn't like it and me and mom tried it and both spit it out right away.  It was odd how bad his tasted when my tasted so great.  Both my parents ordered the prawns and liked them but didn't like that they had to remove the shell.  My choice was nice because it was all ready to eat.

The next morning was Tuesday and a trip to San Diego but before that was another hot breakfast at the hotel.  This was also the first and one of only two times I took my picture the wrong way.  Not bad for as many pictures as I took.  This certain morning I decided to try the pancake maker they had that made fresh pancakes in 45 seconds.  It was pretty slick and was a nice touch to mix things up.  That morning I also tried an English muffin, scrambled eggs, a piece of Canadian bacon, and strawberry yogurt.

We had some time to kill before the Padres afternoon game that day so we stopped at a restaurant near Petco Park called, Southpaw.  I wanted a light meal to save room for any ballpark fare so I ordered some buffalo wings.  They came out look pretty fancy with blue cheese crumbles and parsley sprinkled on top but were delicious, and also very hot.  

My brother didn't quite think the same way I did and he ordered the BBQ brisket meal. It was about four times the size as my meal and I took a picture of it because after I ate my six tiny wings I ended up eating most of his meal too which was also very tasty, except for the red bliss potatoes that tasted like cardboard.

After eating two meals essentially at Southpaw I still had to get something at the baseball game so decided to go with the bag of kettle corn and a strawberry lemonade.  What was kinda cool about Petco park is we got general admission tickets to the game so that meant we sat on a large grassy hill in center field to watch the game.  They also had a big screen for us to watch the play by play and was playing the audio from the game on speakers over where we sat.

That night after the game my mother wasn't feeling well so we went back to the hotel and watched the Gopher NIT semifinal game against FSU.  After the game we were all pretty hungry so a stop at the nearby Carl Jr's was on the plan.  I got the three piece chicken meal with fries and a Coke.  Overall pretty good and it tasted a lot like the sister store Hardee's that are in Minnesota.

Wednesday morning was another hot breakfast and new that morning was biscuits and gravy as well as the return of egg and cheese omelettes.  I also had a bowl of rasin bran and had a couple more pancakes.  Apparently I was really hungry this morning.

Before the Angels game that night we went to another seafood place off the pier and this one was called Harborside.  What was special about this place is it happened to be their 10 year anniversary that day so all the food was 40% off.  Much like the day before however I wanted a light lunch to save room for baseball fare and I ordered the Lobster bisque.  It was very tasty and probably next to the Crab Cooker was my favorite meal.  Unlike the wings I had the day before the soup was very filling.

That night at the Angels game we got stuck in some traffic and didn't get there super early to walk around the park.  Before the game started I bought some pretzel bites and jalapeno cheese. They were tasty but not very filling and the problem with this game, and I mean a good problem, is the seats were so good you never wanted to leave your seat to get something to eat.  Plenty of vendors came walking by but nothing really spoke to me so all I ended up getting there were the pretzels.

The last morning there meant my last hot breakfast at the hotel.  I went with some classic scrambled eggs, cinnamon roll, sausage links, toast and fruit loops. 

The morning of our last day we went to the nearby Balboa Fun Center that many of locals talked about during our stay.  It had a ferris wheel and other rides that were pretty unique so I decided to buy cheese on a stick. I felt it had a certain carnival feel to it and made me ready for the Minnesota State Fair.

My final food purchase in Southern California was at the airport and a marketplace deli I found. This was only the second time I took the picture at the wrong angle and this was also my most expensive meal while on the trip.  I'm guessing the jacked up airport prices had a lot to do with that.  I bought a ham and cheese panini, a bag of baked chips, and bottle of Coke.  It wasn't very tasty and at this point I was more than ready to come home.

Some other random pictures I took while on vacation for those of you that weren't satisfied with just food pics.

Where they filmed the show Gilligan's Island.  Saw this on our cruise Sunday morning.

Outside of Angels stadium from the parking lot.

Shot from our seats, a lot of money standing there.  Almost a half of a billion dollars combined!

The Mariners dugout from where we were sitting, really cool seats to have even though we didn't really care who won.

The Nixon museum.  It was a really neat place and saw the actual bedroom Nixon was born in.  I didn't buy any food here however.

 A helicopter landing on the beach while on our road trip to San Diego.

Standing on the rock cliffs in Venice Beach looking out at the Pacific Ocean.

The Top Ten

Here we go the best of the best, those of you that really know me well shouldn't be surprised for this list.

10. Inception- A movie about dreams, who doesn't love that.  We all try to analyze our dreams and it was kinda cool to see a movie try to show what that could be like if we could actually go in our dreams and control them.

9. Les Mis- A musical in the top ten may seem odd but I'm comfortable with my sexuality to place it this high.  Who doesn't love to sing along to I dreamed a dream.

8. 10 Things I Hate About You-  A movie from my teenage years that had Julia Stiles, Joesph Gordon-Levitt and Heath Ledger all before they were stars.  Everyone knew it wasn't fair that Bianca could only date when Kat dated.

7. Dark Knight-  The second Batman movie of the trilogy by Christopher Nolan is by far the best and that is mostly due to the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.  The opening scene to this movie is my favorite start to any movie ever.

6.  The Notebook- Great love story as who doesn't love Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.  We have all seen this movie and I'm guessing a few of you even let out a little tear.

5. An American Tail- A great movie from my childhood that I watched every day. Now don't get this movie confused with Fievel goes West, that movie was garbage and just a movie studios attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice.

4. The Shawshank Redemption- Get busy living or get busy dying.  A great quote from this movie that I like to live my everyday life.  You really pull for Andy trying to get out and really stick it to the warden.  I never read the book this movie is based on hard to imagine it's any better than the movie, and no one ever says that.

3. The Prestige- The greatest twist of an ending to any movie I have ever seen.  Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are amazing and of course a movie directed by Christopher Nolan is going to be great.

2.  Love Actually- I watch this movie about ten times every year around Christmas and it never gets old.  You can relate to all the characters because it simply is a story about love.  There are endless moments in this film that you just smile and cheer for the couple on screen.  A timeless classic.

1.  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles- This is the number one film and really it's not even close.  I could watch this movie every night and never get sick of it.  So many quotable lines and memorable scenes. A great ending that makes you laugh and cry at the same time.  Legendary comedians John Candy and Steve Martin couldn't have been better cast and John Hughes one of the great directors of our time is at his finest.

Films 20-11

Oh man is this list getting so good.....Also a lot of dramas on this list for some reason.

20. Se7en- Brad Pitt Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman together most likely means a top 50 movie. Also because of this movie whenever someone is opening a package I have to yell, "What's in the box!"

19. Memento- Christopher Nolan's first feature length film and it was a great start to his writing/director talents.  A movie so good you can watch it ten times and still not be sure what happened, in a good way that is.

18. The Sixth Sense- Spoiler alert, he's a ghost. I will always remember watching this movie and loving it so much to have my father watch it.  After the first scene he leans over to me and goes, so Bruce Willis is dead now and the kid can see him?  Talk about figuring the twist out before anyone.

17. The Princess Bride- We all had to figure Andre the Giant would show up somewhere on the list.  This is all around a great movie that stands the test of time.  A true romantic tale for everyone and the touch of Peter Falk reading it to his grandson Fred Savage was a nice twist.

16. The Usual Suspects- Another great cast, and another suspense thriller that has you guessing the whole movie.  Who is Keyser Soze?

15. Beauty and The Beast- Disney classic.  I can't tell you why this is the Disney film I like the best but it just is.  I like the music and the overall story it tells.  Sounds cheesy but love people on the inside and not so much what is on the outside.

14.  Titanic- We have all seen it. We all love it.  It is a little long at times.

13. Forrest Gump-  See review for the movie about it Titanic.

12. Dumb and Dumber- Comedy at it's finest.  I do believe this movie may have the most one liners that I repeat out of any film.  I am super excited for the sequel even though I assume it won't hold up.  The end scene is one of my favorite moments in movie history.  The town is that way.

11. The Simpsons Movie- A lot of you know my love for The Simpsons and how for the first 15 seasons have probably seen every episode 100 times over.  Sure now it's not the show it once was and should have stopped once they made the movie.  The movie is very solid though and does a great job telling a Simpsons story over a 90 minute span instead of the usual 22 minutes.

So just the top ten left and for suspense reasons I'm holding off until Monday to release that list. Give you a preview though: in no particular order the top ten has 3 Christopher Nolan films, a drama, a comedy, an animated film, a musical, a Christmas movie, a love story, and a teen comedy.  So how many can you guess?

Films 30-21

Let's continue with countdown....

30. Toy Story- This high on the list due a lot to how revolutionary it was for the time.  A full length computer animated movie that has become the norm twenty years later.  We all love Buzz and Woody and we have all seen Toy Story.

29. Goonies-  After this movie came out every child wanted to go on a treasure hunt and find the pirates gold.  This movie introduced us to the Truffle Shuffle and it was the first ever movie for Josh Brolin and Sean Astin.  And they both ended up doing pretty well for themselves.

28. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation- Our first holiday themed movie on the list and second Lampoons film.  Chevy Chase plays once again the great Clark Griswold and makes us all realize our family may not be as bad as we think. 

27. Weekend at Bernies- An interesting concept, get invited to spend a weekend at your boss's beach house only to have him die.  Then if that wasn't weird enough how about spending the weekend pretending he is still alive.  I mean hilarity is bond to happen. 

26. Major League- Another sports movie on the list.  Who doesn't love the Wild Thing, he made us all Indian fans.  Jusssst a bit outside

25. Saw- A creative movie for the time and became a huge cult classic.  Was so successful it spun off six sequels. 

24. Big- Tom Hanks early in his career but just as good as he is now.  This movie made us realize that as bad as we wanted to grow up a child we all needed to stop and enjoy life as a child.  Don't rush life, you only get one shot.

23. Coyote Ugly-  Hot chicks who loved to get on the bar and dance while serving drinks.  Yeah, like this wasn't going to make my top 50.

22. Ferris Bueller's Day Off*- What would you do if you had a day off from school?  Ferris lives that dream for all of us.

21. Leap of Faith*-  The most underrated film on this list.  Steve Martin in one of his best performances and a young Liam Neeson plays the sheriff we all love to hate because he doesn't believe.  I also believe this movie is home to one of the best songs in a movie, it's even used in the trailer.  Seriously though this movie is on Netflix so watch it today!