Top 5 Leslie Nielsen Films
Master spoof specialist Leslie Nielsen passed away on Sunday at the age of 84. Nielsen’s acting career spanned six decades. In 239 film and TV roles since 1950, he was embraced as a lead man, a serious actor and a dead-pan comedian who perfected the art of being oblivious to the shenanigans that surrounded his characters. To honor this legend, we came up with a list of the top 5 Leslie Nielsen films. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list (it leaves out all of his TV work), but it’s how we remember the guy. Feel free to share your favorite Nielsen moments in the comments.
Spy Hard
Spy Hard was the last great comedy that Nielsen made. The spoofs in his later career got a little bit out of hand, but Spy Hard was vintage Nielsen. His character’s name is Dick Steele (Agent WD-40) and he runs around with Nicolette Sheridan while battling an evil Andy Griffith. There’s just too many laughable moments in this 1996 flick to not have it on the list.
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
I watched this movie so many times growing up. The third Naked Gun movie was subpar, but 2½ was right up there with the original film and TV series. The second film brought in the most cash, too. The first Naked Gun grossed $78 million, the second film grossed $86 million and the third film brought in $51 million. Priscilla Presley was still hot in this one too.
Forbidden Planet
Oh yes, that is a young Leslie Nielsen in this sci-fi classic from 1956. If you haven’t seen this film, you should really check it out. It’s got Robby the Robot, a sweet electronic music soundtrack, amazing (for the time) special effects and a 30-year-old Leslie Nielsen as Commander John J. Adams. Forbidden Planet made a huge impact on Gene Roddenberry, who said that the film served as inspiration for his creation of the Star Trek universe.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
The original film, based on the TV series, is still the best. You had O.J. Simpson as Nodberg, Ricardo Montalban as Vincent Ludwig, Reggie Jackson trying to kill the queen and that awesome baseball scene. Nielsen will forever be remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin, and that’s not such a bad thing. That character can get laughs in any era.
Airplane!
This is by far Nielsen’s best role. It was Nielsen’s first attempt at comedy, and he created his ’super-serious in the face of all kinds of ridiculousness’ style that would serve as his calling card for 30 years.
Rest in peace, Leslie. You will be missed.
Nov 29th
Week 12 NFL Picks
| New England -6.5 At Detroit
Pick: Pats -6.5 |
At Baltimore -7.5 Tampa Bay
Pick: Ravens -7.5 |
| New Orleans -3.5 At Dallas
Pick: Saints -3.5 |
Philadelphia -3.5 At Chicago
Pick: Eagles -3.5 |
| At NY Jets -9 Cincinnati
Pick: Jets -9 |
At Atlanta -2 Green Bay
Pick: Packers +3 |
| At Washington -2.5 Minnesota
Pick: Vikings +2.5 |
At Oakland -3 Miami
Pick: Raiders -3 |
| Pittsburgh -6.5 At Buffalo
Pick: Steelers -6.5 |
Kansas City -1 At Seattle
Pick: Chiefs -1 |
| At Houston -6.5 Tennessee
Pick: Texans -6.5 |
At Denver -4 St. Louis
Pick: Broncos -4 |
| At NY Giants -7 Jacksonville
Pick: Jags +7 |
At Indianapolis -3 San Diego
Pick: Colts -3 |
| At Cleveland -11 Carolina
Pick: Browns -11 |
San Francisco -1 At Arizona
Pick: Cardinals +1 |
Last week: 11-5
Season: 80-72-6
Nov 25th
Drunk Hipster Michael Jackson With Midgets
This photo is just plain awesome. I caught it on Danger Shark’s Facebook page, always a source for inspirational material. Here’s the caption that Danger Shark included, which I could never even attempt to top:
“Michael Jackson, dressed like a hipster, swigging vodka straight from the bottle, partying with coked out midgets.”
Brilliant.
Nov 23rd
State Farm Garage Makeover Sweepstakes
The State Farm Garage was a big hit at the LA Auto Show, and the garage will be making the rounds to other local auto shows in the coming months. Visitors who check out The State Farm Garage will have the chance to play a driving challenge game, compete in home run trivia and they also have this thing set up where you can see how your wing span measures up to LeBron James.
To go along with this auto show installation, State Farm is also running a pretty sweet contest: The State Farm Garage Makeover Sweepstakes. For this contest, State Farm is teaming up with GarageMahals to give away a custom garage makeover valued at $35,000. You have to be 18 or older and live in the contiguous US (sorry Alaskans and Hawaiians). The grand prize winner gets a gift certificate redeemable for a 400 sq. ft. Prestige Class GarageMahal makeover in the winner’s garage. 
The Prestige class makeover includes the following:
- GarageMahals® creative and detailed design services
- GarageMahals® metallic floor coatings
- GarageMahals® rolling door storage
- Upgraded electrical system
- Moderate framing and drywall changes
- Complete paint scheme
- Architectural surfaces
- Custom trim
- Customized lighting
So basically, you can really transform your garage into a custom mancave-like area that you can brag about for years. You can enter the sweepstakes at your local auto show or just visit the official sweepstakes site. The sweepstakes ends on 5/9/11. Here’s a full list of the local auto shows where you can check out The State Farm Garage:
- 11/19/10-11/28/10 Los Angeles Auto Show at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA
- 1/27/11-1/30/11 St Louis Auto Show at America’s Center and Dome in St. Louis, MO
- 2/11/11-2/20/11 Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL
- 2/26/11-3/6/11 Cleveland Auto Show at the I-X Center in Cleveland, OH
- 3/12/11-3/20/11 St. Paul & Minneapolis Auto Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN
- 4/7/11-4/10/11 Dallas Auto Show in Dallas, TX at the Dallas Convention Center
- 4/22/11-5/1/11 New York International Auto Show in New York, NY at the Jacob Javits Center
Nov 23rd
Doug Christie Interview
Doug Christie was a ridiculous defender during his 14-year NBA career. Since retiring in 2007, Christie has focused on his charity works, business ventures and his family. Christie home-schools his kids and every year, he and his wife get married on their anniversary – a full blown wedding to celebrate their vows. When he played in the NBA, Christie would signal to his wife countless times each game. A New York Times article published in 2002 detailed the strong bond that the couple shared. Christie and his wife Jackie even wrote a book about their relationship – No Ordinary Love. People like to give Christie shit about how his wife constantly keeps him in check and so on, but when talking to him, Christie sounded like a dude who’s genuinely happy to have such a tight relationship with his wife. When he talks about how important his family is to him, it really comes across as honest and authentic. Christie is a family man and he’s damn proud of it.
Christie and I discussed charity and sports management, married life for NBA players, trash talking, how Kobe stacks up to Michael Jordan and Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. Here’s the full interview:
CS: What do you want people to know about the organization you founded last year, Christie Sports Management?
DC: Well Chris, Christie Sports Management is about mind, body and basketball. I train athletes from youth – my son, he’s nine, I train him – all the way to NBA. I trained Matt Barnes with the Lakers. I have an athlete in college at Washington State University, William Ayears. Obviously I love the game, but more than anything learning how to play the game the right way. The mind part of it is understanding how to break down your opponent, thinking the game, understanding clock management and all these different things. And then the body part of it is, you know, guys want to do all these fancy moves, Chris, and do all this stuff. And then you see guys breaking down like Greg Oden with knees and all these different things. But you have to strengthen your body. You have to understand how to move your body. And it’s kind of like martial arts, and the more you learn and understand it, the better obviously you will be.
CS: So now do you have a bunch of different people who help out in this effort or is it really just more of a one-on-one approach where you’re helping these athletes out?
DC: Well, it’s just me. Christie Sports Management is me. I’m the main trainer and I work with them one-on-one. Sometimes we get together in groups. I did a workshop last year in Sacramento where I got together some guys, they were going to Europe – some guys going to Europe, some college guys up in that area – and I worked with them. I had like eight guys. So it just depends. But like with Matt I worked with him one-on-one. William, I worked with him and actually he has a little brother who is in high school in Washington so I work with them together. But most of the time it’s one-on-one so I can really … one of the things I try to do is bridge the gap in communication. Because a lot of the times the coaches nowadays they just say one thing to everybody and you really can’t do that. Everything isn’t for everybody. So the methods that I give to one person, I’m giving somebody else the same message, but I’m giving it to them totally different so that they get it specifically for them.
CS: It’s got to be pretty rewarding when these guys go on to have some success, right?
DC: No question. I think even more than the team success in all of that is the moment of what I call the “a-ha” moment. Like with riding a bike where you get it. And when I’m talking to them and I’m trying to get them to grasp a concept or something, and all of a sudden I see that they got it and it’s like a-ha, that’s probably one of the most gratifying parts of the whole process. Just watching them learn from all the different things that I have picked up from Pete Carril in Sacramento and Rick Adelman to Pat Riley to all the different coaches that I’ve had to pick stuff from. And then all of the studying that I’ve done with the body and different stuff, watching them grasp that is just the ultimate reward.
Nov 23rd
Vikings Fire Brad Childress
Brad Childress now commands the same respect of the Minnesota Vikings that I do. That makes me feel pretty solid this morning. Write it down Vikings fans. The Brad Childress era ended in Minnesota on 11/22/2010.
When morning reports were released in Minneapolis, Brad Childress was scheduled for his regular Monday interview. I’m confident that every reporter was licking their lips to pose a few queries after yesterday’s home debacle to division rival Green Bay. And beyond the division rivalry, this game was, for all intents and purposes, the hope of saving the season. Saving it. Well, saving it for “Chilly.” A couple of hours later, it was everywhere–Brad Childress was out, and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier was in as interim head coach.
If there was one thing that was absolutely certain in the Minnesota Vikings organization before yesterday’s beat down: The professional football players in purple, signed to big money contracts, did not want Brad Childress as their head coach.
I have never been a fan of Childress. I wish I could say that “he seems like a nice enough guy,” but he doesn’t. He comes across as pompous and arrogant in every interview I have ever seen. Even in last season’s NFC Championship game, he offered a pre-game interview making himself look and sound like an ego-maniacal ass. No grace. No credit to the Saints. Just a guy who looked like he was reciting a script that he wrote and rehearsed, ready to spout toward the first person who put a microphone in front of his face.
Fans have been calling for the canning of Childress since Week 3, but I must say that I was shocked that Childress was ever part of the Vikings equation for 2010. I was just shocked that Zygi Wilf really thought that Childress was the man who would lead this franchise to the NFL’s promised land. Clearly it became obvious to Wilf when Childress continued to grow in his arrogance, continued to grow in cynicism, and within all of it, he failed to lead the team to strong performances on both sides of the ball.
People want to point at Brett Favre for the downfall of last season’s NFC powerhouse Vikings. While Favre has had his issues this season, quite honestly, what would you expect? No, it’s not because he’s older. The dude has looked sharp at the right times. No reason to believe he couldn’t perform to task. But who would he throw to? It’s not just Favre.
But oh, James, all the interceptions!? How many of those picks have been off people’s hands, because receivers “fell down,” or tried to catch the ball with their body instead of their hands? Case in point, two of them yesterday–two of them the week prior. Where has the offensive line been? Where’s the defense? This team has been a direct reflection of the leadership of Brad Childress.
I believe you’ll see a very different team take the field next week vs. the Washington Redskins. And now that Chilly is gone, I’m not so sure that Brett Favre is “done” after this season.
Nov 22nd
