Some more about movies, then onward to football.

Steve Martin heads my list of winners from the year of 2003. He had a horrible movie box office streak going and two unbelievable box office gems got him out of it. BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, which I did not see but heard was terrible, went over the vaunted 100 Million mark and over the past weekend, the okay CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN ecclipsed that mark.

The other winners: Hugo Weaving was in 3 movies that made over 200 Million and beyond with the two MATRIX sequels and LOTR...Ian McKellen for LOTR and X2 (also over 200 Mil)...Orlando Bloom with megahits PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and LOTR...and Johnny Depp, also with a box office losing streak, came back with POTC and the close-to 100 Mil ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO. The director Robert Rodriguez also had an incredible year with SPY KIDS 3 hitting over 100 Mil and the aforementioned OUATIM.

Most Overrated Movie of the Year: THIRTEEN, a movie clearly given raves because one of the 13-year-old stars co-wrote it. There were good performances but not much of an honest-to-God story. A series of skits about all the bad things a 13-year-old can get into, and it bails out when it gets scary--the implied sexual experience from the movie is (gasp) a blowjob! Why not all the way (it's not like you have to show it)? The movie raises several important issues but I felt it was too weak, and too comparible, to KIDS.

Most Underrated Movie of the Year: CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2: FULL THROTTLE. One guy at work is putting this on his worst of the year list. That's OK, some people clearly don't get it. Whereas BAD BOYS 2 tries in some way to make it seem like this all could happen, CA2 never once flinches from being ridiculous. If you take a look at any action film, most of them are impossible to believe. It's one guy or a group of guys taking on hundreds of drones. The best of action movies like DIE HARD, THE SEVEN SAMURAI, and even STAR WARS have characters and plot points in place where ridiculous is erased...but the filmmakers here took a movie where there was no way three girls could do all these things and embraced it instead of trying so hard in a losing battle to make it seem like it was real.

FOOTBALL...well, once again the Titans lack something to push them to greater depths...and that is...discipline. Warming over what Mike said, the Titans were better than the competition on the field and yet took themselves out of it. Yet another blocked field goal in Titans playoff history. Yet another series of bad penalties took them out of tying or winning the game. And Drew Bennett had made a hundred unbelievable catches in his career before dropping a gift. That's what stings about this loss. The chance to win was there. If it were 41-0, you can just say, "Well, we need some more players." The Titans...I thought heavily about what personnel they would need to win...and I couldn't figure it out. They had the perfect team to win (maybe a better secondary, which allowed yet another 30+ yard TD catch).

I was 3-1 last week. Maybe a little Titans bias got in the way of that pick, but I still believe they should have won.

Which takes me to other teams that should have won. I don't think there's a word I could say that hasn't been said about Mike Martz and his playcalling. I will say that at the time I saw 2:30 on the clock after that onsides kick recovery, only 60 yards to go, I said, "Well, they have plenty of time to go and win this thing...what a comeback." Now, I was in the midst of Jonathan's party and there were many people talking and we'd get wrapped up in one conversation or another, looking at a play here and a play there...and I was absolutely SHOCKED when I saw mere seconds on the clock and no one rushing to try to get the touchdown. I said aloud, "If you NEEDED a touchdown, you'd be going down the field for a touchdown, right?" Why leave anything to chance in overtime? Why is it when you play for the win in regulation that you're taking any more risk than trying to win it overtime?

And everything has been said about Green Bay, too. Although I am a little more forgiving of not going for it on 4th and 1--yes, Ahman Green had been unstoppable, but he had been quite stoppable a few times in the game (including on the goal line during a goal line stand). And with only half the field left and Philly expecting Green Bay to run on that down, it could have been disasterous then. No, my criticism unbelievably took an about-face. I was like, man, Brett Favre is just great, he's just awesome, he's one of the best QB's ever...and then that throw to a wide-open...Eagle! And yes, the 4th and 26 pass...how can you not defense that? It's amazing that Brett Favre is in one of the best commercials going right now, lampooning second-guessing as a sort of needle to those who do that exhaustively...but where is the forethought, the planning, the hard work going when there are clear breakdowns at crucial moments? We discussed these types of moves during baseball's championship series. You go for the win, and you rely on your instincts.

My predictions for this week's football conference championships.

NFC

Philly has made it here 3 times in a row, and it's sort of looking like a jinx in a way. I harken to another Pennsylvania team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who made it to 3 NLCS and lost them all. Carolina has been the surprise team this year, first in the regular season, and now a surprise in the playoffs because they had faded slightly after starting strong. Unfortunately for Philly, Carolina is a better team in close games and this one will be one. I like Carolina even though I believe I picked Philly to go to the Super Bowl (I'm completely unsure). The score, Carolina 13 Philly 10, and look for an attempt to get in field goal range, and for the tie, from Philly at the end.

AFC

The Colts have been slinging it all over the place and they've been unstoppable, which is why they are in for a slight letdown against New England. But I'm still picking them. Yes, KC scored 31 points against the Colts, but almost no team kept KC down this year. When a game takes shape, this was clearly a track meet, and that's how it played out. New England continues, even after a Super Bowl win and now this season 13 wins in a row, to be underrated. I just think this is too much offense for New England to handle, especially since I believe the Titans very well could have ran away with that game (now I'm remembering that early pass to Bennett that was overthrown, but Bennett had nothing but green in front of him). New England will score a little more than usual with the ticky-tack stuff. The big play will win it in the end. Colts 30 Patriots 24.

Looking forward to another week like last week. And I'm rooting for the Colts to win it all now.