Movie Review: This is 40

The sorta-sequel to Knocked Up was sorta-not that good. It reunites Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann and focuses on their family, including Mann and director Judd Apatow's real life kids. There's no Seth Rogen or Katherine Heigl, although Jason Segel makes an appearance.

The movie had funny parts but mostly was about family fighting and bickering. Brig had a great comment that this film was more like Apatow's Funny People than it was Knocked Up or The 40 Year Old Virgin. He's not looking to be hilarious as much as he is realistic. And that pretty much ruins it. Who wants to see that on the big screen? People live that every day, they don't need more of it. Movies are supposed to be entertaining; an escape from their normal lives. This movie is not... it's more of the same.

Again, the movie could be funny and was whenever Megan Fox (surprising) and Chris O'Dowd (of course) were on the screen but it really wasn't enough to save it.

Good Eats: Five Horses Tavern

This is a relatively new bar (only 1 year old!) in Davis Square that we recently visited. It had a "casual cool" vibe and the clientele was mostly collegiate and the dress code was apparently flannel.

There was a 15 minute wait to be seated so we went to the bar and got waited on by a very nice, extremely informed bartender (bartenderess?). She gave us samples of beers to try and was quick with a recommendation. She was really good at -- and clearly enjoyed -- her job.

Once we were seated, we had a waitress who I wouldn't describe as attentive but was able to answer questions we had about the menu. I got the tavern burger (good), Geary's Pale Ale (very good) and Ipswich IPA (not the best). All in all this is definitely somewhere I would return.

Hall of Fame

I'm not here to complain that nobody got into Cooperstown this year. I'm not here to rant about steroids or PEDs and players paying the price for their sins. I'm here to talk about who should be in the Hall of Fame. I have read too many articles the past two days going over the same topics so let's just cut to the chase of players who I think are worthy.

I'll start with the players who were on the ballot for the first time:

Barry Bonds - MLB's all time HR leader... he's IN
Roger Clemens - 7 Cy Young awards... he's IN
Mike Piazza - the greatest hitting catcher of all time... he's IN
Craig Biggio - 3000 hits, knew how to take a HBP, played 3 different positions... he's IN
Curt Schilling - Bloody Sock. That's all that needs to be said... he's IN
Sammy Sosa - 600 HRs, threw his back out sneezing... he's OUT

Now, the layovers:

Dale Murphy - final year on ballot: great for a period of time but faded too fast... he's OUT (and he is actually out)
Jack Morris - next year is final year on ballot: 3.90 ERA. Nothing else can sway me... he's OUT
Jeff Bagwell - one of the top 1B of his generation... he's IN
Tim Raines - second greatest leadoff hitter ever... he's IN
Lee Smith - has a bunch of saves but was never dominant... he's OUT
Edgar Martinez - the greatest DH ever... he's IN
Alan Trammel - sabermetrics work in his favor... he's IN
Larry Walker - if he hadn't played in Colorado he'd have a chance... he's OUT
Fred McGriff - Hall of Very Good maybe... he's OUT
Mark McGwire - better than Sosa but he also didn't do anything but hit homers... he's OUT
Don Mattingly - boring production. There's a place for that but not the HOF... he's OUT
Rafael Palmeiro - merit alone I think he's done enough... he's IN

So that's my HOF ballot. I already know which ones I like that probably have no shot of making it but here's to hoping.