Las Vegas' Wayne Allyn Root took time out from running America's only publicly traded sports handicapping firm, GWIN Inc., and promoting his new book, The Zen of Gambling, to set the odds for the Oscar winners on February 27. Here he offers his best bet, a hedge and a long shot for the prime categories.
Aviator 3:1
Finding Neverland 5:1
Million Dollar Baby 12 :1
(Root would like to see The Passion win, but knows that with Hollywood's anti-Christian bias, the odds are so long as to make it the equivalent of throwing your money in the street.)
Martin Scorsese (Aviator) 3:1
Michael Mann (Collateral) 4:1
Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) 15:1
Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland) 3:1
Jamie Foxx (Ray) 4:1
Leonardo DiCaprio (Aviator) 8:1
Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) 1:2
Annette Bening (Being Julia) 6:1
Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) 12:1
Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) 4:1
John C. Reilly (Aviator) 8:1
Mark Wahlberg (I Heart Huckabees) 15:1
Laura Linney (Kinsey) 6:1
Kate Winslet (Neverland) 8:1
Cloris Leachman (Spanglish) 20:1
LOCAL CD |
Brother Luke (3.5 stars)
Music For Life
There's a huge variety of music stylings in this 13-track CD (14, really, but the last one is a birthday wish to a friend) so that everyone will find something to like. Unfortunately, that range also means everyone can find something to hate. For me, it was the quasi-doo-wop "Skin" and Shaun DeGraff's terrible falsetto in "Storybook Ending." That said, this is a great album from a remarkably talented musican and lyricist.
Available at Tower Records and CDBaby.com.
DVDs |
Buster Keaton Collection (NR) (3 stars)
$39.92
This collection combines the first three films—The Cameraman, Free and Easy and Spite Marriage—that the wondrously gifted comic actor made at the dawn of the age of talkies. The Cameraman clearly ranks among his best work but the other two demonstrate what can happen to an improvisational genius when he is handcuffed by a studio not terribly interested in his detours from the script.
Gargoyles (NR) (2 stars)
The Complete First Season
$29.99
Before anime-influenced cartoons dominated syndicated children’s programming, there was room for interesting series. Gargoyles was noteworthy for its cast of wicked winged warriors seeking revenge for being frozen in stone for a millennium, as well as the ominous depictions of their new Manhattan digs. In the wake of Pokemon, these cartoons qualify as classics.
Legong (NR) (4 stars)
Dance of the Virgins
$29.99
Oone of the last silent films to be commercially released and the last to be produced and released in two-strip Technicolor, Legong: Dance of the Virgins transported viewers to a real Shangri-La—Bali, where the legend of a young maiden’s ill-fated journey into womanhood was re-created. Completing the package are Kliou the Killer and The Gods of Bali.
JUDGING BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS |
With the election over and family gatherings and social events filling the calendar, here are some books to help you cope with those of different political stripes.
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)
By Ann Coulter
$26.95
We think the blurb about it being an "instant" New York Times best seller is hard evidence that liberals really do have a sense of humor about themselves.
The Bush Survival Bible
By Gene Stone
$9.99
It's gratifying to see how the Red and Blue letters are able to reach across the book jacket and form a consensus. Of course, 48 percent of readers would be happier with a compromise in which all the letters were blue.
So You Want to Be a Canadian
By Kerry Colburn, Rob Sorensen
$7.95
The cover states, "All about the most fascinating people in the world and the magical place they call home." If you believe that, and you're able to speak with a flat A, you're halfway to starting your new life in that quasi-socialist home of high taxes and -22-Fahrenheit winters.
America The Beautiful: A Pop-Up Book
By Robert Sabuda
$26.95
We're confident that the pop-up Golden Gate Bridge has been cleared of beggars but be sure to stand back when turning the page to the Statue of Liberty. Her torch might take your eye out. But at least it's a book we can all enjoy.