Cuzz Blog

Less then 26 hours till 2010 so I guess it’s time to look back at the great year that was 2009.

2009 was the year that I graduated.
2009 was the year some people didn’t graduate. (Oh well, better luck next year)
2009 was the year that I ate at some great, and not so great restaurants. (Shoutout to Kerim Satirli cause he accompanied me to quite a few)
2009 was the year I bought an iPod touch
2009 was the year I played some kick ass games
2009 was the year I saw some people hating on the next man. And that next man… was ME! lol
2009 was the year The Los Angeles Lakers became the NBA Champs
2009 was the year I watched some awesome movies
2009 was the year I got a “new” car, wich hasn’t broken down yet …
2009 was the year I heard some good music
2009 was the year I went to the Westcoast HipHop Festival
2009 was the year I’ve had some good laughs

All in all 2009 was pretty awesome. So to give y’all a glimpse of all the awesomeness I’ll write down my top 5 or top 3 of best games, movies, or music I saw & heard this year. Pretty simple. And anybody who doesn’t agree can do like Justin and cry a river (or just leave a comment and post your ‘Best of 2009′ stuff) lol. I’ll start of with the movies.

Red Cliff 1 / Red Cliff 2
John Woo’s return to Asia. And what a return it was. Woo brings you an epic story based on the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” period. It’s a classic Chinese tale. I compare it to the “Chrouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger” & “Hero” movies. Don’t expect an all out action movie though. Woo’s known for action movies and shootouts but with Red Cliff he tries to focus more on the drama side of the story. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of action just a little less then you normal John Woo movie.

Grotesque
Forget about Saw, forget about all the slasher/horror movies you’ve seen. Saw is a movie you watch when your lil cousin has a birthday party. If you like some REAL slasher type of movie go watch Grotesque. This shit is so freaking nasty. The movie doesn’t seem to have a story at all. It just starts with two people in a dungeon gettin carved up real nice by the good doctor. And that’s it. It’s 90 minutes of slashing, hackin and choppin on body’s. Throw some titties in there and you got yourself a great low budget gorefest. Watch the trailer below:

Ip Man
This is THE movie of 2009 for me. The return of pure martial arts. No wire work, no fireballs or ‘magicans’ or whatever. Donnie Yen stars as Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and the first person to teach Wing Chun openly. This movies has some of the best choreographed fighting scenes of all time. Highly recommended if you a fan martial arts movies. If you a guy, PERIOD, you should watch this movie. (Can’t imagine chicks diggin this movie. If she does she prolly has an Adam’s Apple and she likes to be called Robert)

Now onto the games. It was a BIG year for gamers. COD4, Fallout, Batman, Uncharted 2, Infamous, Left for Dead 2. Didn’t play any of those. lol

BlazeBlue (PS3)
It was the year of the fighting game / beat-em-up. With ‘King of Fighters’, ‘Tekken 6′ and ‘Street Fighter IV’ all released in 2009 there was little publicity for BlazeBlue. The fighting system is pretty groundbreaking and takes some time to really master. BlazBlue feels like a breath of fresh air.

Street Fighter IV
We all like groundbreaking games but sometimes you just want to pick something up that feels so familiar and natural. That game, is Street Fighter IV. Apart from a graphical upgrade Street Fighter IV plays just like it’s older brother on the SNES.
QCF or 236 is still used for throwing a ‘Hadoken’. (If y’all don’t know what that means y’all really need to come outta that cave you live in.)

Song Summoner iPhone / iPod Touch
If you want a great Tactical RPG for your iPhone get this game. Nothing else to say about this game really other then it was made by Square/Enix. The same company that was responsible for THE greatest tactical RPG ever released in ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’. So uh. GET THIS GAME!

NBA 2k10
No Cuzz list can be complete without some sort of NBA reference in it. With 2k10 2ksports deliveres the greatest basketball simulation to date. Keyword here is ‘simulation’. If you want arcade go buy NBA Live.

Short list huh. Well I wanted to make a top 5 but I’m tired of all this typing so I’ma stop now. Anybody complaining bout my list being incomplete you better run cause I’m spraying this on you when I find you.

Happy new year to all y’all!
See you in 2010!

PS: Cuzzinema comin soon! Y’all know what it is!

YESSIR!

It’s that time of the year again. The NBA Playoffs 2009 start this saturday and it’s promising to be a very exciting one. Some really intresting matchups.

Cavaliers vs Pistons
Everybody’s saying that the Pistons are done. Time to rebuild, trade or whatever. That might be the case, but right now, they’ll have a  series to play. People are quick to say “Cavs will sweep” but don’t count Detroit out just yet. While the I give the Cavs the advantage I expect Detroit to put up a good fight. This series might even go to seven games. (WUT?) Detroit is not what they used to be but I expect them to turn it up in the playoffs. They are still a very good defensive team without Chauncey. I don’t know the latest in the Iverson soap but even without him I expect Detroit to go hard.

Celtics vs Bulls
As I’m writing this post I hear about the news that Kevin Garnett might miss the playoffs. Huuuuuuge blow for the Celtics right there. Pierce and Allen might get The Celtics past Chicago but I think they’ll need the leadership of Garnett to make it back to the finals. Without Garnett The Celtics won’t have their best interor  and defensive player. Granted The Celtics did a great job this season when he was injured but I really can’t see the Celtics make it back to the finals right now. Too bad really, as a basketball fan you want every team going into the playoffs with a healthy roster.

Magic vs 76′ers
Nobody is gonna stop Superman this series. Dwight is gonna have a field day against Philly. Only chance Philly has is to play a really up-tempo game. Just run, run, run. A.I and Miller need to bring their A-game and Thad Young needs to step up like he did this season. But it doesn’t look good for the Sixers and I expect a sweep.

Hawks vs Heat
This is really a toss-up series. This could go either way. I can see D-Wade go crazy this series. He basically has to for the Heat to be serious contenders. The Hawks are looking real solid. Remember, they took Bosten to a seven games series last season. But the problem for the Hawks is: who do you put on Dwayne Wade? Put Joe Johnson on him and risk that Joe gets into early foul trouble? These are questions the Hawks will have to answer.

Lakers vs Jazz
Last season, people said the Lakers weren’t physical enough. Well, they’ll have a chance to get real physical this series against the Jazz. They’ll need to. Because Boozer and Milsap are gonna push, shove and hold all games long. There are gonna be technical fouls given every single game this series, book it. I don’t really give Utah a chance but the Lakers will have some tough times in Salt Lake. Oh yeah, before I forget. BYNUM’s back baby!!!!

Nuggets vs Hornets
This is a close one. I could see either team take this series. To me, the Hornets peaked last season. They haven’t looked good all season long. Scott just puts too much preasure on Paul. Now he has to distribute the ball AND score. That’s just too much. He can’t keep that up all Playoffs long. The other guys will have to step up.
The Nuggest got the second seed? Hold up, the Nuggets? Who woulda thought that. The Chauncey Billups deal really helped the Nuggets it getting a true point guard. Billups really stabilized that team. With the improved play of the Nuggets bench, they are looking real good.

Spurs vs Mavs
The Spurs are getting old. And it shows. Everybody was waiting for that ’second half of the season run’ the Spurs allways have. They kick it up after the all-star break and finish the season 34-6. Well not this time. Manu’s out for the season and Timmy isn’t feeling well. Still, I expect the Spurs to take this series. Nobody can stop Duncan in the post and Parker is gonna have  a monster series against Jason Kidd. Cuban must be furious again.

Blazers vs Rockets
Perhaps the most exciting matchup in the first round. Will the Rockets finally get out the first round? Are the Blazers letting the league know they can ball with the big boys now? Props to Nate McMillan for his job. He did a great job making all these guys play as a team. And with a legit superstar in Brandon Roy, and a somewhat big man with potential. (Oden) The Blazers future is looking really bright. The question is, will that future start in the 2009 playoffs, or not?