Toy Story 3 = Banana Nut Muffins of Awesome *Will Not Contain Spoilers*

*Warning: Will Contain Spoilers*

Before I actually start the review, I have to say that nothing will beat the first Toy Story. But Toy Story 3 came as close to it as possible. From the first 10 minutes of the movie, I was laughing. The subtle Sid cameo was great (He was the garbage man. Look at the shirt). Every way Pixar made the toys' situations very adult were amazing. The daycare was a prison, the older toys were part of the mafia, and they almost frigging died!

I think the one thing that Pixar is improving on is making their movies more emotional. However, I think the slight downfall of this movie was that they tried to make it all incredibly depressing.


Although this movie is still made for children under 12, the movie has various toys lost, thrown away, almost die, and then given away. There is nothing wrong with having an emotional scene, but the movie went to far.

Still, overall the movie was better than the 2nd. It's also definitely high up on my list of favorite animated movies. It was funny throughout, sad, and even epic. So I definitely recommend watching it...twice.

Next movie up...Inception

Why the Bengals are going to tear shit up

Now I know that we haven't really posted anything lately, but there hasn't been anything going on. So sorry to you 'loyal' followers. So here's some filler with a prediction of the team before they even put pads on.

The Cincinnati Bengals are going to destroy next year. We have a favorable schedule (Although on paper it looks tough), the team has done nothing but get better, absolutely no team turmoil, and Mike Zimmer.

The Schedule does look really tough because of not only our division, but also because we're facing off against the Colts, Chargers, and Saints. However, the schedule still lines up well. We get to face off against the Patriots in week 1, and there is a report that Wes Welker might still be put on the PUP list. That would make it much easier to focus on Randy Moss and shut him down. Our Monday Night game against the Steelers is at home, so hopefully Paul Brown Stadium can give the team an advantage. We have to play against 2 high flying offenses in the Saints and Chargers, but they are both home games in December, so the cold weather would be able to slow them down. Then, if the Ravens are as good as they are supposed to be, there is a possible division deciding game for the last week of the season.

The team is returning 20 of 22 starters this year, and the only players not returning are Laveranues Coles, who was a major disappointment last year, and whichever TE was starting on a given week.. Then we only upgraded by adding Antonio Bryant. In the draft, the team drafted Jermaine Gresham who might not put up gaudy number, but he will add an extra dimension and threat to the offense.

Also, you see stories around the league about players holding out for more money and most of these players are on top or rising teams such as Darrelle Revis, Nick Mangold, Vincent Jackson, Robert Mathis, Reggie Wayne, Chris Johnson. The Bengals have NO players that have held out or were planning to and that is surprising considering there are players who definitely deserve and new contract. Although it is tough for these players. They now have to wait another year to buy an island for their sons.

Of course though, the majority of the teams' success comes down to one man, Mike Zimmer. If it wasn't for him, I don't think there is a chance the team would be where they are today. He brings fire and passion. He has led the defense to a top 5 ranking and even now, the offense gets to practice against them, improving them even if they don't know it.

So yeah, we're hot, and they're all diddly squat. See whatever poor NFC team in the superbowl.

Real Expectations

There is no denying that there was a ton of talent taken in the 2010 NFL draft. The Bengals grabbed some talented players themselves, but let's discuss what we should actually expect from these players. If you go to the Bengals official boards, you will find plenty of nut jobs who set the highest expectations for rookies. Now, some of the hype has cooled down, but I still feel that we need to address what's been talked about on the boards. We'll go pick by pick for this writing.

Jermaine Gresham:

Honestly, this is the only rookie people should not be surprised to see start. I know that Marvin has said that he likes to bring rookies along slowly, but that seems to be changing lately. Look at how this played out:

Palmer - Sat out 1st year.
Perry - Missed year due to injury, but probably would've been 2nd fiddle to Rudi.
Pollack - Long holdout didn't help so he didn't become a starter until late in the season.
Joseph - Meant to play nickel role, but wound up with more playing and starts due to Tory James and Deltha O'Neal injuries/sucking.
Hall - Like Joseph, supposed to be a nickel but injuries and Deltha being a moron forced some early starts.
Rivers - The first rookie who was slated to start from day 1 and he did.
Smith - Penciled in as starter during OTAs but a holdout and injury prevented him starting.

So it would seem that Gresham should be our opening day starter barring holdout and injury. However, if we're truly a running team, then don't expect major stats from him. At this point, I won't make a prediction because we have no idea what will happen with him.

Carlos Dunlap:

Dunlap started off with major expectations from fans, but that's cooled for the most part, except when he's seen talking to Zimmer in videos. The bottom line is that he's only going to be a rotational player, barring injury. He'll be playing end and tackle for us, but it will most likely be on 3rd downs only. It would seem that a sack or two is reasonable to predict, but it's hard to know with him playing LE/DT for us.

Jordan Shipley:

Okay, Shipley is popular with a lot of people, me included, but people make it sound like he's going to get 100+ catches with 15 TDs. As of right now, he's not our top slot WR. Chad and Bryant are ahead of him, and despite what some people believe, Caldwell is ahead of him. We'll most likely use a rotations beind our top two WRs, so I think a couple of TDs in reasonable to expect from him, but anything more is pushing it.

Brandon Ghee:

After the signing of Pacman Jones, no one really talks about Ghee anymore and he's become an anonymous player in reports. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see him be a game day inactive.

Geno Atkins:

I am definitely a fan of Atkins, but I realize that he will probably not be on the field that much. Again, it seems like he'll just be a 3rd down pass rusher, but he'll probably rotate at tackle with some of our DEs during the game on 3rd downs. A possible sack or maybe 2 would be okay to predict, in my opinion.

Roddrick Muckelroy:

A lot of people have said that they think Muck will compete for a starting spot next year, but I just don't see it. While I would love to see him eventually start and become a good player, I think he is Brandon Johnson's eventual replacement as our utility LB. Become a solid special teams player and quality depth.

Otis Hudson:

He's penciled in as Bobbie Williams' backup, so he's already exceeded my expectations. Now, there's been a couple of people who think he'll get some playing time because of Bobbie's declining play. Unless we're up by a lot in a game, I don't see Otis getting playing time. He's labeled as a project, so we'll see, but be reasonable people.

Dezmon Briscoe:

Like the Jeromy Miles discussion, people have used the "he could've been a 3rd round pick" debates. Some have even said that he'll be better than Dez Bryant. While we would all like to see that, things aren't looking good for him to make the roster. So while some people are ready to put him down as a secret weapon this year, we should probably prepare to see him just battle for a roster spot.

Reggie Stephens:

No hype given.

Hype. For what?

So every offseason we see NFL players get a lot of hype from fans, coaches, and the media. Usually it's about top rookies, players returning from injury, and players on new teams. Then there's one kind of player that gets a lot of hype that leaves you scratching your head. The undrafted college free agent. Every year our beloved Bengals sign a guy who has more hype than any other signing. This year's player might be the most hyped that I've ever seen on this team since I became a fan in 98.

This year's player is Jeromy Miles, a safety from Massachusetts.


Plenty of Bengal fans were hoping for our team to draft a safety, but it didn't happen. It led to the usual message board MTV fights. Then it was reported that we signed Miles and one guy pimped him and then it swept over the boards like a brush fire. I've seen people say that he'll be our starting FS for the first game. I've even seen a comparison to Ed Reed. This is a reason to love Bengals fans. People will seriously believe than an unproven undrafted rookie is on the same level as a Hall of Famer. One of my favorite aspects is that people keep talking about how awesome he's going to be at free safety despite playing strong safety at UMass, at least that's what I found at NFLDraftScout.

Now I know it's the job of fans to hype players, but I've never seen hype go this far. I thought last year's undrafted star, Quan Cosby, was overhyped, but the only talk of him was competing for the punt return job, which he showed that he could do. The situation that this reminds me of, a little, is our 2008 "star signing" Simeon Castille. He was the most hyped guy we had and I saw the same thing that I'm seeing now. I'm actually seeing the whole "he was projected to be a 3rd round pick" argument, which was also used for Castille. According to DS, Miles was projected as a 6th-7th rounder. Obviously not every site is the same and DS isn't the #1 draft site. Now Castille was projected as a 4th-5th rounder, but that was a safety and we used him at corner. We also can't forget that Chinedum Ndukwe said that he was given the grade of 3rd round to Free Agent from a draft site. What a projection. That very well could be what Miles had.

Castille lasted all of one season and was gone to San Diego.

Bottom line, we're all hoping that Miles succeeds, but it seems people are starting to have higher expectations for an undrafted rookie over our 2nd rounder. We're all rooting for Miles and would love to see him become awesome, but could we at least wait until we see him in a game? Generally, the most hyped rookie isn't the one that looks the best for us. DeDe Dorsey and Tom Nelson come to mind.