Here Come The Blues

Let's face it. If you saw the movie "Oxford Blues," you were entertained.

Okay, maybe it wasn't as good as "A Yank In Oxford," the 1938 original on which they 1980-something remake was based.

And maybe "A Yank In Oxford" had a starting lineup of Lionel Barrymore, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Maureen O'Sullivan, whereas the remake countered with Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe and a bunch of English people.

Still, how could you go wrong?

Rob Lowe as the cocky American who ends up rowing at Oxford after being a dealer in a Las Vegas casino, all in the name of pursuing the cute English gentry woman who ended up married to Corbin Bernsen (in real life, that is).

The movie exploits every cliche there is, and the end isn't exactly up there with the end of "The Sting" in terms of being surprising.

As an aside, TigerBlog has never met anyone who saw "The Sting," the 1973 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, and wasn't fooled by the end.

Meanwhile, back at "Oxford Blues," it wasn't quite an Oscar nominee. Still, you couldn't help but come away thinking that there'd be bigger wastes of time in your life than the two hours you spent on that movie.

Anyway, TB long ago filed "Oxford Blues" away along with the other movies that are not exactly showered with great critical reception and yet are fun to watch. At the top of that list, by the way, is the hard-to-beat "Point Break."

There's also another file of movies that do great critical reception that couldn't be duller and only got the reviews they got because critics like to show how much smarter they are than the people reading their reviews. How else can anyone explain movies like "The English Patient?"

TigerBlog thought back to "Oxford Blues" when he saw that the real Oxford Blues are on their way to Princeton for the weekend.

In what has to be one the great decisions for an out-of-season team, the Princeton men's soccer team hosts Oxford University Saturday at 5 at Roberts Stadium.

Oh, and if you weren't already rooting against Oxford as a Princeton fan, there's next week's Oxford-Cambridge regatta, the rather prestigious "Boat Race" as it's called. Princeton alum Jack Lindeman, the captain of last year's Tiger heavyweight boat, has been named to Cambridge first varsity 8 for the event.

Earlier this week, TigerBlog got an email from former Princeton marketing chief Scott Jurgens about a college football coach (Clemson's?) who wants the NCAA to allow schools to play other schools in their spring games. Sure, why not. College football's already out of control. Why not add to it, right?

Actually, it's not the worst idea TB has ever heard.

In soccer and most other sports, the rules already permit out-of-season competition against other schools. And apparently, it doesn't limit it U.S. schools.

Oxford has already tied Harvard and beaten Yale on their American tour, which has come at the end of their college season.

For more information on the Blues, go to Google, though you have to do a search for "Oxford Football," not "Oxford Soccer" to come up with anything.

For Princeton, the match comes at the beginning of spring practice.

And it's not just any game.

It's a chance to play an English team in its own game. There's also the backdrop of having it be between two of the top five or 10 academic universities in the world.

For an out-of-season game, it doesn't get much better than that.

Princeton-Oxford.

It has a real ring to it, no?