We are used to a fair amount of feedback to the things we write. Every blog entry and online story has a place for comments. Our e-mail address is readily available. That said, we weren't prepared for the deluge -- both in terms of reaction quantity and based on original subject matter -- of e-mails from a piece we wrote a couple weeks back on "The Blind Side." We'll say that about 23 percent of people agreed with our take, which was that we couldn't believe Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for that film. Another 72 percent thought we were crazy and/or stupid for writing about a movie we had not seen. The response was that it wasn't a film review. But whatever. (Five percent wanted something of which we cannot speak).

In any event, we finally did see the movie. It was at the second-run theater in Hopkins. We were early, though, so first we snuck in for a few minutes of "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" on an adjacent screen. It happened to be a football scene, where we believe Alvin catches a TD pass. He is referred to as "The Randy Moss of Chipmunks." That might be the worst movie ever made.

"The Blind Side," however, is not the worst movie ever made. Far from it. It was entertaining, endearing and well-done for what it was. We expected to like it more than we intiially thought we would, and we probably liked it even more than that (if that sentence makes any sense). But we are holding firm with some basic opinions, and not just so our pre-viewing points will seem validated (even if they are):

*Bullock absolutely did not deserve to win an Oscar. It was a nice performance in a nice film. It reminded us of how well John Candy nailed the title role in "Uncle Buck." Very well cast, and well-played, but hardly Oscar-worthy.

*For those who chided us for calling it a sports movie: it is the very definition of a sports movie. Not every scene in Bull Durham or Hoosiers revolves around baseball or basketball, but those are major parts of the larger story. Sports movies aren't 90 minutes of sports action. It's just another plot vehicle.

*Knowing how the NCAA operates, it's rather shocking Michael Oher was allowed to attend Ole Miss.

Let us never speak of this again.