Football Movie Review: ****^ We Are Marshall (2006)

 In 1970 the Marshall football was involved in a chartered plane crash with no survivors.  Four team members were not on the plane, staying home due to injury.  One assistant coach, Red Dawson (Matthew Fox) did not fly home as he was recruiting.  However the town, lead by one of the players, Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) lets the college and college president Dedmon (David Strathairn) know that they do not want to give up the football program.  But Dawson does not want to be the coach.  The president finds another coach willing to keep the program alive, Hank Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey).  Rebuilding a program is not easy, and this movie deals with the struggle.  Marshall was not an instant success, but the won a couple games and the program stayed afloat.  Other charcters of not are the wives of the coaches (January Jones and Kimberly Williams-Paisley).  There is the steel mill own, whose son died on the plane, Paul Griffen (Ian McShane) and the girlfriend of the son and cheerleader Annie Cantrell (Kate Mara).  A very good movie about the struggle, and shows that the struggle is not always pretty, but it is still worth it.

Movie Review: ****^ Sweetwater (2023)

 Nat Clifton aka Sweetwater (Everett Osborne) is playing basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters.  This comes with difficulties, travel where Blacks are not accepted.  This was an interesting time.  Jackie Robinson had broken through the color barrier in baseball; but the NBA was still all White.  In 1950 three Black players broke this barrier, including Nat Clifton who was the first to sign, but due to scheduling not the first to play.  He tells his story working as a cab driver to a reporter (Jim Caviezel).  He was playing with the Globetrotters under Abe Saperstein (Kevin Pollack).  However the owner, Ned Irish (Cary Elwes) and the coach, Joe Lapchick (Jeremy Piven) of the Knicks want him to play in the Garden.  Jeremy Podoloff (Richard Dreyfuss) is the NBA commissioner and sees things changing.   Emmaline plays the singer in the bar singing soul who befriends Sweetwater.

I say this is a very good movie.  I like to watch films about racial injustice and this film is one of the more poignant I have seen.  I really like the relationship between Clifton as a cab driver and the passenger reporter.  

T.V. Review: Wingfeather Saga

 I have really been enjoying the first three seasons of the Wingfeather Saga.  This is on Angel Studios and based on the books written by Andrew Peterson.  I read the books previously, and found the universe created by Peterson fantastical and very enjoyable.  The animated series on Angel Studios captures this magic.  Basically the fangs--lizard creatures, have taken over the world, and the Igiby family, who are really the Wingfeather family and royalty from island kingdom of Anniera.  The Fangs are after the royal family they missed when they took over the island.  So the Wingfeathers are on the run.  There are three seasons available on Angel Studios and the fourth comes out this month.  I understand they are going to have seven seasons all together.  The first three seasons cover the first two of the four books pretty well.

The family is Janner (Alkaio Thiele), mother (Jodi Benson), grandfather (Kevin McNally), Leeli (Romy Fay), Uncle Artham (Henry Ian Cusick) and Tink/Kalmar (Griffin Robert Faulkner).  Matthew Rhys voices the Florid Sword and Andrew Peterson the family friend Oskar and Ari Elizabeth Johnson the friend Sara.  

Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures

 Remarkably Bright Creatures A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt, Harper Large Print, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2022.

I had seen the movie on Netflex, but the book is even better.  It was very enjoyable with people strugging with the question who am I and where do I fit in.  I must admit even knowing what was going to happen, when it did happen I still cried.  Told from the perspective of an octopus is is very good.  A very good read I highly recommend.  

Steven Spielberg (producer) Movie Review: ****Super 8 (2011)

 A group of youth witness a train crash; but it is more than a train crash, and the government is covering something up.  There is an alien in the train wreckage and strange things start happening.  The youth are making a movie, and the camera rolls and caches the train crash.  The youth are Joe, Alice, Charles, Gabriel, Ryan and Zach (Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, Ryan Lee and Zach Mills).  Charles is intent on making his movie, and the kids are actors or tech.  But in the end they find an alien instead, and understand his need to get home.  

A pretty good movie, but the alien getting home is very costly to the community.  Directed by J.J. Abrams.

Clint Eastwood Movie: **** Kelly's Heroes (1970)

 Very good movie that tells you sometimes there is more to motivation than honor.  In this case there is gold in a bank, and even though it is behind enemy lines, a group of soldier is determined to have it.  Kelly hears about the gold from a prisoner.  He recruits his sergeant, a tank group, and logistics.  This includes the building of a bridge.  When they get there they discover a panzer group defending the bank.  They are able to defeat a couple tanks, but still on remains defended the last tank commander (Karl-Otto Alberty) and his crew.  I really enjoy Sutherlands character and his laid back attitude.

• 

  Clint Eastwood

  Kelly. After the gold
• 

  Telly Savalas

  Big Joe. The Sergeant
• 

  Don Rickles

  Crapgame   The person who gets supplies, and comes along
• 

  Carroll O'Connor

  General Colt. General is unaware of the scheme, but follows 
• along as he

  likes the progress being made
• 

  Donald Sutherland

  Oddball. The tank commander
• 

  Gavin MacLeod

  Moriarty. The tank mechanic

Music Review: Kenny G: Rhythm & Romance (2008)

 Kenny G: Rhythm & Romance, Concord Records, 2008.

Kenny G is a smooth jazz saxophonist and that is what this album presents; smooth jazz with Kenny G's saxophone bouncing all over the place.  "Ritmo Y Romance (Rhythm and Romance)" seems to have melodies mixed in from Molin Rouge!.  One of the songs is familiar to me, "Besame Mucho."  "Mirame Bailar" has vocals by Barbara Muñoz.  "Es Hora de Decir" features vocals by Camila.  I am enjoying jazz music more and more.  Some songs are a bit repetitive but for the most part very nice listening.