A Movie Review. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has disappeared, driven by the fact that his nephew Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) turned to the dark side while training to be a Jedi under his guidance. Yet, his sister Princess/General Leia (Carrie Fisher) needs him. The Empire has returned to the scene, re-emerging as The First Order. The problem is that no one knows where Luke Skywalker is; however, Luke did leave a clue -- probably in case an emergency arose.

Leia sends pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to meet with Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow) who has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker. Somehow, The First Order is also aware that Lor San Tekka knows the location of Luke Skywalker. So both The Resistance and The First Order descend on the planet Jakku. Poe Dameron arrives first, but The First Order soon descends on the scene. Poe Dameron hides the map with robot BB-8. Poe is than taken prisoner by Kylo Ren.

BB-8 eventually runs into Rey (Daisy Ridley). The First Order figures out that BB-8 has the map and put out a bounty on the robot. With the assistance of a former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), Rey escapes the First Order and flies off in the Millennium Falcon!!! Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) find a pin needle in a haystack, coming across their ship.

This provides the set-up for the rest of the movie as the Resistance must both battle The First Order and search for Luke Skywalker.

So what did I think of this major blockbuster movie?

A pleasant enough popcorn movie. I say pleasant. It isn't a brilliant popcorn movie like the first Iron Man or The Dark Knight. The major knock I have on this is that I couldn't help but think this movie is nothing more than J.J. Abrams' youthful re-imagination of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Also, what gets really irritating about this movie is all the wink winks to the original Star Wars. It got to the point where it felt like J.J. Abrams was ripping off the first movie.

And what's up with both Rey and Finn holding their own to some degree with Kylo Ren in their individual lightsaber fights? It just drives me nuts when a highly trained warrior has difficulty fighting folks with limited skills. That's the one thing that irritated me with Man of Steel. How could Superman battle a trained warrior in General Zod when Superman had no previous experience in dealing with someone so powerful?

So I've read some of the theories out there and here's what I think about two of them (spoilers). Please note I'm not a super Star Wars fan so I don't know every minor detail about the franchise.

Is Kylo Ren a double agent? I don't think so. Someone killing off the person that he killed off (I'll leave that one a secret), would seem to indicate he is not a double agent. One should only go so far. If Kylo is a double agent, he went too far in killing off you-know-who. I'm not saying that Kylo Ren won't eventually find redemption, I'm just saying he's no double agent.

Who is Rey's father? Luke? Leia? Obi-Wan's grandchild? Or reincarnation of Darth Vader. I toss out the Darth Vader part. As mentioned in one article I read, Darth Vader was redeemed in Return of the Jedi. Also, it just seems too out in left field to learn that Rey is the reincarnation of Darth Vader. I could buy her being Luke's, Leia's or Obi-Wan's. The more seems to give credence to all 3 ideas. Rey being Luke's daughter seems the most obvious based on the movie, but then that could just be a red herring.

Rainbow Jackson and Fakers at The Satellite

Rainbow Jackson

It was an entertaining night of 70s inspired rock music. Fakers led the night off for me, rocking their way to a 40 minute set. They can get wild on stage, especially when the drummer takes his turn at the microphone. Friends and family were in support. Rainbow Jackson is doing the December residency. This band doesn't just stand around playing music. They use the stage, the whole stage. It makes for a level of comfort with their environment.


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Duke Basketball vs Utah: 75 - 77

Duke's going to have some troubles without Amile Jefferson over the next month or so. Though Duke had some brief stretches of great basketball, it just wasn't enough. With Grayson Allen playing with a flu, Duke just wasn't playing Duke basketball. Amazingly, at the end, Duke had a chance to send the game into a 2nd over-time, but Ingram's shot from a couple feet looked awkward and didn't come close to dropping into the basket.

Duke basically went with a 6 man rotation. Chase Jeter only played 6 minutes. Transfer Sean Obi didn't even get off the bench.

To me, Jakob Poeltl didn't exactly have an amazing offensive game -- he did admittedly score 19 points. But he did have an amazing impact on the defensive end. There must have been 4 or 5 plays where a Duke player drove to the basket and appeared to get intimated by Poeltl -- maybe more than 5 plays. If one needs any other proof, when Poeltl was on the bench, Duke was able to get offensive rebound after offensive rebound.It was kind of amazing. I'm pretty sure that if Ingram had made that shot at the over-time buzzer, Duke would have blown Utah out of the game in the 2nd half. Poeltl had fouled out and considering past experience Duke would have scored every time down the court. Every miss shot would have resulted in a Duke offensive rebound until Duke eventually scored. Oh well. We might be in for a long month of Duke basketball.

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Denver Broncos: 34 - 27

The game appeared to start out okay for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They recovered a fumble and scored a quick touchdown. And then for the rest of the 1st half, the Steelers just self-destructed on the defensive end. Denver scored 4 touchdowns, one after another. Denver's QB Brock Osweiler was making folks forget about Peyton Manning. The commentators on CBS kept saying that the Steelers were giving the Denver receivers too much space. Osweiler would throw a pass and the Denver receiver would be wide open. I just was mumbling the whole 1st half, "Our defense sucks." The Pittsburgh offense just couldn't keep pace with Denver. I wouldn't say they were playing horrible. They put together a couple long drives, but the results were 3 points versus 7 or 8. The 1st half ended with the Steelers down 27 - 13.

Then the 2nd half started. We stopped the Denver offense a couple times and I was saying to myself, "We've got to get into the end zone. Our defense isn't doing anything today." And then we kept stopping the Denver offense. And our offense did start getting into the end zone. And so I was like, "What is happening?" The defense was playing so well that I wasn't overly worried when Big Ben threw that awful interception with 2:01 left on the game clock. I was a little worried, but not overly so. I had confidence that the defense would hold strong.

How did this happen? The CBS commentators didn't really seem to know why. I went over to ESPN and the folks there didn't seem to know how the Steelers turned their defense around. Maybe Osweiler isn't Manning, which he isn't. Maybe Osweiler's left shoulder injury was hurting his game. Whatever it was, this was a game the Steelers needed. Now we need to win 2 more.

Our defense can't have anymore games like they had in the 1st half. In the playoffs, we're playing 3 straight. We can't take chances falling behind, especially when we'll be playing on the road.

Vision with Rudy De Anda and Part Time at The Echo

Vision

A nice night at The Echoplex. With another music lineup happening at The Echo, the December residency was shifted to The Echoplex. Rudy De Anda and Part Time opened up for Vision. Rudy De Anda gave us some Latin rock, Spanish lyrics drawing even us non-Spanish speakers into the set. Part Time had this nerdy cool fashion sense. There was also this casual manner to their sound. Vision has this rapid fire rock sound. It was slowed temporarily when the lead guitarist busted a string. Once that was fixed, it was onward.

Noticed: as I was leaving The Echoplex a young woman was coming up, "I'm here to see Vision." I almost turned to tell her, "You need to come back next week. You just missed them."


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A Movie Review. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. The movie opens with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) recovering from the vicious attack from Peeta Mellark (Josh Hucherson) -- the attack that ended the Part 1 movie. At the same time, the rebels have made progress in their overthrow of the Capital. Katniss starts to find herself at odds with President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and her close friend Gale Hawthrone (Liam Hemsworth) over the war tactics. Coin and Gale are willing to win no matter the tactics to get to victory. Katniss insists that they do not act like the Capital.

Due to differences of opinions regarding war tactics, Coin attempts to sideline Katniss. Katniss refuses to get sidelined and manages to get her way to the Capital for the final push. This leads to some calculated intrigue as the true intentions of Coin become obvious -- both in regards to her own political future and that of Katniss.

In my past reviews of the other movies, I've basically said that I just thought the movies were okay. This is the first movie of the series that I actually enjoyed. I loved the political calculations of Coin and her view that Katniss was becoming a threat not just to the Capital, but also to her. I also enjoyed the near naive manner in which Katniss carried out her singled minded mission, but eventually caught on to the politics that surrounded her.

I think the message of the movie is: power corrupts no matter how noble the cause.

What did I not like about the movie: I will say the ending felt like the ending of Lord of the Rings -- a little too many codas.

A Dream: Protests, Revolution or Zombies?

I was running down a large multiple lane street. There were protesters lined up on one side of me. Then police or maybe opposition protesters were rushing towards them. A violent confrontation began. People began to run all over the place. Someone next to me yelled, "You've got to get out of here." I ran towards a playground baseball field that had a fence around it. I rushed through one of the gates and shut it. There were a handful of other individuals running across the field. They yelled at me to join them. Then I noticed a lady sitting on a bench next to the fence. There was another gate there that was wide open. I rushed towards the lady/gate. I slammed the gate shut, locking it by pulling down the metal lock. "You've got to get out of here. You've got to join us," I told the lady. Suddenly, a raving mad woman started rushing towards us from the street. She slammed her head against the gate. It wouldn't open. She kept slamming her head against the fence repeatedly. The other individuals who I had initially seen on the field, gathered next to me. "What's going on?" The woman kept slamming her head against the gate, blood pouring from her forehead. We were freaked out.

Then I woke up.

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Indianapolis Colts: 45 - 10

You see how the Steelers' offense has played the last 4 games and one can't help but wonder how this season would be going if Big Ben, Le'Veon Bell and Shaun Suisham hadn't gotten injured at various times this season. Would we really have lost to the Ravens if Suisham was around? Would we have lost to the Chiefs if Big Ben was playing that game?

The game versus Indianpolis didn't start out all that promising. The Steelers fumbled the ball on the initial kick-off. The Steelers got the ball back and then fumbled again. I just started to shake my head. Then the offense started to click. Big Ben was throwing the ball to everyone. There were some caught balls that left you breathless, squeezing a ball between two defenders with their arms outstretched -- unreal. DeAngelo Williams got in on the fun with over 100 yards rushing.

There was a nerve-wrecking moment. Big Ben decided to run for a first down and then kept running. Slide! Slide! Slide! I screamed. He finally did.

And what was with that Antonio Brown touchdown celebration with the goal post.

I'll say this: the Steelers really need to win out. I think compared to the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, the Steelers have the tougher 4 games left.

JT Schweitzer, Ian and Slow Rose at Pehrspace

Ian

It was a perfect night at Pehrspace to catch some bands. The crowd size was just perfect. Not too packed in and not too empty. Just the perfect number of folks. It was also a typical winter night in Los Angeles with the temperature around 50 F.

And then we had a solid lineup featuring JT Schweitzer, Ian  Slow Rose. JT Schweitzer decided to play with his back to the audience, focusing in on the sounds of his guitar. Ian was a solo night, featuring the lead singer of the band. She mentioned that her music sounded so much sadder when she did the solo gig versus performing with her band. She didn't mean for it to sound sad. Slow Rose ended the night for me. They spread themselves around Pehrspace and jammed through a single 30 minute song.


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A Movie Review: Creed

Creed. Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) has a troubled youth. But then fate arrives. Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), wife of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, arrives at a youth facility. Adonis is not her son. Apollo had an extramarital affair and Adonis is his son. So because of this relationship, she takes him in.

The movie fast forwards to Adonis as a young adult. He has a solid job at a Los Angeles financial firm. Yet, he wants to be a boxer like his father. During the weekends, he heads down to Mexico for boxing bouts. After a string of victories, he decides to resign from his job and make boxing his career. Mary Anne is furious and a local boxing training camp in Los Angeles refuses to train him.

He decides to head to Philadelphia and see if he can convince Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him. Rocky resists, but is eventually convinced to become his trainer. Word eventually gets out that Adonis is Apollo's son. Adonis is then given a chance to fight the current light heavyweight champion Conlan (Tony Bellew). It might seem ridiculous for a new comer to be given a chance to fight the current champion; however, the current champion due to his crazy lifestyle is facing time in prison, which will essentially end his boxing career. Also, a planned fight was cancelled because the challenger broke his hand. So he desperately wants one last fight before heading off to prison.

This is a great movie that provides homage to the Rocky movies, but at the same time hands the reins over to (should he want it) Michael B. Jordan. There is the catch the chicken scene. There is a photo of Rocky with his young son, who now lives in Vancouver. There is a scene of bikers (not young kids), surrounding Adonis as he is out running.

I'm not saying this is an Oscar worthy film, but it is a solid popcorn movie.

And the 1st or 2nd sequel will probably have Conlan getting an early release from prison and challenging a cocky new champion Creed to a re-match.

A Movie Review: Brooklyn

Brooklyn. Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) lives in a small Irish town. She is unable to find full-time work so via the Catholic Church, she is able to relocate to New York where she is employed by a department store and lives at a boarding house for women. The local priest that sponsored her move to New York signs her up for accounting courses at a local night college. She also runs into a young Italian named Tony (Emory Cohen) at an Irish dance hall event. They start dating and consider getting married. Then disaster strikes back in Ireland. Eilis' sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) dies unexpectedly. Eilis heads back home where the temptation to stay is strong. She ends up being torn between her new life in America and the familiarity of Ireland.

There are a couple things with this movie that irritate me. First, I just don't by the relationship between Eilis and Tony. I feel like a snob for saying so, but Eilis is way smarter and intelligent then Tony. I can't help but think in the long run she'd grow bored with him. Second, we know up front that she moves to America due to her inability to find work. When the decision to return to America or not must finally be made, she comes up with a totally different reason for coming to her final decision. And I really don't support the final argument she makes -- trying here not to give spoilers -- because I think it is defensive and weak.

I will say this movie does shine in places. For example, the time spent on the ship and how Eilis must learn how to navigate life on a boat provide some great tidbits of 1950s travel. I also enjoyed the scenes of Eilis back in Ireland and seeing how even though it appears she hasn't changed all that much as a person, she really had taken on the look of a big city woman.

I just can't say that this is a brilliant movie, because I found the underlying theme of the movie (a decision regarding the old vs new) flawed.

Duke Basketball vs Buffalo: 82 - 59

I didn't get to see much of the Indiana game, but this one appeared to be a tougher game. Yes, Duke won by more against Buffalo, but it felt to me that Buffalo didn't back down.

Duke didn't appear to get many open looks from 3-point land, which perhaps made it feel like Duke didn't really get any offensive runs. Instead, Duke just steadily pulled away from Buffalo.

What did I notice:

One would have to say that Brandon Ingram is getting a handle on the college game. He was on the court for 38 minutes and scored the game high 23. He was also a monster on the defensive end.

Grayson Allen looked to have an off night even though he scored 22. Half those points were earned at the free throw line. On the offensive side, a lot of his passes were off the mark or Buffalo players deflected his passes.

I loved the two Marshall Plumlee to Amile Jefferson plays that were exactly the same and resulted in scores by Jefferson.

I really hope Chase Jeter follows in Brandon Ingram's shoes and starts earning some game time. He looked lost during his brief time in the game. I personally like to see 8 man rotations.

The Big Pink with Elohim and Drool at The Echo

The Big Pink

The Big Pink comes to Los Angeles via London. Their music has purpose. The vocals are dictated with purpose. The Big Pink just appears earnest in making sure you know that they're leading you on a journey.

Elohim is shrouded in mystery. She had stage hands set up her equipment. Then she came on stage and gave us a show that reminded me of IO Echo. Instead of thanking the audience, she went with pre-recorded messages, wishing everyone a good Thanksgiving.

Drool opened the night with an avant-garde set.

Noticed: one of the Drool musicians was pressed up against the stage during The Big Pink set.


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Whispertown and Ben Hazlewood at The Satellite

Whispertown

I believe the last time I saw Whispertown was way back in 2010. Well, actually, at the time the band name was Whispertown 2000. I still remember the first time I saw Whispertown 2000. It was at a venue that no longer exists on the corner of Western and Sunset. Life just flies by, doesn't it. I've said that a couple times recently as I've caught some other bands that I haven't seen in years. I couldn't help but notice that one of her songs sent tears down the cheeks of a local musician.

Opening up the night was Ben Hazlewood. He's from Australia and has a power vocal sound that makes you think of old school love songs. He's out touring America.


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A Movie Review: The Peanuts Movie

The Peanuts Movie. Honestly, what a sweat and simple movie. The over-arching story line is about Charlie Brown and his crush on the Little Red-Haired Girl. The movie doesn't go for updating the Peanuts for a new generation. There are no cell phones. No computers. Phone calls are still made via rotary phones.

The movie also interweaves all the old favorites from the Peanuts catalog. There is the hockey game on the frozen pond. There is Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite. Lucy is still charging 5 cents for her advice -- though I did notice she gave Charlie Brown a free book. And Sally considers her brother a hero even though he finds himself filled with self doubt. And then there is the adorable Snoopy, flying his dog house over Europe.

Yes, this is a movie for children and all adults who are still young at heart.