Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as
an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25
years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach.
Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration
for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game
winning streak in 1974."
Compiled with
more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach.
Click the Book to read
the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book
that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.
Click the book to read the first chapter and for
ordering information.
|
Made of Honor (3/10)
by Tony Medley
How could a movie with such
a ridiculous title be anything but a silly chick flick? Actually it’s an
obvious play on words but without a foundation in the film because one
thing that the protagonist, Tom (Patrick Dempsey), is not made of is
honor. He prides himself on being honest with the women he beds and
leaves, but he’s not honorable or honest with either himself or the
woman he loves, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). But if he were to be, there
wouldn’t be a movie and we’d all be better off.
One of the biggest problems
with this tedious effort is that whoever directed and wrote it (Paul
Weiland and Adam Sztykiel and Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont,
respectively, with the story by Adam Sztykiel) don’t have a clue about
how men interact as friends. Exacerbating the lack of credibility of the
way they bond is the ludicrous way they play basketball.
Basketball is a big part of
this movie because Weiland has chosen that as the recreation of choice
for Tom and his sexually ambiguous buddies (we never see any of them
with a woman, and there’s probably a good reason for that). Since it is
such a big part of the film, Weiland should have cast the parts for
people who could realistically appear on the court as real basketball
players. Not Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but guys who play pickup
basketball. There is a casting genius around town, Sports Coordinator
Mark Ellis, who can cast people based on their athletic ability
(“Miracle” 2004, among many others). When he’s in charge, the characters
don’t disgrace themselves when they have to be filmed actually playing
the sport. Ellis was sorely needed on this film. Instead, Weiland has
cast a bunch of guys who look as if they never had a basketball in their
hands. The result is that the basketball scenes make them look like the
effeminate Jets in “West Side Story" (1961), who were supposed to be
tough guys, but were, instead, dancers, and looked like it.
But that’s not the worst
part of the movie. The basic concept is ludicrous. The setup is pretty
good. Tom hops into bed with a woman he thinks is “Monica,” but is, in
reality, her roommate, Hannah, who kicks him out and berates him. Thus
begins a friendship as buddies. The film picks up ten years later with
Hannah announcing that she’s going to marry a Scotsman, Colin (Kevin
McKidd), and asks Tom to be her Maid of Honor, a ridiculous proposition
that has no relationship with anything that would happen in real life.
Naturally, Tom is madly in love with her and goes along, encouraged by
his buddies (what would they know about women?) to try and win her back.
This makes for 101
enormously irritating minutes, at least if you’re a man. There is very
little funny in the film and very little that is not predictable. The
only thing it has going for itself is that Monaghan is gorgeous and a
very good actress. For women, I’m reliably informed (by a woman) that
Dempsey is a Hunk. If so, the definition of Hunk has changed over the
years, and not for the better. Apparently being a “Hunk” has nothing to
do with being masculine any more.
This is nothing more than
derivative drivel.
May 2, 2008 |