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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. |
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by Tony Medley Runtime 114 minutes. Too stupid for children. This was an extremely dispiriting movie for me to sit through. It’s not just that it is horrible, it’s that I have seen more truly awful movies this year than in any year since I started doing this. This film is of such low intellectual value, it besmirches everyone involved with it. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) returns as the night watchman (now a wildly successful businessman) who finds that all the inanimate objects, statues and paintings and such, in the museum can come alive at night. Transferred to the Smithsonian, they feel they are on their last stand and have to fight for their survival. I said that the first
iteration of this in 2006 was “a good idea
that pretty much fails in translation.” The only difference with
this sequel is that it was not a good idea to start out with. The first
film was aimed at a 10-year old mentality, but even so, I didn’t think
it was appropriate for children because it trivialized American history.
The same criticism applies here, but this one is even dumber than the
first. This idea could have been one that was
comedic, but which celebrated intelligence and American History. It
could have informed people about the real Teddy Roosevelt (Robin
Williams) and the real Abraham Lincoln. Instead it pictures them as
imbecilic buffoons. One expects lousy movies from Robin Williams and Owen Wilson because they have both developed careers out of them (“RV,” License to Wed,” “August Rush,” I Spy,” You and Me and Dupree,” “Drillbit Taylor,” to name a few of their bombs). It’s not that they lack talent, so it must be that they lack taste. How could anybody read this script and think it would be entertaining? But what is truly disappointing is the appearance of the enormously talented Amy Adams (Amelia Earhart). Watching her wobble her way through this infantile idiocy, directed by Shawn Levy and with writing credits to Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, is akin to fantasizing about watching Laurence Olivier trying to perform in “Reefer Madness.”
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