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The first and second editions of Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge by H. Anthony Medley comprised the fastest selling beginning bridge book, going through more than 10 printings. This updated Third Edition includes a detailed Guide to Bids and Responses, along with the most detailed, 12-page Glossary ever published, as well as examples to make learning the game even easier. Click book to order. Available in all bookstores and on Kindle. | |
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The Equalizer 2 (7/10) by Tony Medley Runtime 121 minutes R One thing about director Antoine Fuqua, he loves violence. He has made extremely profitable movies whose main force is graphic violence, like Training Day (2001) and the first Equalizer. Some of his movies have not been overly violent and some have been entertaining; some have not, like Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and the ill-advised remake of The Magnificent Seven (2016). Everybody is entitled to some mis-steps and at least he has tried. In this one, his favorite star, Denzell Washington, returns as Robert McCall, who lives alone and is sort of a Batman-like character, righting wrongs throughout the world while working as an Uber driver. While at it, he usually kills people methodically and without emotion. Of course the bad guys getting the shaft are quintessentially bad and clearly deserve any kind of fate that results in their demise. This one, like most modern thrillers, is patently absurd. Even though Robert does not have superhero powers, he takes on bad guys galore and dispatches them with, well, dispatch, no matter the number. And that’s the weakness of these films. One never thinks that Robert is in trouble, no matter how many villains are attacking him. As a result, the film lacks the tension that is created by someone being in real danger. Robert is so in control of every situation that the idea of him not winning is unthinkable. The final confrontation between good and evil takes place in a deserted town during a Category 5 hurricane, which was filmed in the Marshfield neighborhood of Brant Rock on the south shore of Massachusetts. Although it takes maybe 20 minutes onscreen, it took a month to film using 12 giant wind machines that can create winds up to 80 mph. Washington said he took the role, the first time he’s played in a sequel, because he looked forward to working with Melissa Leo again, who gives a good performance as Robert’s former handler. He also was attracted to a surrogate father-son relationship between Robert and a young black artist named Miles (Ashton Sanders) who is being pulled into a gang. Despite the implausibility and the troubling violence that Fuqua always forces on his audience, it is an entertaining film.
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