Sports

4/5 Stars The Way Back Starring Ben Afleck

Julie Gilbert drama, Sports ,
Promotion poster, found it on Google.

Summary:

Jack Cunningham (Ben Afleck), has some hard life stuff happen to him, and doesn’t exactly cope with it well. He becomes a raging alcoholic. Then, he gets the chance to become the head coach for his alma matter, a Catholic high school.

Additional Comments:

  • The trailer focuses on the struggling alcoholic coaching the boys basketball team aspect and doesn’t really touch on the other family drama aspects.
  • The movie feels like it was based on a true story. I guess the generic plot is basic enough to be applicable to several people’s lives.
  • Ben Afleck’s performance was indeed stellar.
  • Humor (4/5): There isn’t much of it in here, but I enjoyed a few touches. The funniest part to me was Kenny’s punishment when it’s revealed that he’s a romantic player as well as a basketball one.
  • There are certainly some tear-worthy moments.
  • Plot (4/5): Predictable but satisfying all the same. Some parts dragged out, but it got the point across.
  • Ending (4/5): While not everything is tied up in a neat little bow by the end, you get the feeling that things are well on their way to a better track for Jack.
  • Content Warnings: Quite a few instances of adult language. I think the f-bomb is dropped 3 times in the first 3 minutes.

Conclusion:

I’m not really a huge fan of the genre, but I enjoyed the movie.

Audiobook Promotions …

If any of the links are broken (not sure what’s up with Audiobook Crave as of 3/7/20), please email me your interest in the book, I’ll see what codes are left.

Feb Promos on Audiobook Crave.com (requires email sign in):
5 Steps to Surviving Chemistry
Spirit’s Bane (Guardian Angel Files Book 1)
Kindred Spirits (Guardian Angel Files Book 2)
Violence in Vegas (Eagle Eyes Book 1)
Rescue in Reno (Eagle Eyes Book 2)
Danger in Dallas (Eagle Eyes Book 3)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – short stories featuring Jillian.
The Dark Side of Science – official prequel to Devya’s Children; Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.
Ashlynn’s Dreams – Genetically altered Dream Shaper learns her gift.
Nadia’s Tears – Jillian tries to awaken her sister, Nadia, from a coma.
Malia’s Miracles – Jillian and her siblings try to save a friend’s mother.
Varick’s Quest – Jillian and Danielle get kidnapped. Nadia’s also in trouble.

Check out my other titles available on Audiobooks Unleashed:

Beyond Broken Pencils – contemporary, literary
Shadow Council Combo (Books 1-4)
(Alternately, the individual titles can be found on Audiobook Crave
SC 1: Money Makes it Deadlier
SC 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter
SC 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos
SC 4: Treachery Makes it Tense)

Eagle Eyes – mystery thriller

Scratched Off – mystery, thriller; FBI agent vs serial killer, more intense than Shadow Council/Eagle Eyes

Awakening – Redeemer Chronicles Book 1, MG fantasy
The Holy War – Redeemer Chronicles Book 2, MG fantasy
Reclaim the Darklands – Redeemer Chronicles Book 3, MG fantasy

The Collins Case – Heartfelt Cases Book 1, Christian mystery
The Kiverson Case – Heartfelt Cases Book 2, Christian mystery
The Davidson Case – Heartfelt Cases Book 3, Christian mystery

Other titles on Audiobook Crave (but buried deep):
5 Steps to Better Blurbs – for authors
Innova – Christian Dystopia
The Golden City Captives – short fantasy
Fatal Interest – short mystery/thriller

Movie Reviews 4/5 Stars: Creed II

Julie Gilbert drama, Movie Reviews, Sports , , ,

I don’t own the promo pic

4/5 Creed II: Powerful Boxing Movie

*Spoilers and Favorites after the ads

Summary:

I’ve never seen any of the Rocky movies, and I’m not a fan of the professional sports movies anyway. Still, despite being completely 100% predictable, Creed II delivers on entertainment. Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, but he gets challenged to a fight by Viktor Drago, son of Ivan Drago (guy who killed his father, Apollo). Whew, that’s a lot of connections when it’s spelled out.

 

Additional Comments:

  • If you’ve seen a trailer, you’ve seen 80% of the movie.
  • Viktor Drago has a few surprising moments. More later.
  • Fight scenes were well choreographed and suitably dramatic.
  • This has one of the weirdest soundtracks I’ve ever heard. You could get classical music two seconds after a rap song. Pretty sure training montages happened on quite a few occasions.
  • Characters: Bianca and Creed’s mother show up at key times. Ivan is suitably grim-faced and determined throughout the whole process. Rocky’s very much a side character, but they worked him into a few things.
  • I seriously wanted to punch the promoter. He was annoying and oily and slimy the first second on screen, and he the same his last second on the screen.

Conclusion:

Whether you like these kind of sports movies or not, it’s worth watching at least once.

 

Associate links to follow…

(If you click through and buy something, there’s the chance I’ll earn like $0.04 ….)

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.


OR

Spoiler Section:

  • One kind of knew there would be two fights in here based on the fact that the first one came so early in the movie.
  • One of the funny lines came when Rocky was suggesting they name the baby girl Becky or Cate. Creed responds with: “You do know she’s gonna be black, right?”
  • After Creed has an emotional moment, he picks up his baby girl and comforts her because she’s fussing. He says, “Daddy’s being a b—-.”)
  • Drago discussion continued. Clearly, this dude’s got mommy issues, but who wouldn’t if your mom left the family because your dad lost a fight? The end scene where his father’s running along side him, instead of chasing with the car is actually kind of touching.
  • Motive and motivation: It’s not clear in the beginning or end what Creed’s actually fighting for.
  • Some of the most surprising character development happened within Ivan Drago.