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The first edition of Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge by H. Anthony Medley was the fastest selling beginning bridge book, going through more than 10 printings. This updated Second Edition includes some modern advanced bidding systems and conventions, like Two over One, a system used by many modern tournament players, Roman Key Card Blackwood, New Minor Forcing, Reverse Drury, Forcing No Trump, and others. Also included is 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. | |
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Charlie St. Cloud (7/10) by Tony Medley Run time 99 minutes. OK for children. The last few times I’ve see Zac Efron he was in high school, first in a musical, and then impersonating George Hamilton. He looked like a high school kid. What a change! Now he’s got the whitest teeth known to mankind, and is showing off his buff physique wearing tee shirts. He’s a dead ringer for Tyrone Power. I liked him in those earlier movies, and he was a huge asset to the film I thought last year’s best, Me and Orson Welles, in which he played Me. In this film, aimed at women in general and romantic high school girls in particular, he loses his little brother, Sam (Charlie Tahan), in a car accident. They were real close, folks. Devastated, Charlie can’t throw Sam’s baseball glove into the grave. Instead he runs off into the woods where Sam appears to him. Charlie promises to meet Sam every night at sundown, which he does religiously, giving up a scholarship to Stanford to work in a graveyard. After five years of meeting in the woods to play catch, Charlie reacquaints Tess Carroll (Amanda Crew) and hearts flutter. The result is a romantic film with a twist straight out of Sixth Sense (1999). I thought I was going to die during the incredibly slow first hour, but my female friend thought even that was wonderfully romantic. It picked up during the last half hour enough so that I found it sentimental and entertaining enough to give it a positive rating. There are some good sailing scenes. And Ray Liotta shows he really can act without a script calling for one f bomb after another. I must admit it was difficult to identify him without all the foul language he generally spouts. Kim Basinger, who has apparently spent the past decade under a plastic surgeon’s knife, has the face of a 21-year-old even though she plays Charlie’s mother. I have to cut Kim some slack, though. If you’re a Hollywood actress and show as little as one small wrinkle, even though your D-Cup isn’t affected, it’s “Marilyn who?” A viewer has to look sharply, however, because she basically disappears after the first few scenes. This is unfortunate because her talents are wasted in such a small role. Efron, despite teeth that almost require sunglasses to reduce the glare, is a good actor, certainly good enough to carry off this soap opera.
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