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. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their 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. Also available on Kindle.

Horrible Bosses (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 98 minutes.

Not for children.

This is laugh-out-loud funny. It's brilliantly written, even though three scriptwriters get credit (Michael Markowitz and John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein) from a story by Markowitz. Director Seth Gordon follows up his first directorial effort, the surprisingly entertaining Four Christmases (2008), with another flat-out winner.

Jason Bateman, Charley Day, and Jason Sudeikis have the horrible bosses, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, and Colin Farrell, respectively. Why they are horrible and hateful is part of the fun. Suffice it to say that Spacey, Aniston and Farrell do wonderful jobs of creating characters that the audience can buy seeing permanently removed from the planet.

After the setup, that's exactly what Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis plan to do, eliminate them, after receiving advice from tough-looking Jamie Foxx, an ex-con whom they meet in a bar in a bad part of town while looking for a hit man. The meeting with Foxx is drop dead funny, but then there are so many parts of this film that cause audible laughter that the Foxx scenes don't especially stand apart from the other bits. This is, and will remain as, one of the best films of the year. Unfortunately, the idea of this film receiving Oscar® consideration is a longshot because this is a comedy and the Academy has generally refused to recognize the talent of comedians.

There is a lot of vulgar language in the film. But unlike Judd Apatow films, where vulgarity is used as a shameless substitute for humor, here the vulgarity is appropriate to the film. While it is shocking, it's funny and not offensive.

Donald Sutherland makes another cameo appearance. He has apparently found a career in later life as a big name that appears only in the first few moments of a film, only to be quickly killed off by the director.

Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis aren't the sharpest tacks in the box and give shining performances as they bumble their way to try to get rid of their bosses.  They all have their moments that cause audible laughter.

Jennifer Aniston, who spends a lot of the film wearing nothing but an unbuttoned lab coat, told Regis and Kelly that just reading the script was side-splittingly funny. While often what the stars say is just blather to promote a film, this one lives up to her promise.

July 7, 2011