Play like a pro with expert knowledge from a champion of the game

If you don't know the ins and outs of play, bridge can seem like an intimidating game--but it doesn't have to be! Armed with the techniques and strategies in the pages of this book, you'll be bidding and winning hands like a boss! A good book for beginners, it has lots of advanced techniques useful to experienced players, too. This is as  close to an all-in-one bridge book you can get.

 

 

About the Author

H. Anthony Medley holds the rank of Silver life Master, is an American Contract Bridge League Club Director, and has won regional and sectional titles. An attorney, he received his B.S. from UCLA, where he was sports editor of UCLA's Daily Bruin, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of UCLA Basketball: The Real Story and Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed and The Complete Idiots Guide to Bridge. He was a columnist for the Southern California Bridge News. He is an MPAA-certified film critic and his work has appeared nationally in Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Click the book to order.
 

  

 

The Rhythm Section (4/10)

by Tony Medley

109 minutes.

R.

This is an action film made by the producers of the James Bond franchise. This one is the origin story, purporting to create a female James Bond, in the person of Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively).

Directed by Reed Morano from a script by Mark Burnell who has written a series of books with Patrick as the protagonist (this film is based on the first book), the first half is banal absurdity. Patrick’s family has died in an airplane crash and her depression has reduced her to prostitution and penury. A news reporter (Raza Jeffrey) approaches her with the news that the plane was brought down by a bomber and who it was who placed the bomb on the plane, so she hits on the idea of killing him.

That eventually puts her in touch with an unnamed former MI-6 agent (Jude Law) who “trains” her to be an assassin.

The training is, frankly, beyond ludicrous. The first hour of this film needs a lot of work to be believable. It’s not enough for Law to treat her brutally in order to “toughen” her up. How he treats her is inexplicable and to think that this treatment would result in an expert assassin is just beyond the pale of reason. That sets any thinking viewer on a negative plane about the film, at least it did me.

When she finally gets on the track, however, the action picks up and the film becomes better, but not more believable. Nothing in the film makes any sense whatsoever, as it is just a collection of set pieces with no segues and little relation to one another. Just as an example, after dispatching some more bad guys, she runs away through the city (I think it’s supposed to be Tangier), running down one street after another to get away, which she finally does and hops on a bus where she attacks a suicide bomber. Where did that come from?

The questions are, is it worth sitting through the first nonsensical hour for the last 49 minutes? And, is the last 49 minutes of nonstop action worth sitting through despite the fact that the scenes are incoherent and full of flights of fancy? My assistant thought so. I’m not convinced, even though there is a lot of spine-tingling action.

James Bond films are mostly comedic, but at least one scene leads into another and the segments are cohesive. In the unlikely event that they make more of these they should spend some time (any time would be an improvement) on structure and interrelations.

 

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