Book and Movie Review

Book Review – Searching for Bobby Orr

This book definitely opened my eyes in various ways, such as how the hockey world has evolved, how the media has changed the way they interact with the players, and also the type of players that were available. Today I think it is damn near impossible to find a player that compares in many ways to Bobby Orr. He was a very classy person, rarely talked about money, was a driving force for his hockey team mates, and he truly was amazing. My parents and I both agree that he set the bar very high for defensemen after him because he created the path. He was one of the first defensemen to score and then be able to scurry back to his side to be a defender. I already liked Bobby Orr because I always thought that he was an amazing person and he has done a lot of charity work, never did I know how fabulous a hockey player and person he was. This book totally opened my eyes to a world that I would have never known unless reading about it. Even though he suffered because of troubles with his knee(s), he still was able to rouse his team mates and get them to play up to par, the 72 game against Russia. Many players when they saw they were losing, they chose to take the easy route and dessert but Bobby, even though he couldn’t play, he encouraged his team mates to greatness. The one thing I found surprising was that he was never a captain for the Bruins. He possessed in my opinion all the qualities of a good leader and his team mates had a complete and total respect for him. The book does go into slight detail how he was screwed by Alan Eagleson, but I found that was inevitable because there was just something about the Eagle when I was reading about him, I guess it was that he had his hands in so many pots… I don’t know I can’t really explain it. The book goes straight from his childhood to the beginning of his retirement which is nice, but it is packed with information making it a little bit of a tough read. After reading the book I can say that I have the deepest respect for Bobby Orr and I am truly proud to say that he is Canadian (he is one of the few I will say that about).

Movie Review – Running With Scissors

How do I start a movie review, when the movie really has no sense of direction at all. Yes Annette Benning was nominated for a Golden Globe (maybe even won) for her portrayal as the main character’s mother, and the way the character she played was, must have been a challenge for her to act out. Augusten Burroughs really did not have a childhood like most normal kids, but there in lies a problem with that statement…. what is normal anyway. Brian Cox did a fabu job of playing the character of Dr. Finch, but he definitely looked very old. This was probably one of Cox’s strangest roles ever (previous roles in Troy, Braveheart, etc.). I thought it was good to see him in a totally different character because it actually shows whether he is a good actor or not, which he definitely is a good actor. This movie had a stellar cast but I thought it was unfortunate because a lot of the characters these actors played weren’t very good. An example would be Gwyneth Paltrow’s character, I felt that character was probably the worst character she has ever played and it really is unfortunate that it is part of her repertoire. The movie in the beginning followed the book very closely but as it got closer to the end, it started to really stray. The end was nothing that was written in the book, which I found very strange. I think this was one of PLAN B ENTERTAINMENT, Brad Pitt’s production company’s, first and I really think that they could have chosen a better film for a debut. This film really had no direction and in many ways it was quite strange, not a good money maker with an amazing story that would be a good debut film. Hopefully as the company continues to produce films, the main players in its’ operation will make better choices with the films they choose. Overall, I didn’t like the movie so much. There were some funny bits but basically it was a total waste of 2 hours and 2 minutes.