Movie Reviews: Resurrecting the Champ and Blue Steel

 I got the chance to watch a few movies that I had not yet seen the past few nights. 

We dropped cable awhile back but we have about every streaming service there is. That's not entirely accurate but we have a lot. 

Tubi is one that I have discovered recently. It has a bunch of movies and TV shows. The movies are mostly ones I had never heard of before. There are a few in there that I know and love. But I had never heard Blue Steel before seeing it. I had stumbled across Resurrecting the Champ before but never watched it. 

Resurrecting The Champ hits home with me. It's about a struggling sports journalist who is looking for his big break. And he runs into a former boxer who most people who know him thought was dead. 

Josh Hartnett plays the role of the writer and he's basically undercover trying to learn more about the boxer, who is played by Samuel L. Jackson. 

Hartnett is also battling through a struggling marriage and doesn't have the best relationship with his young son. 

The ending of the movie is surprising and Hartnett's big story leads him to triumph, opportunities within his profession and a sad conclusion. 

Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 60 percent rating. I think it was a little better than that. I am a sports writer too so it was a great look into the field of study I went into. 

Blue Steel is an action crime drama starring Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie cop who must engage in a cat-and-mouse game with a pistol-wielding psychopath who becomes obsessed with her.

In one of the first few scenes, Curtis finds herself in the middle of a robbery at a grocery store where she shoots the suspect and saves a bunch of hostages. One of the hostages though flees the scene with the gun of the suspect. 

I enjoyed the movie, but there are some holes that don't get filled. At least from what I can tell. The man who gets away, played by Ron Silver, suddenly becomes a ragic lunatic because he came into contact with a gun for the first time? 

And Silver's character talks to himself in a few scenes like he is possessed. But I never really understood what that was about. 

Curtis and Silver end up in a relationship as Silver becomes obsessed with her. He kills innocent people along the way and eventually works his way to people Megan Turner, played by Curtis, cares about. 

Rotten Tomatoes gave this one a rating of 75 percent. I would say that's about right, maybe a little lower on my end. Good movie. Not great. But I usually enjoy Jamie Lee Curtis movies. 

What a year 2020 has been

 The year 2020 didn't start half bad. I mean January and February weren't half bad. 

Then came March, April, May, June, July and August. And September and October don't appear to be any better. Maybe by November we can be back to somewhat normal. But don't bet on it. 

My lifetime has had a lot of bad years. The floods of 1993 were really bad. I remember a big ice storm when I was a kid. Other years weren't great either. 

But 2020 when you add up everything we lost because of COVID-19 and are now dealing with because of something I had never heard of, it's been a no fun year. 

Did anyone know what a derecho was before Monday? I surely didn't. It certainly did some damage. My town of Newton, Iowa, is still picking up the pieces and some of us still don't have any power. 

My family and I were fortunate. Our power came back on after about 11 hours. Our street had some damage but not anything that caused the destruction of power lines. I did see a few houses down the street that had trees land on them. 

I thought 11 hours was a long time. But my parents house went about five days without power. That sounds awful. I am glad they have it back and I hope others can get it back soon. Some other members of our family are still without it so that's not any fun. 

My work building was without power until just last night. Then our internet and servers kicked back on tonight. So my work should get back to normal soon. 

It will take some time still to get things straightened out. Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy is busting their butts to get everything back up and running. I bet a lot of those guys haven't slept much lately. 

The derecho just adds to a horrific year. A year that saw us lose March Madness, the Iowa State Fair, RAGBRAI, several concerts, the Iowa Cubs season and Hawkeye football. Other sports were called off. The NBA and NHL seasons were stopped in the middle and needed "bubble" setups to work. 

The MLB couldn't get its season going until mid-July. And it hasn't been perfect as the Marlins and Cardinals have had COVID-19 outbreaks. The Cardinals have played only 5 games and are still out of action. 

The NFL will be able to figure it out I think. The rosters are larger but the NFL is a cash cow that just seems to go on as planned no matter what gets in its way. 

My wife will go back to school here soon to start another year of teaching. But the district just announced today that damage done by the derecho will delay that to Sept. 8. Several buildings were damaged enough to push back the start date. 

Our 7-year-old is starting 2nd grade this fall. And I will be her teacher for at least the first 9 weeks. It's going to be a crazy school year for her. She hasn't seen her friends much the past several months. It's not how a young girl is supposed to live but she has taken like a champ. 

She wears a mask better than I do. She understands she has to wear one and hasn't complained at all. Me, the masks make me hot and my glasses fog over so it's not the best thing for me. 

I got new glasses today and the mask I like to use the most now doesn't fog up them so far. That's a good sign as I will begin covering volleyball matches soon. I will be wearing a mask indoors at events I work. Something about being inside a gym with a good number of people makes me nervous. 

Outside is a different story. I don't think it is that big of a deal because it's a lot easier to social distance.

We are all in challenging times. It's no one's fault. But it would be nice if we all handled this situation more like my 7-year-old and less like immature adults who don't like to follow rules because we are making them follow rules. 

We are in this together. We should be anyways.  

Garza returns to loaded Hawkeyes

The night before Luka Garza was scheduled to announce his future plans, Iowa point forward Connor McCaffery sent out a cryptic tweet.

"Hawk nation just respect his decision," McCaffery's tweet read.

That sentence led many Hawkeye fans to believe Garza was gone. Gone to the NBA. Or gone to play professionally overseas.

The tweet, though, turned out to be the ultimate troll job as Garza announced on social media around 12:15 p.m. Sunday that he was returning for his final season Iowa City.

"I love this place too much to leave it early," Garza said during a Zoom press conference on Sunday. "My heart is in Iowa City. It would have been hard to close the book without a last chapter."

McCaffery told the media on Sunday during a Zoom press conference that the tweet was indeed to have fun with the fans. And it came with Garza's approval and even a little pressure.

There is no doubt that Garza returning makes the Hawkeyes one of the favorites in the Big Ten Conference.

"The Big Ten goes through Iowa City," CBS Sports College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein tweeted after the announcement.

Rothstein has Iowa in his ever-changing preseason top 5 as players from all over the country announce their plans to play or go. But Michigan State, Wisconsin and Illinois are all expected to be ranked in the top 10 as well.

It's easy to get behind this Hawkeye team. Garza is the leader after averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds per game last year but the Hawkeyes have seven players who could technically be labeled as "returning starters."

Joe Wieskamp averaged 14 points and six rebounds in 31 starts last year. C.J. Fredrick averaged 10 points per game and was one of the best 3-point shooters in the country, making 46 percent from long range.

McCaffery averaged four rebounds and four assists and had one of the top assist-to-turnover ratios in the nation, too.

Joe Toussaint even started 20 games as a freshman. And Patrick McCaffery is set to finally make his mark as he comes back from a redshirt season. He also gained some weight to help him get through a Big Ten Conference season.

And that's not counting Jordan Bohannon, who was limited to just 10 games last year, and Jack Nunge, who also had his season cut short because of an injury.

Bohannon could be the Big Ten's all-time leader in 3-point makes. And a lot of folks are forgetting about him because out of a sight out of mind.

The roster is constructed perfectly for a deep run. Dominant big man, plenty of outside threats and lots of experienced dudes who play with chips on their shoulders.

There aren't many guys on this team who will back down from a fight.

I would be shocked if this team didn't start the season in most preseason top 5s. Where they end up is still unknown but it'll be a disappointing season to at least not reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since Tom Davis was the coach.

"As teammates we were in support of Luka in whatever decision he made," Wieskamp said. "But we're obviously extremely excited to have him back. This team has a chance to do something really special this year."

This Hawkeye men's team will draw a lot of comparisons to the women's team that reached the Elite 8 a few years back. Garza is that's team Megan Gustafson and both teams feature experienced guards.

I would trade a football season this calendar year if it guaranteed we get a basketball season. That's not something I say every year, but for this one weird year, it applies.