Movie Review -- Ad Astra

  Every once in a while a friend will invite me to go see a movie I know absolutely nothing about. Ad Astra is one of those movies; I went in almost totally cold. The only things I knew was that it took place in space and that it has Brad Pitt. So is that all there is to this out-of-this-world odyssey or is there something more to discover? Let's take a look.

  In the somewhat-near-future accomplished astronaut Roy McBride must go on a secret mission to make contact with his previously presumed dead father Clifford whose experiments in the outer Solar System may be the cause behind dangerous power surges that threaten the Solar System's stability. Along the way Roy must come to terms with his father's absence and his emotional responses which are highly regulated by Space Command. It's an intriguing premise reminiscent of Heart of Darkness – or perhaps The Thin Red Line when you consider all the introspective narration going on – but it isn't paced all that well. There are a few action scenes jammed in that seem like they were added to keep the film from being boring because the plot does take its time in small steps.

  The plot also has some giant leaps in logic. For example, how does Roy not end up in jail for the things he's done? Why do all the planets have the same level of gravity? And speaking of Gravity, how do the astronauts survive such punishment? But the silliest moment of all is when the movie expects you to believe that duct tape can effectively seal a shattered helmet against the vacuum of space, as if this is some kind of goofy comedy.

  Brad Pitt's performance as Roy McBride is dead serious, however. His acting is very understated as he's portraying a very repressed astronaut who tries staying focused only on his job. Tommy Lee Jones portrays his reclusive, solitary father Clifford McBride which is a fine choice. When I think of crazy old man, Tommy Lee Jones is one of the first actors to come to mind. While these are fine performances, it is unfortunate that their characters aren't terribly interesting.

  At least Ad Astra is pretty to look at. It's a finely-shot film with eye-catching visuals, compositions that would look right at home in an art gallery, and excellent special effects that rival other space movies like Interstellar. While much of the sets appear cold and utilitarian they're given life by the dynamic lighting. Ad Astra's use of lighting, whether it's the coloured glow of nearby planets or the flickering fluorescent bulbs of neglected spacecraft, makes its scenes more rich and enveloping the way few other movies do.

  In short, Ad Astra is an ambitious movie. Unfortunately the grand story it tries to tell isn't all that original and will leave you wanting. In spite of some decent performances and some beautiful visuals Ad Astra winds up being merely OK. In one line in the movie Roy says, “below the surface there was nothing.” Couldn't have said it better myself.

Grade:

Movie Review -- It: Chapter 2

  Has it really been two years since the remake of It came out? I remember it being a well-put together picture with plenty of good scares, some good acting, and a charmingly creepy setting. I also remember that it was only half the story told in the novel (and TV miniseries), showing only the Loser Club's harrowing struggle against a supernatural evil in 1989 as children. So how does the modern-day second outing stack up against the retro one? Let's find out.

  It is 2016 and a new string of It-pattern murders are popping up which prompts Loser Club member Mike to gather the other, now grown-up losers (who are all rich now) back to Derry, Maine, to finish off the killer clown Pennywise once and for all. It's a story that ties in nicely with the first with a lot of flashbacks. However, a lot of these flashbacks end up retconning the previous film, railroading in a bunch of the kids' confrontations with It that weren't shown or even mentioned in the first It. But that's nothing compared to It: Chapter 2's biggest problem: it's way too long! If you're going to make me pay to sit still in one place for nearly three hours then you'd better deliver something that'll make my resisting of going to the bathroom that whole time worth it (or perhaps an intermission like the good old days?). Instead there's not one but two generic inspirational speeches, each Loser has to go searching for old tokens, the ending takes forever to wrap up, and the characters all split up and confront It alone... twice! They could have easily trimmed 45 minutes off and the film would have been better for it.

  Tone is everything in a horror movie and the tone in It: Chapter 2 is sometimes unfocused. Don't get me wrong, there are a bunch of decent scares, Pennywise's kills are rather brutal, and the visual design and effects on the film's various monsters are freaky. But unlike the last film comedy pervades almost every scene. Oftentimes just as something frightening is about to happen somebody does something that ends up being funny rather than unsettling, thus ruining the tone. In other scenes the jokes work fine – and they're downright hilarious at times – but overall It: Chapter 2 is far less scary than its predecessor.

  What Chapter 2 does copy from the first is a great cast that all have good chemistry together. While Bill Skarsgard does just as good a job as before in the role of Pennywise, new faces such as Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader give splendid performances of their own. Stephen King himself even makes a cameo appearance as a pawnshop owner who is disappointed in novels that have lousy endings. Henry Bowers, the bully from the last film, returns to menace the Losers some more but his presence in this film is kind of wasted.

  I also couldn't help but notice that there's some gaps in logic. For example it's established early on that since she previously saw It's deadlights Beverly knows how each of the Losers is going to die. But after the first death, this ability never comes into play nor is it mentioned again. Also, we see that in 2016 body parts are washing up in Derry's river and has made front page news in that town. So why has it not made national news? And when you think about it It kind of sucks at catching people. He wastes time messing around with his prey and as long as you can run and avoid falling for his tricks then you'll be fine, even if you're just a kid.

  Regardless, It: Chapter 2 is simply OK, a far cry from the one we got two years ago. It runs for much too long, the script could have used another edit or two, and the experience isn't as scary as the one before it. Basically a handful of good scares, a bunch of laughs, and a few standout performances are all that keep this one afloat.

Grade:

All-Time Team: the Atlanta teams (1972-80, 1999-2011)

Howdy, fellas. Here's another all-time fantasy roster of some defunct National Hockey League teams for you. This time we'll be looking at the two Atlanta, Georgia, based franchises, the Flames and the Thrashers. Both these teams were but curious blips in NHL history and they didn't last too long, making Atlanta the only city to have lost more than one hockey franchise (in the modern era of hockey). Before we look at the best players these clubs had to offer let's take a brief look at Atlanta's sad history with hockey.

Atlanta Flames (1972-80)

The NHL originally had no immediate plans to add more franchises after 1970 but the formation of the rival World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1971 was a catalyst for further growth. As the two leagues battled for new markets – such as the American South – the NHL announced it would grant a team to Atlanta. While unsurprisingly the Flames missed the playoffs in their inaugural season, they did qualify in their second thanks to the efforts of top-scoring rookie Tom Lysiak. After missing the postseason in 1975 the Flames got a new coach, Fred Creighton, whose technical style produced a team that consistently finished at or above .500 for the following five seasons. However, the team's exploits weren't exactly headline-grabbing for a city like Atlanta, a place that barely gets snow. Attendance gradually subsided and the Omni Coliseum's lack of luxury boxes certainly didn't help the club's financial woes. The Flames, which had earned a net loss of $12 million during its history, were sold to the Seaman brothers and moved to Calgary in 1980. In their eight seasons in the NHL the Atlanta Flames made six playoff appearances, winning only two playoff games in the process. Kent Nilsson was the last remaining Atlanta Flames player in the NHL and he played his last game in 1995.

Atlanta Thrashers (1999-2011)

The Thrashers entered the NHL as part of the league's 4-team American expansion scheme in the late 1990's (the other new teams were Columbus, Minnesota, and Nashville). Their first year was pretty bad – as is usually the case for expansion teams – and their top two draft picks in 1999 turned out to be great big flops. Fortunately, the Thrashers' top draft picks in 2000 and 2001 were far better: playmaker Dany Heatley in 2000, followed by franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk the following year. These two guys made their debuts in 2001-02 and they finished first and second in the league in rookie scoring. While the team wasn't any good, the games were still entertaining and attendance held steady. After the NHL lockout in 2004-05, the Thrashers made a series of trades that saw the team's output improve from 78 points in 2003-04 to 90 in 2005-06. A playoff berth still eluded them but the following season Atlanta finally saw playoff action in 2007... only to be swept by the New York Rangers in the opening round. It turns out that this would be the Thrashers only foray into postseason play. Key players (Kovalchuk, Marc Savard, and Marian Hossa) would be traded away, coaches were shuffled round, the team's ownership group was at eachother's throats, and ticket sales were dropping. The franchise – which had allegedly lost $130 million in its last six years – was sold to True North Sports & Entertainment and relocated in 2011 to become the new Winnipeg Jets. (Winnipeg previously had an NHL team called the Jets from 1979 to 1996, but they were moved to Arizona for some confounded reason.) In their eleven seasons, the Atlanta Thrashers won one division championship.

So let's take a trip down memory lane and have a look at what both these clubs might offer to a hypothetical fantasy team. As usual only these players' achievements as an Atlanta-based player will factor into consideration. Also, only players who participated in at least 200 of Atlanta's games qualified. And in case you're wondering, no player has ever played for both the Flames and Thrashers. Let's begin.

Forwards

L-R: Kovalchuk, MacMillan, Hossa

Ilya Kovalchuk (2001-10)	Tom Lysiak (1973-79)	Marian Hossa (2005-08)
Vyacheslav Kozlov (2002-10)	Guy Chouinard (1974-80)	Bob MacMillan (1977-80)
Keith McCreary (1972-75)	Bill Clement (1976-80)	Willi Plett (1975-80)
Eric Boulton (2005-11)	Chris Thorburn (2007-11)	Jeff Odgers (2000-03)

Let's load up the first line with some top-notch scorers, shall we? For Atlanta fans there’s no one better than the Thrashers all-time leading point scorer Kovalchuk (5x40 goals), the Flames all-time leading point scorer Lysiak (5x60 points), and Marian Hossa, the only Thrasher to score 100 points. Right behind them is some deft passing from Kozlov (3x70 points), Chouinard's goal-scoring ability (50 goals in 1978-79), and playmaking ability from the squeaky-clean MacMillan (1.06 PPG). On the third line Keith McCreary and Bill Clement bring some defensive stability, while Willi Plett (also my pick for the Minnesota North Stars' all-time team) contributes his trademark aggression combined with a not-insubstantial amount of scoring (3x30 goals, 3x171+ PIM). The fourth line adds some hard-nosed tough guys, chief among them Jeff Odgers.

Honourable mentions: Dany Heatley, Marc Savard

Defensemen

L-R: Quinn, Enstrom

Randy Manery (1972-77)	Tobias Enstrom (2007-11)
Pat Quinn (1972-77)	David Shand (1976-80)
Andy Sutton (2001-07)	Garnet Exelby (2002-09)

For our first defensive pairing we have the versatile Randy Manery, who can kill penalties, defend consistently, and adeptly move the puck up to his teammates (never less than 29 points). At his side is the durable Tobias Enstrom (played all 82 games in 3 seasons) who never scored less than 32 points. The second pair has solid stay-at-home defence from the tough Pat Quinn and the consistent David Shand (+21 or higher three times). The rugged Sutton and hard-hitting Exelby hold down the fort on the third pairing.

Goaltenders

Lehtonen

Kari Lehtonen (2003-10)

Dan Bouchard (1972-80)

This one was a close call. At first glance Lehtonen and Bouchard (whom I previously chose to be the Quebec Nordiques' all-time starting goalie) don't seem all that different. They posted similar per-year stats for games played, minutes, and shutouts. But Lehtonen's performance seems just a bit more admirable when you consider that he did this while playing with squads that weren't as good as the ones Bouchard played with. Bouchard always had a fine defensive corps in front of him, so of course he ended up never having a losing season. In contrast, Lehtonen was one of the few things holding his team together. And he did it while maintaining a more consistent GAA and save percentage.

All-Time Team: St. Louis Blues (1967-present)

  Happy Labour Day, everyone. It's that time of year again. The Coolest Game on Earth^TM is about to begin anew and as per tradition I'm taking a look at the history and greatest all-time players of last season's Stanley Cup Champion team, this time the St. Louis Blues. Here's a brief history.

  The Blues are one of the six expansion teams that doubled the NHL's size in 1967. They were easily the best of the new franchises and led by their sterling defence and the past-their-prime-but-still-dream-team goaltending duo of Jacques Plante and Glenn Hall they made the Stanley Cup finals in each of their first three seasons only to be swept every time by an Original Six team. The 1970's were a shakier period for St. Louis. The playoffs format was shuffled, the defensive corps was broken up, and the NHL was given a divisional realignment which didn't favour the Blues (at first). From 1973 to 1980 St. Louis made the playoffs five times but couldn't win a single series. At around this time several deferred contracts came up due. Additionally there was the rival league, the World Hockey Association, splitting up the hockey market. In short, the team was in financial distress.

  At least their game was making a recovery. A year after posting a franchise worst 18-50-12 record (1978-79), the Blues returned to the playoffs for what would be the first in a 25-year playoff streak (1980-2004). New talent was emerging within the team, including franchise player Bernie Federko, captain Brian Sutter, and star goaltender Mike Liut. Off ice, things were a mess by 1983. To make a long story short, the team was losing money year-on-year, new owners came in, they tried moving the team to Saskatoon, the NHL blocked the move, the owners tried suing the league, the league countersued, new owners couldn't be found, the Blues were set to dissolve but a new owner was found just in time so the team stayed in St. Louis.

  The Blues remained a competitive, though not spectacular, team throughout the 1980's. They didn't score as much as most other teams, but their defence was pretty good (a common strength throughout Blues history). They seemed unable to hold on to their young stars. Some – including Doug Gilmour, Rob Ramage, and Joe Mullen – would go on to become key figures in the Calgary Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup championship. But in the late 1980's and early 1990's St. Louis made some solid trades thanks to GM Ron Caron. New faces included Curtis Joseph, Brendan Shanahan, Adam Oates, and – as fate would have it, from Calgary – Al MacInnis and of course Brett Hull, one of the greatest goal-scorers of all time.

  Despite this new and exciting talent, St. Louis still couldn't make it past the second round of the playoffs. Mike Keenan was brought in as head coach and GM in 1994 and he immediately got to work swapping out Shanahan and Joseph for big names like Grant Fuhr, Pierre Turgeon, Chris Pronger, and even Wayne Gretzky (who didn't stay long). Keenan's schemes didn't quite work out and he was canned in 1996.

  The late 1990's Blues saw the departure of star players Hull and Fuhr, but also saw the emergence of new stars like Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, and goaltender Roman Turek. These acquisitions combined with solid defensive play from blueliners MacInnis and Pronger made St. Louis a strong contender. I'm going to go on record and say that the early 2000's Blues were one of the best NHL teams to have not won the Stanley Cup. Despite a league-topping season in 1999-2000 (51-19-11-1, 114 points) the deepest playoff run the team could manage was a semi-finals loss to the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.

  The 2005-06 season saw the Blues' playoff streak come to an end as they finished with the worst record in the league. Given that another ownership tossup was underway and game attendance was fading away, a serious rebuild was in need. New management was brought in, new players were brought in. The team's game improved but a return to the postseason wouldn't happen until 2009. After an opening-round four-game sweep at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks that same year the Blues would have to wait another three years for playoff action thanks to an overwhelmingly competitive Western Conference.

  2011 saw a new set of owners and a new coach, but this time things went according to plan thanks to new free agents like Jason Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Brian Elliott as well as some decent draft picks later on including David Backes and Alex Pietrangelo. Since then St. Louis has been its normal competitive self and despite being last place at the start of 2019 they somehow rallied back that same year to earn a playoff berth and then win Lord Stanley's Cup, becoming the last of the remaining 1967 expansion teams to do so.

  In their 52 seasons the St. Louis Blues have won nine division championships and one President's Trophy (1999-2000). They've made it to the postseason an astounding 42 times, advancing to the finals four times with one Stanley Cup championship in 2019.

  The Blues have had some excellent players in those 52 years and today I'm going to put forth my idea of what an all-time fantasy team might look like. For this I've considered only the achievements of players as they wore a St. Louis uniform (so don't expect Wayne Gretzky to show up) and I've restricted this roster to players who were in St. Louis for at least 225 games. Let's begin!

Forwards

L-R: Hull, Berenson, Meagher

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Brian Sutter (1976-88)	Bernie Federko (1976-89)	Brett Hull (1988-98)
Keith Tkachuk (2001-07, 2007-10)	Gary Unger (1971-79)	Pavol Demitra (1996-2004)
Red Berenson (1967-71, 1974-78)	Doug Gilmour (1983-88)	Jamal Mayers (1996-2008)
Tony Twist (1994-99)	Rick Meagher (1985-91)	Reed Low (2000-04)

As per typical fare, the first line consists of the most talented scorers. This includes aggressive playmaker Brian Sutter (7 campaigns north of 140 penalty minutes), four-time 100 point-scorer and all-time points leader Bernie Federko, and Brett Hull who had five straight 50-goal seasons (including three straight 70 goal seasons!). Next up, with 3x30 goal outings and 5x70 point showings, is the clean playmaker Pavol Demitra. Backing him up are two tenacious scorers, Gary Unger (8x30 goals, 5x60 points) and Keith Tkachuk (3x30 goals). On the third line we've got the durable special teams man Red Berenson, versatile agitator Doug Gilmour, and reliable defensive specialist Jamal Mayers. And our fourth line provides some enforcement from Low and Twist as well as some forechecking and defensive play Rick Meagher.

Honourable mentions: Joe Mullen, Jorgen Petterson, Brendan Shanahan, Vladimir Tarasenko, Pierre Turgeon

Defencemen

L-R: Pronger, Jackman

Al MacInnis (1994-2004)	Chris Pronger (1995-2005)
Rob Ramage (1982-88)	Barrett Jackman (2002-2015)
Bob Plager (1967-78)	Barclay Plager (1967-76)

As you might be able to tell from the lengthy honourable mentions list here picking the Blues's six best defencemen was not an easy task. St. Louis has had a multitude of amazing blueliners over the years, but I believe that I've found the cream of the crop. Let's start with the back-to-back Norris Trophy-winning duo of Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis. Not only did they shut down the opposition but they also contributed a fair bit to their team's offence. Rob Ramage's style of play was similar but with a bit more physicality (which previously earned him a spot on my all-time loser franchises lineup [for the Rockies]). At his side is the rugged stay-at-home D-man Barrett Jackman. And our third pairing is anchored by the rough-and-tumble Plager brothers.

Honourable mentions: Tim Bothwell, Jay Bouwmeester, Jeff Brown, Jack Brownschidle, Paul Cavallini, Alex Pietrangelo

Goaltenders

Liut

Mike Liut (1979-85)

Curtis Joseph (1989-95)

There were several netminders I considered putting on this team,but in my opinion Mike Liut barely beats out Curtis Joseph as the best Blues goaltender ever. Arguably the NHL’s best goalie of the 1980’s, Liut – whom I also selected as the Whalers’ best goalie back in May 2017 – posted two consecutive 30-win seasons and was voted league MVP by his fellow players in 1980-81.

Honourable mentions: Brian Elliott, Grant Fuhr

That does it for this year's defending Stanley Cup champions. Check in later this month for my top picks from one of the NHL's past clubs.