We've now got two nieces with calls to serve as missionaries for the Church. Last Wednesday, Olivia received hers and read it aloud to family members and friends.
And the verdict is: Hamilton, New Zealand (English speaking)! We are so excited for Livvy and the many wonderful experiences she will have.
On Sunday, Jana and I traveled to Temple Square for the first time since the pandemic started. Temple Square renovation began just a few months before that, so really there hasn't been too much going on there in the past few years that we have missed.
Anyhow, the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square are back as of a few months ago, and they are once again performing new "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcasts for the public each Sunday morning at 9:30. This particular occasion also marked the retirement of more than 30 TCAOATS members, including my lifelong friend, John "Pepe" Abercrombie.
Generally speaking, TabCho members may remain in the choir for 20 years or until age 55, whichever comes first. However, Pepe found a loophole to stay for about 22½ years altogether. He joined toward the end of 1999, and therefore, he reached his 20 years' mark at the end of 2019, with a planned retirement broadcast/concert set for the spring of 2020. As you all know by now, many live theater and musical groups (including Improvables!) closed down or postponed operations indefinitely at that time, which ended up being about 18 months for the TCAOATS. Ergo, this retirement ceremony featured a large number of retiring TabCho and Orchestra members who hit their 20-year marks or reached age 55 during the pandemic.
It was wonderful to be back in the historic Tabernacle. Likewise, it was wonderful to hear the TCAOATS live for the first time in years, because the TV broadcast just doesn't do justice to how great they sound in person. The retirement ceremony that followed the broadcast included conductor Mack Wilberg and Choir President Michael Leavitt (former governor of Utah) presenting plaques to each retiree.
Last Friday night, Jenna received her endowment—an important ordinance for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—in the Bountiful temple. Her getting ready to leave soon to go on a Church mission to Texas is finally starting to feel real! Mom and a large number of Jenna's aunts, uncles, and a few cousins, along with her other grandma, were also there to support her.
Fast forward to Friday night. When I saw my old friend again, this time with a somewhat changed countenance and a light that wasn't there before. He ended up being part of the same session JB and I attended with the Plowmans and in-laws. It was all a bit surreal, but it was wonderful. The Atonement can and does work wonders with ordinary people every day and with anyone.
That's just a taste of the kind of joy Jenna will get to experience in the mission field.
So ... you want to know how I liked Sonic 2, huh? Well, even if you don't, here's my review.
Admittedly, I don't know very much about the Sonic video game series. I grew up playing Atari, Nintendo, then a Game Boy, followed by Super Nintendo, then the Nintendo 64 (until Steve lost it), and since then it's been Xbox, Xbox 360, now Xbox One, coming shortly 2 Box 2 Furious, etc., and I just can't keep up with it all. So, I saw this film (I also saw the first one) as a relative beginner to the Sonic fandom.
This is a movie. It has everything: a beginning, a middle, and an end. In between all that, there's a lot of action and also a lot of jokes, and Jim Carrey is in it, so there's some degree of wackiness, to boot.
Dr. Robotnik (Carrey) makes an escape from the mushroom world he was banished to at the conclusion of the last film, again sporting the wannabe Kenneth Branagh-as-Hercule Poirot mustache. Once more, he wants to take over everything, but Sonic (and now Tails) stands in his way. Overall, it's a fun little adventure from start to finish. James Marsden is back as Sonic's human buddy.
I'm sure I would've enjoyed it more if I knew much more about the Sonic video game series.
Paco's rating: 6 out of 10
The Good: It's a pretty good family flick, for the most part. If you're a Sonic fan, then see it in the theater. If not, you can probably wait till it's streaming. Jim Carrey is obviously having a ball as the over-the-top (what else?) bad guy. Kids will learn a positive lesson about family and friendship.
The Bad: Ben Schwartz (voice of Sonic), who also played Jean-Ralphio on "Parks and Recreation," is a very funny guy—but when he's the main character and not a supporting character, his shtick (snark?) can wear a bit thin. There's also a silly sub-plot about an FBI sting operation that ultimately doesn't have much to do with the overall story.
The Ugly: Sonic 2 is rated PG, perhaps due to a few, minor swears. Relatively clean family film.
This week's $6 film is Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Before you go, be sure to watch "WandaVision" on Disney+, if you have a subscription. Or if you borrow a password, I won't judge. It would also be helpful to have seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, the "What If ..." series, and also possibly the animated, non-MCU film Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse if you really want to study up before hand.
The Good: It's another great entry in the MCU series. Fans will be rewarded with a great story and fantastic special effects. Like the better ones in the series, it leaves you wanting more and looking forward to what will happen in the next installment(s). A couple of the cameos made me smile, and a couple of new characters are introduced, to boot. It's worth seeing on the big screen.
The Bad: This is possibly the first MCU film categorized at least partly as a horror film, so it may not be appropriate for young kids.
The Ugly: It's one of the more violent MCU films that I can recall. There is also some cursing.
Due to popular demand—view count on my last movie review doubled from the previous one, jumping from two to four—I am proceeding with more movie reviews! No need to thank me.
This week's $5 movie was The Bad Guys. It's a kids' movie, and apparently it's based on a book I've not read, so I'm just going with the plot and the film here.
The Bad Guys are anthropomorphic people in a world consisting mostly of humans (with a few other exceptions). They may be Bad Guys, indeed; they rob banks and make heists and then speed away from police in one car chase after another. But these Bad Guys also super cool—like George Clooney and friends in Ocean's Eleven cool. There's Wolf, Snake, Tarantula, Shark, and Piranha, which is a pretty good sampling of animals I'd want to avoid in real life.
What follows is a series of comic adventures, with a lot of action and more than one character turning out to be someone very different from his/her façade.
Paco's rating: 6 out of 10
Is it worth seeing in the theater? If you've got kids who've read the books, it probably would be more appealing for them than it was for me. It's a good movie, not a great one.
The Good: Kids, I think, will like it more than I did, as I said. The voice cast is certainly appealing, featuring such talents as Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson (from "The Office"), Richard Ayoade (from "The I.T. Crowd"), and Anthony Ramos. In spite of the thievery and heisting throughout, a couple of morals of this story include (1) being good is better than being bad, and (2) part of being good is owning up to your mistakes and making amends for them.
The Bad: One of my pet peeve movie stereotypes—in which the local police are incompetent morons—comes up more than once. Sometimes, it's also a little "too" cute for its own good.
The Ugly: Rated PG for mild thematic elements, nothing really that offensive for a family film that I can recall.
