ACROSS
1 Serious service
5 Toaster opening?
10 Moxie
14 Settled down
15 Treasure
16 Crop, say
17 Taboo
18 Parade
instruments
20 Unused car using
some 56-Across?
22 It can be bid
23 Coin toss
winner’s option
27 Large Eurasian
group
31 Very, to Puccini
32 DJIA company
alphabetically
following Home
Depot
35 Movies using
some 56-Across?
38 PC alternatives
40 Dreamers have
big ones
41 A scarf can
protect it
42 Compulsive sort
using some
56-Across?
45 Yahoo!
alternative
46 “Silas Marner”
author
47 Static source
49 Doctor’s order
52 Latin dance
56 “Antigone”
characters?
60 Dawn, for
example
63 Place for pins
and needles
64 Amazon ID
65 Unlimited free
mileage pioneer
66 Mapmaking
name since 1872
67 What much
insurance covers
68 Family nicknames
69 Wild plum
DOWN
1 Heavenly food
2 Audibly
3 Decalogue
delivery site
4 Wraps not made
in delis
5 Jumble
6 Poet __ St.
Vincent Millay
7 2013 Katy Perry
chart-topper
8 Diamond mishap
9 Teacher’s note
10 Focuses (on)
11 Part of an
academic
address
12 Focus
13 62-Down
protectors
19 It may be served
from an orange-
handled pot
21 Orange stuff
24 Faith with Five
Pillars
25 Sirens
26 Innsbruck iron
28 “... __ sure you
know”
29 “Livin’ la __
Loca”: Ricky
Martin hit
30 Lighten one’s
wallet
32 Press
33 Sri Lankan pop
music
34 Periodic
McDonald’s pork
sandwich
36 What alopecia
sufferers lose
37 “My word!”
39 Common football
passing
formations
43 Cheri of “SNL”
44 “__ la vie”
48 Yelp users
50 65-Across choice
51 Roadster maker
53 Music genre
word
54 Musical Mars
55 Better half?
57 Zen riddle
58 Buddhist
teacher
59 “Beowulf,” for
one
60 Adjective for
rapper Jon or
Kim
61 Tonic go-with?
62 Snap receivers:
Abbr.
By Andrew Woodham
©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/31/17
03/31/17
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Friday, March 31, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
712 W. HURON ‑ PURRRFECT, pet‑
friendly
location
with
great
pricing!
Rents
starting at $1375! Call today for specials
& secure your new home! 734‑741‑9300
BENZINGA, DETROIT BASED
financial news, looking for writing interns!
Please Contact colljobs@benzinga.com
or 3137232000
ARBOR PROPERTIES
Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerrytown,
Central Campus, Old West Side,
Burns Park. Now Renting for 2017.
734‑649‑8637. www.arborprops.com
STUDENT SUMMER STORAGE
Specials ‑ Closest to campus ‑ Indoor
Clean ‑ Safe ‑ Reserve online now
annarborstorage.com call 734‑663‑0690
GEDDES HILL ‑ HUGE contemporary
apartments
with
unforgettable
amenities!
Peaceful location adjacent to the Arbore‑
tum
with
pricing
starting
at
$1800.
Call
to‑
day for current specials! 734‑741‑9300
CMB MANAGEMENT ‑ With 17 pre‑
mier
locations
treating
every
resident
like
family since 1992.
Apartments as low as
$1050 per rental installment. Call today
for
specials
and
to
schedule
a
tour
of
your
new home! 734‑741‑9300
BROADVIEW
APARTMENTS
‑
Spa‑
cious
&
peaceful
North
Campus
living!!
1
&
2
bedroom
apartments
with
pricing
that
starts at $1110 per installment!! FREE
parking,
FREE
laundry,
and
FREE
shuttle
service! Call today for specials!
SERVICES
FOR RENT
HELP WANTED
This
week
marked
the
24th
season
of
ABC’s
long-standing,
live
competition
show
“Dancing
with
the
Stars.”
Coincidentally,
this
also
marks
the 400th episode
for the series, for
which the network has spared
no expense in celebration of
its accomplishments. Opening
with
a
number
aimed
at
replicating the Oscar-winning
film “La La Land,” the cast
waltzed onto the stage for
their first dance of the season.
Perhaps the most notable
celebrity cast member this
season is Normani Kordei,
one of the members of girl
band Fifth Harmony, which
has received recent backlash
after
member
Camila
Cabello’s sudden departure.
However, Normani is quick
to distance herself from her
singing
career,
announcing
from the beginning that her
grandmother’s love of the show
is what ultimately compelled
her to join the cast. True to her
fierce personality as a member
of Fifth Harmony, Normani
leaves it all on the dance floor.
On the other side of the
spectrum,
“Saturday
Night
Live”
alum
Chris
Kattan,
with partner Witney Carson,
embrace
the
comedian’s
personality to perfection in
their dance — so much so that
the pair’s score for the night
pulls them to
the
bottom
of the ranks
this
season.
Was their jazz
number
truly
horrendous?
Not
necessarily,
just
pulled
off in a novel
approach that
didn’t sit well with the judges.
These discrepancies between
the elements of a celebrity’s
background and character that
ultimately win over the judges
and determines whether or
not they will advance in the
competition begs the question
of
subjectivity.
While
one
couple’s tango is beautifully
executed in terms of style
and precision in step, another
couple’s quickstep may suffer
from too much of the celebrity’s
personality
interjected
into
their dance.
While some groups may
choose to dress in the manner
of their professions, others
draw from their experiences.
All in all, this trend seems
to
indicate
that
numbers
choreographed in a manner
least connected to the dancers
seem to work the best on
“DWTS.”
Another
example
of
this is the performance of
professional bull rider Bonner
Bolton and dancing companion
Sharna Burgess. Though they
performed
their
country
cha cha with unmistakable
chemistry and a hint of sass,
their overall score kept them
situated nicely in the middle
of the competition. One of
the main influences of their
performance
came
from
Bolton’s bull riding days, as the
couple struts the stage with
blue jeans and plaid shirts,
cha cha-ing the stage with a
southern strut and bedazzling
the
crowd.
Alternatively,
Simone Biles, a gold medal
Olympic
gymnast,
stunned
with a beautiful dance. Biles
is
clearly
the
frontrunner
of the competition, if she
can
continue
producing
equally exquisite moves in
future
performances.
What
differentiates these two pairs,
once again, seems to be their
ability to incorporate style
and the way in which strong
elements of their personalities
leak into their performances.
This season of “Dancing
with the Stars” is clearly off
to an interesting start, as
the dancing duos attempt to
balance out their interests
and bring the best aspects of
the personalities into their
performances. Though some
performers may learn from
their mistakes, others grapple
with the idea of letting go of
personality quirks in favor of
higher scores. All points aside,
the 400th episode is a true
reflection of what “Dancing
with the Stars” is all about.
MEGAN MITCHELL
Daily Arts Writer
“Dancing with the
Stars”
Season Premiere
ABC
Mondays at 8:00
p.m.
ABC
‘Stars’ basks in milestones
LIONSGATE
Based
on
the
perennially
successful “Mighty
Morphin’
Power
Rangers”
series
that
has
been
airing on TV in
various
iterations
since the early ’90s, this new
film attempts to update the
costumed-samurai-who-ride-
robot-dinosaurs premise for a
modern audience — to varying
levels of success.
Directed by Dean Israelite
(“Project Almanac”), “Power
Rangers”
follows
in
that
series’ footsteps by choosing
to focus mostly on the five
titular heroes rather then the
wacky world around them.
These
aren’t
the
happy-
go-lucky Power Rangers of
yesteryear; these teenagers are
troubled, and the film makes
sure that the audience knows
it. A cast of talented, more-
or-less unknowns makes up
the ranks of these new edgier
Rangers,
including
Dacre
Montgomery (“A Few Less
Men”), Naomi Scott (“Terra
Nova”), RJ Cyler (“Me and Earl
and the Dying Girl), Becky
G (“House of Sin”), and Ludi
Lin (“Monster Hunt”) who are
joined by veteran actors Bryan
Cranston
(“Breaking
Bad”),
Bill Hader (“Saturday Night
Live”), and Elizabeth Banks
(“Pitch Perfect”) as the more
ridiculous sci-fi characters.
Although it opens with a
wacky sci-fi prelude in which
Cranston’s Zordon becomes the
last remaining
original Power
Ranger,
the
vast
majority
of the film’s
runtime
is
spent focusing
on the various
familial
and
social
problems
that
the
teenagers are dealing with
rather then the extraterrestrial
threat of Banks’s Rita Repulsa.
One of our heroes is a burnt-out
star quarterback, one of them is
caring for an ailing parent, one
of them has autism, one was
involved in a sexting scandal
and one of them doesn’t believe
her parents will accept her for
who she really is. All of them
are social outcasts; it’s teen
drama to the 10th degree.
In
the
name
of
being
realistic,
“Power
Rangers”
ends up turning into an episode
of “Degrassi” for long stretches
of its runtime. Everything is
played so seriously that when
it is finally time for someone to
shout “Go, go, power rangers!”
and giant robot dinosaurs run
across the screen, it’s hard not
to completely laugh out loud.
Tonal whiplash abounds, and
yet somehow, against all odds,
parts of it do kind of work.
Make no mistake, “Power
Rangers” is stupid. Not stupid
in the mindless destruction
sense of “Man of Steel” or “The
Avengers” or any other number
of
other
recent
superhero
flicks, but stupid in that it
combines a lot of different
dumb stuff together. It’s got
that dumb teenage melodrama.
It’s got that dumb big action
scene at the end. It’s got a
pretty fun villain with a pretty
dumb plan. But as dumb as it
all is, the actors know it, the
writer knows it, the studio
clearly knew it and the director
seems to have given but one
direction to his cast: ham it up.
The movie goes all in on every
dumb thing about it.
But it’s hard not to respect
that in a day and age in which
every movie is trying to be
the most important or the
biggest movie of the year. This
movie knows what it is. It’s a
B-movie for kids. And kids will
undoubtedly love it. It’s not
trying to reinvent the wheel
from a narrative perspective,
but it does bring some much
needed diversity to the Power
Rangers ranks in a way that is
more understated and natural
then similar attempts by other
movies (the recent “Beauty
and the Beast” comes to mind).
Everyone (especially the older
actors) is clearly having a
ball, and the last third of the
film revels in being about
exactly one thing: the power
of
friendship.
Yes,
“Power
Rangers” is a silly, dumb kids
movie. But it never tries to be
anything but that. In this day
and age, that’s oddly quaint.
IAN HARRIS
For the Daily
“Power Rangers”
Lionsgate
Rave Cinemas,
Goodrich Quality 16
‘Power Rangers’ surprises
FILM REVIEW
‘CHiPS’ exhausts, dismays
“CHiPs” opens with the
onscreen
message:
“The
California
Highway
Patrol
does not endorse
this film. At all.” At
first, it seems like
a
tongue-in-cheek
joke about police
officers not wanting
a movie to make
light of their jobs.
Then
the
movie
starts. Walking out
of the theater, it is
clear that the disclaimer was a
warning, an omen not heeded.
No one in their right mind
would want to be associated
with a comedy this tepid and
devoid of laughs, least of all the
people it allegedly portrays.
It’s a crime-comedy with a
boring crime and next-to-no
comedy, annoying at best and
offensive at worst.
It
starts
out
harmlessly
enough,
with
early
scenes
wisely leaning more heavily
on Michael Peña (“Collateral
Beauty”), by far the funnier of
the two leads — about three
of the four jokes in the entire
movie that work do so because
of him. Then, the story shifts
into gear, and it becomes clear
what type of comedy “CHiPs”
will be. It’s the kind where
there aren’t really any jokes,
the writers just force in lengthy
conversations
about
things
that aren’t innately funny in
the hope that, at some point,
God will smile upon them and
comedy will present itself.
So viewers are left with
conversations on such wide-
ranging, fascinating topics as
poop and “scrotal tears” that
feel like they go on for a small
eternity. These things can
be funny if something funny
is being said, but when, say,
charmless characters are just
talking
about
anilingus over
and over again,
that tends to be
more annoying
than anything
else.
Perhaps
if
the characters
were charming
or
likable,
it would be easier to give
“CHiPs” a pass, but instead,
the characters seem to fall into
a handful of easily divisible
categories.
The
women
—
except for director, writer
and star Dax Shepard’s (“The
Boss”)
wife,
Kristen
Bell
(“Bad Moms”) — exist to be
sexualized or made fun of for
their lack of attractiveness in
a series of gags about being
a “two out of ten” that, if
nothing else, will probably
give our sitting president a
hearty laugh. The men of the
movie exist either to be macho,
macho men or to be made fun
of for not being enough of a
macho, macho man.
The latter group seems to
speak to a deeper misogyny
or just plain bigotry at the
heart of “CHiPs.” As director,
Shepard has no problem with
putting bare breasts on screen
whenever possible, but when
the time comes for him to get
naked — in a role that he wrote
and cast himself in no less —
nudity is suddenly a bridge too
far, and he opts to blur it out
in one of the most hypocritical
creative decisions in recent
memory. If it were possible to
chalk it up to anything other
than Shepard’s cowardice, it
might be the funniest moment
in the movie. As it is, it’s still
so brazenly out of place and
nonsensical that it’s worth an
incredulous “Did that really
just happen?” smile.
With the dearth of any
source
of
amusement
on
display, the desperate mind
of an average “CHiPs” viewer
will begin to look elsewhere
for entertainment. They will
find none. As with seemingly
all
modern
comedies,
the
movie takes a sudden turn
into
self-seriousness
in
a
sequence that is bereft of
laughter — intentionally this
time. Similarly dour is Vincent
D’Onofrio, who isn’t bad, but
his villain — with his sudden
bursts of violent anger and
forced backstory for the sake
of “sympathy” — feels like
a poor man’s version of his
much better turn on “Marvel’s
Daredevil.”
With
its
tone,
“CHiPs”
is clearly trying to emulate
the wild success and critical
acclaim of “21 Jump Street,”
but where the writers should
have
learned
to
balance
satirizing the action-comedy
genre while paying tribute to
their source material, they
instead learned to cram in
as many F-bombs as possible
and go for the easy poop joke
whenever they can. The result
may include a couple decent
bike chases but is otherwise
tiringly awkward and unfunny
to the point of mental agony.
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer
“CHiPs”
Warner Bros.
Pictures
Rave Cinemas,
Goodrich Quality 16
FILM REVIEW
TV REVIEW
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
6 — Friday, March 31, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com