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

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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

