2010 Winter Olympics

Update: Chad Hedrick hits the ice for Houston; adds silver to his medal tally

Chad hits the ice
Chad Hedrick with daughter Hadley
Photo by Mark Maziarz

UPDATE 02/27:Chad Hedrick and the U.S. team took home the silver in the team pursuit Saturday. The Canadian team edged them by just 0.21 seconds.

Hedrick says this is his last Olympic race. During this career he won five Olympic medals, three at the Torino Olympics in 2006 and two in Vancouver (bronze in the 1000m and a silver in the team pursuit). When I spoke to him before the Olympics, he said he wasn't sure what his next career move would be, but plans to return to Spring. Congratulations on a job well done!

UPDATE 02/20: In his last individual race, Chad Hedrick placed sixth in the men's 1,500-meter speedskating race Saturday. Mark Tuitert of The Netherlands took the gold medal in an upset over heavy favorite, U.S. speedskater Shani Davis.

UPDATE 02/17: Chad Hedrick won the bronze medal in the men's 1,000-meter speedskating race Wednesday. WIth a time of 1:09:32 Hedrick was just four tenths of a second behind teammate Shani Davis, who won the gold. Hedrick has two more races: the 1500m airs Saturday, 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. and the team pursuit Feb. 27, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. on Channel 2.

UPDATE 02/13: Hedrick placed 11th in the 5,000-meter speedskating race Saturday afternoon in Vancouver. This was not predicted to be his strongest event and he has three more chances at an Olympic medal.

It's rare to find a Texan, let alone a Houstonian, in the Winter Olympics. It's a hot, flat state with a serious deficit in all things frozen, except for margaritas.

Even so, Houstonians occasionally make it to the Winter games (remember Tara Lipinski?) and this year we are represented by speed skater Chad Hedrick. He got his start on roller skates as the son of Champions Roller World owners Paul and Wanda Hedrick in Spring. From there he moved to inline skates and then shifted to ice.

I recently spoke with him about the upcoming games. The underlying theme in the conversation was about how much he has changed since his first Olympics.

He describes himself as "ultra competitive" the first time around, and said he felt like it was him "against the world on the ice." But he had the talent to back it up, winning three medals. While he says he had a great Olympic experience, it was tinged with controversy when he criticized teammate Shani Davis for refusing to join the team pursuit. The brouhaha overshadowed both skaters' accomplishments.

Now four years later, Hedrick's life has completely changed and he describes himself as a "brand new Chad" on his site. He married Houstonian Lynsey Adams, who he met through mutual friends. At the time he was living in Salt Lake City, but what is distance when love is in the air? He flew her out and they spent their first date exploring Park City, Utah. The couple has a 10-month-old daughter. Being a father has revolutionized his life, Hedrick said. He's now even sponsored by Pampers.

Another big change: He and his wife recently became Christians and were baptized this past Thanksgiving. Photos of his little girl, wife and scripture dominate his Web site and Twitter account, indicative of his new life outside the games.

Hedrick will defend his Olympic title in the 5000 meter race Saturday. He's also competing in the 1500m, 1000m and team pursuit. To see air times, visit NBC's Olympic website.

See an interview with Chad by NBC's Owen Conflenti below:

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Movie Review

Animated Lord of the Rings prequel offers nostalgic return to Rohan

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Hèra (Gaia Wise) in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

The Peter Jackson-led Lord of the Rings movie trilogy in the early 21st century was such a smashing success that people have been trying to recreate that magic for a long time. First came the ill-conceived The Hobbittrilogy, which made lots of money despite mostly poor reviews. The recent Amazon TV series, The Rings of Power, has gotten generally good reviews, but doesn’t seem to hold a place in the wider pop culture consciousness.

And now comes The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime-style film that seems like an attempt at both reclaiming the world in animated form from the weird 1978 film, and a nostalgia play for fans of the original series. Set 200 years before the events in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, it nonetheless takes place in two very familiar locations that are recreated to appear exactly like they looked in Jackson’s films.

The story centers around Hèra (voiced by Gaia Wise), the only daughter of King Helm (Brian Cox) of Rohan. An early conflict with Lord Freca (Shaun Dooley) leads Freca’s son, Wulf (Luca Pasqualino), to develop a deep grudge against Helm and his family. Wulf pursues that ill will for years, eventually driving his foes into a fortress in a valley to make a final stand against his aggression.

Based on information found in the appendices of Tolkien’s novels, this is the rare instance when choosing to use animation holds back the creativity of a film. Typically, animation allows filmmakers to do things that wouldn’t be possible in the real world, but director Kenji Kamiyama and his team seem beholden to the look of Jackson’s films. While the animation itself is great, it doesn’t offer the fluidity of live action, and so the action scenes are often stilted and flat.

The story itself is not very compelling, as a quartet of screenwriters have concocted a plot that relies on revenge and heroism tropes that allow the audience to predict almost everything that happens. There are a few surprises to be had, but as the conflict revolves around a strong-willed female and her unwillingness to be told whom to marry, it’s generally clear how the story will be resolved, with only the specific details left to be discovered.

It also would have been great if the film weren’t so dependent on nostalgia for the original films. The two main locations are ones that played a big part in set pieces from those films, and their usage here doesn’t measure up favorably. Eowyn (Miranda Otto) serves as narrator, and other characters/actors from the original trilogy also make appearances, leaving little room for this film to establish itself on its own terms.

The majesty of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, with its New Zealand vistas and incomparable visuals created by Wētā Workshop, set a high bar that none of the subsequent projects have been able to meet. The War of the Rohirrim is a competently-made film, but it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny with the Oscar-quality work of 20+ years prior.

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens in theaters on December 13.

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