News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday December 15th 2025
Movie corner: ”˜It”™ returns with roller-coaster ride that thrills
By HOWARD McQUITTER II
Howard McQuitter
oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com
howardmcquitter68@gmail.com
“It Chapter Two”Â
***1/2 of 5 Â
New Line Cinema
Andy Muschietti directed the well-crafted horror film “It” (2017), the highest grossing horror film a $ 700,381,748 worldwide. He has his sequel “It Chapter Two” when “The Losers,” now adults, are called back to their hometown Derry, Maine, to confront the menacing clown, Pennywise (Bill Skargard). While many sequels are or seemingly redundant, Muschietti”™s sequel is a legitimate one. However, the running time of two hours and 50 minutes, I think, cannot be altogether justified.Â
Twenty-seven years later, Mike Hanion (Isaiah Mustafa), a librarian at the town library, is the only one of the seven-group,”The Losers,” who stayed in Derry. Events of missing children begin to recur in Derry bringing back nightmarish flashes to Mike. Mike ”“ in panic mode ”“ calls Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Eddie (James Ransone), Ben (Jay Ryan), Richie (Bill Hader) and Bill (James McAvory) urges all of them to return to Derry. All of them except Mike went on to more fertile ground to cities in other states for work. Now they must all confront and destroy Pennywise.Â
Coming back home also means flashbacks for each individual from relentless bullying to physical and sexual abuse by a father.… Read the rest “Movie corner: ”˜It”™ returns with roller-coaster ride that thrills”
Peace House community: Getting involved
By Marti Malby
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” -Edmund Burke
I first encountered that quotation when I read Bob Geldof”™s autobiography “Is That It?” Geldof had reached the part of his story where his band, “The Boomtown Rats,” couldn”™t get any of their songs on the radio and he personally was almost broke. One night he saw a news story about the famine occurring in Ethiopia at the time and he decided he needed to do something. He called some other musicians in the hope of recording a song and donating the proceeds (which he expected to be measures in hundreds of dollars) to the famine relief efforts.Â
As some of you know, the group he put together became known as Band-Aid, which spawned USA for Africa, the Live-Aids concerts and many other projects. Literally billions of dollars of charity can be traced to one man who did a little because he thought it was all he could do.
His story, and the quotation he gave from Edmund Burks, came back to me this month when Peace House Community received a $5 donation along with a note. The donors have supported us for years, but only a few dollars at a time.… Read the rest “Peace House community: Getting involved”
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