Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone in “Aloha ” 2015. Neal Preston

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Yes, “Aloha” was released back in 2015, and a lot has happened since then, don’t you know. I’m only seeing and sharing it now because I’ve fallen in serious “like” with Emma Stone’s eyes, Bradley Cooper’s career and the political world.

We find ourselves in Hawaii, where this film was made, where real lava flows and entire suburban neighborhoods went up in flames.

In these happier days, we’re watching a famous military contractor (Cooper) who has just returned to the fabled islands of palm trees and surfers and guitar strummers and who gets in trouble with two different women.

This movie reconnects him with a long-ago love (Rachel McAdams) who is (are you ready for this?) married to the pilot (John Krasinski, “A Quiet Place”) of the plane that just delivered him. Now, that sort of thing happens so often, I’m surprised that an Oscar-winning writer-director like Cameron Crowe just stumbled on such an idea.

I guess this sort of thing happens, but it’s being sold as a set-up for a love story, which is OK because American women are in the market for a good love story. As long as it’s a really, really good story, well acted by beautiful, talented people like Emma Stone, who plays a gorgeous Air Force “Watchdog” for a mysterious guy (Bill Murray — yes, that Bill Murray, who used to be on Saturday Night Live and plays here a wealthy, suspicious space entrepreneur).

Stone is (are you ready for this?) a very blonde native Hawaiian (?) who is part Chinese, part Hawaiian and part God knows what else. She deserved a rewrite and a better agent. Since 2015, she has landed better parts.

Now as you know the now-famous movie gunslinger Alec Baldwin has some gun trouble, but here he is aboard this group in 2015, as a grumpy general. Baldwin went on to bigger real life trouble and finally had redemption in 2024.

In fact, almost everyone in this film has gone on to better things.

Just pay attention to the facts at hand. A suspicious spacecraft, with an even more suspicious load aboard, is in this script, as an important part of the U.S. space program in Honolulu, Hawaii. I’m betting that you didn’t know such a strange program was going on in Hawaii. I didn’t either, but it all unfolds happily in the end with everybody happy … except for Bill Murray running away down Waikiki Beach. Thanks for listening.

“Aloha” streams on Netflix and is rated PG-13, in case that’s important to you at a time when an election will change America, including Hawaii, forever.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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Transformers One beautifully tells a classic origin story between two legendary characters in the Transformers universe, Orion Pax and D-16, and their early friendship on their planet, Cybertron. If you somehow don’t know these names or the promoted premise, avoid the advertising and let it be a nice surprise, though you will probably guess before the reveal. The dramatic story buildup, the twists and betrayals, and the character revelations combined with the animation were all so good that I at one point had a tear or two rolling down my face, though there is plenty of action and comedy as well. Even without Peter Cullen voicing Optimus, this was One of the best Transformers movies I have ever seen.

Unlike the live-action Transformers of the last two decades, Transformers One is set entirely on their home planet, Cybertron, with no humans to take focus away from the Transformers (while this was not necessarily a bad thing in those movies, it is a nice change of pace). At first, our main protagonists do not have the ability to transform effectively making them lower-class citizens who are relocated to working long hours mining for Energon (their primary source of energy). Orion Pax has dreams of being more and his best friend D-16 joins Orion on his adventures, whether he likes it or not. After brief highs and lows, the pair venture out of the city, along with former/coworkers/reluctant allies B-127 and Elita, to the largely desolate planet looking for a lost artifact, but what they find changes their relationship, their status, and the fate of the whole planet.

The world-building story is amazing. If you have never seen anything Transformers-related, you will have no problem watching this movie. There are easter eggs and nods to the franchise, however there is enough exposition to be able to enjoy this as a stand-alone film, while at the same time it is not so much information that it feels too dense or overwhelming. A few plot points are predictable, even more so if you know the characters and/or have seen other movies (not just other Transformer movies). Nonetheless, this character-driven story is excellent and well told by the voice actors and animators.

Speaking of the voice actors, they were all good choices to play their respective characters. Chris Hemsworth plays Orion and Brian Tyree Henry plays D-16. Side note: Henry is the only main actor’s voice I didn’t recognize, but after looking at his filmography, I should have (he has been in two Godzilla/Kong films, The Eternals, and the Spiderverse movies). I immediately recognized Laurence Fishburne, and it made me happy that he got to say “The Matrix” quite a few times (not the same Matrix, obviously, but it was still fun to hear). For the second movie in a row (following The Killer’s Game), there is an MCU reunion since Scarlett Johansson plays Elita. And Keegan-Michael Key is hilarious as B-127.

Okay, enough stargazing. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and would highly recommend it to all audiences of all ages. It is fun, thrilling, funny, and emotionally engaging. Even if you know where the story is headed (which is highly likely given the premise and promotion), the story is so well told that it still packs an emotional punch once it reaches its climax.

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U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles is looking to overturn a decision that stripped her of her first individual Olympic medal.

Video footage shot for the Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles Rising” might help her do it.

Attorneys for Chiles filed an appeal Monday to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland looking to reverse a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that named Ana Barbosu of Romania the bronze medalist in the floor exercise last month at the Paris Games.

Chiles had been awarded the medal Aug. 5 after an inquiry by her coach Cecile Landi resulted in the judges improving Chiles’ score, which lifted the UCLA gymnast from her initial fifth-place ranking to third place. It led to a historic moment, with gold medalist Rebeca Andrade, silver medalist Biles and Chiles making up the first all-Black gymnastics podium in Olympics history.

But days later, following a hearing requested by Romanian officials, the CAS ruled that Landi’s inquiry missed the one-minute time window by four seconds, leading the International Olympic Committee to award the bronze to Barbosu and move Chiles back to fifth place.

USA Gymnastics immediately appealed the decision to the CAS, submitting video evidence that was said to show that Landi’s inquiry came 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was published. That appeal was denied.

The footage was submitted as evidence to the Swiss court Monday, with Chiles’ attorney noting in the filing that it came from “Simone Biles Rising” director Katie Walsh and production company Religion of Sports. Walsh and her team had been on hand in Paris to film Biles’ Olympic journey for the second part of the series — and they also ended up capturing footage key to Chiles’ case.

According to the court document, which was filed in German, Walsh reached out to Landi to express her support after the Chiles decision. Landi inquired if the director had any footage of what had transpired following Chiles’ floor performance and ended up receiving a video that contained footage from the three cameras Religion of Sport had at the event, as well as from NBC’s live broadcast and a running clock.

Religion of Sports and Chiles’ attorney, Maurice Suh, did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

According to the court document, the video shows Landi heading to the judges table 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was displayed. Two seconds later, the filing states, Landi can be heard making a verbal objection while a technical assistant can be seen making eye contact with her and acknowledging the objection was received. Landi verbalized the objection at least one more time before the 60-second limit had expired.

In a statement Monday, Suh said that Chiles’ “right to be heard” was violated when the CAS refused to allow the video evidence. He also alleges “a serious conflict of interest” with Hamid G. Gharavi, the head of the CAS panel that handled Chiles’ case, was also representing Romania as a lawyer at the time of the hearing.

Chiles and Biles are among the gymnasts appearing in the Gold Across America Tour, which stops at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.