Reviews Aren’t All Strawberry and Cream

There seems to be little middle ground with movie critics about “Wimbledon,” which opened in theaters nationwide Friday.

Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe took issue with the sport itself:

“There is slapping, slipping, sliding, and the needless, hard-to-explain diving of the sort that you might recognize from college intramurals or phys ed. [Paul] Bettany’s tactic is to stick out his racquet and lunge at the ball, as though the object of the game is to catch it and cook it up for dinner.”

Lisa Rose of the Newark Star-Ledger enjoyed the tennis action more than the romantic story line:

“Crafty camera-work creates volleys of dazzling velocity and mythic power. The epic duels across the net are so kinetic, one wishes the film would keep its eye on the ball and stop straying off the court. Unfortunately it does.”

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Trivia time: How many Grand Slam tournament finals did the now-retired Marcelo Rios of Chile reach?

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Heeeere’s Johnny: Television commentator Johnny Miller told Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press that he grew into his outspokenness as a kid growing up in San Francisco.

“I came out of this group in the Olympic Club that were the biggest needlers, and we had so many different kinds of games and gambling games,” Miller said. “When you played, you had to handle the needle, and give it too. I think that’s where it started, where I learned to be combative with playing the game and handling pressure.”

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No go: Even the politicians are reluctant to wade into the pool of controversy known as the NHL lockout.

A reporter in Quebec asked Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin whether he would get involved to help resolve the standoff.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “If I thought it would help, I sure would.”

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Lockout, Part II: The basic job requirements of a hockey player will have some bearing on negotiations, or so says the Detroit Red Wings’ Darren McCarty.

“We’re not professional people in other professional sports,” he told the Detroit News. “We’re pretty straightforward, and we beat the tar out of each other for a living. So we’re not going to get pushed around off the ice, either. We’ve always stuck to our guns and done what we believe is fair.”

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In the swim: Olympic star swimmer Amanda Beard is back competing in the water again -- but not in the pool.

Beard, who won gold medals in the 200-meter breaststroke and the 400 medley relay in the Athens Games last month, will be on the swimming leg of the Nautica Malibu Triathlon on Sunday. The event benefits the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation.

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Trivia answer: One. Rios lost in the final of the Australian Open in 1998 to Petr Korda of the Czech Republic.

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And finally: Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, on the NHL’s labor dispute: “Will Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ player-owner, get into an ugly confrontation with himself on the NHL picket line?”