My Sister's Keeper

Death, I believe, isn't as much the terrible thing many of us make it out to be as is their terrible lack of maturity shown in the inability to deal with it.

Of course, if you believe that life is merely the result of random chemicals having met under one hell of a bunch of lucky circumstances, and that when the lights are out, "game's over" for good, you'll beg to differ, & you'll hate this movie.
But when you actually happen to know the mathematical probability for that scenario, you'll like it.

Apparently, most folks are real bad at maths, & so they hate thinking, talking, or watching movies about death.
Some fight it tooth and nail, like the dear mother Cameron Diaz portrays in this story.
It's tough for some folks to let go, tough to admit that another should determine some things that concern the outcome of their life, or some aspect of it they feel they're in charge of.
Ultimately, we'll all have to cope with the fact that Someone else is and was in charge all along, and that's when life will finally become livable again for those around us.

On a positive note, imagine you knew you were going to die within a certain amount of time, and you'd invest that time in creating a beautiful gift for your loved ones to let them know how much they meant to you...
Personally, I prefer that scenario over the bad surprises that people get who have allowed movies of super heroes surviving hundreds of explosions and thousands of bullets to convince them of their immortality...
Sooner or later it's going to be wake up time for everyone, & we'll find out it won't be half as bad as we thought it was before we started doing our maths.

Edge of Darkness

I like movies in which - for a change - the culprits are not your usual bearded, dark skinned, carpet-cutter wielding Hottentots from the outskirts of Godforsakistan, but the ones who are much more likely to be the real culprits, and I honor every director and actor who participates in such a screen statement, which requires a lot more courage than blaming it all on the Arabs, like the recent "From Paris With Love."

I also like movies which show that sometimes - perhaps often - you have to give your life in your fight for the truth, because, after all,
life may be a lot shorter than some of us think, and the only thing that will have made it worth living in the first place will have been the amount of truth lived during those years we will then look back on.

Hollywood producers always have this choice to make, about how much they're going to compromise with the truth for the sake of political correctness, popularity and gain, and I'd say kudos to Mel Gibson for not going the way of all flesh and the Travoltas of this world in this aspect.

Apart from the political message, the plot is also infinitely more intelligent than your average "Kill the Ayatollahs" rah-rahs.
There's always a lot more suspense involved in watching someone fight a real enemy, a ruthless and well protected enemy. Enemies that have the power of the authorities on their side, and it's so much closer to reality.

Needless to say, I'd highly recommend this movie way over the formerly mentioned type of Rambo-garbage, and would like to express my sincere gratitude to director Martin Campbell for creating a film that was not destined to insult the relatively few properly working intellects left on planet earth.

Tenure

You know those movies featuring a total loser who's doing so bad that it actually becomes embarrassing? They're probably aimed at making us feel better about ourselves, the real losers, out there in that strange dimension called reality-land, trying to cheer us up that every loser can strike a happy ending and somehow, thanks to Hollywood magic, turn winner again...

Well, "Tenure" is one of those, with the relatively fresh twist that our "hero" is a college teacher. He's great at teaching, but not really good at anything else. His students love him, but his colleagues hate him. Plus, his best friend falls into the category of "With friends like that, who needs enemies?"

It's got heart, though, and though this film is by no means guaranteed to knock your socks off, if the same thing can be said of you, I mean, the "heart" thing, then you might like it. Especially if you've ever been in a situation trying to figure out how to get through to members of the younger generation, or you believe in Bigfoot, or you happen to like Gretchen Mol...

At first I wasn’t going to include this film on my list of favorites, but then I was reminded that among all the balderdash of loserdom and Yeti-hunting, there lay a lesson far too important to ignore. When Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) is asked to share his secret to his popularity with his students he wisely states that part of being a good teacher is to always remain a student to some extent.

That’s one of the major lessons in life right there. The problem with most people is all the stuff they think they know. There’s no room for anything new, much less the recognition of anything valuable you might learn from others, even if they’re your students.

Any fruitful process in life has always got to be a two-way street. Think of it: if even God needs us, who are we to refuse the input from our fellowmen, even if it sometimes seems to be pretty weird stuff?

Everybody's Fine

To be quite frank, this is not the type of movie I'd be looking forward to watching a seond time, since the bulk of it is ridden with the bitter taste of reality - that of children lying to their parents as a result of parents lying to their children, to each other, etc. - and, after all, isn't that the one thing we're all escaping when watching movies - reality, and the principal reason why movies are a trillion dollar industry?
But then, this movie certainly has its lessons to teach, the protruding one of which might be summed up in the sigh, "If people could only accept one another for who and what they are, instead of expecting them to reach some self-imposed standard of their living our own 'impossible dream,' this world might be a better place.

In a society where achievement is what defines you, rather than your character or other inner values, the way to reach that goal of achievements - or at least the pretense of them being there - is paved with one thing that has been prominent in a few recent movies, like "The Informant" or "City Island:" lies.
It's as if we're all creating our own little matrix for our fellowmen in retaliation for the Matrix of the big lies our leaders are creating for us, and - aren't they showing us which way we're supposed to go, after all? Most of us, frankly, don't care too much about the truth to begin with, so, they're quite comfortable with that. Others, like De Niro's character in this film (some say his best yet), wouldn't mind occasionally being told the truth for a change. Once the illusions are destroyed and forgotten, lo and behold - who would have ever thought so? - life actually becomes enjoyable again, and "they all lived happily ever after."

It's Complicated

If you have a bigger problem with adultery than with the absurdity of your President receiving the Nobel Peace Prize while waging war in 3 countries, you obviously won't like this movie. If, however, you're into people: what their needs are, their feelings and what makes them tic, instead of religious dogmas that artificially make you feel better than your fellowmen, you might enjoy it as thoroughly as we did.
Granted, the movie has a few moments that come across as a little less than real or even right. For instance, you might catch yourself thinking, "Gee, I never thought I'd ever have to watch Steve Martin kissing Meryl Streep." But latest by the time they both light up a joint, you'll know why he was chosen for this role, and the laughs and brilliant "people moments" in the film will rapidly make up for any of its flaws.
For anyone who has ever been divorced and knows that these things indeed are complicated, this should be quite enjoyable, although the ultimate lesson to be gleaned from it may be nothing more than a reminder of the way Joni Mitchell once put it: "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"