Elizabethtown

Every now and then something happens that threatens to shake all my "Woe-is-America" convictions and what some people would term anti-American sentiments in its foundations.
Having watched the 2005 flick "Elizabethtown" recently was one of those events.

As much as you want to hate Americans for their stupidity in actually swallowing the garbage their President is saying - or the majority of their paid-off preachers, for that matter - you can't help loving its culture, its music, and the people who show that side of America, even if the only place it actually exists is in its movies.

Charlie Bartlett

I think the first thing one would have to say about this movie is, that it's refreshingly different. Maybe only so because of the performance of the main actor, a kid I'd never heard about, (Anton Yelchin,) or maybe because it was made in Canada...

It only got a lukewarm rating on the Christian movie sites, probably because of it's blatant honesty, that's simply too much for that kind of religious hypocrisy, where it's okay to slaughter thousands in the name of God and President, but sex is a sin...

By the somber review this movie received on Crosswalk, I expected a gory dram, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's a witty comedy instead, to be enjoyed thoroughly. Looking forward to seeing more of Anton, although it's unlikely he'll easily find another role like Charlie Bartlett to play...

Reign Over Me

Great character study and more. See more of my input on this one on my regular blog:

http://mcdozersblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/099-love-reign-over-us.html

Love in the Time of Cholera

Love is forever, and if this movie doesn't prove it - since it's based on a novel - then at least it proves that there are other dreamers beside myself who believe it.

Set against the backdrop of one of the most gloriously beautiful countries on God's earth, "Love In the Time of Cholera" tells a slightly different love story, one perhaps too good to be true, and yet in some ways more true to life than the evening news, and definitely truer than the outgrowths of Hollywood's pop culture with its never ending hails to youth, and labeling anything past a certain age as unfit for life.

That's probably what I love most about this movie: it tells the truth about who really are the dead ones and who are the alive, or at least rings home the fact that love - as well as life (truly lived) does not have anything to do with age.

Lions for Lambs

During the first few minutes into "Lions for Lambs" I thought I was watching U.S. government propaganda justifying the "War on Terror" and presenting the official 9/11 fairy-tale as truth. For one thing, I have never met any U.S. troops in real life as educated, well behaved and civilized as in any of those movies (and God knows I've played for a lot!), nor could I imagine an American politician in real life as whitty as the Senator Tom Cruise played in this movie.

Another 15 minutes into the movie I figured this must have been the smartest piece of U.S. propaganda I had ever watched.

Thankfully, it turned out to be no Neocon propaganda, after all, just a pretty good screen monument to the times we're living in, some sort of "golden finger" on the pulse of our times. The type that carries a message, which, sadly, will require a miracle for any significant amount of people to grasp, but part of the message was that it doesn't matter if it's just a single person who gets it, as long as that person does something about it for a change.

As someone who grew up on the '71 album "Who's Next" by "The Who," THE album by that band that's worth listening to, I was particularly thrilled about the little historic gem woven into this film when Meryl Streep (posing as awakening journalist Janine Roth) quotes one of my favorite songs from the album. A line that has come to my mind repeatedly in my life, whenever I see one regime or administration replaced by another, only to change absolutely nothing, especially not for the better: "Meet the new boss; the same as the old boss!" - Taken from the classical piece of rock music "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Except that the title couldn't be further from the truth. If there's anything that hits you about the general public per se, it's that they've been fooled over and over and over again since the song came out.

The bad guys in the movie are the politicians, sharing the blame with the news media, and the ray of hope is supposedly the beacon of education. What American producers like Robert Redford lack the guts to realize, of course, is that the sacred golden cow of education is just as much a hoax as politics and the media, and what's worse, movie makers who paint a reality a far cry from what's really happening. As long as people around the world can keep their Hollywood scope of things, the world isn't desperate enough yet for anyone to actually do something else besides watch movies and talk, even though this one was at least an effort to be a voice for the truth, even if the trumpet is sounding a signal that won't be understood by many, much less spur more than a handful to action, or even more than that special, chosen one...

In The Time of the Butterflies

Everybody has heard about the big bad guys like Hitler and Stalin, and maybe a few others. This movie tells the story of one more of the probably countless other little Hitlers most of us have never heard about and some of his victims. It makes you wonder where the people who stood up against them in spite of the odds took the courage. But they did. Somehow God must have given it to them, and in the end, the good side finally won. It has always been like that, and it will always be like that, even during the time of the greatest Hitler this world will have ever seen.

The greatest challenge, as this movie brings out, is always to wake up the sleeping masses who don't want to know what's going wrong. It's always been like that, and from the look of it, it always will...

Freedom Writers

Ooops, almost forgot about this one! Great and a must see for anyone dealing with young people!

Surf's Up

Of all the penguin movies that have come out over the past few years, I guess this one’s my favorite. Light entertainment only, though, no big life-changing experience.
(Of course, the story is about as true as Alice in Wonderland...)

But wait... there IS a lesson to be learned from the story: Every now & then you've got to forget about the "contest" or (rat race) of life and whether you're going to be a loser or a winner, and just enjoy the ride for the fun of it...
Once you get the hang of the fun of things (like doing your job for God), regardless of whether you're going to win the trophy (or crown), you actually start becoming good at it, and that's when you start becoming good at life itself.

The Great Debaters

Shows what the Afro-American population was up against in large parts of their country until not too long ago… Brilliant, if you like intelligent scripts.

Checking Out

An aged Jew in N.Y. (Peter Falk, alias Columbo) decides it’s time for him to “check out,” but upon realizing that folks around him don’t agree, finds out what a dumb and selfish idea that was.

Run Fat Boy Run

The moral of this British comedy: “The hare never made it, but the tortoise did.”

Resurrecting the Champ

No, this is not yet another boxing movie, but a movie about honesty vs. twisting the truth for personal advantage.

Charlie Wilson’s War

Shows what one man can do when he’s got the determination to do it. From an era when American foreign politics weren’t the bloody mess yet that they’ve become since.

Akeelah and the Bee

Great re-encounter with Laurence Fishburne (“Morpheus” from the “Matrix”) as tutor of a girl who participates in a spelling contest.

Michael Clayton

One of the better movies we've seen of late, and definitely one of the best roles George Clooney played in recent years.

P.S. I Love You

Ignoring some of the negative ratings this movie got on some Christian sites like Crosswalk, we went ahead and watched it anyway, and were not disappointed. Plus, the movie reveals one of the big secrets of all times about what it is that women really want...

The Bucket List

Yeah, that one was nice… What things would you do if you knew you were going to kick the bucket soon?

Dan in Real Life

One of the better comedies of what’s come out lately. Enjoyable.

The Last Mimzy

We really liked that one… apparently based on the whole “Alice in Wonderland” mystic, but cute & somewhat edifying. Again, it’s sometimes the seemingly useless little sister, not the smart alec big brother, who holds the key to the universe…

Second Hand Lions

The Kid from “Sixth Sense” and “Pay It Forward” is back. Though this movie isn’t quite as much of a mind blower as those predecessors, it’s a wild American fairy-tale with a few possibly-real-life ingredients that can be thoroughly enjoyed.

Juno

Neat movie about a teen girl who becomes pregnant and looks for the right foster parents for her child…

Next

Pretty good Sci-Fi about a dude (Nicolas Cage) who can look just 2 minutes ahead into the future… It does open a lot of possibilities…

Proof

While some folks may not like this movie, it certainly bore some lessons for me personally. It’s not always the apparently smart and adored professor types who come up with the solution to life’s problems (though their meaningless garble can strangely contribute to someone else finding it), but sometimes it’s the person you’d least expect to, who holds the key…

August Rush

Aren’t we all erring through our lives looking for our heavenly Father & Mother, singing our songs & playing our music in hopes they’re going to hear us & find us? When they do, that’s the magic moment that makes it worth it all.

Amazing Grace

Interesting what those guys who abolished slavery all had to go through, especially in the light of the fact that they finally won with a trick. Sometimes you’ve got to beat the Devil with his own weapons.