Yippee! We actually got to watch a sports movie for once!
Obviously, I've seen my share of sports themed films in my day. I've debated and rearranged my list of the best on a regular basis so I was curious to see what kind of an impact this one made on me.
The movie is Facing The Giants and it's unique in many different ways, but mostly because it's a Christian film that made a splash in the secular world of Hollywood.
In fact, the cast was composed of volunteers from a local church, and it tells the classic underdog story about a high school football team.
In its first weekend, the film opened on 441 screens nationwide in the United States. Despite such a small number of theaters, the film opened in twelfth place with $1,343,537! Only three films in the top ten released that weekend grossed more per theater. For such a small budget - - $100,000 - - the film ultimately was shown in over 1,000 theaters and grossed over $10,000,000 as of January 2007.
Here is the trailer:
HUBBY'S REVIEW
Some critics complained that characters confronting problems from an explicitly Christian worldview belonged in church rather than portrayed in film. Josh Rosenblatt wrote, "its feel-good storyline, shopworn message, and bottomless sermonizing would have played better in Sunday school than on the big screen, which is - - let’s face it - - Babylon’s turf."
Wow. Well, at least he can admit what we've suspected about Hollywood since its inception. Even so, I disagree that films of this kind shouldn't be made. If you don't want to see it, don't go to the theater or rent the video. Plus, to suggest that a movie of this kind is in any way "damaging" to people who go to see it expecting to see "just a football movie" is dishonest.
It has all the elements of other great sports films, and the Christian worldview only adds to it. Don't take my word for it though. See it for yourself then get back to me.
I don't want to ruin it for you so all I'll say is that there are two incredibly powerful scenes in this film that gave me chills. One is in the middle of the picture when the team is practicing, and the other is towards the end just before the critical play in the championship game.
I'm giving it 4.5 Ben & Jerry's ice creams out of 5. I absolutely loved this film for so many reasons, and any time a movie can make you stand up and cheer as well as cry you know it's a good one!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Yes, another John Cusack picture. The last one was extremely disappointing (at least to me) so I was hoping this time around would be much better.
The film is called Grace Is Gone and it's the story of a military family that has to make the ultimate sacrifice.
It is a 2007 drama tarring John Cusack as a father who does not want to tell his two daughters that their mother has died while serving in Iraq. On January 29, 2007, it won the Audience Award for Drama at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
The music in the film also received two Golden Globe nominations by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.
I was happy to reconnect with my buddy Cusack since he gave a stirring performance in this picture. Being a dad, I could relate to his struggles to want to try and protect and preserve their innocence (and happiness) for as long as possible.
Here is the trailer:
HUBBY'S REVIEW
A refreshing departure from the current crop of Iraq war dramas, Grace Is Gone is a heartfelt, finely acted portrayal of grief and healing.
Cusack really steps into the character of the uptight, grief-stricken Stanley and the little girls who play his daughters are amazing. Specifically, it's the story of a man and the special relationship he cements with his daughters as he takes them on a spur-of-the-moment road-trip delaying the inevitable moment when he must break the news to them that their mother has died in the line of duty in Iraq.
I remember my mother-in-law telling us before we watched it how it was very slow, drawn out, and boring at times. She didn't realize it, but that was a very astute observation on her part!
Where this film succeeds is by creating that exact sense and feeling of emotion so that the audience in a sense gets to experience what Stanley is experiencing in his moment-to-moment struggle with the truth.
I'm giving it 3.75 Ben & Jerry's ice creams out of 5. A moving story, and one we need more of these days so that we will always remember the sacrifices made by others for our sake.
Maybe it was dumb luck (or bad luck), but surprisingly this next film on our To View List had a connection to the previous waste of time known as The Ruins.
The one was called The Happening starring everyone's favorite Marky Mark Wahlberg, and I just realized it was the third movie in a row we watched that not only had two words for its title, but that had the word "The" as the first of those two words. Weird.
In any event, this is the next feature film by M Night Shyamalan who brought us some classics as well as some duds.
is a 2008 American apocalyptic horror film about people who inexplicably begin committing mass suicide. First they become disoriented and motionless, before resorting to the most convenient means of killing themselves. Initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack, the epidemic quickly spreads across the northeastern United States.
Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher in Philadelphia, receives news of the epidemic at school and decides to leave the city by train with his estranged and well-nigh-unfaithful wife, Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel). They are accompanied by his friend and fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and his eight-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).
Here's the trailer:
HUBBY'S REVIEW
One thing I like about M Night Shyamalan is that he always seems to try and mix the spiritual with the secular in his films. The Happening is no different except (just like the other movies before it) he never quite goes all the way, and fully commits himself to making a bold statement as to what I feel he believes - - that there is a God, and that He is in complete control.
Instead, he gives us more global warming junk to explain the events in this story (read my own personal views on the subject of so-called global warming).
The Happening has received mostly negative reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that only 18%, based on 198 reviews, gave positive appraisals. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has 34, based on 38 reviews. I'm here to tell you they're spot on in their analysis. Be sure to read the "Critical Reaction" section for more here.
Many critics and audiences who have seen the film wondered if the movie was bad intentionally. Others ponder on the fact that the film was meant to be a throwback to B-movies in the past. Before the film was released, M. Night Shyamalan had this to say to CNN: "No. 1, it's a B movie. This is the best B movie you will ever see, that's it. That's what this is. If there's other things that stick to your ribs as you walk out, that's great, but it's supposed to be, you know, zombies eating flesh."
If that's true, and it was intended to be taken this way, the I say it's a smashing success. Otherwise, it's a serious disappointment. All we really have to go on is the director's own words prior to the release of the film. One wonders if his statements can be trusted or, if he began circulating this after various focus groups reacted negatively as well. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
I'm giving it 3.75 Ben & Jerry's ice creams out of 5 because it is a classic depiction of the famed "B Movie" from years past.
Next up on our Halloween 2008 horror-fest was The Ruins.
Based on the terrifying bestseller by Scott Smith, The Ruins follows a group of friends who become entangled in a brutal struggle for survival after visiting a remote archaeological dig in the Mexican jungle - - where they discover something deadly living among the ruins.
What could it be? An ancient curse? A beastly monster? A group of ritualistic, cannibalistic tribesmen and women?
Actually, the truth is much more surprising!
Here's the trailer:
HUBBY'S REVIEW
Personally, I think it's far too easy to make a horror film these days especially if this is the type of junk that passes for "horror" on the big screen.
The writers and filmmakers come off as being simply lazy and uninspired to take on a work like this. I know it was based off of another original work, but how some studio thought that this was the story to make a film adaptation of is beyond me!
***SPOILER ALERT***
I'm not going to waste my time or energy writing a lengthy review so here goes. I hated this film.
Maybe it's the age of global warming nonsense that we're living it, but whatever it is I can tell you what this movie isn't - - it's not good!
Plants are the "monster" in this film? Seriously? Are you kidding me? I would've much rather preferred the good old "monster-that-lives-underground-below-the-pyramid" creature, but that's just me.
Sadly, it pains me to give this only .5 Ben & Jerry's ice cream out of 5. I believe that's a new, all-time low for us here at OMD!
Yes, I know, ANOTHER LONG HIATUS from this site. Sorry about that (do I sound like a broken record yet?), but it's not like I'm letting anyone down since I see that this site has failed to receive A SINGLE VISITOR for months! Well, I'm about to change all that starting now!
First, some of the top keywords that will drive traffic to this site that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS POST except to make it show up in search results, and perhaps generate more views courtesy of today's major news headlines.
Divides Gaza Strip into two parts...
Gaza's underground tunnel in sights of Israeli warplanes...
Cheney: Israel not seek US OK before invasion...
MORE OBAMA DRAMA: RICHARDSON PULLS OUT
UPDATE: Autopsy planned in death of John Travolta's son...
Prince to Release Three Albums in 2009...
There. I'm glad we got that out of the way. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
It's unusual for Wifey and I to watch horror films. It's not because we're a bunch of wussies (ok, on second thought, maybe we are just a little bit), but because the plots are just so mundane, the acting horrible, and the entertainment value (watching people get tortured after their body parts are cut off and eaten) just isn't something we enjoy signing up for on most quiet evenings.
However, we decided to buck that trend for Halloween 2008 and so we rented 2 horror movies. The first one we watched was called The Signal, which looked great in the previews we saw!
Here's the trailer:
HUBBY'S REVIEW
I've always been drawn to any kind of movie that has to do with the "end-of-the-world" and apocalyptic themes given what I know to be fact.
On the surface, this film presented an interesting concept or at least one I had never seen before. The Signal asks us to consider what it would be like if all telecommunication devices broadcast only a mysterious transmission ("the signal"), turning people insane.
The film is broken up into three "transmissions" (chapters) each of which had different directors during shooting. Each part manifests elements of one of the following genres: visceral horror, black comedy, and mystery-love story.
The fact that it's told in three distinct parts from four completely different directors is not "unique," but something that is not lost on the viewer. In fact, it actually works against the film.
The first "transmission" slowly built to a crescendo and succeeded by drawing us in and keeping us on the edge of our seats. Yet, the second "transmission" completely ruined the film as this particular director that it would be fun to make it a comedy of sorts, and that eliminated any chance that the audience would remain emotionally involved with the characters the rest of the way. At least the third "transmission" sort of returned to the mood and style of the first, but it spent most of the time reestablishing that feeling instead what should have been its turn to build off of it to an exciting conclusion.
Whose idea was it to go with four different filmmakers anyway!?! It was a terrible decision to go that route in the opinion of this humble critic. I will say that one interesting tidbit that I enjoyed learning about this picture is that it was completed for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on a budget of only $50,000 and shot over the course of 13 days! That's pretty remarkable.
All in all, I'm not surprised that I was disappointed by a horror film, but given this movie's original premise I was mad that it didn't deliver like I expected it to.
I'm giving it only 1 Ben & Jerry's ice cream out of 5.