Footloose Review

Ahh, Footloose. Most people are familiar with this one. The story of a rebel (Kevin Bacon) that turns a whole town upside down with his dancing. Chrystal loves this movie and has seen it countless times, so I finally decided to watch it and write a review about what I thought. First of all, the soundtrack of this movie is very well selected and really does get you in a toe-tapping mood. The acting is well done and involves a pastor who believes that dancing always accompanies sinning against God. He pretty much teaches against all dancing, smoking, and drinking even though he (the pastor) has no relationship with his rebellious daughter who sneaks around doing the very things he preaches against. Kevin Bacon arrives on the scene as the city boy who is out of place in a conservative country town. He smokes, drinks, and most importantly - he dances and believes that these things shouldn't be banned in the sleepy little town. Of course he comes against some resistance from the town board (including the pastor) but impressively uses some Scriptures to justify that there is a time for dancing (check out Ecclesiastes 3:4 if you don't believe me). The choreography in this movie is superb and the moral is a good one too - Don't have standards just for the sake of having them if you have no Scripture to back them up. In this case, the pastor was dogmatic about no dancing, yet he was ignoring the fact that his daughter desperately wanted to grow closer to him and he made no effort to allow that to happen. The pastor reminded me of the pharisees that Jesus talked about in Matthew 23:23 when He said

"You [the pharisees] give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."

The moral of this movie is a good one. Rules without relationship = rebellion. If you are going to have high standards (which can be a good thing), make sure these come from a heart relationship with Jesus Christ, otherwise you'll be out of balance.

The Last Castle Review

This movie stars Robert Redford as a prison inmate who used to be a military general. Basically, in a nutshell, Robert Redford is sent to a type of military prison for doing something wrong. He used to be a three star general but has to go back to being "just one of the guys" as a prison inmate where saluting is illegal. In this movie the prison warden isn't a real pleasant guy to deal with but isn't insanely cruel either. I started to compare this movie to The Shawshank Redemption due to the plot involving a cruel prison warden and a group of prisoners who want to change things. However, this movie I would say was a lot tamer compared to Shawshank. The warden like I mentioned seems very strict, but he isn't all about being the personification of evil (like Shawshank), and from what I could gather seems to treat the men fairly decently. Robert Redford enters the prison and begins to really change the way the men are acting by looking for the best in them rather than the worst (as the warden tended to do). Redford taught the men self-respect and gives them a purpose in life which improves morale and helps them to work together toward a goal. Overall they grow to respect Redford and see him as the emerging leader in their prison. The movie was enjoyable to watch, but does tend toward humanistic ideas. The warden is cast as being cruel for viewing the evil capabilities of the inmates, whereas Redford is a hero for seeing good in each inmate. I agree that we shouldn't always be looking for evil in people, but neither should we ignore it. Sin is a fact and it exists in everyone. To ignore the sin problem in our lives doesn't help people. We need to face sin for what it is - rebellion against God - and then trust Christ to save us and give us a new nature that can transform our attitudes and behavior. Although on the other hand, there is a balance with helping people to see their potential and encourage them for their praiseworth qualities. I just don't think that difference was made very clear in this movie. Recommended for great acting and an interesting look at leadership in a military prison.

Family Ties Season 2 Review

Well the second season was released and I eagerly added season 2 of Family Ties to the queue. In this season it is becoming apparent that the writers were centering more and more of the episodes on the talent of Michael J. Fox, and although the other cast members never had as major of a role as he did, the show definitely seems to change. We get to see Skippy in this episode, although I sadly found out that Nick doesn't show up until season 4 - so we have a little more of a wait until we see the lovable Nick show up. Also Steven Keaton (the dad) has grown a beard with no explanation as to "why?". Alex also seems to be yearning for adulthood and struggling to relate to his mom in an honorable way in one of the episodes. Although I can't endorse every episode in this season, the show still has a lot more going for it than many sitcoms today. As I was watching some of the episodes I came up with a list for what makes a good sitcom:

1. Likeable Cast - probably one of the most important ingredients to a good sitcom. If people don't like the characters, they probably won't watch the show.

2. Relatable Situations - I can't speak for everyone, but the more I can relate to the situations and dialog, the more likely I will keep watching the show.

3. Well written punch lines and humor (script in general). Unfortunately, many shows seem to skip this ingredient lately, and put the cheesiest lines into the script with the hope that canned laughter will make the line funnier. Sorry, that only works so far. A good show will be funny without canned laughter in my opinion - simply because the actors are so good at delivering the lines. However, please note I am not saying that canned laughter is no help at all.

Well that about sums it up for ingredients to a good sitcom. I recommend renting "Family Ties" when you want a taste of the 80s that is still funny today.

Spiderwoman

And now for something completely different....

Lately we have been having some spider issues.... and usually that isn't a big deal - unless you are faced with a spider spinning a web on your front porch with markings like the one on the left... a black widow. Yes, I'm not joking we have to draw the line somewhere, and I was quite disturbed to find we had a black widow on our front porch guarding an EGG SACK! Great - just what I need ... hundreds of baby black widows all around the foundation of our townhome. Well after finding this spider and doing some research... I found that Black Widow Spiders carry venom that is approximately 15 TIMES that of a rattlesnake. Fortunately they don't inject that much when they bite, but their bite is still enough to kill small children if not treated properly. Also enough to call 1- 800-KILL -SPIDERS FOR -ME -PLEASE! Well every story has a hero, and now for the hero of our story ... Spiderwoman - or otherwise known as my wife Chrystal (on the right). Chrystal was brave enough to stick the black widow and her egg sack into a plastic bag and then step on it and trash it - all this while I was at work. After this we called an exterminator who sprayed our foundation to ensure we won't see another one of these shiny black spiders anywhere near our place for a while. THE END. (True story).

American Sweethearts Review

This movie looks very promising, but unfortunately the keyword is "looks". It has the stars John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Chrystal, and Julia Roberts. With all that star-power Chrystal and I were expecting a romantic comedy that was funny and well-acted - however, we were wrong. The script in this movie is horrid with a capital "H". The jokes are lame, the characters are not very likeable in any sense, and as each minute goes by, you begin to ask yourself - will it get any better? Basically the plot is that John Cusack's character is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones (in the real story - as well as playing sweethearts as actor and actress in a hit show they had going). However over the years they drift apart and practically hate each other. Billy Chrystal plays a movie director in this movie that is all about publicity and making sure he can bring the two stars back into a movie even though their chemistry together is about as bad as it could get. Not much to commend in this movie I'm afraid. Chrystal and I turned it off half way into it - it was THAT bad. Not content-wise, just script-wise. Save yourself 100 minutes and skip it. Another proof that it takes talented writing and directing, not just great acting to make a good movie. How the West Was Won was another movie with an all-star cast that just seemed to fall flat. No matter how much acting talent you pack into a movie, it doesn't guaranteed a great final product. Rent this movie if you doubt it.

Monster-in-law Review

Chrystal picked this one up at the movie rental store after being pretty tired of my Terminator movies and other wonderful action flicks. So I decided to watch it with her and see what it was all about. OH MY GOODNESS! This movie is terrible! Please skip it. The acting is fair-to-poor, and Jane Fonda is the mother-in-law in this movie who doesn't want Jennifer Lopez to marry her son. It has potential to be very funny, but it just kind of misses the mark, and makes you wonder why you just spent 1.5 hours in watching this bizarre, not-funny movie try to be hilarious and touching. Sometimes Chrystal really gets good movies (like Serendipity) but this one was a definite miss (and I think we both agree on that one). Please people, save your money and DO NOT RENT IT. Some people find Wanda Sykes hilarious with her sassy mannerisms - but I don't. Jenny Lopez should stick with singing in my opinion. Two thumbs down on this one I'm afraid.

Pleasantville Review

Chrystal and I caught this on TV the other night, and since I had never watched the whole thing enough to make sense of, I decided to see what it all was about. Very thought-provoking movie about two teens (Spiderman and Legally Blond girl) who end up going into an old TV show that resembles Leave it to Beaver quite a bit. Everything in the TV show that they enter is near perfect, the husband always comes home on time, the high school students are all "pleasant" toward one another, and nothing is dysfunctional or out-of-the-ordinary. Hence, the name "Pleasantville". As the young man and young lady go there, they obviously bring some of their culture and times with them and introduce the town to many things. Reese Witherspoon's character is pretty promiscuous so she definitely teaches the town about many ways of the world (including human reproduction which was an undiscovered fact of life in Pleasantville - R-I-G-H-T!). Spidey's character knows all about the TV show so that helps him understand the strange new world he has found himself in, and he also tries to convince his sister (Reese Witherspoon) to not corrupt the townspeople. Overall this story becomes an intriguing look at human behavior toward strange happenings and differences in others. Some people become bigots and other people want to blend in and go with the crowd. Overall, most of the characters realize that change is here to stay and that they either have to adapt to it, or live in denial of the facts of life. Although I can't endorse everything this movie contains (quite a bit of sexual content for a movie that is almost 50% in black and white), it was an interesting look at people's response to a world where unexpected circumstances happen and sinful actions ruin the co-existence of others. Not many people enjoy constant changes in their lifestyle, surroundings, and values but thank God we all have the opportunity to know a Savior who never changes in His love toward us :

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. - Hebrews 13:8 NKJV