When You Want to Do Life Over : A Review of The Illusion

Just recently watched the Illusion with Kirk Douglas.  This is the moving story of a screen writer/director (forget which) who is very old and on the verge of dying.

Great start,  right? 

 Anyway as you learn more about this screen writer/director you find out that he was a dad at one point in his life but decided to pursue his career rather than be a caring dad and is now realizing that was a poor choice in his life.  He has a son who is a romantic and has struggled not having a father figure in his life.  His son is actually a pretty nice guy and is in love with a mysterious woman who continues to pop up in his life.  Kirk Douglas plays the aged father and does a great job with his role. Found out this was Kirk Douglas' declared last movie.   Much of the movie is showing Kirk Douglas' observation of how his son grows up without him around.  He realizes that his son has a negative self-image continually spoken to him in his father's voice, because of one pivotal moment where his dad drives off to pursue his career rather than picking up his son for his allocated time of the week with him.   Here is what I liked about Illusion:

1. Great movie that depicts the power of a father in the life of his son.   Not having a dad is a rough way to grow up.  A positive father figure in a child's life is a powerful factor that is not always portrayed in movies today.

2. Kind of comes off a bit like Highway to Heaven or Touched by An Angel -  without going too much into plot details this movie resembles Highway to Heaven where an angel comes and shows you your life in way that makes you want to change it.  A Christmas Carol is also very similar in theme to some of the parts of the Illusion.

3. Great redemptive ending -  I admit I don't always like a miserable, sad ending just because it is realistic and artsy.   I'm not saying I love movies that always come out happy and singing songs - but a good story with a good ending makes me encouraged to see more movies that have values.  Illusion delivers with a great ending that makes you reflect on your own life and relationships and helps you to think about the choices you are making now in life.

4. For a romantic movie - it definitely kept my interest.  I don't love romantic movies all that much.  The occasional chick flick I can enjoy watching with my wife,  but overall I don't rush to turn on Romeo and Juliet just for good times.  This movie was different in that it spun an interesting romance that kept me intrigued by how it was going to turn out.   I actually thought it was a fun journey as the main character's son continues to pursue this woman who has meant so much to him throughout his life.

Overall - if you are looking for a good movie in the same category as A Christmas Carol,  you may enjoy watching The Illusion.   It had a great soundtrack and a redemptive story overall.  4 star rating in my book.

Tommy, Back rubs, and Ben & Jerry's

"Tommy, Back rubs, and Ben & Jerry's" Paul says, This is how a wise movie loving husband will convince his wife to sit down to a science fiction movie. These were the enticements to at least try to watch Edge of Tomorrow:Live, Die, Repeat starring Tom Cruise. I was very skeptical if I was going to enjoy this movie when he told me it had aliens. I think it may have been a childhood memory of sleepovers. In fact, my Dad convinced me to rent Alien at a little store known as Blockbuster. My girlfriends were sitting huddled together on the couch. The music was tense and at just the right pivotal moment my Dad popped up in our basement window with a flashlight glowing under him and all sorts of chaos erupted. 
So, for this movie, I sat all cozy with a kid cup of Cherry Garcia. We had to split the movie up in to two nights (which Paul really doesn't like to do), but the first night we started the flick I had to say "time for bed" because I try to unwind for an hour prior to bed. I held my ground that watching alien spiders pop out and try to take over the world is not unwinding 
The plot of this movie is really interesting in that Tom Cruise starts the flick as a completely unlikable character. He's a slough. As the movie continues though I realize how much more his character foibles are in all of us. He is the most unlikely person to become a war hero against alien invaders. In fact, the heroine, Emily Blunt in this story makes it clear that she "volunteered" to go to the front lines against the enemy. Most of us prefer to stay in our comfort zones. We let fear dictate our lives and as a result we are act cowardly: dodging responsibilities, difficult conversations, and making up lame excuses. 
This movie also made me think of time in the concept of one day of our lives. It's a reminder of how important it is to spend time reading the Bible to have a clear sense of God's calling and purpose for your life. That way when interruptions or disappointments come you can put them in perspective. So, in case you have your ice cream melting in your hand, I will wrap up my review of why I think this is the only science fiction movie I can remember liking this much and here is why: 

1. Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise in a uniform. Swoon. 
2. Emily Blunt. Okay, she is amazing.  She totally kicks butt in this film and the time lapses create an interesting quirky romance. 
3. A  plot that keeps this story and character development moving along as new details are revealed within action scenes. There was a repetitive nature to it that built momentum and plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. 

Great date movie. Goes well with Cherry Garcia. 4 stars. 

When Sequels Are Better Than Originals - A Review on Finding Dory

We recently took our daughters to their first theater movie : Finding Dory.   I like Pixar movies for the most part and am rarely disappointed watching them.  While I liked Finding Nemo, I was bracing myself for a sequel that wasn't quite as good as the original.  It is just the law of sequels.   Was Karate Kid II as good as Karate Kid? Was 2 Fast 2 Furious quite as good as the original The Fast and the Furious?  However, I digress.  Anyway I can honestly say that I thought Pixar hit it out of the park with this one, and the sequel was better done than the original.  The humor was great, the message of parental love despite having special needs was refreshing, and overall the story was fantastic.  It was refreshing to see a movie that I could show the whole family with no objectionable parts.  My daughters sat through the whole movie without needing to get up, and I think overall the entire family enjoyed the experience.   This is what Disney Pixar movies should be about.  This is why I pay theater prices for an experience like this.  Without giving the entire movie away, here are the highlights of what I liked in Finding Dory:

1. Good acknowledgement of the original movie 

This movie didn't rehash a lot of the Nemo story but you also saw how the various parts fit in with the original story.

2. Exceptional setting at an aquarium park with lots of children involved.  

For anyone who has ever gone to an aquarium park with children, the scenes throughout were very familiar as well as funny.

3. Great introduction of new characters. 

Loved the sea lions, as well as the fish and creatures that were at the park.  That added some funny new characters as well as some complex ones that really added to the whole story.

4. Great theme of unconditional love.   

Hard to find this all the time in modern day movies, but this movie really showed the need to unconditionally love others despite any special needs they have.  This was refreshing to see and well delivered throughout this movie.

In conclusion : I hope Disney/Pixar continue to keep up the quality and substance of movies like Finding Dory.  It was great to be able to take my kids to a movie that we could all enjoy.   Two thumbs up for this one.

What type of movie is this? - A Review of The Tourist

Johnny Depp isn't cranking out hits lately,  but this movie came out a while ago and starred Angelina Jolie alongside him.  What was this all about? - I decided to rent it and see if it was as bad as the critics seemed to think.  First off - the acting is good - it was the story that really lacked something.  Angelina plays a spy of sorts who is working with someone mysteriously who tells her to pick a non-suspecting tourist and try to make those who are following her believe it is the man she really intends to make contact with.  So she picks Johnny Depp's character who claims he is a math teacher from America.  He seems like a nice enough guy and although kind of clumsy kind of likes the idea of Ms. Jolie following him around and rescuing him from danger.   However, that plotline didn't save the movie from an overall lackluster journey.  Here is where this movie fell short in my opinion:

1. Like stated before it wasn't the acting - it was the story behind the movie that really was missing something.

The story had potential, but when you are making a movie in the same genre as The Bourne Identity or James Bond series, you have some high expectations to compete with.   Unfortunately, I don't think this movie has the same ingredients that made The Bourne Identity so great and it also tried to blend too many genres of movies like point #4 below elaborates on.

2.  Bad guys who are hard to take seriously. 

Are they meant to be funny and comedic or are they really trying to be threatening?  This movie kind of leaves you guessing and the result is that you aren't rooting that hard for the good guys to get away and come out ahead, because you don't know if the bad guys are going to be so stupid they will end up sabotaging themselves.

3. A twist that feels forced and not that surprising.

A good twist can really keep you guessing throughout the movie and make you feel a sense of surprise and admiration for the writers. This movie's twist (although it does contain one) - doesn't seem to deliver that result.  It feels a bit too forced and not really that surprising.  Compared to the ending/twist of Limitless, which is open to interpretation and almost makes you want to re-watch the movie, this movie doesn't deliver a satisfying one.

4. Not sure what type of movie this is trying to be.

I had heard spy adventure and comedy so I watched it expecting something like that - but after it was all over - I actually thought this movie came off more of a romance??  I prefer adventures, action movies and comedies all to romances - so that definitely took some stars away from my review.  In the end, I'm not positive what type of genre the directors/writers were going for.   I guess if you aim at too many targets you won't hit any of them.

Conclusion: while this movie wasn't terrible, it delivered a movie that left you thinking it could have been so much better.  If that is the best you can say about a movie - I would say this is no more than a 2 star rating out of 5.

How to Cope As a Parent - Rudderless

Even though I picked that as a title - I wouldn't recommend this movie for learning that skill.  I just recently watched Rudderless which is the story of a dad who loses his son early on in college and pretty much throws a lot of his life away with how it affect him.  He drinks too much and starts living on a houseboat.  He starts playing songs his late son wrote and in the course of discovering who he is,  he befriends another young man (about his son's age) and even starts playing in a band. This movie does a great job about showing the various ways parents cope with losing a child at an early age. Although the son died when he was about 20 years old - it took a tremendous toll on the dad and his way of dealing with it wasn't always admirable.

Here is a quick summation of what I liked about Rudderless

1. Interesting story detailing the grief of parents and how different parents grieve in unique ways at the loss of a child.

The son's mom and dad grieved in very different ways in this movie.  The mother ended up having another child whereas the divorced father took to drinking and removing himself from his business society.  He started working as a painter instead of a successful salesman and unfortunately drank way more than he should have.

2. Really interesting twist as the story unfolds.

This movie presents an unexpected twist into the whole story about mid-way through.  It blew me away and made the whole movie take on a different perspective.  Movies that can do that with good writing earn my admiration.

3. Good song-writing throughout the movie.

I thought the songs in this movie were above average.  They were typical alternative emo style music and were performed well throughout the whole movie.  This gave the movie a good artistic feel and made you appreciate the effort they put into song choices & writing.


4. Decent ending although not completely satisfying but fairly realistic. 

This didn't have a sappy ending, yet it didn't leave you feeling like it didn't close the movie right. It was a fitting ending considering the journey it takes you on, and although kind of sad, it still left you feeling like it was a good movie to watch unfold.

Dealing with grief throughout parenthood is a challenge for anyone.  Hopefully through it all, parents look to their Savior to help them find comfort and healing.  This movie didn't show that very much, but it did show the healing power of music on a grief stricken soul.