Being marooned, either on a desert island or in space, has a long literary and film history. There is something about the solitary individual (sometimes the small group) battling against his circumstances, knowing that no cavalry is going to arrive. When the stakes are “perform or die” you normally have captivating drama. The pairing of [...]
With the most sincere of apologies to my AP English teacher Brother Aquinas, I never read The Great Gatsby. And owing to old age, any knowledge that I had of the plot from my perusal of the Cliff Notes version has been lost through the years. So I went into today’s viewing of Baz Luhrmann’s [...]
The older the script, the more likely it is that Hollywood will produce a good and uplifting film. The newest version of the Jackie Robinson saga, entitled simply “42,” is well worth viewing twice. I took my wife the 2nd time, and she loved it too. Living as we do in times dominated by the [...]
In an opening scene of Brian Helgeland’s moving film, 42, Branch Rickey, the famous president of the Brooklyn Dodgers and played by Harrison Ford, is reviewing files of potential black baseball players whom he might bring into major league baseball in the face of inevitable hate, vitriol, and racism. He picks up Jackie Robinson’s file. “He’s [...]
Some things come as a surprise and others do not. My family and I watched the first episode of The Bible, the History channel’s 5-part series, so it was no surprise to us that it premiered as the #1 cable telecast of the year and the #1 trend on Twitter. It was spectacular; just the [...]
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The Lost Medallion is a new family movie about the value of friendship and self-confidence. It begins with Daniel Anderson (Alex Kendrick-Facing the Giants, Courageous) visiting the home of an old woman who fosters many children. A little girl asks him to tell them a story. He agrees, and incorporates into his tale the some [...]
For the past several weeks, Catholics around the Internet have been talking about a scandal, and, surprisingly, they’re more or less in agreement. It is a real-life scandal of a bishop who forgave a criminal for robbing from him. It is a fictional scandal of a criminal who broke parole, became a successful businessman and [...]
The musical Les Miserables begins and ends with the sung words “Look down!” That is, look down at the suffering, the poor, those who are told to look down, those who don’t dare lift their eyes to dream. There is a feeling of the socially-conscious Dickens’ work to Les Mis. The nemeses are introduced early: [...]
There is something in me which resists popular movies, music, and TV series. That new piece of entertainment that everyone is talking about so often disappoints me by its shallowness or downright offensiveness. “It can’t be good if it’s that popular;” I argue, “we have such abominable collective taste”. A quick view of the cable [...]
Thanks to a friend and diehard Les Miserables fan, I saw the movie musical but have mixed emotions about it. Hugh Jackman is a fine Jean Valjean, but the Victor Hugo story is highly misleading on the French Revolutionaries; the musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, is mostly mediocre; [...]
On December 9, 1531, a poor and humble man from a remote village, some fourteen miles outside of present-day Mexico City, had a miraculous encounter with a mysterious lady and the Americas would never be the same. That peasant was Juan Diego, and the mysterious lady that he encountered was none other than she whom [...]
Are you among the very, very few who have not seen one of the most recent Christmas classic movies, Elf (2003)? If not, and you have been nice and not naughty this year, then you need to go ahead and treat yourself! Even if you don’t like actor/comedian Will Ferrell who plays the Elf in [...]
Let’s have a happy debate: What are the five best Christmas movies of all time? Obviously, tastes differ and change over time. Here are my five favorites, the ones I am willing to watch every Christmas season, starting with number five and ending with my absolute favorite: Number five: The Bishop’s Wife — In this [...]
“Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 18:3-4. These words of Jesus resonate in the movie The Miracle of Marcelino. Set in the time of the Mexican Revolution, The Miracle of Marcelino tells the story of a young Mexican boy named Marcelino (Mark Hernandez Mosqueda) who [...]
The other day my family made me sit down and watch the new Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man. I don’t know why they had to make yet another Spider-Man flick, but for the sake of family unity I cuddled up on the coach and watched. Recently, I hit a bunch of unsuspecting Catholic women at [...]
Drama is not dead! The new Denzel Washington movie Flight—about the aftermath of a plane crash—is living proof. Although the excellent and enticing trailer portrays the film accurately, the film itself is not a “perfect” film. It’s very good, but too long and lacking in consistency. After an incredibly filmed, tense-to-beat-the-band action sequence, and a [...]
Author Janette Oke’s characters come to life again, in Love’s Christmas Journey. I remember that when I found out that my local library had The Love Comes Softly Series, I quickly began reading all of them. They are wonderful books that provide not only enjoyment, but also present people responding to the ups and downs [...]
Here Comes the Boom is a very worthwhile film. It could even be seen as a definitive “teachers rock,” “save the school kids” film. Interestingly enough, another teacher/school film was just in theaters, Won’t Back Down, that beats the audience over the head with self-righteous, overbearing clichés (the trailer is just one cliché stitched to [...]
Kids are not always realistic. They believe anything is possible—Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, and saving the world. Adults don’t believe in such things. So, it was a good thing for thousands of homeless children that Zach Bonner was just a gullible kid. In 2005, at only seven years of age, he became the youngest [...]
The Venice Film Festival awarded a special jury prize Saturday to Paradise: Faith. The film is part of a trilogy; Strand Releasing has acquired the U.S. rights and plans to release it early next year. Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows: One of the hallmarks of cultural charlatans is the propensity to insult [...]
Editor’s note: For Greater Glory comes out on DVD on Tuesday, September 11th. In light of this, Leticia Velasquez interviewed Eduardo Verastegui, one of the film’s actors. Velasquez: Eduardo, when I interviewed you in 2009 in Connecticut, you mentioned wanting to do a film about the Cristeros. Tell me how you got involved in For [...]
The movie, October Baby became a successful symbol in the prolife movement. Like so many small voices refusing to be defeated against the mammoth abortion industry, neither could October Baby be defeated. This faith-based film went where Hollywood rarely ventures—into pro-life waters. It traveled another route where small films rarely go—opening #8 at the box [...]
Got atheists friends or family? The stellar new DVD Cosmic Origins might help. In this film, some of today’s top scientists (many award-winning) weigh in on the mysterious origins of our universe. Old and new cosmological theories are presented, leading up to the possibility of an “intelligent Designer.” But the film, being mostly a scientific [...]
