Movie Review Sunday ~ March 30

Hope everyone has had a great weekend. We spent our time doing a number of things. Friday, hubby left for an overnight trip to NC. The girls and I attended a church dance and had a lot of fun. The girls enjoyed doing the Patty Cake Polka and the VA Reel. We got home around midnight and I crashed. We hung out at home on Saturday and in the afternoon, I ran several errands in town. Hubby got home around 8:30 Saturday night and we went to visit our niece, Hannah. She just got her own apartment and she wanted us to come check it out. We had fun visiting with her for about an hour and then we came home to settle in. Today, we enjoyed worship and afterwards we went to pick up my in-laws. Today is their 51st wedding anniversary so we wanted to honor them and take them to lunch. Their favorite restaurant is Cheddar's so we took them there and ate way too much :-o) We had a great time. Of course the weekend wouldn't have been complete without NCAA basketball. I think I watched about every single game that was on, men and women. I love March Madness!

This week, we've seen a few things although none of them have been great.

Atonement ~ There has been so much hype about this film that I couldn't wait to see it. It was supposed to be an "epic love story." I must have missed the memo that stated that it was very overrated. Don't get me wrong. I liked this film but it was not an epic love story. It was really the story of one woman's quest for forgiveness.

There are a couple of spots in the movie to warn you about. The first thing I'll mention is a graphic letter. I'm not sure why it was necessary to throw it in but alas, they did. The second thing is when a young girl walks in on her sister and a young man in a "questionable" situation. Again, I'm not sure why this needed to be thrown in. I would have loved to see the relationship of the two main characters develop into something wonderful. The movie was a little hard for me to get into and it was just a sad, sad story line. It could have been a great movie but my opinion is that it's just ok. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

The Valley of Elah ~ This movie stars Tommy Lee Jones, a father who finds out that his son was murdered. Because his son is in the military, details of the crime are not fully disclosed. The father tries to enlist the help of the local police and they meet many obstacles while trying to solve the murder. That is a really brief description of the movie but covers the main theme. Apparently this movie is based on actual events. It is a sad tale of life for some soldiers after coming home from Iraq. Tommy Lee did a great job in this one and I really felt connected to the story. There are some graphic scenes during the discovery of the murder victim and there is language scattered throughout the movie. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Michael Clayton ~ This movie was a little hard to get into at first and a bit of a strange role for George Clooney. I liked it but many may find it hard to follow. I don't recall how much but I'm sure there was some language in it. It dealt with corrupt companies and lawyers and showed just how far some are willing to go to save face. In the end, Clooney breaks that cycle. This is a tough one but I'd give it a 6 out of 10. You may find this one a bit boring.

Saving Sarah Cain ~ This was a pretty good movie although the acting was terrible. It was a clean movie and our children were able to watch it. The basic premise is this. There are two sisters. One marries an Amish man and adopts the Amish way of life. Her sister is a career girl living in the big city and harbors hard feelings toward her sister for marrying. The two do not speak for a number of years. The Amish sister looses her husband and a few years later, she dies. Upon her death, her sister (in the city) is called to decide the fate of the children. She struggles with wanting to keep them but also feeling like she can't raise 5 Amish children. *I liked this movie pretty well although I felt it could have been so much better. The acting was mediocre at best and this was a little distracting. Having read several Beverly Lewis books, I was looking forward to seeing this one. It could have been better with better acting. Again, it was clean and the story line was a good one. I'd give it 8 of 10.

Beowulf ~ It took us three days to watch this movie. Every time we put it in, we seemed to get tired and fall asleep. LOL! I had heard several negative things about the movie so I wasn't thrilled to watch it anyway. There are plenty of things to warn you about so here goes. You'll see plenty of half naked CGI characters, plenty of sensuality from Angelina Jolie's character, a low regard for marriage, and tons of sin. Again, this is one of those movies that could have been entertaining if it had left out all of the garbage that added nothing to the movie. I think Jolie's character could have been just as convincing without the sensuality. And the half naked CGI characters....what's up with that? I don't get it at all. It's almost like Hollywood cannot put out a movie unless it has lots of nudity, sensuality, and language. It's very disappointing. I'd give this one a 4 of 10. As I said, it could have been entertaining. Instead, I found myself trying to weed through all of the junk just to get through the story. Many of you will probably want to skip it.

I think that's all we watched this week. We normally check out movies before watching them over at Christian Spotlight. We read the reviews and the reviewers comments and evaluate what to rent based on many of those opinions. There are times that we might take a chance on a movie if we forget to review it or something like that. As with any movie or book, I think it's best to evaluate the reviews beforehand as much as possible. Use your own judgment and stick to your guns. One day, I'm hopeful that Hollywood might make some good quality movies without all the filth.