The Fault In Our Stars

Based on the best-selling book by John Green, this movie attempts to pull at our heartstrings and teach us a lesson on living a fulfilling life.

Shailene Woodley, who came to the attention of movie watchers from the critically acclaimed movie, The Descendants and also the teenage dystopian film, Divergent, stars as the protagonist, Hazel Lancaster.  Hazel has metastatic lung cancer and meets Augustus Waters in a cancer support group.  They story follows their journey through friendship and love.  The film realistically portrays cancer patients, different ways parents deal with their children with cancer and peer relationships between cancer patients and non-cancer patients.

Augustus' friend Isaac is more predominant in the book and is missed in the movie but the focus is on Hazel and Augustus.

Hazel and Augustus bond over the book An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten.  Augustus uses his "make-a-wish" wish to allow them to travel to Amsterdam to visit Peter and find out what happened after the final page.

This reviewer has had the good fortune to be able to travel to Amsterdam and also share a birthday with fellow writer, Anne Frank.  Those scenes were amazing to watch on screen after experiencing them in person.

I give this movie one large thumb up pointing to all the stars in the sky helping us realize as Shakespeare said "The fault...is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

The Railway Man

Colin Firth continues his fantastic acting ability portraying Eric Lomax, an allied prisoner of war during world war two.  As a grown man, he is tormented by his memories of being a prisoner and of the Japanese officer, Takeshi Nagase,  at the head of the victimization.  When Eric's wife finds out that Takeshi is still alive, she convinces him to confront the officer and his own fears/memories.  There are a lot of flashbacks with a young Eric and young Takeshi. Tanroh Ishida really shines as the young Takeshi, emphasizing his power and the fear he commands.

The real essence of the film is overcoming your fears, trials and tribulations to find more peace and try to realize forgiveness.

I give this a large thumb up in hoping we all can search our souls to accept that the past happened, learn our lessons from it and find a way to forgive not only our tormentors but also ourselves to enjoy at least partial peace.

Book Thief

Based on the novel of the same name, written by Markus Zusak, this is the story of  Liesl, a German  girl (Sophie Nelisse) who is adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann (Geoffery Rush and Emily Watson) after her communist mother flees Nazi Germany.  On the way, her brother dies on the train and during his burial, she spies a book fall from one of the gravedigger's pockets thus beginning her book thievery.

Back in World War One, Hans had promised the Jewish family of a fallen comrade that he would do anything for them if they needed.  The son, Max shows up at Hans' door and the Hubermanns proceed to hide a Jew during the war.

Most of the movies set during the holocaust are from the Jewish perspective so this is refreshing to see the viewpoint of not only a German but a young girl.  Liesl reminded me of the real life German girl, Anne Frank (a writer born on June 12th just like this reviewer) with her innocence yet humanity in the face of war.

This movie was true to the book (but of course read the book for more detail), had wonderful acting, beautiful score and scenery.  The storyline between Liesl and Max is not to be outdone by Liesl and Hans, Liesl and Rudy, Liesl and the Mayor's wife nor Liesl and the neighbor, Frau Heinrich.

Overall, I give this two thumbs up in our constant yearning to learn from our history and celebrate the goodness which reside in all of our hearts but sometimes is hidden by tragic war and other negative circumstances.

Son of God/God's Not Dead/Heaven is For Real

I am reviewing all three of these movies into one blog post.

Son of God

     This is similar to the previous movie Passion of the Christ.  It deals with more than just the persecution of Jesus.  While still including the arrest and beatings, it tried to give more background to how Jesus acquired his followers.  

     When I left the theater after viewing, Passion of the Christ, I felt bad for being a sinner in the same way that I felt bad being German after viewing Schindler's List.  When I walked out of this movie, I was more focused on what a loving leader Jesus was than how much suffering he did for his followers.

     Roma Downey stars as Mary, the mother of Jesus and also co-produces it with her husband Mark Burnett (creator/producer of Survivor).  I am glad that they didn't have any other "recognizable" stars in the movie to take away from the story.  Diorgo Morgado played Jesus and while he was believable, I kept thinking he was too handsome to look at which made me feel weird like I was lusting at Jesus.

     Overall, I give this a one thumb up for cinematography and storytelling.  I was glad that I saw this movie and would recommend it.

God's Not Dead

     This is a story about an atheist college philosophy teacher (Kevin Sorbo) who challenges his class to write down the phrase "God is Dead".  One of his students, Josh (Shane Harper), refuses and so the professor requires him to defend his position to the entire class.  The main supporting characters are made up of the professor's girlfriend whom is a non-practicing Christian, her atheist materialistic brother (Dean Cain), Josh's pastor (real life pastor David A R White) and a fellow student (Hadeel Sittu) raised Islamic but exploring Christianity.  

     This movie has a good basis of a story with interesting characters and a foot-tapping song by the Christian group, Newsboys. In fact, when I think of the movie, I hear the line from that song "God is Not Dead, He's surely alive."  Then the movie became issue-driven instead of story-driven and fell flat in its ending.

     The good people in the movie were all Christian and the bad people were either atheist or non-Christian.  This attitude annoys me because when did a BELIEF become fact and if you don't agree with my belief, then you are either bad, wrong of both?

     This could have been a wonderful movie but it chooses to dictate its preaching instead of presenting different beliefs and letting each viewer decide on their own. 

     I give this a half a thumb up for the potential that it could have been along with its catchy song.  I am left disappointed in that my view of Christianity is a belief that there is a God and that he is the only one who can judge after our earthly life and that we all can live our own lives following our heart's passion.

Heaven Is For Real

     This movie based on the book by the same name follows the story of Pastor Todd Burpo's account of his son Colton's experience of seeing Heaven.

     Colton had a severe appendicitis rupture and almost died.  He had an out of body experience where he saw his parents in separate areas of the hospital and then saw Jesus in heaven.  He also met his paternal grandfather and older sister, both of whom passed on before Colton was born.  Todd has to come to grips with his own beliefs and allowing his son to believe what he saw.  Colton's experience affects his family, community and of course faith.

     Non-believers might think it is a preachy movie but not even close to the above-mentioned God's Not Dead.  

     I enjoyed this movie for allowing minds to be open and discussed calmly and rationally yet still passionately.  I give this a strong one thumb up signifying each individual belief that we follow in our hearts.  Please read the book though or a more complete detailing of the Burpo's story and even better would be to read it as a group and openly discuss it. 

     

Draft Day

I am obsessed with football.  I am also love movies.  So when I get a chance to see an advance screening of a movie about football, I am excited.

Draft Day is the fictionalized story of a day (specifically draft day hence the title) in the life of an NFL general manager, Sonny Weaver (played by Kevin Costner).  Sonny manages the Cleveland Browns and has to find balance between the owner (Frank Langella), the fans, the veteran players and the new coach (Denis Leary) while at the same time keeping both his widowed mother and girlfriend (Jennifer Garner) happy.  Sonny's father was the original coach and has passed on leaving a legacy that is hard to match up to.

In the movie, the Browns have the first pick of the draft because they were the worst team last season.  The highly touted prospect is a Heisman winning quarterback from the University of Wisconsin.  Side note, this reinforces that this is fiction as usually the UW is known more for running backs and offensive lineman.  Double side note--GO Badgers!

While watching the movie, I was a bit turned off by the lack of chemistry between Kevin and Jennifer. It also felt like they should be more father and daughter than romantically inclined.  In reality, there is 17 years difference so make your own judgements.

Jennifer Garner's character hit home as a knowledgable  female in the male-dominated NFL world.  To digress, it's like when a couple of guys are talking about a player, play or other NFL issue and I make a comment--at first they look at me like I'm a "dumb chick" but then they realise I know football and it is a fun conversation.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie as it got me back into my beloved football obsession.  It is best when dealing with the NFL front office wheeling and dealing and draft day behind the scenes.  I don't know how true it is to real life but it makes me appreciate all that Ted Thompson, Mark Murphy and Mike McCarthy go through making the GREEN BAY PACKERS the beloved team that they are on and off the field!

I give this one and a half thumbs up pointing to all the legendary NFL coaches and players looking down at us from Heaven.