For a number of years I’ve been a member of the Ground Force Network, an organization that utilizes grassroots endeavors to market various products and services – mainly around a faith-based subject matter. While sometimes the products I receive are less-than-optimal quality [...]]]>

For a number of years I’ve been a member of the Ground Force Network, an organization that utilizes grassroots endeavors to market various products and services – mainly around a faith-based subject matter. While sometimes the products I receive are less-than-optimal quality I’ve received several I’ve been quite impressed with – such as Kyle Strobel’s Metamorpha.

Ground Force Network rebranded as Team Buzz Plant and recently sent me a free preview DVD called Homeless for the Holidays. In a note they inserted into the package Team Buzz Plant wrote, “As you watch this movie, please keep in mind that this film is based on a true story. The story reflects what the film makers experienced in their own lives. This film was made on a much lower budget than originally planned and many of the actors involved even worked for free in order to make the film possible.” Well, that didn’t inspire me with much confidence. An excuse for the film before I even begin watching it? Yikes. Plus the timeline was rather tight – I was to publish a review by the 22nd – and I don’t get compensated for these reviews – other than the free DVD – so I wasn’t in a hurry….

That said, I was going home to New York for Thanksgiving and there would be plenty of time for a holiday, family-friendly movie during this visit – I figured I’d bring it, give it a try, and write a review when I returned home…and thus I am.

Put the movie in and it starts right up – its a pre-release version – so no previews or other fun stuff…just hop right into the film. Some decent CGI in a humorous style alongside with a professional narrator begin our story off right – things are looking hopeful…then the live action begins. One of my sisters groans. I’m willing to give it a chance, so is my brother Paul. We all sit quietly watching the movie. There are occasional laughs, groans, and comments.

The acting feels like something out of a TV serial comedy – and I don’t mean that in (necessarily) a bad way. Its over-exaggerated. I can’t quite figure out whether this is because the tone of the movie has been purposely set as such or whether its simply a poor production – I gave the benefit of the doubt and went with over-exaggerated.

The film’s storyline is fairly straightforward. Rich man gets humbled, learns the value of spending time with family, the value of faith in God, and the joy in helping others. There really are no surprises – though quirky characters throughout keep the laughs coming and the family moments overall are endearing.

Okay, it isn’t bad. I’m ready to give it a thumbs up for a quirky, family-friendly, positive message holiday movie – but then everything changes. I won’t ruin the ending for you – but lets just say I was crying – my brother was crying, my dad was crying. I can’t tell you about anyone else – but for us the story struck home. I kept fighting back the tears not wanting to sob at the end of a family-friendly comedy-with-a-message, but still the tears ran down my face.

Martha (one of my sister’s) replies, “Dave, you are a mush.” She still wasn’t a fan of the film. My mom wasn’t overly enthusiastic either (though she missed the ending – she has a bad habit of leaving in the middle of movies), but my younger siblings (Faith and Mary) seemed to enjoy it readily enough, though my two cousins (2 and 3) didn’t find it engaging enough to hold their attention.

I’m having a hard time putting a finger on how to recommend this movie. I can be a pretty devastating film critic. Rev. Bill Smith likes to call me a ‘film critic’ for my oftentimes harsh criticism of various faith and family friendly films which many enjoy thoroughly. One part of me wants to be critical, but in this instance the story, the passion, and the powerful ending have overwhelmed me – and I’m giving this film a thumbs up. It appears I’m not alone in this judgment, while there aren’t a ton of votes in over at the IMDb, the consensus thus far is 8.7/10 – not a bad score at all!

If you have kids – I think they will enjoy it…and the message is powerful and persuasive, the content is clean and enjoyable.

Related articles

• Homeless for the Holidays, a review (shelbylclarke.wordpress.com)
• Homeless For The Holidays – A Family Christmas Movie (christmas-dvds.net)
• DVD Review: Homeless for the Holidays (blogcritics.org)
• Many Americans Will Spend Holidays Homeless (npr.org)
• Top Movies for Christmas (socyberty.com)
• Top 10 Christmas Movies (collider.com)

I grew up in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have a television for a number of years. Cable was not available. Satellite was the only (and expensive option). Local TV channels were sparse. We learned to live with VHS.

When [...]]]>

I grew up in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have a television for a number of years. Cable was not available. Satellite was the only (and expensive option). Local TV channels were sparse. We learned to live with VHS.

When I moved to college I didn’t have a TV. I never bought one. We watched movies on our laptops or in the lounge. When Charity and I married and moved into an apartment our TV didn’t get a single channel – even the local ones. When we purchased our house, our home still didn’t get any channels. More recently they’ve changed everything over to digital and we never bothered to get a converter box – so now we definitely don’t get any channels.

We have a huge old TV some friends gave to us. No, I’m not too worried about mentioning this on the internet – b/c it’d take two or three people to move it and has a street value of $25-$50…but, hey, it works great for us – even if those little flat-screens look really pretty.

I still use the ClearPlay DVD player I was given years ago for allowing myself to be interviewed by a Philadelphia reporter for an article on the DVD player. It is starting to break down a little bit – but its been what, eight years?

So, Charity and I have learned to live without real TV (gasp). That’s not to say that we don’t watch anything – we do – but 95% of it is on the computer. The only time we turn on the TV/DVD player is for her exercise videos (no, I never watch / do them…people in leotards is disturbing to me) and when we have friends over and want to watch something as a group.

How do we watch anything? Hulu and Netflix. I began going largely internet based long before most people knew what internet video was. In those days there were a number of small vendors offering a small selection of movies and tv shows – many of these has since folded or been acquired. I envisioned a day when there’d be one site I could visit to watch tv shows – and not just the old stuff from the sixties no one cared about…then one day, a company began delivering on that promise – Hulu.

Hulu offers a wide range of television shows and movies online and for free. It is a pretty great deal. Yeah, if you watch them on TiVo you can skip the commercials, but Hulu is pretty close – with only 30-60 seconds of commercials on each break. The video is high quality, the buffering ensures the video doesn’t crack up even on reasonably slow lines, and the queue features allow you to track when new episodes are released for your favorite shows.

Hulu now has Hulu Plus for $9.95 – I received an invite to the beta but never joined. They wanted us to pay up-front. What? How about at least 30 days free? Especially since its a beta? Plus we already have Netflix – and I’m not going to spend more than $15 or $20 a month for video entertainment – I have too few dollars in the first place and better things to utilize them on.

But I’m still relatively happy with Hulu. I’ve been disappointed that they are now oftentimes stacking two videos – one right after the other. This is annoying.

They have gotten better at not showing you the same commercial over and over again in a single episode. For example, I can remember having four or five commercial breaks in an episode and seeing the same commercial each time! I wanted to shoot myself! Ach! One of those commercials was for the Adam Sandler movie Click – the first few times my wife and I thought it looked funny – then we became so sick of seeing the commercial over and over again we vowed to never see the movie and never have…it still makes me feel ill thinking about it. Overexposure – bleck.

Still, Hulu has a bit of a problem with this – which is funny – b/c part of the beauty of online video is its promise to offer better value (imho) to advertisers than normal video. Why? Well…

1. When you keep the ads short people don’t have time to leave the room. I sit through the commercial breaks on Hulu when they are thirty seconds – but when they get longer than that I can run to the bathroom, grab a drink from the fridge, or browse a website. Advertisers get my devoted attention when they are the only advertiser.
2. Hulu needs to learn how to spread the ads better. Yeah, yeah, I know we don’t buy it till the 20th time we’ve seen it – but I’m not that sort of guy….or if I am, you need to spread it out over a year…otherwise I just become annoyed.
3. Ideally, ads will eventually become part of the show itself. Did you notice how the hero is using a Dell and the villains are all using Macs? Okay, I made that one up…but I’d cast the villains as Mac users. Point is, you can advertise without even making it obvious…Cisco has done a good job of ensuring product placement in various shows demonstrating their video conferencing technology.

So, anyways, Hulu is pretty great. I made the switch to internet video years and years ago – now the trend seems to be hitting a tipping point, but its very possible you are still doing it the old-fashioned way…which is fine, unless you are paying out the nose for it – which many people are…in that case, try Hulu…I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. I’m hopeful that internet alternatives to traditional broadcast channels will offer better life to those shows that I love that are continually being canceled b/c they don’t appeal to a wide enough audience. Using Hulu you don’t have to pick between two shows showing at 8:00 p.m. – b/c now they are available anytime…and b/c this competition isn’t as furious you can see shows produced for smaller audiences. This hasn’t happened too much yet, but I expect it to be part of the trend of the future.

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I remember seeing the trailer for Battle in Seattle and saying to Charity (my wife), “Wow, that looks really good.” But it never came to theaters – in spite of an all-star cast and a compelling and fascinating storyline. When Netflix offered [...]]]>

I remember seeing the trailer for Battle in Seattle and saying to Charity (my wife), “Wow, that looks really good.” But it never came to theaters – in spite of an all-star cast and a compelling and fascinating storyline. When Netflix offered it on Watch Now Charity and I were all over it and loved it – definitely one to go on our favorite film lists.

Battle in Seattle dramatizes the protests that occurred during the World Trade Organization‘s 1999 meeting in Seattle. At this protest tens of thousands turned out from many diverse groups and while many were peaceful some where quite destructive. A fierce battle was waged between protesters and law enforcement as the latter attempted to maintain control of the city and ensure the continuance of the WTO’s meetings.

Here’s my top four reasons to see Battle in Seattle:

• Charlize Theron (Academy Award Winner, Monster, Cider House Rules, North Country), Woody Harrelson (Wag the Dog, The Thin Red Line, No Country for Old Men), and Ray Liotta (Emmy Award Winner, Hannibal, NARC).
• A beautiful tension is held in which the disparate characters are generally portrayed with realism and depth. The opposing sides, the innocents, are not all portrayed as one-dimensional characters – but characters with depth – humanity.
• A fascinating portrayal of a historic event that will drive you to learn more about the WTO and related issues.
• A moving portrayal that will spur compassion for those who are suffering and starving.

The movie is rated R and has violence, language, and some extremely brief documentary footage involving non-sexual nudity.

The first historical period I became fascinated with was the War for Texan Independence, and specifically the Battle for the Alamo. I was introduced to this battle via Disney’s Davy Crockett film and would continue my interest by reading a variety of [...]]]>

Cover of The Alamo (Widescreen Edition)

The first historical period I became fascinated with was the War for Texan Independence, and specifically the Battle for the Alamo. I was introduced to this battle via Disney’s Davy Crockett film and would continue my interest by reading a variety of books on the subject and seeing the various films produced concerning the battle – from John Wayne‘s epic The Alamo to Thirteen Days to Glory and most recently The Alamo with Dennis Quaid as Jim Bowie and Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett.

As I grew older I moved on to other historical periods – partially because of the moral ambiguity relative to many of my country’s actions during this time period. I still have not had the time to sit down and re-study those periods and draw a conclusive ruling in my mind on the morality of the actions taken – but there is at least great doubt in my mind. In any case, recently I was on Hulu and stumbled across a movie they were offering called One Man’s Hero. Unlike the many films I had seen previously this one portrayed history from a Mexican perspective.

One Man’s Hero tells the (true) story of the Saint Patrick‘s Battalion, whose most famous command was John Riley. The Saint Patrick’s Battalion fought with significant distinction and dedication during the Mexican-American War and consisted largely of combat veterans, mainly Irish, mainly deserters from the U.S. Army, but also including a wide variety of other nationalities – Germans, Canadians, English, French, Italians, and so on – mainly of a Roman Catholic religious persuasion. In any case, for a variety of reasons these individuals chose to fight (and many died) with the Mexicans.

It is a fascinating film and I would recommend it. While released in 1999 it has an older epic western feel to it – very similar to John Wayne’s The Alamo. One should not expect an action/adventure movie as so many of our films are these days. But if you are interested in history and/or enjoy westerns – this film is for you. While rated R it would easily fall as a PG-13 film in these days. There is a moderate amount of profanity, a significant amount of violence, but no nudity/sex. If you don’t have time for the film, you may be interested to read the Wikipedia article on Saint Patrick’s Battalion.

There is plenty of garbage out there. Then there is your average, and finally there is the gems – the real quality stuff. C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Stephen Lawhead, George MacDonald, John Piper, Kyle Strobel – these men are [...]]]> Image via Wikipedia

There is plenty of garbage out there. Then there is your average, and finally there is the gems – the real quality stuff. C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Stephen Lawhead, George MacDonald, John Piper, Kyle Strobel – these men are authors who exemplify this sort of quality. But what about in film? One name that turns my head every time he associated with a project is Christopher Nolan (another is M. Night Shymalan, though The Happening was a complete disappointment). Nolan appeared out of nowhere in 1996 with the Following, built on a $6,000 budget. This was followed by Memento in 2000, a cult hit that secured him a Academy Award for best screenplay. He secured Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank to star in his Insomnia, a remake of a European film released in 2002. It wasn’t until he released Batman Begins that his name became one common for table banter. He followed this up with The Prestige and then most recently The Dark Knight – continuing the Batman saga[1. I have not seen all of Nolan's films, as such I cannot recommend all of them. Additionally, his films are generally dark and some of his films (e.g. Memento) are gruesome and profane.].

Today I’d like to talk about some of my interpretations of his most recent film – The Dark Knight. I think it has an amazing number of subtexts which are worth analysis. I’ll warn right off the get-go that I’ll be offering spoilers throughout in giving my analysis.

• The Joker (played amazingly by Heath Ledger) and his minions represent terrorists and radical islam[2. I am not suggesting that all or even the majority of Muslims are extremists, rather this is a minority - but a deadly minority nonetheless. It is worth reminding ourselves of the spotted histories of our own cultures and religious beliefs.]. Alfred Pennyworth (Bruce Wayne‘s butler) warns that some, for ideological reasons, simply cannot be reasoned with stating of an enemy he had once fought, “…he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
• Harvey Dent represents good men who have gone bad fighting unbelievable evil. How often do we hear of the soldier who kills innocent civilians after watching a fellow soldier mercilessly murdered or a woman ravaged? The point is that even good men can be tempted and fall when confronted with insurmountable evils. Not that this excuses the behavior, it simply helps us make sense of the unfathomable – how good people do such bad things.
• Batman – James Gordon, the Police Commissioner tells his son, “…he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now…and so we’ll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he’s not a hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector…a dark knight.” In this Gordon recognizes the need for operations which are generally considered unethical and illegal in times of extreme distress. In this way Batman/Bruce Wayne represents some of our CIA/FBI/SpecOps who take the fall for necessary but illegitimate operations of our government[3. I am not defending all the actions perpetrated by our government, nor even potentially the majority of them. Our government has performed a disturbing number of atrocities and acts driven only by selfishness and greed throughout its history.]. Again Alfred tells Batman that he must, “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it. But that’s the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.”
• The Mob – Representative of traditional opposition. The criminals themselves recognize that there is a difference in motivation between themselves and the terrorists. This is not to suggest that their deeds are less evil but that there motivation is less ideologically driven allowing for more compromise and reasoning.

• Rachel Dawes – The death of Rachel reminds us of the loss of our soldiers overseas – and sometimes of the loss of innocent lives. At some point, Alfred again as the voice of wisdom asks, “Didn’t you think before starting this some people might die?” We know the right path of action and yet oftentimes when we embark on this path we lose our resolve as the losses mount. What is right is determined no longer right when the cost mounts too high.

There are so many interesting messages within both films (though Batman Begins is of an entirely different tenor). I’d recommend them both as entertaining, realistic, and with valuable subtexts to be mined. At the same time I would warn that true to Nolan’s style they do not hedge away from evil and while maintaining PG-13 ratings are dark films not only in places but in their entire tenor.

And, of course, while I am extremely sad over Ledger’s death his portrayal of Joker in this film makes a fitting culmination to an extremely talented and versatile actor’s career.

Bibliography:

• Wikipedia on Christopher Nolan.
• Wikipedia on The Dark Knight.
• IMDb Quotes from The Dark Knight.