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Reviews
Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night (2023)
It is a variety show ..
I've been reading other reviews from people who obviously didn't listen to the creators talking about the event. It's two short films with a collection of Christmas music event. It's not a "film". It's a Christmas presentation based on the wildly successful series, The Chosen.
Of course there are previews of Season 4 and of course they're going to try and raise some money to stick it to Hollywood. People got to get paid to feed their families. The first 3 seasons were free!
I can't believe people saying they walked out in the middle of scenes and songs that brought me to tears. Maybe they should watch some Hollywood garbage instead of something so pure and full of Love.
Want Hollywood? Pay them. Want good Christ in Christmas entertainment? See this event and bring an unchurched friend. Or two!
Pig (2021)
I got it, but I didn't want to.
If you plan on seeing, "Pig" with Nicholas Cage, please skip this post because there are spoilers.
*********************Spoiler Alert************************
So when you go and look at the trailer, it appears to be a story about loss, humanity, and redemption. You clearly see the last shot in the trailer of Nick Cage feeding his pig who was lost at the beginning of the trailer.
But no, that's not what happens. He goes to the city to find his favorite pig because he loves her. He's devastated obviously by losing his wife because he can't even bring himself to listen to the tape she made him at the beginning of the film, and losing the pig is just too much. The pig is his last connection with his emotion because losing his wife was just overwhelming.
There's this bizarre scene about some kind of underground fight club that specializes in beating chefs? No apparent correlation here. It was not explained well at all. We find out that his connection to the truffle world is through the son of the jerk who had his pig stolen, and this kid only wants his evil father to let his mother (in a coma for 15 years) just die. So the father can't let go, and because of his anger, he keeps her on life support.
We see that Cage makes the very meal for the father that he and his now comatose wife had as the highlight of their love. This brings the father to tell the truth that the pig was killed accidentally in the pignapping. Very sad of course and great acting, but all it does is allow Cage to play the tape of his wife singing "I'm on Fire" by Bruce Springsteen. Not even a meaningful song for a woman to sing.
Missed opportunity BIG TIME for the son and father to reconcile and to pull the plug on mom or for the son to recognize why the father can't let her go. Missed opportunity for the kid (who now knows the pig wasn't needed to find the truffles) to help Cage work through his pain maybe by getting him a baby pig?
I'm sick of these "people are awful" movies, even though I know that's true. I want to go to the movies to be entertained. To laugh, be challenged, learn something, or oh, I don't know.... Feel good? Instead, I'm paying $50 to watch Nick Cage and Adam Arkin (the father) suffer. I can suffer just fine in real life. Real life is suffering. Movies should suspend suffering and give hope.
*Steps off soap box*
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Been there, done that
A startling depiction of what every family who has experienced the scourge of addiction has gone through.
The acting is truly the pinnacle of each of these actors' careers. I admit I love everything Carell does (even when I hate the movie) but this is really the defining role of his life.
I think any family member who is dealing with this situation should watch this movie. While you still have to go through it to get to the conclusion, at least you'll know you're not alone. You'll also realize maybe what you've been suspecting all along: You can't do anything about it. All you can do is love them. They have to work it out.
Thank you Hollywood (Israel?) for this film. It's painful but necessary.
Flight World War II (2015)
No technical direction at all, great acting
The story is completely without technical direction. I'm a former military aviation specialist, airline employee, and I'm a pilot and history professor. The civilian airliner flies through a massive bombing raid (complete with JET fighter escort) over France in 1940. Despite what the guy in the trivia person writes, these ME262 Jet fighters didn't fly until 1941. They weren't in full production as line aircraft until 1944. Why didn't the bombers or fighters shoot at the 757? They were engaged in a military attack after all. Why does the plane not fly the 22 miles across the channel to England when they know they're in France? They're talking to a ground radio station in England, but they don't use their ADF to lock onto the signal and follow it to England. Instead, they fly into a flight of 6 ME262's and trick them into flying into the ground? They out-climb them? The fuselage is riddled with bullet holes and the first officer is shot, but they still don't land. Best yet, a passenger is recruited to ride the landing gear at 170 knots or faster and survives. Not even wind burned! Sure, the satellite equipment would be out, but the flight computer would still work. It's designed to survive complete satellite loss in the event of a catastrophic failure of the GPS navigation network. The onboard RADAR would also show terrain features. They fly toward Switzerland. What? NO WAY they would seek out the "weather" anomaly with 30 minutes of flying time left. Um. No. That's the minimum flying time you'd want to fly to an alternate destination in an emergency. With 30 minutes of fuel, you land immediately. I could go on for another 1000 words, but I think you get the point. The acting is good, given the constraints of the ridiculous script and non-existent technical direction.