If I had seen this film before this past week, it would have been my #1, knocking 3:10 to Yuma off my top ten (sorry about that…)       In 1898 a lone man digs through the earth. Undaunted by the elements, the sheer hardness of the earth and the seemingly impossible task he has set for himself, he strikes oil. Yet a few years later, he has assembled a team of men who go from place to place,... Read more

  I used to think that the pirates who didn’t do anything, according to the song, just sat around all day: the epitome of laziness. But in this big screen veggie tale, the three vegetable pirates are good-hearted minimum pay service workers, with low self-esteem, who serve and clear tables at a dinner theater (about pirates), are taken back to the 17th century because a princess, who is captured by her evil peg-legged uncle wants his brother’s throne, finds what... Read more

Will Smith plays Dr. Richard Neville, a scientist soldier, who with his dog, Sam, seem to be the sole survivors of a viral epidemic that has either killed most of the people on the earth, and impaired the few hundred thousand remaining that appear as light-shy vampires, drawn into action by human blood. New York is the disaster site but it ends in the green, hopeful hills of Vermont. If you are a fan of the 1971 cult-classic The Omega Man,... Read more

One of the most interesting aspects to this Tamara Jenkins production (Slums of Beverly Hills) is how she uses Bertolt Brecht’s (1898 – 1959) dramatic theory (what can we learn? narrative rather than plot – and then to present the story in a rather anti -Brecht non-epic way)  to frame the story.     Wanda Savage (Laura Linney) lives in Manhattan and is trying to get a grant to write a book. Meanwhile she is having a meaningless affair with... Read more

I am posting this so that you will read my previous entry; 2007 gave us many great films and so very many good films. I have reviewed many on my blog, and even more via my column in St. Anthony Messenger: www.americancatholic.org (click on Entertainment). Maybe this list will interest you on a rainy day… Blessings!   Tags: they don’t make good films anymore; who says they don’t make good movies anymore? Hollywood does make good movies Read more

Here is my Top Ten List for 2007 – a very difficult list to make this year that gave us so many life-affirming movies as well as those that dealt with human rights issues (documentaries in particular). I saw about 80 films this year out of about 350 that were released. If you check Variety in the next couple of weeks there will be a list of the top 250 grossing films.   992 films were released this year, grossing over $9... Read more

Why do characters in movies insist on prowling around in the dark when they hear a noise even though they have a husband or wife or someone who could prowl with them? Maybe because fear is a solitary thing, and maybe because the prowling goes into “parallel perceptions”, as The Orphange does, and ultimately one must go it alone. Produced by Guillermo del Toro (2006’s brilliant Pan’s Labyrinth), The Orphanage is a film lover’s movie because you have to be... Read more

In the mid 1930’s Wiley College, a tiny Methodist school in east Texas, had a winning debate team. This film, starring Oscar winners Denzel Washington (he also directed) and Forest Whitaker is a proficient histoical drama about the team and the times with flashes of brilliance. In this scene for example. Dr. James Farmer, the president of the college and a minister, calls Denzel, as Professor Melvin B. Tolson, coach of the debate team, on his extra-curricular activities: organizing share-cropers into... Read more

Here is an article from The Fairfield County Catholic (Diocese of Bridgeport, CT) that I think will shed some light of understanding and calm on the recent controversy surrounding reviews about The Golden Compass. This interview/article says to me that it is good to read carefully, think, and ask questions in the interest of authentic dialogue about the products of popular culture. I think the paper has chosen the better part: to respond rather than react. http://www.bridgeportdiocese.com/topstory12-22.shtml     +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The December 14,... Read more

Le Scaphandre et le papillon or, in English, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has also just made my top ten list for 2007. Directed by a biopic master (and artist) Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) this current film is all about Schnabel’s ability to create perspective and communicate texture of life. It is sacramental in this way because it is an external manifestation of an inner reality comprised of a man’s memory and imagination. Jean-Dominique Bauby (here played by Mathieu... Read more