The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

I don't know about you, but I love a good survival story.  There's something about watching the endurance of the human spirit that just inspires me to be better.  I don't think it actually makes me better, but still it gives me the inspiration that I could be better.  I think that is why Cast Away, Alive, and other survival stories often are so well recieved by their audiences...people like seeing people win.  Of course, it's more than that...there's the sense of identification with the characters and the idea that regular people like us could survive under similar intense conditions.  However, not all stories of survival are about only the physical survival.  Some are also about psychological survival.  Take the film I just saw this weekend.  On the surface, it seems like a fairly straightforward survival story but at it's core, it is something much deeper.  I bring to you now, one of the most visually stunning films of the year and one of the greatest survival

Where did the weekend go?  Honestly, I'd really like to know.  I suppose when you rehearse from 8:30 - 5 one day and then 2-6 the next (with church and choir practice in between), you have a tendency to lose track of the time.  Not to worry though, friends, I still have a new film review for you.  I'm finally looking at considerably more "grown-up" material now that my first two "fantastic" films are out of the way.  This weekend I was looking for something quieter and more deliberate...something I could watch and enjoy a meal at the same time.  That last comment is not some random thought either, I really did eat a meal.  The AMC Theaters at Easton Towne Center opened a Dine-In Theater this past summer and, I must say, it really is the perfect match for a long and, dare I say, morose film.  You order when you arrive, and the server brings your food to you either during the previews or during the first half-hour of the picture.  It's slick, efficient, an

Another week, another new movie under my belt and this one was considerably more grown-up, though I think some could say that the difference is negligible.  I would argue that the film is more mature than some of it's brothers and sisters from the series, but hey...there's no accounting for taste.  I believe these entries will keep getting more and more serious given the output that's coming so this may be a good transition piece anywhere...somewhere between juvenile and mature.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  At one point in this film, one of the main protagonists makes an excellent point about enemies to their nation (I say their rather than our, because we are in a different country...but I think it's still relevant to us).  The character asks the question (and I paraphrase) "Do you know who your enemies are?  Is it a country, a flag, a face?  No...the enemies are all in the shadows...so I ask you...how safe do you feel?"  Honestly, how safe do y

Yesterday as I sat bemoaning the fact that I was running out of older films in my collection to review competently, I realized that I was being ever so slightly over-dramatic.  Yes, I think my resolution to review all the new Holiday Films I see is a good one to carry me through to the end of the year, but there are still films worth talking about that aren't so new.  I'm hoping to recieve one of them in the mail today actually.  It is a horror film that my own mother encouraged me to watch in my youth (I believe it was being shown on TNT's MonsterVision with Mr. Joe Bob Briggs) and yet she would tell me NOTHING about the film.  This is not what a teenager wants to hear when a parent is asking him to watch an OLD horror film.  However, I was a bit more evolved in my film tastes than most teens and I submitted to a viewing of it.  I wasn't sure what to expect, and I think that more horror films should be seen in this way.  It keeps the experience fresh and free from expe

Yeah, I haven't written much this year at all.  Blame that on my study hall, whom I enjoy talking to rather than try to avoid like last year.  Also, I've just been busy in the evenings either grading late at school or rehearsing for my starring role in "White Christmas"...however, I am here to make amends and to try and resume my writing (which I enjoy so much).  I also had a realization the other day, when I had time to write, that I was running dry on films to write about and that I was on the verge of repeating myself.  However, that does not take in to account all the new films I've seen this year that are also worth mentioning.  Dare I become a critic of new films rather than the old, familiar and (as is sometimes the case) the not so familiar?  I think I shall, and thus this blog is going to feature all the films I will be viewing this holiday season.  Thus I begin with a film I saw this past weekend.  It combines a great many things I enjoyed while growing