Ed's Review Dot Com

Scott Rudin Productions,  Focus Features

Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rhys Infans

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New Song Pictures

Randy Wayne, Sean Michael, Deja Kreutzberg, Joshua Weigel, Steven Crowder

Warning:  This is a Christian movie.  It’s a truly heartwarming, realistic, and sometimes troubling film about how hard it is to grow up.  Well, maybe I’ll have to back up a little bit on realistic.  If all the stuff that happens in this move really happens, it would be pretty sad.  But it all does happen, but just not EVERYTHING to the same person!   Wow, that would be a hard life.

Yes, this movie does preach the gospel.  This move does also pull out all the stops, everything that can go wrong does.  Suicide, divorce, teen sex, teen pregnancy,  racism,  cutting, abortion, adultery, the whole shebang.  But as bad as this all sounds, actually the story is uplifting and it does show what can happen if you try to do right.

Basically the story is about a high school senior, about to head off to college on a basketball scholarship.  The whole background is told in a very brief series of flashbacks at the beginning which basically tell  you all you need to know about this kid in the first 5 minutes.  Basically he made a very bad choice as a young teen, and has had to live with it ever since.  But instead of dealing with it, he has pushed it all back in the back of his mind and gone on to become the perfect teen, with perfect friends, all star athlete, prettiest girl in the school by his side, and so on.  But one tragic event brings it all back home, and he has to start dealing with it.

Then he starts out to try to change the world.  Obviously he’s got a hard row to hoe, and it doesn’t always go so easy. This poor kid has one of the worst days on record.  Boy!

Did I warn you this is a Christian film?  You need to put that in your mind before you try this, as if you can’t get past the preaching, you’re going to hate it.  But if you don’t mind the “Jesus loves you” part, or if you just love melodrama, than this has plenty of both.

It’s actually a well done film, and is really professional looking.  Though there are no big name stars in this movie, everyone does a pretty good job.  They all give a fine performance.

This is an excellent movie to watch with your teenagers as there is a lot to discuss afterward.  This is something that every one of them have to deal with in one way or another.  It’s a good way to open up your kids to talking about other people’s feelings and make the aware of the consequences of what seems like a simple thing.

In the bonus features there are some crucial scenes that didn’t make it into the film.  Be sure to see those.  There are some extra tidbits that add to the movie.  (Everyone wants to take the blame for the event that happened.)  Just to be sure to watch carefully through the first 14 minutes  and you will be sure to get all the background and hear the best line of the movie,  (“OH, I get it, things are going to be different now!”)

Anchor Bay Films, West of Midnight Productions, Whitewater Films

Hillary Duff,  Ellen Burstyn, Michael Murphy, Evan Ross

This is a direct to DVD film.  I can see why.  It’s not going to compete with the big guys.  When I was a kid, I used to collect 45 RPM records.  Trouble is, at $.66 each,  most were outside my 12 year old budget.  But at the Woolworth’s there was a discount bin with 10 records for $1.00 in a box.   The only one you could see was a little known song that you had heard of.  But once you opened the box and took out the other 9, you found that you never heard of any of the songs or the artists.  Ah, but this was 1963’s YouTube.   In those collections of unheard junk, were lots of little gems.  Songs that didn’t make it, or didn’t get the right promotion, but was a great song.  I built up my private collection of these unknown songs, and it was a secret that only I knew. This movie is like the discount bin.

Usually a “direct to video ” is a strong warning to stay away.  But this movie wasn’t bad.  Hillary Duff is the star, usually a sign to stay away, but she’s not that bad.   This film is available on NetFlix “Watch Instantly”.   It’s a little bit like an “After School Special”, but it’s clearly PG-13.

This is a teen angst movie, for sure.  Greta’s Dad is gone, and Mom is a bit of a flake.  Shipped off to Grandma and Grandpa for the summer so Mom can “work on her failing marriage”, Greta comes in with a really bad attitude and gets a lot worse.  She meets an ex-con, and the grandfolks are not happy, but maybe he’s just what she needs.

Greta is in a lot of pain and needs all the help she can get to pull through.  She’s decided not to live anymore, and someone needs to intervene or she’s going to do it.

Not a wonderful movie, but definitely way above the normal “direct to video” stuff, and definitely worth plopping in the “Instant” queue if you’re interested in the concept.

Walt Disney Pictures

Nicholas Cage,  Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer

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