“Nim’s Island” Review

I attended a screening of “Nim’s Island” Friday, June 5, 2008 at a second-run theater.  What a great story.  The most famous actor is Jodie Foster, but the lesser known actors were great, too.  The storyline is well-scripted and at a great pace.  The character arc of Jodie Foster’s role is excellent as are the way the 3 main characters lives interweave.

A Review will be coming soon!  But, til then, just one thing: I recommend this movie to all, ages 5 and up.  Stay tuned and check back soon!

“Happy Valley” Review

I attended a screening of “Happy Valley,” directed and produced by Ron Williams, at the Wynnsong in Provo.  It was on a whim and my wife let me pick.  I scanned the movie posters and it looked to be the most interesting.  “Happy Valley” is a well-made documentary, mostly about prescription drug abuse in Utah County.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It informed me and it moved me.

“August Rush” Review

SYNOPSIS: A young boy, the child of a rock star and New York Philharmonic cellist is given up for adoption by the cellist’s dad who believes she (Keri Russell) cannot take care of her.  She is a rising star in the orchestra.  The boy is a music prodigy who masters the guitar in six months and is sponsored by a local minister–I think he’s a minister–whose daughter notices that Evan (who later takes on the stage name of August Rush under the guidance of a kind of Pied Piper character–Robin Williams) can play anything on the organ of their church.

Review of “Big” starring Tom Hanks

“BIG” Released in 1988–Starring Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins, co-starring Jon Lovitz as Tom Hanks’ co-worker; Directed by Penny Marshall of “Laverne and Shirley” series

I watched this again on DVD edition last night. (Yes, it was a Sunday, but the movie seemed harmless enough, though the content breakdown will reveal that it wasn’t harmless for Sunday viewing or any other day viewing).

“Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” Movie Review

I saw “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman this past Saturday night at a 5:25 pm showing at Movies 8 (Yeah, I’m cheap, I know) in Provo, Utah. I was thoroughly delighted by the film.

“Bee Movie” Review

Despite the critical negative reviews, I attended a screening of “Bee Movie” anyway–a 7:20 showing in Cinemark at Provo Towne Centre on Friday, November 16, 2007. I really enjoyed this movie. It was fun, visually breathtaking (pay special attention to the detail of the tennis ball) and light-hearted. Personally, I liked the Seinfeld-esque humor of poking fun at the small details of life. If you like Jerry Seinfeld (who does the voice of Barry Benson), then you will enjoy the humor in the movie. Despite its light-heartedness, surprisingly, the movie has at least two wonderful messages/morals: 1) Even just one individual can make an important difference; 2) Work is a vital (eternal) principle to individual and community happiness.

Here’s the content breakdown:

Improving this Site

To make this site more user-friendly, more categories will be added. The movie content review posts, as well as being located by date, will be categorized alphabetically by the movie’s title. They will also be organized by the previous categories. “Independent Films of Other Faiths” will be abbreviated as “IFF,” “Independent Films in General” as “IFG,” LDS-themed Movies as “LTM,” and “Mainstream Movies” as “MM,” respectively. It is our hope that this will be very helpful. Thank you for your continued support of this blog.

“Ratatouille” Review

“Ratatouille” is a delightful Disney/Pixar film. It’s a basic “rags to riches” story following the rise of a rat name Remi from the squalor of garbage to working in a fine Parisian restaurant where he has access to real food. I attended a 7:30 screening of it at Provo’s Wynnsong (Carmike Cinemas) on July 14th.

Here’s the content review. Even though it’s rated “G,” I found some content that could possibly be offensive to some.

“CTU: Provo” has wrapped filming, now in post

The makers of “CTU: Provo,” a mockumentary-type film (with a premise similar to Fox’s “24″ which stars Kiefer Sutherland) has wrapped principal filming and is now in post-production, according to a recent comment by Ryan Croker, Creative Directory of Telekinesis Entertainment, at ProvoPulse.Com. I am thrilled to see this making progress and have been a personal supporter since its first report in BYU’s newspaper “The Daily Universe.”

Utah Family Film Festival–Orem, UT–June 7-9, ‘07

I attended two different screenings at the 1st Annual Utah Family Film Festival in Orem, Utah held on June 7-9.  I attended screenings for “Outlaw Trail” and “Stalking Santa”.  Look for reviews on both movies coming soon to this blog.  As a teaser, I will tell you now that I really enjoyed “Stalking Santa”.  It was the best independendent mockumentary I have ever seen.  It was extremely funny.