The Family Loftus

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• July, 2010

• Hachi: A Dog’s Tale 4.5/5

  2010-07-29 20:36

  

  

  Very good movie, suit­able for all mem­bers of the family!

  Hachi is a dog who shows immense loy­alty toward his mas­ter, Wil­son, played by Richard Gere. The first half of the movie is about the rela­tion­ship these two develop. Wil­son even­tu­ally starts bring­ing Hachi to the train sta­tion when he leaves for work in the morn­ing. Hachi duti­fully waits through­out the day until his mas­ter returns. When Wil­son dies sud­denly, Hachi con­tin­ues com­ing tot he train sta­tion, wait­ing for his mas­ter to return.

  This movie was well-acted, had beau­ti­ful cin­e­matog­ra­phy, and pleas­ant music. The story itself is based upon real-life events from Japan.

  At the start of the sec­ond half of the movie, after Wilson’s char­ac­ter dis­ap­pears, I was bawl­ing like a lit­tle baby. I think I was the only one in the fam­ily. My son duti­fully observed, “Dogs mean more to Dads.”

  I heartily rec­om­mend this movie as it teaches the value of loy­alty, friend­ship, and love.

  0.3

• June, 2010

• The Blind Side 4.5/5

  2010-06-23 08:00

  

  

  Excel­lent film through­out. Except in one area, I would rec­om­mend this film to almost all fam­ily mem­bers. Def­i­nitely a tear-jerker film, it had me hold­ing back dur­ing a few scenes.

  A cou­ple brief instances of lan­guage that may need some explain­ing to younger view­ers (why they were inap­pro­pri­ate and why one was funny although not allowed in fam­ily settings).

  The area where I was dis­ap­pointed was the por­trayal of the family’s faith: it was very border-line. That is to say, it was cer­tainly real­is­tic of Amer­i­can chris­t­ian fam­i­lies today. Mom leads in meal-time prayer while Dad sits by, but this only after Mom’s con­science is pricked by the actions of a (pre­sumed) non-christian. Ref­er­ences to being a good chris­t­ian when giv­ing are made, but church, wor­ship, prayer, bible-study… all are non-existent. This may just be the Hol­ly­wood ver­sion: I seem to remem­ber read­ing some­where that the actual fam­ily is more devout. But I could be wrong.

  In the end, I cer­tainly would rec­om­mend this movie for fam­i­lies with the excep­tion of a cou­ple scenes being too intense for younger view­ers. Moms, Dads, and older chil­dren will thor­oughly enjoy the film.

  0.3

• The Island 3.5/5

  2010-06-14 07:43

  

  

  A some­what typ­i­cal action film, although, directed by Michael Bay (Trans­form­ers fame), the qual­ity is bet­ter than average.

  There is a bit of swear­ing here and there, although appro­pri­ate for the scene–not gratuitous–and one scene in a bar where men show off poor char­ac­ter ogling a woman. There is also a scene of love between two char­ac­ters who, it is implied, are naked and hav­ing sex. Pri­vate parts are not shown.

  The action sequences, lan­guage, and emo­tional inten­sity make this a movie for older film-goers. Young chil­dren prob­a­bly shouldn’t be exposed. Teenage boys who strug­gle with temp­ta­tions of the flesh (or adults for that mat­ter) should prob­a­bly skip the above-mentioned love scene as it will only pro­voke them.

  All in all, a well-made film, one I wouldn’t have a prob­lem with watch­ing again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way either pay­ing money or invest­ing time for.

  0.3

• Avatar 4/5

  2010-06-12 19:39

  

  

  Well, after all the buzz and world-wide box-office records, it was a bit of a let-down. Granted, the spe­cial effects and ani­ma­tion were sim­ply the best that have ever been done before, but it still wasn’t real­is­tic, at least not in this day and age. And, the story is a re-hash (Dances With Wolves, any­one?. Very lit­tle orig­i­nal­ity comes out of Hol­ly­wood these days. For that, I tend to check out the BBC’s tele­vi­sion offer­ings (viewer beware of some, though).

  The big con­ser­v­a­tive buzz about the movie is that it is a not-veiled-at-all PR piece for spiritism, human­ism, and what­ever new-age-ism you want to throw at it. Humans bad, Nature good. That is the mantra. Except, it’s not that simple.

  I think it’s more: greed bad, under­stand­ing oth­ers good. And with that, I cer­tainly agree. The film, takes this to an extreme, though, posit­ing that the natives are all good, wise and sim­ply mis­un­der­stood (except for one who is against our hero until the end, when they become best buds).

  But, from minute one, the viewer is cer­tainly washed in the whole idea of a liv­ing planet, wiser than the mere humans who seek to despoil her. Life across the planet is in fact inter­con­nected in a spir­i­tual, mys­ti­cal way, with an incom­pletely thought out attempt at scientific/physical expla­na­tion. In this regard, Cameron fails. Miserably.

  And in some scenes, it’s just too unre­al­is­tic. Float­ing moun­tains. Must be hol­low inside with hydro­gen pent up that lift them. And the responses of some of the char­ac­ters is also unre­al­is­tic. Of course, there are indi­vid­u­als in our world who seem­ingly respond irra­tionally, too. But, this is Hol­ly­wood on a mis­sion, and their world seems to have only irra­tional char­ac­ters. (Not much of a story with­out, I suppose.)

  And the left-wing slant wasn’t total. The main char­ac­ter, the hero was a human. His wise guide was also human. The humans had both good and bad. The aliens, too, had good and bad (even if only one). Almost cer­tainly a reflec­tion of reality.

  In the end, I wasn’t afraid for the sup­posed “brain­wash­ing” that I might have exposed my fam­ily to. In the end, it was a tale like any other: good ver­sus bad with some amaz­ing eye-candy.

  0.3

• April, 2010

• Angels & Demons 3.5/5

  2010-04-21 05:21

  

  

  Movie mys­tery film set in the cul­ture and his­tory of the Vat­i­can and the Catholic Church. While it shows that the Church is made up of men, it actu­ally leaves you with a pleas­ant expe­ri­ence in the end. Those of us with bib­li­cal back­grounds could eas­ily attribute some of the coin­ci­dences to God’s sovereignty.

  Well acted, mostly believ­able spe­cial effects, and intrigu­ing plot twists made this a com­pelling movie. In that regard, well done. Com­bined with the set­ting of the inner work­ings of the Vat­i­can, one can see how this might be an attrac­tive film.

  How­ever, it’s still just a mys­tery, a who­dunit. Char­ac­ter devel­op­ment was weak, even though I still rooted for the good guys.

  The movie is not appro­pri­ate for younger view­ers. The spe­cial effects in con­text of the vio­lence were too much. Very lit­tle bad lan­guage. No inti­mate sit­u­a­tions. But, it is a lit­tle intense in spots with the on-screen and graphic deaths of sev­eral char­ac­ters and the results of their mutilation.

  In the end, it was a solid movie with a com­pelling sto­ry­line, and good back­drop. Most mys­ter­ies are.

  0.3

• 2012 2.5/5

  2010-04-11 11:14

  

  

  Not the most family-friendly movie out there.

  2012 is about the end of the world. The story, although impos­si­ble, isn’t even con­sis­tent in its own, made-up uni­verse. The world will end like this: the sun is giv­ing off heavy doses of neu­tri­nos (sub­atomic par­ti­cles). They are mea­sured by huge, under-ground tanks of water. In the movie, the neu­tri­nos start to heat up the water, and, by exten­sion, they must also be heat­ing up the earth’s core more than present. Why we don’t see neu­tri­nos caus­ing glasses of water to begin boil­ing in your hand is never explained. These neu­tri­nos then, liquify the world, allow­ing the tec­tonic plates we live on to break apart result­ing in world-wide disaster.

  There is mild swear­ing through­out the film (and one f-word) and very brief talk about sex (not exactly pos­i­tive talk, either) that was meant to be funny, but com­ing from a child–it’s not.

  There are sev­eral redeem­ing qual­i­ties to the film, most notably the love of peo­ple for their friends and fam­i­lies. The chang­ing of poor char­ac­ter traits into pos­i­tive ones is also on display.

  It was a fun film to watch strictly for the spe­cial effects. But the un-real story struc­ture and poor char­ac­ter devel­op­ment cer­tainly explain why this film bombed at the box office.

  0.3

• Eagle Eye 3.5/5

  2010-04-04 15:27

  

  

  This was a well made action flick. Shia LaBeouf is a fun actor to watch: very Cary Grant-esque in his quick-witted dia­logue. But he expands his role a bit more here than just Trans­former style. A lit­tle more emo­tion given the dra­matic ele­ments of the film.

  A few bits of swear­ing here and there, though not as per­va­sive as some other movies. In the first 5-minutes of the film, the char­ac­ters begin to broach a sex-related sub­ject, but don’t go to far with it. I was a bit uncom­fort­able with it and am glad my chil­dren were not watch­ing as they objec­ti­fied women.

  Alot of action-movie style vio­lence (death & destruc­tion with­out the blood and gore).

  Intrigu­ing plot and excite­ment, though this movie has been done before and with a lit­tle less sex (Ech­e­lon Conspiracy).

  Okay movie for adults, except for those first 5-minutes.

  0.3

• March, 2010

• 9 4/5

  2010-03-30 20:18

  

  

  Tech­ni­cally well done movie. Good story-line, but pre­dictable: Good tri­umphs in the end. Dab­bles a lit­tle with some spir­i­tual stuff, but never explores it: just takes it as de facto. Per­haps inap­pro­pri­ate for lit­tle kids (PG-13, after all): noth­ing major, but an over­all sense of gloom. Lit­tle ones may not enjoy it–my 11-yr old watched Star Wars instead.

  Had an excel­lent les­son of courage: doing the right thing in face of adver­sity, even from your own group, even when you’re alone and no one thinks you’re right. The down­side: machines are evil… a lib­eral view­point if any.

  0.3

• Jan­u­ary, 2010

• Next 3.5/5

  2010-01-23 06:49

  

  

  Las Vegas magi­cian Cris John­son has a secret. He can see the future. Two min­utes of the future, to be exact. He’s had this abil­ity since he was three. And want­ing to avoid being treated like a lab rat by the gov­ern­ment, he keeps his magic tricks cheap and his casino win­nings small. But the gov­ern­ment comes call­ing any­way. FBI agent Cal­lie Fer­ris has been keep­ing an eye on the poten­tial sooth­sayer for a while and thinks his tal­ent can help her track down ter­ror­ists with a nuclear bomb.

  Fun film. Basic story and premise. Has very nice twists & turns through­out. Chal­lenges you men­tally a lit­tle dur­ing, and alot at the end. Leaves you with questions.

  0.3

List gen­er­ated by WP Movie Rat­ings.