Beliefnet Gallery: The Best Movie Weddings

Posted on July 17, 2010 at 3:31 pm

Dena Ross has put together a gorgeous gallery from my list of great movie weddings. It makes me want to throw some rice!

Summer Camp Movies

Posted on July 14, 2010 at 8:00 am

Nametapes ironed on? Bugspray and sunscreen packed? As kids depart for camp, it is fun to watch some classic movies about the joys and terrors of life among the bunk beds and color wars.

1. Meatballs Bill Murray was the counselor who teaches his campers to embrace their loserdom in this classic anti-hero comedy. (some mature material)

2. Camp Nowhere A bunch of kids with high-pressure parents invent a fake achievement-oriented camps (theater, fat camp, paramilitary, computer camp) and head off to enjoy themselves…until the parents all show up.

3. The Adventures of Spin & Marty Boomer parents will recall this Mickey Mouse club serial about the Triple R camp and the camper who arrived with his butler and learned a few things about roughing it. Watch for Mouseketeer Annette as a guest star.

4. Indian Summer A group of adults return to the camp that they loved as kids in this bittersweet midlife drama filmed on the site of the real-life camp attended by the film’s director.

5. Little Darlings There is some mature material in this very uneven story about two girls who make a bet at camp about which one will be the first to have sex, but it gets some credit for a more honest portrayal than most of the consequences of some of these choices. Watch for future “Sex and the City” co-star Cynthia Nixon as one of the campers. For a more family-friendly film, try The Baby Sitters Club, a sweet story about friendship and loyalty with our heroines creating a day-camp for younger children.

6. The Parent Trap Both the Haley Mills and Lindsay Lohan versions of this story of campers who discover they are identical twins are delightful family classics.

7. Space Camp The kids at space camp find themselves launched into space for real in this exciting family adventure.

8. Camp Based on a real-life camp attended by the film-makers, this is the story of an intense theater camp attended by talented, high-strung, insecure, and very ambitious teenagers. (Some mature material.) Stagedoor is a documentary about the real-life campers.

9. Summercamp Summercamp! is a documentary following the day-to-day drama of 90 kids let loose in the woods at Swift Nature Camp in northern Wisconsin. They go through the highs and lows of adolescent rituals: sing-alongs, talent shows, homesickness, counselor mutiny–and first love.

10. Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown Charles Schultz’s everyman comic strip hero goes to camp with all of his friends. Watch for Linus standing up to bullies and some nice lessons about teamwork.

Great Movie Dads for Father’s Day

Posted on June 19, 2010 at 3:44 pm

Happy Father’s Day!

1. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in “To Kill a Mockingbird” The last line of the movie says it all: “He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”

2. Jason “Furious” Styles (Laurence Fishburne) in “Boyz N the Hood” This well-named father is a fierce defender of his son, protecting him but also teaching him to believe in himself.

3. Marlin (Albert Brooks) in “Finding Nemo” A loving if over-protective little clownfish must search the entire ocean to find his lost son in this beloved Pixar classic.

4. Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) in “Father of the Bride” Watch Tracy’s face when his daughter (Elizabeth Taylor) explains why she has (thankfully temporarily) called off her engagement in this story of a loving father who gets caught up in pre-Bridezilla wedding drama (and trauma). See also the remake with Steve Martin.

5. Gil Buckman (Steve Martin) in “Parenthood” No film better shows the challenges, terrors, wrenching choices, and satisfactions of fatherhood than this extended family story inspired by the lives of the three men who made it and the 14 children in their lives.

6. Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) in “Kramer vs. Kramer” A father who is not even sure what class his child is in discovers what it means to be a father after his wife leaves them. And then he discovers how much it matters to him when she returns and he has to fight for custody.

7. Tom Winters (Cary Grant) in “Houseboat” In one of his few roles as a father, Grant plays a man who only discovers how much he needs his children after the death of their mother — and Sophia Loren arrives as their new nanny.

8. Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) in “Sleepless in Seattle” — Though devastated by the loss of his wife, Sam is committed to being a positive and caring father.

9. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) in “The Pursuit of Happyness” — Smith and his real-life son shine in this story about a devoted single father who went from homelessness to a career as a stock-broker.

10. Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura) in “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles” — A Japanese father shows his love for his estranged son by completing the son’s final project, a filmed version of a Chinese opera, even though he knows nothing about filming, China, or opera.

Celebrate the World Cup with Soccer Movies

Posted on June 18, 2010 at 8:00 am

Is this the year the US finally gets it about soccer, I mean football? The biggest sporting event on the planet is the World Cup, taking place this year in South Africa. Now is a great time to recognize the beauty and skill of the world’s most popular game with soccer movies.

1. Bend it Like Beckham A young woman from a traditional Indian family living in London joins a soccer team in this delightful comedy about fitting in and standing out. Parminder Nagra stars along with Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“The Tudors”), and Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”)

2. The Cup is a gentle and utterly beguiling story of a group of Tibetan monks who go to great lengths to watch the World Cup.

3. Gracie Gracie Bowen (“Mean Creek’s” Carly Schroeder) is the only girl in a soccer-mad blue-collar family in New Jersey, based on the true story of actress Elisabeth Shue, who plays Gracie’s mother. Her younger brothers tease her without mercy, but her older brother Johnny, a star athlete, always encourages her. When he is killed in an accident, she decides to make his dream of beating the rival team come true by taking his place on the team. The boys’ team.

4. The Damned United The star and screenwriter of “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon” explore some of the same themes of ambition and celebrity in this fact-based story of the soccer coach who took one team to the top and then nearly took a top team to the bottom. Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough, a man whose talents were almost as great as his ego.

5. “The Other Final” When the Netherlands did not qualify for the 2002 World Cup Finals, a Dutch fan came up with the idea of an “alternative” final between the two lowest ranking countries in the world. That would be Bhutan (202nd) and Montserrat (203rd). Neither side had a coach and three days before the match they still didn’t have a referee.

6. A Shot at Glory My friend Desson Thomson, former movie critic for the Washington Post, knows as much about movies as anyone and more about soccer than everyone. He says this movie is worth seeing but not for its story and warns that you should probably turn the volume down when Robert Duvall attempts a Scottish accent. But he assures me that the soccer scenes, featuring real professional players are very well done.

7. Air Bud: World Pup The sports-playing dog joins the soccer team in this family-friendly series entry featuring real-life U.S. Women’s Soccer Team champions Brandi Chastain, Brianna Scurry, and Tisha Venturini.

8. Shaolin Soccer This king fu fantasy movie about an underdog soccer team from writer/director/star Stephen Chow is a genre-bending delight with out-of-this-world special effects.

9. Fever Pitch (1997) Forget the pallid US remake about the Red Sox with Drew Barrymore. And ignore the inflammatory DVD cover art and poster. This version, stars Colin Firth, based on the Nick Hornby book about a teacher whose love for his underdog team begins to interfere with the rest of his life, and it is a sharp, funny, and affectionate portrait of the tribal world of the passionate fan.

10. The Miracle Match (originally called “The Game of Their Lives”) In one of the great upsets in sports history, the US beat England for the World Cup championship in 1950. Gerard Butler and Wes Bentley star in this movie from the people behind “Rudy” and “Hoosiers.”

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Great Dads on Film and TV

Posted on June 15, 2010 at 3:58 pm

My gallery of great movie dads and list of daddy-daughter movies include wonderful films for families to watch together and talk about the great fathers in their own families.

Some of the best dads on film appear on television, which allows us to see families in a variety of circumstances over many years. Some of them even start to feel like members of our own families. These dads are not perfect but they always seem to know the right thing to say, whether comforting, guiding, or providing support. And they inspire even more through their own examples of trustworthiness and wisdom. My favorites include:

1. Tom Bosley on “Happy Days”
2. John Goodman on “Roseanne.”
3. Andy Griffith on “The Andy Griffith Show”
4. Danny Thomas on “Make Room for Daddy”
5. Bil Cosby on “The Cosby Show”
6. Bill Bixby on “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”

7. John Amos on “Good Times”
8. Michael Landon on “Little House on the Prairie”
9. Robert Young on “Father Knows Best”
10. Peter Gallagher in “The OC”