List: April Movies

Posted on April 9, 2008 at 8:00 am

Happy Spring! Celebrate with these wonderful films, all with “April” in the title:

1. Enchanted April Four women in post-WWI London get away from winter chill when they take a villa in Italy. All of their lives are transformed through the unexpected connections they make with each other.

2. Pieces of April A girl prepares Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged family, including her mother who is dying of cancer. Beautifully written and directed and unexpectedly heartwarming, with brilliant performances from Katie Holmes (pre Tom Cruise), Patricia Clarkson, Alison Pill, and Derek Luke.

3. “The April Fools” Dated and uneven but irresistible story of a man (Jack Lemmon) who falls for the wife of his boss (Catherine Deneuve). In the best scene, they meet a middle-aged couple played by Myrna Loy and Charles Boyer who show them the power of lasting love.

4. “April Love” Okay, it’s no classic, but it’s a sweet story about a city boy who learns about life and love when he has to go to work on a relative’s farm. Pat Boone stars and sings the Oscar-nominated title song and Shirley Jones is the pretty neighbor. April_Love_%281957%29.jpg

5. April in Paris A silly story about a chorus girl sent on a diplomatic mission is an excuse for singing and dancing from Doris Day and Ray Bolger.

List: Gilmore’s Best Baseball Films

Posted on April 4, 2008 at 9:21 am

My friend Hoppy Gillmore of Fargo’s Froggy 99.9 has posted his list of the all-time best baseball movies, one for each inning. Here’s his list, with some comments from me in italics.
9. The Bad News Bears
Anyone who played Little League ball has lived this movie. Thanks Coach Flieth for spending your summers on the diamond with us!
I know people love this one, but it is not on my list. I’m all for anti-hero movies that subvert the usual underdog formulas, but hearing kids use bad language and seeing adults misbehave in front of them just isn’t that funny.
8. The Sandlot
If you ever played neighborhood ball as a kid you’ve lived this movie as well. For me it was the empty lot next to Paul and Mitch Heinen’s house in Hillsboro.
I love this movie — it’s my DVD pick of the week!
7. A League of Their Own
“There’s no crying in baseball!” I never knew about this piece of baseball history until I saw the movie.
There may be no crying in baseball (one of my favorite lines ever), but I cry in the last scene of this movie every time I watch. Ignore the sibling rivalry theme and enjoy the love of the game and the brilliant performances from everyone — Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell.
6. For Love of the Game
This one’s good for women too because there’s a love story built into the story of baseball. Even my wife will sit down and watch this one.
Agreed!
5. Major League
“Juuuuust a bit outside!” According to Chris Coste’s new book, The 33-Year-Old Rookie (http://www.chriscoste.com/) this could be a very accurate portrayal of minor league ball.
Silly fun, and I love it when they play “Wild Thing.” (But stay away from the sequel.)
4. 61*
Yeah, I’m a homer. Billy Crystal’s tribute to who will ALWAYS be the single-season home run king.
Terrific movie.
3. The Natural
One of the first baseball movies I remember watching. Who wouldn’t want to run the bases under a shower of sparks from the home run ball you hit that went into the lights?
Love this one, too. Parental note: some mature material.
2. Field of Dreams
“If you build it, they will come.” The father-son playing catch at the end brings back memories of my dad and I doing the same thing whenever he’d grill. In-between flipping burgers we’d play catch.
This is a movie that makes grown men cry. Touching and inspiring.
1. Bull Durham
Kevin Costner’s “Crash Davis” spews the best baseball philosophy around. He’s the Yoda of baseball.
One of the great, great grown-up love stories ever put on film — love of baseball as well as romantic love. And I get a kick out of knowing that this is where Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins became a real-life couple!

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List: Science Fiction Movies With Accurate Predictions

Posted on April 2, 2008 at 7:00 am

When people think of the future we often — influenced by sci-fi movies — picture silvery jumpsuits, rayguns, and flying cars. Very often, the movies project the extremes of Utopian or distopian civilizations. But sometimes the movies get it right. Popular Mechanics has put together a list of The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-Fi Movies Ever, with the hits and misses in classics from “2001” (space tourism) to “The Truman Show” (reality TV), “Minority Report” (touch screens — and, I would add, Patriot Act-era surveillance, though not quite at the “precognition” stage), and “Gattaca” (designer genes).
The comments are as worthwhile as the list. We’ve come a long way from The Trip to the Moon, where the space travelers returned to earth by jumping off.

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List: 10 movies that feature God

Posted on March 21, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Rotten Tomatoes has a new list of movies that feature God.
Not long ago, Beliefnet had its own list of memorable portrayals of God in the movies and television. I contributed a brief commentary on one of my favorites, Howie Mandel (yes, the “Deal or No Deal” guy) in the old television show, “St. Elsewhere.”
And try out Beliefnet’s quiz about some of the more than 200 movies that feature God in the title.
Do you have a favorite portrayal of a deity on the screen?

Entertainment Weekly’s Best Movies for Kids

Posted on March 16, 2008 at 8:00 am

In honor of this week’s release of “Horton Hears a Who,” the best movie for the family in a long time, Entertainment Weekly has put together a list of the 20 all-time best movies for kids. These are not movies to toss in the DVD in the back of the minivan or to give to the babysitter on the parents’ night out. These are movies that need to be shared, movies that create and strengthen connections, as all truly great movies do.
The obvious classics are there, of course, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial. A list of 20 only has room for one Harry Potter but squeezes all three The Lord of the Rings into one spot. I could quibble with them about their choice of a Disney animated classic — they choose The Lion King while I would have gone with Pinocchio, for me the best-ever hand-animation, story, and soundtrack. And for a Disney live-action classic, for me, the wonderful The Parent Trap is edged out by the even more wonderful Pollyanna .
With only 20 choices Entertainment Weekly had to bypass some of my favorites like Finding Nemo, Yellow Submarine, and The Black Stallion. But there is no question that every movie on EW’s list is one that the whole family should take time to watch together. And then watch again.

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