Opening this Week: ‘The Back-Up Plan’ and ‘The Losers’

Posted on April 20, 2010 at 2:40 pm

It’s Mars and Venus time this week with a romantic comedy that brings Jennifer Lopez back to the screen for the first time since “Bordertown” and “El Cantante” in 2006 with “The Back-Up Plan” and the first big guns and explosions movie of the year, “The Losers,” based on a revitalized comic book franchise starting in 2003. In honor of Earth Day, “Oceans” is being released on Thursday as well. It looks spectacular!

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Opening This Week
List: Spiritual Movie Families

List: Spiritual Movie Families

Posted on March 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Beliefnet’s “How Spiritual is Your Family” quiz made me think of these movie families, among the very few on screen who are unabashedly spiritual.

1. The Blind Side Based on a true story, this movie makes it clear that a wealthy white family’s decision to adopt a homeless black teenager was not an impulse but was strongly grounded in a deep religious conviction.

2. The Friendly Persuasion is a rare movie that grapples with a loving family’s challenges in applying religious principles to difficult and complicated circumstances but with a supportive community. It is an even rarer movie that shows a character praying for guidance.

3. The Sound of Music a postulate brings not just music and warmth to a motherless family, but also the strength of her faith.

4. Fiddler on the Roof We see the family’s connection to their Jewish traditions and faith and to each other in the way they work to apply God’s laws and in their Sabbath rituals.

5. Not Easily Broken A young couple finds that it takes three to make their marriage work — the husband, the wife, and God.

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For Your Netflix Queue Neglected gem Spiritual films

Trailer: The Secret of Kells

Posted on March 7, 2010 at 8:00 am

Here’s the first glimpse of the animated film that came out of nowhere to get an Oscar nomination, The Secret of Kells. The New York Times’ A.O. Scott wrote, “it is only fitting that a movie concerned with the power and beauty of drawing — the almost sacred magic of color and line — should be so gorgeously and intricately drawn.” Can’t wait!

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