Movie Review - Gimme Shelter

On January 24th, the week of the infamous and deadly Roe v. Wade decision,  the movie Gimme Shelter will open in theaters around the country. For many of us pro-life people of faith, we were blessed to have the privilege of watching it last evening. Thanks to the producer of Bella, Jason Jones of Movement to Movement, more and more pro-life, pro-family, and faith-based films will be coming to a theater near us. Thanks to him, we have films like the aforementioned Bella, and also October Baby, Crescendo and pretty soon, you can see his latest project, Gimme Shelter.

Gimme Shelter is based on a true story of Kathy DiFiore, a woman in New Jersey who opened up her home to pregnant and unwed teens.  It is the story of a pregnant and unwed teenage girl trying to escape her drug addicted mother.

This movie has a very powerful beginning. The performances excellently portray violence and abuse due to drug addiction. It was heart-breaking having to see a teen girl feel so unloved, with no where to turn. Actress Vanessa Hudgens gives an amazing performance as Agnes "Apple" Bailey. Another powerful performance is given by Rosario Dawson. She was also the vet in the family film Zookeeper with Kevin James. It was hard to believe that she was the same actress in both films. In this new movie, she plays the drug addicted mother of "Apple".

There are a couple of other well-known actors in the film.  They too brought a lot of emotion to their respective roles.

There was a strong request from the people who brought us this film, to make sure we let others know about them so that they could have people fill the seats when it opens up.  We need to support these types of films.  We need to bring more quality films to our theaters that have a message of hope, a message of love and a message of God.

So please make plans to go to the movies and watch this beautifully filmed movie.

And, lastly, please support your local crisis pregnancy center by either making a monthly donation or volunteering.

On Oahu, there are two that need help: Aloha Pregnancy Care and Counseling Center and Pregnancy Problem Center of Hawaii

A Review of Les Miserables that Should be Read by all

Since the movie is still in theaters, I thought I would share the Catholic Wife's excellent review. Les Mis – A Drop of Poison Spoils the Cup.

Movie Recommendation - Cantinflas in El Padricito

My father had a collection of movies starring Cantinflas, a favorite Mexican actor and comedian. One of the movies he had was El Padrecito. I watched it again yesterday by myself and I had a very good time with this funny movie.

It is about a young priest right out of the seminary, who is sent to help an old priest at a parish. The old priest is convinced the young priest is going to become the new pastor and he is not happy at all. He feels he will die if he is forced to leave his beloved parish. The older priest's sister and niece live with him at the rectory. The sister is determine to make the young priest's life miserable in a misguided loyalty to her brother.

The older priest and the sister are not the only ones who do not want the young priest to stay. The town's rich man, who happens to be an atheist, has selfish reasons for not wanting the young priest to remain. He also has plans to rid himself of this interloper.

But little did they know that this new priest is a force to be reckoned with and he does so with humor and wit, not to mention his gambling and bull fighting skills.

There are other subplots involving El Padrecito's withholding of certain sacraments because of the individuals not being really prepared...for example, the penitent, the engaged couple, the parents wanting to have their child baptized. I do not want to give away the funny parts so I have to stop here.

The movies is available with English subtitles.

The following is a clip of El Padrecito playing the Ave Maria on the organ.

Que Bella!

My family and I were not able to attend the Bella movie and dinner fund raising hosted by a local prolife group. Happily, we found that the movie was going to be shown at the same theater where the fundraiser was held, for a very limited time. Yesterday afternoon, we jumped at the chance.

There was only three of our friends there when we arrived. I sat there and prayed that others would show up to support a prolife movie of such quality! God answered my prayers. For a late Friday afternoon, the theater was well filled.

Other than glancing at reviews of the movie, I tried to avoid reading any reviews or commentaries because I did not want to be disappointed by the hype.

I wasn't.

From beginning to end, the movie captured my attention and my heart. It was a very well done movie considering it was what most of Hollywood would consider low-budget.

Since many of you still have not seen it, I will not go into any details. But as I was sitting at the theater as the credits went rolling by at the end, I asked myself why I liked it so much. It was for the following reasons:

1. It was Catholic.
2. It was pro life.
3. It was Hispanic.
4. It was about traditional family values.
5. It was about adoption.
6. It was about the NYC/NJ area.
7. It was about cooking. :-)

All of the above things are dear to my heart.

The only problem I had with the movie and which most of you only English speakers will not even be aware of, is the constant use of one particular curse word in Spanish. It was just so unnecessary. I wonder if it was given the PG-13 rating because of that word usage. It made me bristle every time I heard it.

Lastly, and BTW, The choice of the main actors had to be divinely inspired.

The Passion of Joan of Arc

One of my dear brothers in law told us how a clerk in a NYC store had recommended an old movie of Joan of Arc. He bought the movie based on the clerk's recommendation. He said it was a wonderful movie and offered to lend it to us. Last night we took him up on his offer.

My mom, Joey and I watched it. Wow! Is about all I can say about this amazing film. It is an art film. For you film buffs, you will not be disappointed.

It was a silent movie made in 1927 which would make it about the time my dad was born. This was a movie that had been lost until a copy was miraculously found in a mental institution in Norway.

Briefly, the movie takes place during Joan's trial and execution. As you watch the drama unfold before your eyes, you will contemplate the Passion of Christ, who was also mocked and abused by His tormentors.

"Dreyer's account of Joan of Arc ...centers on her trial and execution. Derived from actual transcripts of her trial., Dreyer's story defies all conventions of filmmaking through his use of close-ups, jarring angles, sweeping camera movements and disjunctive editing...As Joan, Renee Falconetti makes her only screen appearance which is still considered to be the best filmed performance ever. Like Joan herself, Dryer's masterpiece was destroyed by fire, (twice in fact), and thought lost forever. Then in 1981, several film cans containing Dreyer's original cut were discovered in a broom closet of a mental institution in Oslo, Norway. In 1988, composer Richard Einhorn wrote Vision of Light, music inspired by the film and the life of St. Joan of Arc. For the first time on video, these two masterpieces are presented together. To see just one frame is to understand why scholars and critics from Roger Ebert to the Vatican consider The Passion of Joan of Arc the greatest and most important silent film every made".

The foregoing is from the videotape description.

I would highly recommend this movie for everyone. It is very moving, touching and an extraordinary experience. For more on this movie please visit Wikipedia

Joey's school assignment is to read Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. He was finding it a little slow moving. However, since seeing the movie last night, his is looking forward to finishing the book. She is actually one of his favorite saints. As a little boy, he has always favored the warrior saints.

Movie Review - The Queen

The other day I went to the movies with a friend and we watched The Queen. Although another friend of my family had mentioned in passing that he really enjoyed the movie, I had no expectations at all other than it dealt with Queen Elizabeth II.

The movie actually is about the time period when Tony Blair is elected prime minister and Princess Diana dies tragically and unexpectedly. It delves into the relationship that is formed by the newly elect PM and the queen, by the way they handle the princess' death.

Before watching the movie, you could say that I liked Princess Di. After all, we watched her transformed from a awkward young bride to a cultured and sophisticated royal. More importantly, she seemed kind. I found Queen Elizabeth II non-interesting as a person. I did like Tony Blair. I found him to have a commanding way about him as well as charming.

Well, as the movie unfolded before my eyes, I was struck by the true character of Queen Elizabeth. She was no longer an uninteresting and dowdy old queen but a sensitive woman who had to make tough decisions. And for that, she was criticized by the Brits who constantly compared her to their beloved and modern princess.

The movie portrayed the queen as a real person. She had a hands on approach to daily life. For instance, she drove her own Range Rover; she took long walks with her dogs. She was portrayed as a humble woman when she asked permission to use the phone in her own kitchen. She showed her sensitive side when she reads the notes left by some mourners that must her hurt her deeply by their insensitive words attacking her personally.

In retrospect, she seemed to have been judged inaccurately by the people at the time of Princess Di's death. If she didn't overreact in trying to make a "big deal" of the funeral and memorial, it was because it was her way...the traditional English monarchy life she had always known.

At the end of the movie, I felt a new wave of respect and admiration hit me for this queen. Maybe it was the way they were portrayed but as my admiration grew for Queen Elizabeth, my respect for Prince Philip and Cherie Blair waned a bit. He being portrayed as too critical of Princess Di and somewhat mean spirited and Mrs. Blair as trying hard not to follow protocol as well as being too critical of the monarchy.

If you haven't already seen it, I hope you take the time to watch it. It is mostly dialogue, with actual footage of the princess taken around the time of her death. A group of young local kids walked out midway through the movie. It may have been too slow moving for them.

I understand the actress who played the queen, Helen Mirren, won the Oscar for Best Actress. I wouldn't have expected anything else. Her performance was magnificent! Last time I saw her in a movie was in Mosquito Coast where she played the long-suffering wife of Harrison Ford.

The video is being released this week and if you click the title above you can go to the official website to watch the trailer.

2006 Movie Picks - Mercatornet

As I mentioned in a previous post, Francis Philips reviews books for Theotokos and by the way the last review was under her pen name Jack Carrigan. She also reviews for Mercatornet.

Today, I visted their site with a little more care and I found the list of movie picks very interesting considering it listed M. Night Shyamalan's film The Lady in the Water as one of the movies they liked.

My family and I are big fans of M. Night Shyamalan, specifically, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. My DH and DS loved Signs. However, we were disappointed with The Village, even though we enjoyed it up to the end.

From all we had heard and read, the critics hated the Lady in the Water. We therefore were in no rush to watch it. Finally, on St. Valentine's Day we did. And, we loved it! It was just one of those movies that grab your attention and keeps it there until the end. We were not disappointed at the ending either.

The following is from Mercatornet

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Irwin, Bob Balaban.

This modern fairy tale was panned by some critics as self-indulgent mythmaking by director M. Night Shyamalan, but others loved it. A depressed doctor now working as a janitor in an apartment complex discovers that the person taking illegal night-time swims in the pool is a narf. A narf, he learns from a Korean woman, is a water nymph who belongs in the sea. But she is afraid to leave because of malevolent spirits who are prowling outside. The mysterious fairy-like creature draws together the eccentrics living in the complex as they battle to return her to the ocean. Spooky, atmospheric and quirky. One of the characters is a sour, twisted book and film critic -- no doubt a dig by the director at hostile reviewers.

Click HERE for the complete list.

Movie Recommendation - Akeelah and the Bee

My family and I watched this movie last night. It was one I had been wanting to watch in a long time.

This movie was about a young girl who doesn't do well in school for a few reasons, one being that she attends an urban school and it isn't cool to be smart. However, her teacher recommends her for the school's first spelling bee based on the fact that she never got a word wrong on her spelling test. With the usual trials and obstacles that one would expect, she eventually gets as far as the National Spelling Bee Competition.

We were not disappointed at all by this story. In fact, we loved it! The acting by all especially the main characters was exceptional. The movie was very heartwarming and touching, yet amusing and entertaining at the same time. The family was not completely stereotyped in the usual Hollywood fashion of an American Black Family. In this movie, the mother is a hard-working widow with many children. Well, there is the troublesome teen son who is involved with a gang and the unwed daughter but I guess it makes sense to the story. The love and unity in the family, as well as the encouragement by the people in Akeelah's life and neighborhood is portrayed very well as one of support.

Rated PG. But caution for mild language. I would recommend it for students especially, those who might be interested in competing in Bee's, whether Spelling, Geography, etc. It will really ignite an interest in educational competition for a student.

Mother Teresa - The Movie

Poster courtesy of Olivia Hussey Online


Recently a friend emailed me a lovely powerpoint presentation of Mother Teresa. It was full of her beautiful and thought provoking quotes. If you would like to see it, please feel free to emai me and I will be glad to send it to you.

Which brings me to a wonderful movie my family and I watched tonight. It was a story on the life of Mother Teresa starting from her life as a schoolteacher in India to the end of her life.

She is portrayed in the movie by actress Olivia Hussey. Some of you may remember her as the Mother of Jesus in the movie Jesus of Nazareth.

Ms. Hussey does an incredible job of bringing Mother Teresa to life for us. She somehow captured Mother's mannerisms and with a little help of make-up, she looked a little like dear Mother Teresa...but not quite.

My family strongly recommends that if you have an opportunity to watch this movie, do so with your entire family. The only fault we found with the movie was the it went along very well from beginning, capturing the viewers attention. However, during the end, it is rushed to conclude. Still , worthwhile to see.