"WALL-E" (2008)

I've unfortunately become a pretty hard sell for what makes an enjoyable movie, but I did enjoy watching this movie.  This movie had a nice blend of "I know this story line" and "I dunno.  What's going to happen next?"  And the transition in the end credits was well-done.  It answered my typical "and then what?" questions.  I was surprised that I'd get emotional over a robot, but not when I thought about it further.

The devil likes to say that we're all worthless "junk" infested with sin.  We so desperately want to know that we're worth something, just as we are, that I can see why seeing Wall-E fixed with junk, and it working, would be a touching moment.  It's what we all want inside--to know that "junky" us is worth something to somebody just as we are.  The Good News is that God Does love us for who we are because He created us.  We didn't evolve.  He knit us together and KNEW us before we were even born.  You can't see a "love us for who we are" any better than that.  And THAT'S why Wall-E's "fix" at the end is so satisfying.  We'd like to think that there is hope for all of us.  There is.

Of course, the line in the movie "I don't want to survive, I want to live" must be understood in the context of the movie.  It certainly is a completely different piece of the movie to reflect on.  And I'm not sure that it's a line that's going to get completely unpacked here--at least not today.

It is also intriguing that "art" (in the form of a musical number from Hello, Dolly) is part of the definition of "living"--at least for Wall-E.  He looks to that video/art as his inspiration for "how am I suppose to 'live' my days?"

Two completely incongruent messages that yet fit together within this movie and in further dialogue with each other.  That dialogue is worth spending some time on.  And the movie was an enjoyable one to watch.

"No Time for Sergeants" (1958)

Humor from a time gone by--the "fool" who makes fools of everybody else but himself.  It was interesting enough to watch (as usual, not my type of humor); however, I did laugh at the very, very end, right as the credits rolled.

I remember seeing scene where the toilets pop up from a loooong time ago when I was a kid; so, it must have been on the TV once back then.

Starring Andy Griffith.  One scene had Don Knotts in it.

"Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006)

I watched it.  Actually I watched the beginning, the ending, then the middle, then the ending again.  So, I watched it--more or less.  Not my style of humor which makes it a hard sell for me to call it a "good movie"--and I could justifiably be told to lighten up--but this movie mostly doesn't hit my humor.  Doesn't mean it's not funny, and I'm sure it was a delight to work on.  And notice, I did watch most of it (some movies I turn off).

I'm still partial to the character Diego.  Not sure why.  I  like him, though.

I'm not gonna say it was a bad movie, because it wasn't.  It was a really decent movie.  And if cartoon slapstick is your style of humor, then it probably is a very funny movie with a really good story line.

So there you go.  Good storyline.  Nice music.  And, for those with that kind of humor, it's even funny.

Next.

"Catching Faith" (2015)

Based on how this movie started, I wasn't sure it was going to hook me into watching the whole thing, but it did.  It hooked me just enough to say, "I'll watch a little bit more...a little bit more...a little bit more...." until I'd watched the whole thing.  That means, it was interesting enough to have something there.

The themes in this story seemed to focus on first integrity, followed by equally perfection and truth.

I don't know that this a movie that I'd watch a second time, but I don't find any faults with it.  The acting was fine.  The characterization was fine.  The faith story was fine.  But that's it:  fine.

Because the purpose of the movie was to center the story around the growth of faith in 3 of the characters--and mainly the mother--that was the point of view the movie was shot from, which left this particular family's spiritual anchor--the father--as a side character.  For the movie's purpose, this was a fine choice.  For my purpose in looking for interesting characters to study, it was adequate, meaning no faults, no hooks, and nothing seen from the father's perspective--or very little.

It's a fair movie to watch--again--no faults that I find--just not a movie I'm likely to watch a second time.

"More Than Chance" (2010)

I watched the first half of this movie--and for a night when I was being extremely picky about what I was in the mood to watch, that was pretty good.

Good Qualities:  I thought the beginning handled portraying abuse very tactfully.  By no means is abuse something that should be glossed over, but by doing such, it allowed this movie to stay family friendly while acknowledging its place in the story.  The story concept was intriguing, and there was enough story bread crumbs to keep me watching for 45 minutes--and as I said before, that's saying something on a night I was in quite the finicky mood.

Challenges:  The acting was B-level acting [perhaps because it comes out of the religious drama genre which has a style of acting all its own--a style very different than "Hollywood"]--a style much like what would happen if someone said, "hey, we have a play to put on in 3 weeks.  I know we really should put in 6 weeks of time, but it's too late for that--But, I don't want us to drop it either.  So, let's go ahead and do something."  So, they put on a decent show, but didn't have the time to sink into portraying the characters with any depth--and for an emotional topic such as abuse and trust and friendship--character portrayal is central to the action.  Instead, the emotional engagement of the characters/actors was relatively flat-line to what it should have been.  As for plot line/script--I followed, and understood some of the jump and jump choices made in the scenes written and selected; but connecting these together with any unity and with character motivation, there were times I couldn't see how some of the jumps could be realistic.  I'm not saying they couldn't happen that way in "real life", but it just seemed like there were scenes missing--scenes that would've helped sustain the emotional thread that should've been there, and definitely would've helped some of the plot connections to be more effective and understandable.

Since I haven't finished this movie, I can't speak to either the ending or if where the beginning of the movie was leading actually made it to the finish line.  Nevertheless, it was a movie at least worth considering.

I'm not sure at this point if I will ever resume watching this movie or rewatch this movie in its entirety, so I'm going ahead and posting what I think of the first half.

Signing off.

"The Intern" (2015)

This is a very sweet movie--not a romance, not a heavy drama--but a nice mix of all sorts of elements.  I can't speak to the opening credits, but did see the majority of the story and it is very well done.

The music in the end credits had two parts--neither with lyrics.  The first part was in the style of the music that was through the rest of the movie.  Then the 2nd part of the music switched to a combination of clapping, stomping, and guitar playing--maybe two guitars--still light, but with a little more energy than what was played through the first part.  It was a wonderful transition out of the movie world and back to the world outside of the theater.

A very nice movie to sit back and enjoy.

"The Truth Behind: The Nasca Lines" (2010)--revisited?

I think I've watched this before--I think--either that, or another documentary about this same subject.  It was interesting the first time.  Still so the 2nd, but it is distracting to have the narrator continually talking in sentence fragments.

I'm sorry.  Correction:


It is distracting.

To have the Narrator.

Of this documentary.

About the Nasca lines.

Continually.

Talking.

In sentence fragments.

As if.

Each clause.

Deserves.

It's very own.

Dramatic.

Pause.

In order.

To give.

The proper frame.

To talk about.

The Nasca lines.