Movie Suggestion #93

Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, is usually a pretty good rating (5 star ratings are very rare with me)! – Content is listed for those who are careful about what they or their children view (or what to be aware of). I usually rate based on content, plot, photography/direction, and acting.)

Star Trek Into Darkness 2013 (w/ Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Cho, Karl Urban) – 3.5 stars - This sequel was very well done. Spock and Captain Kirk have been getting involved with what seems to be more than the usual exploration. There is someone who is causing problems and has been attacking people everywhere. They seek him out so that they might destroy him and save everyone. I must say that all the actors played their parts amazingly!! You truly understood every character in some way or another because of how they were portrayed in this. The graphics were so well done!! I was so impressed by it. I think I would have liked it even more though if it weren’t for the content . There were a lot of homages to the original Star Trek in this as well. My husband has seen a lot more of the show than I have, but I’ve had my share and understand things here and there. You can enjoy this regardless.
content: :aliens throw spears at people in attack (no one gets hurt), women in tight outfits and some immodest outfits, two girls are in bed with a man (one woman is shown in underwear and has a tail and the other is shown with a sheet on her body. . .this scene is literally 3 seconds), a man is willing to have a building blow up with himself in it, drinking/drunkenness, people shot at repetitiously, space shuttles destroyed (space fighting), people killed (shown being shot w/ blood seen), stabbings and shootings (a lot of it), fighting (like hitting someone’s head on the grown, kicking people and elbowing people in the gut, lots of punching), a singed decapitation shown, a woman gets changed at one point and tells a man to turn the other way but he peeks and she is standing in her underwear (bra and panties), people burning out of a space vehicle, a man crushes a man’s skull with his hands (not shown but you hear it), a ship hits many buildings in a crash landing, language: (“d” word 8x, small “a” word 3x, long “b” word 3x, short “b” word 2x, “hell” used incorrectly 5x, “s” word 3x (and one where it is censored saying “holy ss” – and cut scene)

The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999 (w/ Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gweneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman) – 2 stars - This is such a strange movie! It was intense (as in strange/bad intense). Basically Tom plays piano at an event in place of someone else and a man thinks he is a fellow classmate of his son’s who has been in Italy. The father offers Tom money to go travelling to Italy for him so that he can get the son back home. He agrees and is excited about the idea of going to Europe. When he gets there, he takes on a friendship but some things turn ugly. This ends up turning into a horrific ordeal and just gets so weird when Tom just is very obsessive with how his personality works and how he handles relationships with people. The way it was filmed was beautiful. The plot was strange and the violence I couldn’t handle. I don’t recommend it. I am surprised it was up for oscars, honestly, because of how slow it is especially. I’m still trying to figure out the point of the ending too.
content:: kissing, women in bikinis, sexual innuendos, men’s nude backsides shown, people are beaten to death with objects (you see blood and hear noise and see the first hits), pieces of brains are shown on an object used to kill someone, fighting, slapping, choking, wounds are shown on a man’s face, you hear a couple fighting and throwing things, a floating dead body shown in water, 2 men are shown in a bath together, noise of sex, deceit, smoking, drinking, name calling, someone who is dead is said to have been pregnant, talk about a man sleeping around with various women, bikini bottoms shown on a woman’s ankles to indicate sex took place, bi-sexuality interests shown, language: (“d “word, “f” word 4x, “s” word,

Joe Versus the Volcano 1990 (w/ Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack) – 2.75 stars - This was such a strange movie. Joe works a boring job and doesn’t really do much outside of his own comfort zone at all. He is told by his doctor that he has barely any time left before he is to die. He decides that he is going to do something crazy. Apparently some natives on an island need to make a human sacrifice to their god who lives in a volcano, so Joe is very ready to give himself to these natives since he is going to die anyway. Joe meets some women who are interested in him along the way (they are all Meg Ryan in different costumes as different people). He is starting to fall for one big time which causes a dilemma. Although the love story is really sweet in this, the movie doesn’t have enough meat to hold it together and make it amazing. I did like the way it was filmed though.
content: smoking, kissing, drinking (no drunkenness), talk about death/suicide, people die in a storm, talk about sleeping with a woman, talk about a place being like a used condom, talk about lusting over someone, a man is nearly naked (seen from the side), slapping, immodesty, language (“s” word 3x)

The LEGO Movie 2014 (animated w/ voices of Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Will Farrell, Craig Berry, Liam Neeson, Chris Pratt) – 3.5 stars - I had to think about what I thought about this movie for two weeks after I saw it. My husband took our sons out to see it in theatres, and we all saw it together when it was released on DVD. My sons had to make sure to not tell me much about the movie to ruin it for me but they constantly talked about how much they had loved it. In seeing it, I thought it was so strange! It is basically about a worker LEGO man who is “normal” and “boring” unlike those special characters that get released like “Batman” or “Gandalf” and such. He enjoys his life, so it seems, but there is something that gets him caught up with a prophesy where he is a special builder who can come up with amazing ideas for things rather than following the instructions. The only problem is he doesn’t really know how to come up with anything and the LEGO world is in danger of being ruined and controlled. My husband likens it to the world of computers of those who want to control the operating systems and those who are open source users. Haha. I think it was a very well done movie with a surprise that I did not expect to happen at all that took me for a loop, and I am sure took many for a loop. I liked that. It really pulled everything together. My sons would probably give this a 5 star rating. :)
content:: some violence (threatening people and using ways of controlling them), we see a naked LEGO man, a LEGO head gets cut off (they have changeable heads, remember), fighting/punching/kicking, walls falling on LEGO characters, shooting with laser guns, name calling, a “melting chamber”, drinking characters in a saloon, some saloon girl LEGOs shown

The Flowers of War/Jin Ling Shi San Chai 2011 (w/ Christian Bale, Xinyl Zhang, Ni Ni) – 2.75 stars - This movie was so sad (depressing sad, not “bad” sad) in so many ways. It was mainly in subtitles (except for Mr. Bale’s character). This story is about when Japan came into Nanking, China in 1937 and pretty much wiped everyone out who was there. The main characters of this movie are school girls and prostitutes and Christian Bale – the American who plays up being a priest of a cathedral (he is not though) in order to keep them protected from harm in the best way he can. In the movie you basically have the pure virgins and the used up ladies who are nothing like them, and how despite their crazy differences, they form a bond of friendship between them through their time at the cathedral. The greatest problem with this movie is that it is such a realistic portrayal that it makes me cry and deeply hurt that people went through this and continue to do so through the many wars that go on today. What a path of destruction and death and brutality! This movie was a little long. The costumes are amazing and the acting was well done! Way too much was shown though so the rating went down because of it or it would have been rated much higher.
content:: much shooting is shown including shots at the head and pieces of brain coming out of these people’s heads, There is blood throughout this movie from people being bayoneted to being cut up or punched, dead bodies are shown everywhere (and many times the bodies are not in one piece), women are shown in immodest outfits (bras and even groping one another while in bras and laughing about it), name calling, language (“s” word, hell used improperly, God’s name used in vain/blasphemously, “f” word about 2x), explosions shown, girls are dragged around and raped or nearly raped (one girl shows bloody underwear to her father), a couple women are gang raped and you see the bodies left after the acts are done including nudity (the rapes are not actually shown other than a woman shown fighting as a man is on her though we don’t see that he is physically raping her, though there is no doubt that he is doing so – she bites him hard), making out/kissing (and a woman moans) between a couple, women are shown bare backed as they wrap each other with tape on their bosoms (breasts not shown bare), perverse talk, lots and lots and lots and lots of shooting and kicking and punching and terrorizing and gore and violence and bodies exploding, we see signs of torture, a man and woman are shown deathly ill (they look blue), wine/alcohol/whiskey shown being consumed, cigarette smoking

Arthur Christmas 2011 (animated w/ voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton) – 3 stars - This is a Christmas movie about Santa’s family and how they prepare for Christmas every year and what goes on during the day of Christmas. It was funny when you view it in a pretend/fantasy story, but otherwise if you were to tell your kids this is really what goes on, I feel sorry for the child(ren) big time. Arthur is the youngest son of Santa and he loves Christmas big time. His older brother is ahead of operations while Arthur works with the letters to Santa and is a bit of a clutz. He is proud of his family but when it comes to a little girl not being able to receive a present she asked for, he goes all out to help her before Christmas morning. It was cute.
content:: talk of whiskey being given to a child to get them to fall asleep, “hell” used incorrectly, violence is mentioned to finish someone off by hitting someone on their head, some mean things said to family members, some scary imagery for children (scary threatening lions), talk about giving an elf something to drink to forget about something, alcohol is shown

Veil of Tears 2014 (documentary) – 3.5 stars – This is about life in India for women and girls and how they deal with suffering or are treated because of the caste system and culture that they are in. I am officially a volunteer for Gospel For Asia which this documentary went through and supports. I hope to be able to show the film to many people. It was so informative and interesting. Despite the problems that so many women face, this film talks about missionary women who are reaching out to the rejected and oppressed women in India. They are sharing with them about Jesus and helping educate them and teaching them skills so they can thrive. I would love to connect with you and tell you the many transforming stories of how national missionaries are touching the lives of many and how so many oppressed people are seeing their lives transformed because of the love they have found through Christ. I would love to share with you about the schools (Bridge of Hope) that are being built to give Dalits hope for a future instead of thinking they will have no way out of their heartache and poverty. My only issue with this film is that I think some of the frame work with the text was not timed correctly, so it jumped back and forth a few times at the end, which was strange, but the message and everything else about it was grand.
content: acid throwing victim shown, leprosy shown on a few people (that might scare people), half naked children and men shown, violence and rape often talked about, suicide talked about, Jesus mentioned often, human trafficking mentioned, prostitution talked about, They talk about the work of Gospel For Asia in general as well with how they are helping the Dalits (untouchables – lowest caste system in India).

47 Ronin 2013 (w/ Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki) – 3 stars - This film was beautiful in many ways. While there was violence, there was no blood or intensity that you may see in a lot of samurai films. This is based on a true story though definitely fictionalized too. A group of men (mainly samurai) are so devoted to their “master” that they are willing to go against the “big man in charge” to avenge him. The costumes in this were really wonderful as were the sets. The computer graphics in it were very well done and realistic and not fake looking. Although the characters were very interesting, I actually thought there was going to be subtitles in this, but it is in English. Keanu Reeves did a good job though his lack of emotion often shows which he is good at (so it is a little annoying). There is a background of romance but not much affection was shown to have you drawn to the characters who are in love. The fighting and the plot are the best parts of this movie but the attachment to the people in it doesn’t seem to really happen too well. I liked this movie though!
content:: a kiss on a cheek, a boy called a demon, horses get injured and killed, scary imagery of beasts and such, a man’s bare chest is shown, talk about concubines, witchcraft (spells stated with a blood ritual), a man shown on top of a woman (both have much on but you can see that someone is being raped but it is actually an illusion), samurai sword fighting, an “honorable suicide” as part of a very sad old tradition of the samurai – was not actually shown, a decapitated disfigured giant’s head being held up, cleavage shown, gun violence shown, a man’s head gets kicked on (they shown the foot going down but not the head), spirit world talked of (a “ghost” shown), a couple statues of Buddha shown, people set on fire, immodesty (low-cut robe and legs shown at the thigh while wearing robe on a woman), a decapitated samurai head shown, a kiss (not passionate)

25 Hill 2011 (w/ Corbin Bernsen, Nathan Gamble, Maureen Flannigan, Ralph Waite) – 2.75 stars - This is a movie that is one kids would like, especially if they like NASCAR. A boy loses his father to war and his dad had promised to work on a soapbox derby car with him. He meets a man who has an alcohol problem but was a derby winner in 1970. This man also is suffering from a loss. The two of them form a bond together through their work on the soapbox derby car. It was cute but often I felt the main boy’s acting was pretty bad. It was nice to see Ralph Waite make an appearance in this (he died recently). This definitely is one of those “For God and Country” type of films to teach kids to have pride in both things (sometimes it seemed a little preachy honestly). Sometimes this movie was a bit boring but it wasn’t bad.
content:: beer shown being consumed by a recovering alcoholic, blood shown, death talked about, talk about belief in God and prayer, an accident happens because of drunk driving

Zodiac 2007 (w/ Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr.) – 3.25 stars - This is an intriguing story about a cartoonist for a newspaper who became obsessed with the Zodiac killer’s cases and codes, etc. I saw this movie after it came out on DVD and wanted to refresh my memory about it after some guy wrote a book saying that he is the son of the killer. This movie does point out a lot of interesting pieces but the whole thing remains a mystery. I probably would rate this higher, but they actually show some of the killings graphically which is rough to imagine they would recreate them at all. Killing people for fame and enjoyment certainly is a terrible thing to ponder, and I am sure life during this time in the areas where these killings occurred was scary. This movie is more focused on the investigations mainly by the cartoonist and also about a few other people who worked on the case or who were being sent the letters themselves. The violence is very deep when shown though, so please know that when I re-watched this I was actually shaken to tears that people would desire to even want to do such things to a person. I think often people are desensitized. . .it is intensified for me and I have a hard time with it.
content: brutal stabbings shown with much blood, brutal shootings shown with much blood, talk about killing children, threats made, smoking (a lot of it), drinking and drunkenness shown, cocaine is shown, people shown tied up, a magazine is looked at for a second with immodesty (it is most likely pornography), a couple is on a secret date and the woman mentions her husband not being able to find out, marijuana shown, a man is said to have been arrested for molesting a boy, language: (“hell” used incorrectly, God’s name used blasphemously, “s” word, a few “f” words, “d” word, name calling)