Movie Suggestion Post #99
Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. I tend to start at a 5 star rating and deduct things based on content, plot, photography/direction, and acting. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, which means I enjoyed it and would probably recommend it or watch it again. (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))
The Rare Breed 1966 (w/ Jimmy Stewart (my fav. actor), Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith, and Juliet Mills) – 4 stars – I was unsure if I’d like this movie when I first received it, so I put it on delay before deciding to just watch it already. Little did I know that it was a funny and very good movie. The idea is that a family was traveling overseas from England to breed Hereford bulls. Now a widow, as her husband died on the boat, Martha and her daughter are determined to continue to do what they set out to do. Martha’s daughter raised the bull themselves and they are to auction it off, but they refuse to allow it to be butchered! They decide they’ll travel further to set a claim. Sam Burnett is going to help them get the job done, though he is terribly tired of this headstrong woman and her hornless bull. What is hilarious to me, is that eventually Brian Keith comes out looking and sounding all Scottish and he does a great job and made me laugh. If you are a fan of the original Parent Trap, you’ll know that he and Maureen O’Hara are the parents from it. What is so funny is that the girl who plays her daughter in this is Hayley Mills’ sister (Hayley Mills is the girl/twins in The Parent Trap). I love that the bull’s name is Vindicator. It is definitely a sweet story and I love the costumes in this too! No complaints ever from me about Jimmy Stewart!
content: brawls with men fighting with punches that you know are fake and people throwing people into pianos at bars and such, women in which you know are supposed to be prostitutes walk around but they are full covered in dresses, kissing, a man gets shot, a man shown in a bathtub (covered)
Snowpiercer 2013 (w/ Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Alison Pill) – 1.75 stars – I can’t take movies with high violence and gore. I had my head turned for many of the scenes in this because they were just brutal and made me sick. The storyline was so interesting to me though. You have several hundred people separated by class on a very large train that survived the earth freezing out. The train travels once around the entire earth each year and there is someone in charge who seems to belittle the people at the end of the train who live off of nasty protein bars while people towards the front get to eat pretty much whatever they want. Chris Evans plays the lead role and he is wanting to destroy the conductor of the train. My husband had wanted me to see this with him but now I say that I could have used my time better.
content: immodesty (women in bathing suits seen very briefly as well as girls in a club not dressed too well – they are in the background and a bit out of focus), a made up drug is talked about throughout this and shown looking like a square of grey play dough, smoking of cigarettes shown, people consume some alcohol, child labor shown, torture is shown, extreme fighting and killing throughout the movie including chopping people up with axes, using guns and shooting and killing people as well, much blood is shown, extreme language throughout (f word, s word, both b words, d word, God’s name used blasphemously, “hell” used incorrectly)
Raising Izzie 2012 (w/ Rockmond Dunbar, Rodney Perry, Victoria Elizabeth Staley, Kayla Kennedy, Wanda Smith) – 3 stars – This story is about a couple of sisters who are very young and caring for themselves after their mother dies. They try to keep her death a secret for a long time and do the best they can. Gertie is the older sister and she does what she can for Izzie, the younger sister. Gertie’s teacher is a bit of a pest to her because she is always trying to find out about her mom who needs to sign permission slips and such. When the teacher finds out more to the story, she is determined to help them the best that she can. This is a Christian movie and shows how Gertie and the teacher both have faith issues while the teacher’s husband and Izzie seem to have a strong faith in God. Why would God allow them to suffer as they have? It was a good movie but again, slightly cheesy at times. I liked the story though. I don’t think it was a spectacular film at all and the acting wasn’t all that great. It may lead to tears though.
content: talk about death, talk about God, kissing, an accident happens at one point that puts a character in a bad condition
Chef 2014 (w/ John Favreau, John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr.) – 2.75 stars – A chef who adores cooking and always longs to use his own creative food ideas in the restaurant he works as is told what to cook instead of having that freedom. When a reviewer of restaurants comes and mocks his cooking with harsh insults, the two of them battle it out on Twitter causing a few issues. The Chef’s son wants to spend more time with his father, as his parents are divorced but they get along really well. He tries to encourage his father. This film left me wanting to try all the foods that were shown in it. It also was a cute story about family and how friends and family can truly want to help you see your dreams out when you work hard at them. This had a full scene with Robert Downey Jr., making it my 71st RDJ film that I’ve seen (his character is strange). This would have been rated quite a bit higher if there wasn’t loads of bad language in it and sexual references.
content: lots of smoking (cigars, cigarettes, and marijuana at on point), underage drinking (though he didn’t like it and his father tells him to remember that when his friends ask him to drink when he is older), drinking (no drunkenness), sexual references (talking about male parts, using bread to make it seem like having an erection, talk about getting a woman’s “p” word a few times,talk about a vasectomy and pregnancy tests and sex), A mention of someone having a past affair, cleavage, tight dresses worn on women in mini-skirts, people walking around wearing bikinis in the streets – nothing zoomed in on or anything, a woman’s upper thigh and hip shown as she sits, many innuendos), a dead pig is shown getting his head cut off and a part of his leg, language: (about 50 f-words, s word several times – maybe 20, God’s name used blasphemously, use of small and large “a” words about 15 times, small and large “b” words, cruel name-calling)
Maleficent 2014 (w/ Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton) – 3.25 stars – This is the telling of The Sleeping Beauty through the perspective and side of Maleficent, who we’ve always known to be “the bad guy” and who always seemed like a demon witch (I always thought she was the freakiest of villains myself and was the spawn of Satan in my childhood mind). We get to watch Maleficent grow up and see how she acts over the kingdom from which Aurora came. I thought the story was well done, and if you are one who enjoyed the Disney animated version, you will see a lot of things that are done exactly from it (such as how rooms are set up to costumes and props). It was nice seeing that there is a soft side to Maleficent filled with love rather than hate. The film was very pretty, the story was great, the acting was sweet. My only negative review of this is that basically my husband I have always viewed Aurora to needing to be the most beautiful princess. The choice of actress was not bad, but she was plain looking (which is good for young girls to not have to measure up and think ill of themselves) but I don’t find Miss Fanning to be gorgeous, just sweet or cute.
content: battle scenes where men are harmed by giant trees and such (no blood and gore but they are thrown about and hit), a man slaps another man, a man takes something horrifically from a woman without her permission (I can’t explain more without giving things away), use of magic (mainly a green mist used), deceit, scary imagery that may not be suitable for young children, death, kissing, small amount of cleavage shown, blood shown on people (cuts and burns)
Siddharth 2013 (w/ Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Anurag Arora, Shobha Sharma Jassi, Geeta Agrawal Sharma) – 2.75 stars – This is one of the most boring films, but one of the most realistic for how life in India would be. It is about a family who couldn’t afford much money and they send their 12 year old son off somewhere but lose contact with him. The father goes on a search all over India to try to find him and hears all about the slavery that he may have been put into. It is really quite a sad movie. India is a place where slavery is the strongest in the world. You will see a lot of what life in India is like for many people while watching it. The movie has English subtitles, by the way. I think this could have been shorter, but the message was truly sad and good.
content: A scene where a man tries to humiliate another by making him fix his jeans’ zipper while wearing the jeans still, naked children shown in the street, a few bad words mentioned in it (I’d say about 3 or 4 smaller terms), talk about kidnapping & abductions
Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation 2012 (documentary) – 2.75 stars – Want to learn the history of Greenwich Village’s folk music uprising? This is a great way to learn. There are so many interviews and loads of great footage throughout the film. My one very big problem is that Joan Baez isn’t in this at all? That is very strange since she had a huge following and started there too (and I love her music by the way), so I don’t understand what was up with that at all, unless she made the film makers mad that they decided to oust her. That wouldn’t surprise me, actually.
content: talk about violence and war, talk about drugs
High School Hellcats 1958 (w/ Yvonne Fedderson, Brett Halsey, Jana Lund, Susanne Sidney, Heather Ames) – 3 stars – One of the first scenes in this movie from an all-girls’ school showed a rebellious 50’s teen generation that we are not used to hearing about at all. I felt like I was watching a scene from how students in schools act today with how rude they were being. Basically, the Hellcats are a gang of white girls who like to feel superior than others and have a leader and a set of rules. When Joyce arrives at their school, they try to pick her up into their gang. She tends to struggle between doing the right thing and wanting to make friends which can cause problems. I think the story worked well and the movie was pretty bad in the beginning but it started to get better as it went along.
content: talk of murder, attempted murder, a girl walks around in a slip in front of her father who tells her she is indecent (because she is certainly not acting or appearing in modesty), kissing, a girl who throws knives around, deceit, teens at a party with underage drinking, smoking
God’ Not Dead 2014 (w/ Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper, David A. R. White, Cory Oliver, Dean Cain, Paul Kwo, Trisha LaFache, Hadeel Sittu) – 3.25 stars – Another Christian movie that isn’t too cheesy except for when the Duck Dynasty couple show up, but other than that it is really well done (granted I liked what they said in the film). In college, various students are excited as they begin their journey in preparation for the future. A professor for Philosophy tells his new students that in order to take the class, they need to write “God’s Dead” on a piece of paper and sign it and hand it in. When one student decides that he does not want to proclaim God being dead, the teacher challenges him and tells him to teach three classes to prove God is not dead. We also get a glimpse of other people and the connections they have with one another and those who believe in God and those who do not. Some have it harder than others. I enjoyed it! This film does have a bias towards the belief in God, but there is a case on the other side shown. If you are not a Christian I don’t know if you will like this film, but it is still good regardless and I recommend it!
content: in one scene a girl presses her chest against her boyfriend’s back and it seems to be shown too closely, some cleavage is shown, a woman gets hit several times in domestic abuse, a man’s body flies up and hits the ground hard and blood is shown, alcohol use shown (no drunks), kissing
