‘The Blind Side’: I Smell an Oscar

At first glance, this sports drama is another football vehicle in the vein of Facing the Giants or Remember the Titans, where the main characters have internal or team challenges to overcome in order to beat the opposing team and succeed in life. After all, the term “blind side” is a football term.

But this movie is really more about two things: believing that you can have a better life if you can apply yourself through hard work and believing in the goodness of humanity. Actually, in the end, the film is really about change, change for the better.

Sandra Bullock not only looks amazing in this film, but she also really does a wonderful job of portraying a very different type of woman than we have seen her play. Bullock’s typical comic or anal idiosyncrasies fall away and suddenly you aren’t watching Bullock on screen anymore. Instead, you are pulled into the life of strong, Southern socialite Leigh Anne Tuohy as she rallies around her new cause, a young and talented athlete from the projects called Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron).

November 2009 Box Office Movie Releases

Nov. 6

• The Box – Thriller starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
• *The Men Who Stare at Goats – Comedy starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
• * Christmas Carol – 3-D animation starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn
• *Precious – Drama starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo-Nique, Mariah Carey

Nov. 13

• *Fantastic Mr. Fox – Animation starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartmann, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray
• *2012 – Sci-Fi starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet
• *The Princess and the Frog – Disney animation starring Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman, Keith Howard

Nov. 20

• Broken Embraces – Drama starring Penelope Cruz, Lluis Homar
• Planet 51 – Animation starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Justin Long, Jessica Biel
• *The Blind Side – Drama starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Quinton Aaron Bull

Nov. 25

• Old Dogs – Comedy tarring John Travolta, Robin Williams, Seth Green
• Nine – Broadway musical adaptation starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman

* NOTE: These are the films I really want to see this month! However, I know I won’t be able to see them all.

— Laura J. Bagby

‘Julie and Julia’ Sizzles on Screen

Here’s one movie idea that isn’t half-baked. Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, is scrumptious on-screen entertainment!

Writer/Director Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) dishes up a great plot that interweaves two true stories – one about a New York woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who, while working at a dead-end job, gets the crazy idea of cooking up 365 days of Julia Child’s famous recipes and then blogging about them, and the other about how Julia Child (Meryl Streep) went from bored housewife living in Paris to culinary star and American icon.

Sandler’s New Low: ‘Funny People’

I attempted a viewing of Adam Sandler’s Funny People today but had to leave the theatre within the first 30 minutes because it was an assault on my values. I had hoped to get a proper review of this new release that just came out at the box office on July 31st, but staying in my seat voluntarily watch

ing and hearing the kind of filth spewing from the screen wasn’t an option for me.

The basic premise answers this question: If you get a second chance on life, would you be a better person? I think it’s a sensational concept, all about changing for the better. Sandler plays a famous comedian (hmm…is this autobiographical?) called George Simmons who finds out he has a very aggressive form of leukemia. He handles the news by deciding to do even more crude stand-up comedy and enlist a fan and budding comedian, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), to help write funny, crass material. Ira and George become friends who eventually help each other out: George helps Ira step into the career of stand-up comedy; Ira helps George deal with his terminal illness. But when George’s illness goes into remission and he gets a second chance on life and love, George begins to evaluate how he has been living.

Perhaps this Judd Apatow film does get better and even cleaner if you stay for the rest. I truly hope so, but honestly I doubt it. I heard more references to male body parts, sexual acts, and potty-mouthed cursing in the first quarter of the film than I cared to ever hear.

I left the movie feeling really depressed. Ironic when the title of this comedy is about people that are supposed to make me laugh.

— Laura J. Bagby

‘Night at the Museum 2’ Delights

It’s always a risk that sequels will never truly live up to the success of the original theatrical release. But if opening weekend box office receipts are any testimony to a film’s success, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, hit a nerve back in May with moviegoers everywhere. The movie more than doubled the profits earned from the original 2006 Night at the Museum. Now, more than a month later, it’s still ranking in the top ten box office releases to date.

So what, exactly, is it about the adventures and antics of these nighttime-activated, historical characters that captures audience delight? In a phrase: good, clean humor and imagination. And that combination makes for family friendly fare, indeed.

Dissecting Deeper Themes in ‘Pelham 123’

I really enjoyed discussing the deeper themes in the new Denzel Washington and John Travolta, about two men who face off and stand divided on what is right and wrong in one crazy train ride.

I shared my own ‘train’ of thought with Positive Hit Radio The Current. My buddy, radio personality Liz Lane, and I talked in particular about the issues of sin and redemption that are heavily prevalent in this Columbia/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release from director Tony Scott.

Audio Commentary:

The above audio clip is not the original on-air version from The Current FM. It has been edited for this blog.

— Laura J. Bagby

‘Land of the Lost’ Disappoints

Take the old caveman Geico ads, mix in raunchy SNL skits, and throw in a Daisy Duke Brit and a redneck good old boy and you’ve got the new Land of the Lost that opened last Friday.

The original 1974 TV series written by Sid and Marty Krofft followed the time traveling adventures of a camping father and his two kids who inexplicably find themselves in the mysterious world of man-eating dinosaurs, sinister lizard-like Sleestaks, and a monkey boy called Chaka.

‘Star Trek’: Beaming Up This Generation

Star Trek

We haven’t seen a Trek film since 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. This film marks the 11th Trek film to hit the silver screen.

It’s another sci-fi flick that is returning to origins. We saw it years ago in Star Wars Episode I, then Batman Begins, and even in last week’s opening of Wolverine. And now J. J. Abrams is doing the same thing by getting back to the beginning of Trek lore.

‘Angels & Demons’: A Better Dan Brown Adaptation

Angels & Demons

The newly released Angels & Demons effectively beat out Star Trek, bringing in 48 million in box office revenue its first weekend. The film marks the second of Dan Brown’s novels to make it to the silver screen. The first was 2006’s smash hit the Da Vinci Code.

Now, with Angels & Demons, we see Tom Hanks again in his role as Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon. This time he is headed to the Vatican. The pope has died and the Cardinals must prepare a conclave to choose the next successor. When the Illuminati capture the top four potential candidates – or Preferatti – and threaten to kill each man at a certain time and locale across Rome, Dr. Langdon teams up with physicist Vittoria Vetra from Switzerland to solve the clues and end the violence, effectively saving all of Rome from destruction and allowing the Vatican to pick the right man to lead the Catholic church at large.