Movie Review: *****When the Game Stands Tall

This is the best movie I have seen in some time.  It has a Christian undercurrent, which I like; of course it is based on the story of a Catholic High School football team, De La Salle from Concord, CA.  I had heard the story of the team, but this movie is spectacular.  This movie starts with the record, 151 consecutive victories.  But then it goes further.  It explores adversity.  A graduating player's mother is in a coma; and he feels he has no one.  Then Coach Bob Ladouceur has a heart attack, and can't coach for a time.  One of the graduating seniors is murdered, before he can play college ball.  That is hard to understand.  However Coach talks of his funeral, and puts this into some perspective.  That his father and grandmother could be proud of raising such a good young man. 
They add to this hardship, with a loss to start the season, they streak of consecutive wins is over at 151. 
This movie is about overcoming hardship.  About bouncing back, and holding your head up.  The coach always reminded the players it wasn't about winning, but giving your best, and becoming outstanding young men and citizens.
This is a movie I recommend everyone see.  It is excellent.  It is incredible how you can get vested in football games that were played so many years ago, but there I was, rooting and cringing when things didn't go right; Well done!
The cast Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel)
Chris Ryan (player pursuing a touchdown record, Alexander Ludwig)

Terry Edison (assistant coach, Michael Chiklis)
Coach's wife Bev Ladouceur (Laura Dern)
Ryan's father Mickey (Clancy Brown)
Coach's son Danny (Matthew Daddario)

Mormon Movie Review: ****Johnny Lingo (LDS Church 1969)

This is one of my favorites.  At home, Mahana is basically a servant, or worse than a servant.  We don't see Mahana's mother, but her father calls her, "Mahana, you ugly."  And that is who she is in her father's house, Mahana the ugly, who hugs the shadows of the hut.  However Johnny Lingo pays eight cows for her.  In the community a man can get a good wife for two or three cows, and excellent one for four or five, and never has there been an eight cow wife.  The local merchant assumes Johnny Lingo is just proud.  However he visits the home after they have been away for a year, and finds Mahana to be beautiful.  These are quotes from that meeting as Johhny Lingo explains the change.
Johnny Lingo: Think what it must mean to a woman, her future husband meeting with her father to discuss the lowest price for which she can be bought. And later, when the women of the village gather, they boast of what their husbands paid for them - three cows, or five. How does she feel, the woman who was sold for one, or two? This could not happen to my Mahana.
Trader Harris: Johnny, I've misjudged you. I thought you were thinking only of how important you would look to your friends, paying 8 cows for a wife. I didn't know you wanted to make Mahana happy.
Johnny Lingo: More than happy, Mr. Harris. I wanted her to be an eight-cow woman.
Trader Harris: I see. In her father's hut, Mahana believed she was worth nothing.
Johnny Lingo: Yes, and now she knows she is worth more than any other woman on the island.
 This is a lesson in self-worth, but also in how are actions are reflected in others.

The message is right on.  My only complaints have to do with the music and the acting.
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/feature-films?lang=eng

Movie Review: ****Hook

This is one of my favorite movies.  It is based on a continuing story, after Peter Pan (Robin Williams) has grown up.  He married Wendy's daughter Moira (Caroline Goodall) It starts with Peter Banning neglecting his children because he is too involved in business.  He misses his son's baseball game, and most of his daughter's play.  They travel to England to visit Grandma Wendy (Maggie Smith) and present a special award to the lady who adopted the lost boys.  Somehow Hook (Dustin Hoffman) is not satisfied with the way things have gone, and leaks through to London, where he steals Peter Pan's children.  This sets up a series of events in which Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) must first remind Peter of who he is, teach him how to fly, and restore his confidence.  This will give Hook the satisfaction of battling a worthy opponent.  Peter must rescue his children.  In the meantime, Hook sets out to win Peter's children over to him, so he could take the parental role.  This almost works.  One of the cute scenes is where the pirates are playing baseball, and Jack, Pan's son, (Charlie Korsmo) hits a home run.  Hook says that's my boy, and Pan is left in the dark as his boy is losing his loyalty.  But it is when Pan gets his happy thought that the show reveals its theme.  His happy thought is his children.  That is what makes it so he can fly again.  John Williams wrote the music for the movie, including the theme sone, "When You're All Alone"

When you're all alone
far away from home
there's a gift the angel sent
when you're alone.

Everyday must end
but the night's our friend
angels always send a star
when you're alone.

At night when I'm alone
I lie awake and wonder,
Which of them belongs to me,
which one I wonder?

And any star I choose
watches over me
so I know I'm not alone
when I'm here on my own

Isn't that a wonder?
When you're alone
you're not alone
not really alone.

The stars are all my friends
till the night time ends
so I know I'm not alone
when I'm here on my own

Isn't that a wonder?
When you're alone
you're not alone
not really alone.

Pan's daughter Maggie, (Amber Scott) does a beautiful job with the song.  

Peter Pan starts out shaky in his relationship with the lost boys, but this develops and is one of the highlights of the movie.  Rufio (Dante Basco) plays a great modern rufian.

Movie Review: ****^Cool Runnings (1993)

This is a 1993 movie of the first Jamaican bob sled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.  I actual remember this story from the Calgary Olympics.  Four sprinters, who were hoping to run track and field, but a fall ends this dream, but still wanting to be Olympians, take up bob sledding.  Irv Blitzer (John Candy) becomes their coach.  This movie is not only motivational, but funny.  A lines that sticks, "You dead man?"  This line is in my vocabulary.  The Jamaicans find their style, with a lucky egg, and their own song, "We got a Jamaican Bob Sled Team."  It is amazing how sometimes dreams hang by a thread, and theew is always opposition.  Sometimes opposition comes from those you love; sometimes from those you don't know; and sometimes from others who disrespect you.  Whatever the case you have to stand and fight.

Movie Review: ****^Wild Hearts Can't be Broken (1991)

This is a Disney movie, and tells the true story of Sonora Webster Carver (Gabrielle ANwar).  It is a depression era movie, and Sonora was determined to make it to Atlantic City to make her future.  She manages to gain employment with Doc Carver (Cliff Robertson), first as a stable hand, and later as a diving girl.  Doc Carver,  a famous sharpshooter, and contemporary of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill, had put together an act using diving horses with a young woman rider.  Unfortunately Doc passes away before they take the act to Atlantic City.  His son, and Sonora's future husband, takes over the show.  In this movie you have a young woman determined to be a  (Michael Schoeffling) success, and she learns how to mount a moving horse to be a diving girl.  What is even more dramatic is that after losing her eye sight to an accident where she went into the water face first with her eyes open, causing the detachment of her retinas, she continued to perform as a diving girl.  I discovered in real life she performed for eleven more years blind, and a total of 20 years.  In real life passed away only ten years ago at the age of 99.
The actress that portrays Sonora is Fionna on "Burn Notice."

Movie Review: ****^The Blind Side (2009)

For this movie Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for best actress.  In watching the movie you can see why.  This movie tells the early story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), and NFL football player.  Through his youth he was in and out of foster care as his mother had a drug problem.  He would generally run away from home.  However he did get a scholarship to a Catholic school, based on his size.  He was going to sleep outside the gym one evening, when Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) invited him home to spend the night with her family.  She then invited him for Thanksgiving.  Over the objection of some of her friends, and neighbors, he becomes a part of her family.
He initially struggles at football, because he doesn't want to hurt anyone.  However, Tuohy takes him aside, and explains how he has to protect his back side.  He overcomes his fear, and becomes an all-American football player, recruited by many colleges.  However he cannot take a scholarship to a major school without raising his grades.  A tutor is hired, (Kathy Bates) who likes Mississippi.  His new parents also went there.  He chooses Mississippi but not without NCAA investigation.  He has to get some things strait in his mind, and goes home, to birth neighborhood.  He has a run-in with a relative.  Tuohy comes looking for him, and this individual threatens her son.  She starts to walk away, then turns around and lets him know she is packing and she has her son's blind side.  It is a cool seen.  Oher passes his NCAA interview as he says he wants to go to Mississippi because it is his family school.

Movie Review: ***** Hoosiers

Hoosiers is one of my favorite shows.  It came out in 1986.  It is a movie about a small town basketball team.  It is fictional, but loosely based on the story of Milan High School, 1952 and their state championship run.  In small towns, basketball can be the only show in town, and is followed by everyone.  At the same time, a person's whole life can be tied up with those few years of their high school playing years.  Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) is coming back to the coaching profession, after a twelve year hiatus.  His last coaching was at the university level, and he was suspended for punching one of his players.  He had spent ten years in the navy.  He teaches fundamentals, starting with basics, and insisting the players follow what he says.  However, by the end of the year, he is listening to the opinion of his players, but is still the coach.  Dennis Hooper was nominated in a supportive role for his role as the assistant coach, Shooter.  His son plays on the team.  He has a drinking problem.  Even so he assists.  The pressure gets to him and he relapses.  He is in the hospital as the team plays for the state championship.  Shooter's reaction to the game as he listens on the radio are just classic.  I highly recommend this movie.

Motivational Movie: ***^Invictus

This movie released 2009 and is now on DVD.  I am watching it courtesy of Netflix.  It stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freemon and is directed by Clint Eastwood.  This movie tells of the relationship between Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienarr, Captain of the South African rugby team.  It talks about overcoming odds, and doing better than you can do.  It is a study of what inspires us and motivates us.

I think the best part of the movie was the Invictus poem, written  by William Ernest Henley who had tuberculosis in his leg, and his leg amputated:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The conclusion of the movie, with Nelson giving the Cup to Francois, is a true story, and is considered one of the most inspiring sports scenes to be portrayed on British  television.  That this country was able to pull itself out of apartheid, and then jointly support their team to the World Cup is incredible.  I hope to remember the line, "I am the master of my fate:  I am the captain of my soul."

Movie Review: ****^The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend (1991)

Pete Maravich (Adam Guier) had a gift on the basketball court, and he was a pleasure to watch.  This movie tells how that gift came to be.  There are some things that come naturally, and there are some things you develop.  In this case, both of those criteria apply. 
This movie deals with Pete Maravich when he was in eighth grade, before he was a legend.  He was struggling with things just like anyone else.  However he had a dream.  His father (Nick Benedict) had been a professional player, and was a college coach.  He emphasized self confidence.  Pete took these lessons to heart.  He had a love for basketball, and being the best.  I love this movie.  It is a motivational classic.  His mother (Millie Perkins) tolerated the fanaticism of the men in her life. 
One warning for those who watch this movie with their children; it shows many “tricks” with a basketball.  Your kids will try many of these tricks.  If they do the “ricochet” incorrectly it may cause an injury.  
This movie is very motivational if you have big dreams.  If not I imagine it will fall flat.  I like Pete's interaction with the cheerleader.  Pete can't understand why do something if you are not dedicated to be the best.  By the end of the movie she has caught on, as has Moose, the big guy on the team who wants to get a scholarship.

Movie Review: *****Rudy

This is one of my favorite movies.  It lets you know that it is what you do with what you got that is important.  This movie is based on a true story of Rudy, Daniel Ruettiger (Sean Astin).  Rudy does OK on his high school team, but has no college prospects, just dreams.  He takes a job at the mill like his father.  When his friend dies, he decides to follow his dream to play football for Notre Dame.  He doesn't get in, but attends a smaller school, while he prepares to get in.  There is a cute scene where he participates in the ritual of painting the helmets, reserved for Notre Dame students.  He finally gets to Notre Dame, and makes the practice squad as a walk on.  His job is to be a target for the regulars.  He takes his knocks, waiting for his chance.
This movie tells a few basic concepts, you should always pursue your dream, and sometimes it takes help from a third person to get there.  This show has an incredible ending.  I watched this game live in 75, and saw the team carry Rudy off the field, not really knowing the story.

Movie Review: ****^Hitchcock

Hitchcock is a 2011 movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville.  It also features Scarlett Johansson as the actress Janet Leigh.  I watched it through Netflix DVD.

I found this movie very entertaining.  It is about the making of Psycho.  I was fascinating with the making of a film, and even more fascinated with Hitchcock and his wife, coming together to make a triumph.  They took a great risk with this movie, as Hitchcock could not find financial backing, and had to back the movie himself.  There were so many nuances to the making of the film that at times it seemed the project was going to fall apart. There was dealing with the studio, dealing with the censors, and dealing with personal pressure at home because of they mortgaged their home to make the film.

Overlapping this is the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma.  Hitchcock determines she is having an affair, and this effects his work on the movie.  However when he collapses from exhaustion, Alma comes up to keep them going and to keep production from falling too far behind, or to keep the cost overruns from being too great. Alma was not having a physical affair, but perhaps one of loyalty as she was helping a friend write a book.

In the end, this movie was Hitchcock’s greatest success, even surpassing “North by Northwest.”  I am putting this movie in my motivational movies.  It shows what can be accomplished with a dream, determination and resolve.  

I don't think youngsters would appreciate this movie. 

Movie Review: *****Oz The Great and Powerful (2013)

I love L Frank Baum, and this movie captured his spirit.  It is his spirit and wit that made the Oz series so popular.
Instead of starting with a little girl from Kansas, this movie starts with a con-man magician from Kansas.  He escapes an upset husband of a  woman he had been pursuing.  The pursuer happens to be the strong-man of the carnival.  He escapes in a balloon, which happens to go into a tornado, and he is whisked off to Oz.
The director, like in the ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, has used black and white until this point, and then we enter a colorful world.  This world is  controlled by three governing witches, one good, one bad and one we are not so sure.  However it takes some time to determine which, witch, is which.  (I like that.)

The theme of the show is repeated several times by the wizard, “You can do anything if you believe.”  However the wizard doesn’t really believe this of himself.  It isn’t until faced with an impossible crisis that he actually begins to believe in himself.  When he releases his own skills, slight of hand, creativity, use of the moving camera, etc that he truly begins to become a wizard, although a humbug wizard at that.

This movie has fantastic characters.  James Franco portrays Oz, and Michelle Williams Glinda.  We also meet Theodora (Mila Kunis), who is not yet the evil which she eventually becomes. Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is already evil and deceitful.  Oz surrounds himself with the "China Girl" (Joey King) and Finley (Zach Braff), a flying monkey.  We also meet the munchkins, who can't fight, but are very good singers.  The Tinkers, who can build anything. 

I recommend this movie highly.  I think it is fun.  Sheri and Caleb both had issues with special effects surrounding the China Girl.  I didn't have any problems.  I thought this character was one of the most intriguing, delicate but tough at the same time.  Many characters have dual roles as in "Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

Movie Review: **** Glory Road

This movie is significant an important.  It is important to remember where we come from, and those moments that were really ground breaking in terms of civil right.  There is Jackie Robinson breaking into Major League Baseball and in basketball, there is the 1965-66 NCAA championship of the Texas Western Miner under Don Haskins.  Texas is in the south, and fielding a team with seven black players was unheard of.  The movie displays very well some of the racial tension at the time.  The events in the movie predate the assasination of Martin Luther King by a couple of years.
This is a movie about dreams.  The dreams of Don Haskins as the coach, and the dreams of the players.  Those dreams took these players into uncharted territory.  It would have been easy to have given up the dream.  I am glad they didn't.  Josh Lucas stars as Don Haskins.  This is an important movie for parents to watch with their children. 

Movie Review: ****Bang the Drum Slowly,

  I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. It is a Paramount film from 1973, which I watched through Netflix DVD.  It stars Robert De Niro and Michael Moriarty.  It is about two ball players, working through the inevitable death of one.  The catcher, who has always been a journeymen has cancer and Hodgkin's disease.  The pitcher, is a star, and insists he stay on the team as part of his contract.  The coach is left with a mystery, and finally uncovers it.  The actor, Vincent Gardenia, who portrays the coach won an Oscar.  But the story behind this is the friendship between the two main characters, and the reaction after the year is over and they have won the pennant, but the catcher ends up in the hospital after the clinching game, and passes away during the off season.  He is almost forgotten at the end.  The song "Streets of Loredo is featured, being sung by another catcher.

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,
And bitterly wept as we bore him along.
For we loved our comrade, so brave, young and handsome,

My only complaint is the season had teams from both leagues, which made it less realistic.  But of course it was fiction.

Movie Review: *****Unstoppable (2010)

*****Unstoppable   You would think that a train movie would be boring.  However this is a train with no driver, and runaway speed, headed for an urban area with toxic cargo and with a sharp curve with gas tanks, sure to explode in a crash.  It also has two heroes (Denzel Washington and Chris Pine) who defy orders, and chase the train down, putting their own lives in danger, but saving the day in the end.  Great ride.  Nothing to worry about for children in this movie.

Mormon Movie Review: ****^ The Other Side of Heaven

The Other Side of heaven is one of the better LDS films.  It tells the story of John Groberg (Christopher Gorman) and is based on his book of the same name.  He was called on a mission to Tonga from Idaho.  His mission was more dangerous, and longer than most.  This movie has very good cinematography as we see the power of the waves and the ocean, and of the storms.  Many things happened to Elder Groberg.  His first struggle was to learn the language, and until he did he made many mistakes saying silly things.  His feet were eaten by rates, from which we learn you must always keep your feet covered, he help to heal a boy who had fallen out of a tree, but could not heal another young man who had lock jaw.   Success was slow at first, but he grew on the people, and they began to have tremendous success.  He first had a companion (Joe Folau), and the interacted well, as the companion was Tongan.  The pass through a hurricane as an island, and almost everyone perishes of hunger as all the food is destroyed, including the fisheries.  A boat arrives with supplies just in time.  A priest, gave El Groberg a bottle of jam, saving Elder Groberg’s live, but sacrificing his own as the priest is one who does not make it.  After they started to have success, Elder Groberg’s companion is called back to construction.  One of the most touching scenes is “Hoorah for Israel” as he is heading off the island in a small boat.  In this the reenacted the apostles of old who stood in the wagon and shouted hoorah as they were sick, but heeding the call to serve missions. 

Elder Groberg is left with local leadership as companions.  He travels between islands.  In one there is no wind to sail the boat, and they are becalmed.  One of the companions jumps into the ocean, to pull the boat.  “Today I am the Lord’s wind.”  In another scene, they are capsized by a large wave.  However he is saved.

Another moving scene is the visit by the mission president, who has been worrying nothing has been going on.  When Elder Groberg reports the success, including a new branch with a chapel, the mission president asks to see the records.  Elder Groberg stays up all night to create the records, and the mission president apologizes about his harshness. 

Though out the movie are interspersed scenes of his girlfriend, (Anne Hathaway) through interaction, and letters.  The movie concludes with their marriage.  This is a very fun and inspiring movie.  Great cinematography of the ocean and islands.

Movie Reviews:****The Journey of Natty Gann

****"The Journey of Natty Gann"   is one of our family's favorite movies, but I couldn't interest anyone else in watching it with me; so watched it alone.  It is an enjoyable movie, with the struggle of  the depression era, the railroad tramps and camps.  Natty's father takes a job, and leaves his daughter behind.  He had no choice, and works in a logging camp.  He returns for his daughter, but she has gone looking for him.  She is presumed dead.  The grief of the father thinking he had lost his daughter, and then the classic restoration at the end.  This movie launched the career of John Cusack as he portrayed a drifter that befriends Natty.  Meredith Salenger stars as Natty Gann and Ray Wise as her father. 

Movie Reviews ***^We Bought a Zoo

We Bought a Zoo is a movie about a Quixotic attempt by a father to restore his family as they are dealing with the grief of losing his wife, and mother of his two children. To do this he buys a property, which happens to include a zoo.  The zoo is previously condemned, and so it includes the efforts to overcome inspection, so they can reopen.
An enjoyable subplot is the relationship between the father (Matt Damon) and his son. The find a way to heal wounds in the son's art.  The father uses one of his drawings of a lion to advertise the reopening of the zoo.  Scarlett Johansson plays the game keeper.  This movie was pretty fun--but the Tony scale wasn't that great.  He had to go out at least three times during the movie, for a drink, for candy and for the potty.  However I enjoyed the story, and the struggle to meet the dream of the new owner as well as the zoo staff.

Movie Review: ****^Tangled

This movie is a Disney Classic based on Rapunzel.  A thief makes his way to Rapunzel's tower, trying to escape from the King's guards.  Rapunzel, a princess, was stolen from her parents and put in the tower by an old witch intent on keeping herself young.  Rapunzel was a sickly child, and a rose with eternal life powers was used to make her well.  This rose had been the witch's, and now she gets eternal life from Rapunzel.   
The funnest part was the community dance scene.  This seems to be a staple for a Disney and was very entertaining.  The horse, who is Captain of the guard, is very funny, as are the people they meet at the tavern, who each has his own peculiar dream and aspiration.
The art in this movie was very impressive.  There was a mural in the tower, with floating lanterns, the sun and flowers.  This show was fun.  I highly recommend it.

Since the original post, I have watched this movie more times, and like it more each time.  Rapunzel and her fry pan are classic, as is the song on the boat with the lanterns in the sky.

Motivational Movies: Summary

Some of my favorite movies are those that work at making me a better person.  I find the human struggle, and conquering, and finding success very entertaining.  Some of these movies are fiction, and some is based on true stories.  They are all movies which serve to motivate me.
***** When the Game Stands Tall 2014. Football

***** Rudy (1993) with Sean Astin and Notre Dame Football

***** Hoosiers. (1986) Gene Hackman and Indiana HIgh School basketball
***** Michael Ballam: The Power of Music to Lift and Teach: BYU Education Week (1998)
***** Michael Ballam: The Healing Power of Music: BYU Education Week (1999)
***** Michael Ballam: Recognizing Inspiration in the Arts: BYU Education Week (2009)
***** Brave (Disney Pixar 2012)
***** Unstoppable. (2010.) Train movie
****^ The Blind Side. (2009) Sandra Bullock, Michael Oher story, football
****^ Hitchcock  (2011) About the making of Psycho
****^ The Drop Card (BYU). (1980)
****^ Johnny Lingo  (LDS 1969)
***^ The Emmet Smith Story (BYU 1979)
**** ESPN 30 for 30 Survive and Advance, ESPN 30 for 30; story of 1983 NCAA basketball champions North Carolina State
****^ The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend (Pete Maravich) (1991)
***^ Pistol Pete Maravich: The LSU Years (perseverance practice) Pete Maravich documentary
****^ Cool Runnings (1993) Jamaican Bob Sled Team, a dream vs opposition
****^ Wild Hearts Can't be Broken, (1991) Horse Diving Girl
****^ Tyler: A Real Hero. Documentary about a young man from Saint George
**** The Phone Call (LDS 1977)
**** Faith in Every Footstep. (1980)
***^ We Bought a Zoo (2011). Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson
***^ Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999)(talks about having a dream)
***^ Invictus (2009) (Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, So Africa rugby)
***^ John Baker's Last Race (BYU)
*** Run Dick, Run Jane  (BYU 1972)
*** Blind Love (BYU 1979)