lawn819

What a wonderful slice of a life that is made lively and believable by Debra Jo Rupp! This is a short film that took my breath away, and one that I recommend highly to everyone with a conscience, strong compassion, and a real life. Debra Jo Rupp plays the lead character, Rosy Marconi, with such a real sense of her character that you would think we were watching her life through her window without her knowledge, and that her name has been changed to Rosy Marconi in a vain attempt to protect her privacy. The title of this film has a true resonance and depth of meaning that makes this story all the more powerful. The music is wonderfully subtle and adds to the strength of the story.

I would love to own this short film on DVD.

This movie is so horribly bad that, if I were Nicolas Cage, or ANYONE affiliated with it, I would DEMAND that my publicist make no reference to it at all in any materials published about me. Nicolas Cage looks dreadful in this movie. It is as if he threw a tantrum and angered some Hollywood power brokers who repaid him by forcing him to star in this huge joke of a movie. The writing is awful. There is no logical reason for Cage's character to be as overbearing and arrogant as he is to the people on Summersisle, a place to which he has never been, and the customs of which he has no knowledge. Also, why would he go to this island on such a wild goose chase? The characters on Summersisle are odd (and bad actors to boot), but Cage's character has no right to be so boorish while he is there. There are several apparently important loose ends that are never tied up, which only added to my frustration about this waste of time and celluloid. What about the twins on the island, for example? Why was a big deal made about them and no resolution given? Who were the mother and daughter at the beginning of the movie?

My daughter and I laughed through most of THE WICKER MAN. She was treating me to an afternoon at the movies, and I told her I would give her her money back. Still, we did laugh until our stomachs ached, so that counts for something: we now know for sure that our tastes in movies are nearly identical.

It was an honor for me to be an unnamed witness in this documentary. It helped me feel even less anxious about crossing over to the other side. I loved the respectful way we witnesses were treated by the Lucky Duck production team (Linda Ellerbe's company), and the fascinating after-death communication experiences we all had. I believe this documentary helped people feel more comfortable admitting their own instances of after-death communication. It is unfortunate that there is a stigma attached to the possibility of communicating with those who have crossed over. I certainly feel only joyful curiosity about life as it is on the other side. While I want to live a long and fruitful life here, as I said (more or less) in the documentary, "Being dead does not bother me. It is the process of becoming dead that concerns me somewhat." I hope that this documentary will go back into circulation again somehow.LIFE AFTERLIFE is a very positive take on the possibility of communicating with our loved ones who have crossed over.

I really wish I could give this movie lower than one star. It is an insulting follow-up to one of the best modern films noir ever made. I was initially intrigued when I saw the title, and I expected an ample follow-up to Bridget Gregory's antics. I was sorely disappointed to see none of the original cast in the credits, but persevered nonetheless; maybe it still had merit, I hoped. My disappointment spiraled downward to mild anger that anyone would waste time making such an offensively inferior "sequel" as this one. It really was soft-core porn; I fully expected the two women with larger roles to contrive some way to get it on. Ugh.

I wonder if the actors in this one can salvage their careers?

Terrence Howard, as "DJAY," is, as usual, brilliant in HUSTLE & FLOW. There are too many stereotypical characters and events in this movie for it to have the real depth I expected. It's as if someone told the screenwriter, "this is how black people MUST be portrayed. They must live down to THESE stereotypes." There are several hiccups in the flow of this story, certain plot points that should have been either explained or omitted. As seems to be expected, DJAY resorts to violence, and is arrested, as so many unenlightened people expect of black males. There is no explanation given for any of the relationships DJAY has with the women he exploits, though they seem to have strong bonds with him and each other. Ultimately, this is a movie that had potential, but seems to have needed some script revisions. It is a vehicle that is far beneath Terrence Howard's brilliance. I won't give up on Howard, though; I still intend to see every movie he is in. I just hope he makes better script choices than HUSTLE & FLOW.

Brenda Russell is a lifelong prodigy to me. She always is innovative, creative, and a total original! I love the way she respects her own music, and always adds an innovative twist to each song. When she performs my absolute favorite song "Way Back When," she keeps the same magic in that song performing it live that she brought to it in 1979. She doesn't shorten her songs to save time or make them unrecognizable. She respects her musicians' talents. She looks 25 years younger than she is because she has retained her wonderfully positive enthusiasm about her life and about her music. I have so much respect and admiration for Brenda Russell, whose music has fascinated me since her first album in 1979. I would LOVE to have the chance to be a background singer for her! What an artist!

Boone was much too short-lived. It was an excellent and promising show with a wonderful star. I enjoyed the relationship between the father and the son, even though they didn't agree about Boone's future. I got the impression that Boone could have given Elvis a run for his money if the show had lasted long enough. Boone was a responsible young man who had a quiet passion for his music. He had the highest respect for his father and for the rest of his family. He worked, and planned for his dream. I would love to know what ever happened to Thomas Byrd, who had the lead in this show. He had so much potential, and I thought I was seeing the beginning of a promising career.

This movie shows John Travolta at his best. I think his performance here should have been nominated for an Oscar. What a lovely, powerful film. It's a paean to all the geeks in the world. George is clearly beloved by his fellow residents, but after he sees THE LIGHT, he becomes a misfit because of the changes in him. Those changes mean he becomes an insider, a stranger in a strange land. He becomes even more precious than he had been in the first 11 minutes of the film. He is at once bewildered and amazed at the changes in him. He is fascinated by every aspect of the world, and the viewer goes willingly on the journey with him. I have probably seen this movie ten times since its release in 1996. I will always regard this film as my favorite John Travolta movie and my favorite Kyra Sedgwick movie.

What a priceless gem this show was! It lasted just six weeks, but it had a timeless freshness, a bright optimism that Americans really did want more than the standard, predictable sitcom fare. I would love to get the episodes on DVD or video. Every time really good TV comes along, it just doesn't seem to have a chance to last. Such was the case with "United States." The husband and wife actually talked WITH each other instead of yelling or purring one-liners at each other. The children were actually listened to by their parents. I so appreciated that everything didn't turn out neatly in 22 minutes plus commercials. The statements that were funny were indeed funny rather than fodder for knee-jerk reactions to canned or prompted studio laughter.