JehuDVD
Joined Oct 2001
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JehuDVD's rating
People say `feel-good movie' like it's a bad thing. I say, if it rings true, and doesn't star Haley Joel Osment, a `feel-good movie' can be a great way to spend a couple hours.
`The Rookie' stars Dennis `Bring Me the Head of Russell Crowe' Quaid as Jim Morris, a longtime baseball fanatic whose major league hopes were dashed by some shoulder injury or another. At age thirty-seven, he coaches a high school baseball team in a Texas town that makes `King of the Hill' look like `Masterpiece Theatre.' After a game of catch, he discovers that since his shoulder surgery, he's able to pitch harder and faster than ever before (think `Rookie of the Year' but with facial hair). In order to encourage his struggling team, he promises them that if they'll buckle down and win a game or two, he'll follow suit by trying out for the major leagues.
Need I tell you how things are gonna go down?
What I'm liking about this is that it's a true story. Not being a baseball fan myself, I invited my baseball junkie father to the screening in order to get an insider's perspective. According to baseball trivia's Great One, they got everything with superb accuracy, right down to the fact that Jim Morris was a left handed pitcher. I was then treated to a tirade on the lack of attention to detail in `Field of Dreams.'
The characters, while flat, are played soulfully and with just the right script as to make us both fear and appreciate crazy old men from Texas. Every little kid in this movie is as cute- cute as a dozen baby ducks in tutus reciting `If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.'
This movie is great for those of us that sometimes need a reminder of how great our lives really are. After weeks and months of toil and mental anguish over the sport, Quaid's character finds himself watching a little league game, and remembering all the fun he'd somehow sucked out of his favorite pastime. The next day, he greets his teammates by asking, `You know what we get to do today? We get to PLAY baseball!'
`The Rookie,' much like `The Sandlot,' is a baseball movie that can be enjoyed by anyone- baseball fan or not. Also like `The Sandlot,' it reminds us that baseball was created for kids, and teaches by example by grabbing only the SECOND G-rating (in theatres) for the year 2002.
`The Rookie' gets a B. Would have been higher, but there are better baseball movies, if you want to look hard enough. Gotta be fair.
`The Rookie' stars Dennis `Bring Me the Head of Russell Crowe' Quaid as Jim Morris, a longtime baseball fanatic whose major league hopes were dashed by some shoulder injury or another. At age thirty-seven, he coaches a high school baseball team in a Texas town that makes `King of the Hill' look like `Masterpiece Theatre.' After a game of catch, he discovers that since his shoulder surgery, he's able to pitch harder and faster than ever before (think `Rookie of the Year' but with facial hair). In order to encourage his struggling team, he promises them that if they'll buckle down and win a game or two, he'll follow suit by trying out for the major leagues.
Need I tell you how things are gonna go down?
What I'm liking about this is that it's a true story. Not being a baseball fan myself, I invited my baseball junkie father to the screening in order to get an insider's perspective. According to baseball trivia's Great One, they got everything with superb accuracy, right down to the fact that Jim Morris was a left handed pitcher. I was then treated to a tirade on the lack of attention to detail in `Field of Dreams.'
The characters, while flat, are played soulfully and with just the right script as to make us both fear and appreciate crazy old men from Texas. Every little kid in this movie is as cute- cute as a dozen baby ducks in tutus reciting `If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.'
This movie is great for those of us that sometimes need a reminder of how great our lives really are. After weeks and months of toil and mental anguish over the sport, Quaid's character finds himself watching a little league game, and remembering all the fun he'd somehow sucked out of his favorite pastime. The next day, he greets his teammates by asking, `You know what we get to do today? We get to PLAY baseball!'
`The Rookie,' much like `The Sandlot,' is a baseball movie that can be enjoyed by anyone- baseball fan or not. Also like `The Sandlot,' it reminds us that baseball was created for kids, and teaches by example by grabbing only the SECOND G-rating (in theatres) for the year 2002.
`The Rookie' gets a B. Would have been higher, but there are better baseball movies, if you want to look hard enough. Gotta be fair.
I read `The Hobbit' in fourth grade, loved it, and then proceeded to ignore the rest of the Lord of the Rings series for about 13 years.
That is, until I realized I had three days before screening the first of three new films based on the trilogy, `The Fellowship of the Ring.' Luckily, I had a little time, and knocked out the first book in exactly enough time. I finished it, in fact, roughly seventeen minutes before the screening began.
Some of you, I would imagine, have been living in a cave for the past fifty or so years, so it rests on me to give you the basic rundown of the story in question. Keep in mind, I'm not exactly a Tolkien scholar, so you'll be getting the Cliffs Notes version.
In the fantasy world of Middle Earth, there exists an ancient ring imbued with evil by the Dark Lord Sauron (imagine if Christopher Walken and Jack Nicholson had a kid who grew up listening to a lot of Danzig), which is lost, then through a series of chance conincidences, finds its way into the hands of the quiet, fun-loving Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood). Hobbits, you ask? Short people with fuzzy toes who would rather be eating and hanging out with their amigos than, say, slaying dragons and such (under this definition, it appears I could also be considered a Hobbit).
Whatever the case, the whole ring situation is just a bad scene all around, and someone's got to get rid of the thing. The esteemed wizard Gandalf (the guy from the `Sorcerer's Apprentice' minus the brooms), played by Ian McKellen, shows up with good news for Frodo: All they've got to do is put together a crew that can haul the ring down to what is basically hell itself and destroy the thing without going mad or becoming possessed.
The film is great not because the acting is great (though it is), not because the special effects almost caused me to soil myself (which they almost did), and not because the screenplay was virtually perfect (which it was). `The Fellowship of the Ring' works as a film because the story is just THAT entertaining.
Little gems of wisdom abound. Sauron, for example, is the Dark Lord and basically the thorn in everyone's side. The thing is, he's not really evil; when it comes down to it, he's just mean. He hates and destroys good things because they're good. But beyond that, we don't know a whole lot about his motivations.
The movie (or book, for that matter) doesn't give us any insight whatsoever about this, but we soon realize that evil or not, Sauron's not really the issue. Where instead do we see the real evil? In Frodo, his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm), and the members of the Fellowship. Their internal corruptions and temptations are hundreds of times scarier than anything we get from the `bad guys.' Still, that's not to say the film doesn't have its share of creepy antagonists. You're gonna have to see those for yourself.
Need more reasons? Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving (yes, Agent Smith from `The Matrix' plays the benevolent Elf King- this film is every geek's dream), and Sean Astin. Above all, though, Ian Holm's screen time as Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.
I'm not a die-hard `Rings' fanatic, so die-hards may think I'm a little too quick to applaud the `hollywood-izing' of their favorite classic. To be fair, then, `Fellowship' gets a `B+.'
That is, until I realized I had three days before screening the first of three new films based on the trilogy, `The Fellowship of the Ring.' Luckily, I had a little time, and knocked out the first book in exactly enough time. I finished it, in fact, roughly seventeen minutes before the screening began.
Some of you, I would imagine, have been living in a cave for the past fifty or so years, so it rests on me to give you the basic rundown of the story in question. Keep in mind, I'm not exactly a Tolkien scholar, so you'll be getting the Cliffs Notes version.
In the fantasy world of Middle Earth, there exists an ancient ring imbued with evil by the Dark Lord Sauron (imagine if Christopher Walken and Jack Nicholson had a kid who grew up listening to a lot of Danzig), which is lost, then through a series of chance conincidences, finds its way into the hands of the quiet, fun-loving Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood). Hobbits, you ask? Short people with fuzzy toes who would rather be eating and hanging out with their amigos than, say, slaying dragons and such (under this definition, it appears I could also be considered a Hobbit).
Whatever the case, the whole ring situation is just a bad scene all around, and someone's got to get rid of the thing. The esteemed wizard Gandalf (the guy from the `Sorcerer's Apprentice' minus the brooms), played by Ian McKellen, shows up with good news for Frodo: All they've got to do is put together a crew that can haul the ring down to what is basically hell itself and destroy the thing without going mad or becoming possessed.
The film is great not because the acting is great (though it is), not because the special effects almost caused me to soil myself (which they almost did), and not because the screenplay was virtually perfect (which it was). `The Fellowship of the Ring' works as a film because the story is just THAT entertaining.
Little gems of wisdom abound. Sauron, for example, is the Dark Lord and basically the thorn in everyone's side. The thing is, he's not really evil; when it comes down to it, he's just mean. He hates and destroys good things because they're good. But beyond that, we don't know a whole lot about his motivations.
The movie (or book, for that matter) doesn't give us any insight whatsoever about this, but we soon realize that evil or not, Sauron's not really the issue. Where instead do we see the real evil? In Frodo, his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm), and the members of the Fellowship. Their internal corruptions and temptations are hundreds of times scarier than anything we get from the `bad guys.' Still, that's not to say the film doesn't have its share of creepy antagonists. You're gonna have to see those for yourself.
Need more reasons? Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving (yes, Agent Smith from `The Matrix' plays the benevolent Elf King- this film is every geek's dream), and Sean Astin. Above all, though, Ian Holm's screen time as Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.
I'm not a die-hard `Rings' fanatic, so die-hards may think I'm a little too quick to applaud the `hollywood-izing' of their favorite classic. To be fair, then, `Fellowship' gets a `B+.'
I read `The Hobbit' in fourth grade, loved it, and then proceeded to ignore the rest of the Lord of the Rings series for about 13 years.
That is, until I realized I had three days before screening the first of three new films based on the trilogy, `The Fellowship of the Ring.' Luckily, I had a little time, and knocked out the first book in exactly enough time. I finished it, in fact, roughly seventeen minutes before the screening began.
Some of you, I would imagine, have been living in a cave for the past fifty or so years, so it rests on me to give you the basic rundown of the story in question. Keep in mind, I'm not exactly a Tolkien scholar, so you'll be getting the Cliffs Notes version.
In the fantasy world of Middle Earth, there exists an ancient ring imbued with evil by the Dark Lord Sauron (imagine if Christopher Walken and Jack Nicholson had a kid who grew up listening to a lot of Danzig), which is lost, then through a series of chance conincidences, finds its way into the hands of the quiet, fun-loving Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood). Hobbits, you ask? Short people with fuzzy toes who would rather be eating and hanging out with their amigos than, say, slaying dragons and such (under this definition, it appears I could also be considered a Hobbit).
Whatever the case, the whole ring situation is just a bad scene all around, and someone's got to get rid of the thing. The esteemed wizard Gandalf (the guy from the `Sorcerer's Apprentice' minus the brooms), played by Ian McKellen, shows up with good news for Frodo: All they've got to do is put together a crew that can haul the ring down to what is basically hell itself and destroy the thing without going mad or becoming possessed.
The film is great not because the acting is great (though it is), not because the special effects almost caused me to soil myself (which they almost did), and not because the screenplay was virtually perfect (which it was). `The Fellowship of the Ring' works as a film because the story is just THAT entertaining.
Little gems of wisdom abound. Sauron, for example, is the Dark Lord and basically the thorn in everyone's side. The thing is, he's not really evil; when it comes down to it, he's just mean. He hates and destroys good things because they're good. But beyond that, we don't know a whole lot about his motivations.
The movie (or book, for that matter) doesn't give us any insight whatsoever about this, but we soon realize that evil or not, Sauron's not really the issue. Where instead do we see the real evil? In Frodo, his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm), and the members of the Fellowship. Their internal corruptions and temptations are hundreds of times scarier than anything we get from the `bad guys.' Still, that's not to say the film doesn't have its share of creepy antagonists. You're gonna have to see those for yourself.
Need more reasons? Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving (yes, Agent Smith from `The Matrix' plays the benevolent Elf King- this film is every geek's dream), and Sean Astin. Above all, though, Ian Holm's screen time as Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.
I'm not a die-hard `Rings' fanatic, so die-hards may think I'm a little too quick to applaud the `hollywood-izing' of their favorite classic. To be fair, then, `Fellowship' gets a `B+.'
That is, until I realized I had three days before screening the first of three new films based on the trilogy, `The Fellowship of the Ring.' Luckily, I had a little time, and knocked out the first book in exactly enough time. I finished it, in fact, roughly seventeen minutes before the screening began.
Some of you, I would imagine, have been living in a cave for the past fifty or so years, so it rests on me to give you the basic rundown of the story in question. Keep in mind, I'm not exactly a Tolkien scholar, so you'll be getting the Cliffs Notes version.
In the fantasy world of Middle Earth, there exists an ancient ring imbued with evil by the Dark Lord Sauron (imagine if Christopher Walken and Jack Nicholson had a kid who grew up listening to a lot of Danzig), which is lost, then through a series of chance conincidences, finds its way into the hands of the quiet, fun-loving Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood). Hobbits, you ask? Short people with fuzzy toes who would rather be eating and hanging out with their amigos than, say, slaying dragons and such (under this definition, it appears I could also be considered a Hobbit).
Whatever the case, the whole ring situation is just a bad scene all around, and someone's got to get rid of the thing. The esteemed wizard Gandalf (the guy from the `Sorcerer's Apprentice' minus the brooms), played by Ian McKellen, shows up with good news for Frodo: All they've got to do is put together a crew that can haul the ring down to what is basically hell itself and destroy the thing without going mad or becoming possessed.
The film is great not because the acting is great (though it is), not because the special effects almost caused me to soil myself (which they almost did), and not because the screenplay was virtually perfect (which it was). `The Fellowship of the Ring' works as a film because the story is just THAT entertaining.
Little gems of wisdom abound. Sauron, for example, is the Dark Lord and basically the thorn in everyone's side. The thing is, he's not really evil; when it comes down to it, he's just mean. He hates and destroys good things because they're good. But beyond that, we don't know a whole lot about his motivations.
The movie (or book, for that matter) doesn't give us any insight whatsoever about this, but we soon realize that evil or not, Sauron's not really the issue. Where instead do we see the real evil? In Frodo, his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm), and the members of the Fellowship. Their internal corruptions and temptations are hundreds of times scarier than anything we get from the `bad guys.' Still, that's not to say the film doesn't have its share of creepy antagonists. You're gonna have to see those for yourself.
Need more reasons? Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving (yes, Agent Smith from `The Matrix' plays the benevolent Elf King- this film is every geek's dream), and Sean Astin. Above all, though, Ian Holm's screen time as Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.
I'm not a die-hard `Rings' fanatic, so die-hards may think I'm a little too quick to applaud the `hollywood-izing' of their favorite classic. To be fair, then, `Fellowship' gets a `B+.'