Redemption Road What happens when you throw those holy of holies ingredients white Alba truffles, Almas Beluga caviar, Wagyu steak, Matsutake mushrooms and saffron into a gumbo pot and let it cook for on medium for a couple of hours? A nasty, smelly, yucky mess, that's what. And so it is with the overtly evangelical Redemption Road. Thrown haphazardly into this plot are the profound, holy themes of sin, forgiveness, love, freedom, and redemption.

In a not so novel approach to the modern journey genre, we hit the road, not the interstate, for what can be learned on an interstate other than which exit has the next Subway or Exxon?, but on a series of local, backwoods highways. The assumption being that we have to slow down and get lost before we can find where we're going. Along this journey we're spoon fed in excruciatingly boring and predictable detail the regrets of a life not so well lived. All the while, with preachy platitudes sprinkled here and there, the storyteller is giving away the end of the story.

This movie will likely appeal to hipster Christians who think they've discovered some great secrets and thoughts earlier Christians have not. It will also be applauded by those abecedarian Christians who make their testimony into a tale of grave sin, trying to outdo others on the depth of their sin. If one person says, "I smoked 10 pounds of crack and then Jesus saved me," the next guy in line will say, "I smoked twenty pounds of crack! and then Jesus saved me." It will appeal to them because that's what it's about: sinners who, at times, seem to be bragging about how bad they used to be.

This movie offers little new to the genre of the journey from sin to redemption. The producers were clearly thrilled when the black guy from Green Mile and Dillon from 90210 agreed to do the film. But seldom has typecasting had such little effect. The main character, whose name I'm not going to bother looking up, is flat and modern caricature of Johnny Cash. Even in the climatic scene of Pyrrhic victory, I didn't care. The harder he and the director tried to pull the chords of my emotions, the more I was put off and the less I cared because it was so very predictable, so very, very inauthentic.

Are there any positives? There is one good scene at sunset. It truly is a beautiful scene. For large stretches the cinematography is less than inspiring, but there are a few diamonds, if you look for them. Tom Skerritt does an admirable job with the limited potential given to him. And the main message of the movie, that the inability to forgive weighs us down and that only love can free us, is a good message, which is a lot more than can be said for many movies today. The takeaway from this movie is that just because you are dealing with great themes does not mean that you will come up with a great movie. 3/10

The Roommate Watching several cardboard actors following as predictable a script as they come gave me time to wonder how ratings have changed so much in the last decade. How was this movie given a PG-13 rating? The movie is little more than violence and a shallow, dangerous look at mental illnesses. It's a movie that demonizes people who have mental illness. I can't imagine the budget of this film was much more than $5 million. From FPOBA's use of The University of Los Angeles to props made out of paper to a script I could have written in two hours, this is about as cheap a movie as can be made. In fact, as the opening credits came on, I thought I was watching a bad Lifetime movie. My biggest complaint though was that all the characters didn't die in a giant conflagration within five minutes of the movie's start. Then I wouldn't have wasted so much time. 1/10

This post was edited on 11/16/11 at 7:31 am

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Posted by TulaneLSU

Member since Aug 2003

Member since Dec 2007

13371 posts

Posted on 11/16/11 at 7:22 am to TulaneLSU

Rise of the Planet of the Apes "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe!" Thus wrote Pascal on man's ability and limits. Planet is a movie largely about man's limitations: that even though we think we are lords or even gods over this planet, the author of life sees to it to tear down our Towers of Babel. And the towers are falling in this popcorn flick.

Besides Transformers and Thor, this summer has largely been bereft of any decent popcorn movies, until Planet. Planet does what all good sci-fi movies should do: create an alternate, possible world that we believe is entirely real. Enter the world of the Caesar, where this movie is at its best. There we see the emotion of torment of partial being that stops becoming; the rage of not reaching the potency of being. But we all know and what is becoming in nature will be, whether we strap a leash on the being or not.

James Franco gives another yeoman's performance that gets the job done, but doesn't leave the viewer impressed. The peripheral characters, notably, the next door neighbor, the girlfriend, and the profit-driven businessman, detract from the movie, which should have spent more time in the primate world, for that is where this movie excels. Many worried about the logistical improbability of a primate takeover of the world. Worry not. 7/10

The Rite The critics who trash this movie completely miss the point of it. They seem to think it's a horror flick, but that shows they are uninformed morons. It's a movie about spiritual journeys, a movement from skepticism to hell to faith. The lead role isn't particularly good, but neither is the guy from Silence of the Lambs. This role is quite similar to his Silence of the Lambs role: conflicted, wise man who plays a villain and a hero. Anthony Hopkins is probably the most overrated actor of his generation. The Rite sometimes looks like a cheaply made film, but it is an interesting movie about faith and what brings faith. Theologically, I think it hovers too much in the realm of paganism. 6/10

Sanctum - this is only the second movie I've seen in 3-D. I really hate 3-D. It adds nothing to the movie. In fact, it detracts from the movie because it makes things more difficult to see on the whole and gives me a headache afterward. Anyway, this movie sucks. It's supposed to be about adventure and the complex relationship of a father and son, but it's really a movie about rich spoiled people who have no purpose and euthanasia. This is about the most pro-euthanasia movie made in America yet. Besides that horrible message, the film tries to make swimming through caves for two hours entertaining. The acting is horrendous, the dialogue just as bad, the casting terrible, the story just rancid. There were a few intense scenes, but overall a terrible movie. 1/10

This post was edited on 11/16/11 at 7:31 am

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Posted by iwyLSUiwy

I'm your huckleberry

Member since Apr 2008

35771 posts

Posted on 12/13/11 at 12:57 pm to TulaneLSU

quote:
Redemption Road What happens when you throw those holy of holies ingredients white Alba truffles, Almas Beluga caviar, Wagyu steak, Matsutake mushrooms and saffron into a gumbo pot and let it cook for on medium for a couple of hours? A nasty, smelly, yucky mess, that's what. And so it is with the overtly evangelical Redemption Road. Thrown haphazardly into this plot are the profound, holy themes of sin, forgiveness, love, freedom, and redemption.

In a not so novel approach to the modern journey genre, we hit the road, not the interstate, for what can be learned on an interstate other than which exit has the next Subway or Exxon?, but on a series of local, backwoods highways. The assumption being that we have to slow down and get lost before we can find where we're going. Along this journey we're spoon fed in excruciatingly boring and predictable detail the regrets of a life not so well lived. All the while, with preachy platitudes sprinkled here and there, the storyteller is giving away the end of the story.

This movie will likely appeal to hipster Christians who think they've discovered some great secrets and thoughts earlier Christians have not. It will also be applauded by those abecedarian Christians who make their testimony into a tale of grave sin, trying to outdo others on the depth of their sin. If one person says, "I smoked 10 pounds of crack and then Jesus saved me," the next guy in line will say, "I smoked twenty pounds of crack! and then Jesus saved me." It will appeal to them because that's what it's about: sinners who, at times, seem to be bragging about how bad they used to be.

This movie offers little new to the genre of the journey from sin to redemption. The producers were clearly thrilled when the black guy from Green Mile and Dillon from 90210 agreed to do the film. But seldom has typecasting had such little effect. The main character, whose name I'm not going to bother looking up, is flat and modern caricature of Johnny Cash. Even in the climatic scene of Pyrrhic victory, I didn't care. The harder he and the director tried to pull the chords of my emotions, the more I was put off and the less I cared because it was so very predictable, so very, very inauthentic.

Are there any positives? There is one good scene at sunset. It truly is a beautiful scene. For large stretches the cinematography is less than inspiring, but there are a few diamonds, if you look for them. Tom Skerritt does an admirable job with the limited potential given to him. And the main message of the movie, that the inability to forgive weighs us down and that only love can free us, is a good message, which is a lot more than can be said for many movies today. The takeaway from this movie is that just because you are dealing with great themes does not mean that you will come up with a great movie. 3/10

The Roommate Watching several cardboard actors following as predictable a script as they come gave me time to wonder how ratings have changed so much in the last decade. How was this movie given a PG-13 rating? The movie is little more than violence and a shallow, dangerous look at mental illnesses. It's a movie that demonizes people who have mental illness. I can't imagine the budget of this film was much more than $5 million. From FPOBA's use of The University of Los Angeles to props made out of paper to a script I could have written in two hours, this is about as cheap a movie as can be made. In fact, as the opening credits came on, I thought I was watching a bad Lifetime movie. My biggest complaint though was that all the characters didn't die in a giant conflagration within five minutes of the movie's start. Then I wouldn't have wasted so much time. 1/10