Who is your caddy? Who is handing you the right club? How do you see the field in front of you?
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Buck
This is a movie/documentary that is a tribute to a man who has been able to overcome his troubled past to impact the lives of many as well as their horses.
It is rare to find a man who has overcome the ‘upper limit problem’ that his father had so severely wounded him with. This movie is a powerful reminder of who we can become despite our past hurts and wounds.
If you get a chance to watch it, I would love your thoughts on why Buck chose to keep the wild colt section in the movie rather than splicing that part out of the movie. Any thoughts?
Rocky: Going the Distance & Believing
“Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ‘Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood. “-Sylvester Stallone as Rocky in “Rocky” (1976)
1. It’s not about winning or losing; its about going the distance (and experiencing every moment).
2. Anything is possible with someone in your corner (Adrian, Mickey-his trainer, etc.).
C.U.L.P. Initiative Assignment #1: King’s Speech
This year a few of my friends are helping me to explore the Upper Limit Problem(s) in our lives. I hope to share a few thoughts via movies etc. to explore this concept throughout 2011. The 1st “assignment” is watching the movie titled: King’s Speech.
WOW! This is a MUST see movie. It is about relationships, friendship, and a new concept that I am just starting to explore based on The Big Leap by Hendricks.
The Upper Limit Problem is the concept that we all live in our little box of excellence: we have acquired through experience a comfortable space of expertise.
The Upper Limit Problem is the human tendency to put the brakes on our positive “energy”/feelings when we’ve exceeded our unconscious thermostat setting for how good we can feel, how successful we can be, and how much love we can feel.
Questions to explore:
What was the King’s Upper Limit Problem(s)?
How did he overcome them?
What are your Upper Limit Problem(s)?
How can you overcome them?
To Save A Life
The movie: “To Save A Life” is a powerful tribute to the power of choice, friendship, and God’s crazy love for us. It is a great reminder that life is crazy, hard, and sad, but His light can shine through us to those in need. It reminds us to look for all those God moments, those times when we can intervene by just being there–listening, lending a hand, lending our hearts, reaching out to the sad and lonely…
Patience, Perseverance, Passion, Hard Work, and “wait for it”
Rob is an amazing person who has a great career and a wonderful family. Rob was my closest friend from age 3-13. We still see each other once a year. This is not really a story about Rob and me. I am quite certain that Rob doesn’t even know the angst that I went through trying to keep up with him.
Rob and I were swimmers, and he ALWAYS beat me in the stroke that we both did best (breaststroke). He may not even remember all those swim meets where he would beat me handily, and he certainly (I hope) doesn’t know about the emotional pain of never being able to beat his best friend… until maybe later…
Rob was a grade behind me in school so our paths began to separate. He got into baseball, and I remained in swimming. In high school, we both chose to play water polo and that meant that we would both be swimming together again. We were the 2 main breaststrokers on the team so we found ourselves swimming against each other again. This time, however, I was always in the lead.
I tell this story to my kids periodically. I want so much for my kids to know that only time will tell the eventual outcomes. They suffer, much like there dad has, when their friends beat them (and especially if their siblings do). It is after these defeats that I turn to the “Rob story” in hopes of reminding them that with patience, perseverance, hard work, these circumstances can change. Todays winners can be tomorrows losers in ANY race that you might find yourself in.
In the movie Minority Report, the main character (Tom Cruse) is being chased while he is helping to rescue a woman who has the power to see the future. As they are being chased through a busy shopping mall, she is whispering in his ear directions to follow so they won’t be caught. At one point she quietly chants, “wait for it…” over and over so that the main character will trust her advise and stand still in one place. The place she advises them to stand is right in the middle of the mall in plain sight of everyone to see. Unknown to the main character, a man with a large bundle of balloons is going to walk across their path blocking them from view at just the right moment when a group of police chasing them is trying to spot them.
We don’t know the future. We must stay on the right course. If we are gifted and passionate about a sport or a career (for example), patience, perseverance, hard work, and just ‘waiting for it’ may, in time, allow us to finish better than we ever imagined that we could.
Life is filled with trust. We must trust in God’s plan even when we want to trust in our plan. We have to trust that our current state of affairs, our current losses, our current struggles, may, in the end, bring wins, success, and maybe even joy especially when we “run with perseverance the race marked out for us [by God].”
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? run in such a way as to get the prize.”-1 Corinthians 9:24 (NIV)
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”-Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
Painted Veil: A movie about committment, marriage, and true love
Pros: A powerful story of betrayal, committment, forgiveness, and love. The cinematography is excellent.
Cons: A little slow for those of us who are not into character development…
Movie Review: Ghost Town
I like action flicks so for a non action movie to make it onto my list of must see movies it has to be VERY good. This movie surprised me. It is lol (laugh out loud) funny! It is a love story, and it has a message for all of us: “Only a life lived for others is worth living.”-Albert Einstein
GO see this movie with your wife or husband or significant other! Let us know what you think of it.
BTW-Please let us know if you have good movie recommendations for tweeners (ages 10-12).
Best Movies for Tweeners
Here is a link to my Listmania list at amazon.com. I have started a very short list of movies that 10-12 year olds may enjoy. Please help me add to the list by adding your pics by commenting on this post.
Movie Reviews: Space Chimps
Another good, cute, and funny movie for the kids….although my 11 year old liked Wall*E better.
Movie Review: Wall*E
This was a GREAT movie for the entire family…even my 11 year old who wants to only see PG 13 movies!
Appropriate movies for tweeners: 11-13 year old kids
As I have mentioned in the past, I continue to struggle to solve the tension between my 11 year old son’s desire to watch all PG 13 movies that his friends get to watch and my concerns about his exposure to unhealthy material. I have yet to find a reliable list or review source to give me a clear thumbs up or down on movies appropriate for tweeners: 11 to 13 year olds.
The best 2 resources are: plugged in and rotten tomatoes but they still are not always accurate or clear in their recommendations.
Anyone have a reliable list or recommendations for good tweener movies?
Movie Review: The Dark Knight
pros:
- Batman volunteers himself to be the scapegoat in the end
- Batman never compromises his ethics
- The people on the boats choose the ethical high ground
cons:
- Joker’s monologues are very sinister and creepy
- very dark and violent movie
If I had seen this movie first without my 11 year old, I would have not allowed him to see it. Unfortunately we saw it together. We did have some good discussions afterwards about the redeeming parts of the movie. I have decided to screen all PG 13 movies that my 11 year old wants to see before going to see them with him rather than rely on the reviews of others.
What do you think? Do you have any recommendations for tweener movies?
I have subsequently found a very interesting in depth review of Dark Knight by Greg Boyd…see what you think….
Movie Review: Penelope
A movie with a great message: 1 Samuel 16:7
Penelope’s mom and society at large look at her pig nose and find her wanting. Her mom continues to tell her that she is not her nose, but by her actions, shows Penelope that her looks are very important. The culmunating moment in the movie is when pig nosed Penelope realizes that she likes herself just the way she is despite her mom’s constant emphasis that her outward looks are not a part of her and can be ‘fixed’, and when her pig nose gets ‘fixed’ life will finally be good.
The inward/heart is what is important and we as parents must continue to show our unconditional love and the importance of the heart and not the outward appearance.
Probably a good movie for teens and tweeners. Does have a scary witch in the beginning casting a curse and a women committing suicide because she feels unloved (brief scene that sets up reason why Penelope has a pig nose-due to a curse).