Movie & Play Reviews

I realize it's been too long since my last update, and I do have many things to share. First I will start with reviews of movies & a play I recently saw.

1. Dan in Real Life starring Steve Carell was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I laughed, I cried, and I just really enjoyed the entire movie. Steve Carell (from "The Office") is a great actor, and in this movie he is a widower and single father of 3 girls. He is also a writer and writes a column called "Dan in Real Life." I don't want to give away the plot, but the movie is basically about family, love, and what's really important in life. The daughters are at times completely mad at their father for various reasons, and one even screams out "You are a murderer of love!" which is one of my favorite parts of the movie. But they also love him deeply, and they are truly a family. As for family friendliness, the movie is rated PG-13 and is a lot "cleaner" than most other movies with that rating. There is some sexual innuendo, and a bit of minor language, but overall I felt it was good. You can check out PluggedIn for a more comprehensive review. This will definitely be a movie I will purchase.

2. Expelled with Ben Stein was a documentary showing how the concept of Intelligent Design is not allowed into the "scientific" circles of how the world began. Ben goes through many examples of scientists with more letters after their name than you can imagine who have been "expelled" from the scientific arena because of their openness to even discussing Intelligent Design. It is informative and actually funny in some parts, especially at the end when one of the top "experts" on evolution and a self-proclaimed athiest tries to explain why he doesn't believe there is a God. Or, I should say, he's somewhere between 50 and 99% sure there's not a God - he knows it's higher than 49%, but he's not willing to put a number on it. Hmmmm isn't he going to be surprised someday? Anyway, this was an excellent film. I recommend it to anyone who wants to be informed on how closed minded our academia is in the US. Whether you believe in evolution, creation, or intelligent design, this is worth watching.

3. Alice in Wonderland, a play starring Kelsey Burt, was a fabulous production. We saw this in Brooks, Maine, and the theater was packed out. The costumes, the music, the singing, and the actors were all fabulous. Kelsey did a wonderful job as Alice, and was quite entertaining to watch. The many other students who played the other roles were also great, all using facial expression as well as creative costumes to play their parts. Definitely the highlight of last weekend!

Well there will be more to come, as I have much more to update, but I wanted to start with this.