Mass Movie Review 4

Finally I picked a bunch of winners in one weekend!

Kinky Boots
I thought this movie was fantastic! It was laugh out loud funny in places and left me feeling so happy afterward. The premise is this: A shoe factory has been in the Price family for generations. Charlie Price does not want to run the factory but when his father unexpectedly dies he finds himself in the position of having to save it from financial ruin. He finds an unexpected ally in drag queen and cabaret singer, Lola. Lola designs shoes and boots for other drag queens and clubbers all the while fighting to change the prejudices of the conservative staff at Price Shoe Factory among other things. Throw in a little romance for Charlie (not Lola!) and a Milan fashion show and you have all the makings for a silly, fun movie!

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Sarah-Jane Potts


Gridiron Gang

Here's another feel-good movie if that's what you're in the mood for. It was very predictable but it didn't lessen the story's emotional impact. Sean Porter (played by The Rock) is a counselor at a juvenile detention center in California where gang activity is high. He sees the teens coming and going and with a reincarceration rate of 75% he feels there is more that can be done to rehabilitate the teens. He and another counselor, Malcolm Moore (played by Xzibit) put together a football team. The boys must then decide whether the football team is their new "gang" or whether they will hang onto their original gang affiliations. I believe this is based on a true story and it is very inspirational. I have a bad memory so don't quote me on this but I think the first year of running the football program had only two or three boys return to their original gang affiliations while the rest went on to have jobs and families and finish school. Highly recommend this one and while it deals with some really heavy subjects (abusive boyfriends, murder, gang wars, etc.) and there is some language, I thought it was ok for my boys to watch with me. The overwhelming message was one of hope and rehabilitation.

Starring: The Rock and Xzibit


The Relic

This movie is based on the novel bearing the same title by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child which I devoured in a day but was then afraid to go in my creepy basement to do the laundry. I'm only slightly kidding. It is one of the Pendergast novels - in fact it is the first Pendergast novel - but Pendergast does not appear in the movie. I was really skeptical about watching the movie because frankly, how do you have the same story and yet cut out the main character? Some of the movie's other characters, Vincent D'Agosta and Margo Green, took some of the characteristics and actions of the novel's Pendergast and it was ok. I would have liked to have seen Pendergast but the movie version of the story was still pretty good. Now I didn't think it was all that scary but I did know most of what was coming. I felt Steve jump a couple of times but he'd never admit it if you asked him. It was very gory.

Here's the movie's premise: A scientist (don't ask me his name because I can't remember) goes into the jungle to study a tribe. He collects a relic and some plant material and sends it back to the States. In the movie you see him get onto the ship with the cargo he's sent and the next scene has the ship, empty of all crew and the professor. Eventually D'Agosta (the police lt. in charge) opens the bilge and finds a bunch of corpses with their heads and brains removed. The crates are shipped onto the original destination - the museum - where similar murders begin occurring. It turns out that there is a fungus or spore or something on that plant material that has a lot of the same characteristics as the human hypothalamus located in the brain and the beast that has followed the crates uses that as its food. It's up to Margo Green and Lt. D'Agosta to figure out what the beast is and how to stop it from killing.

Starring: Penelope Ann Miller and Tom Sizemore