Category Archives: 4 of 5

School Ties (1992)

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School Ties

School Ties

A Jewish boy goes to an elite prep school in the 1950’s and hides his religion until a jealous bigot forces it out in the open.

A while back I went through Blockbuster online and added a bunch of Brendan Fraser movies to my queue, every now and then one shows up. Some are throw aways (i.e. Airheads) some are surprisingly good. Like School Ties.

I didn’t watch it right away, once I saw that Ben Affleck was in it I was prepared for major suckage. I would have to say that this may well be Affleck’s best movie, in much the same way that The Outsiders was Tom Cruise’s best movie.

I was expecting just your standard prep school conflict type movie but, while there were certainly a lot of cliches, I was quite pleasantly surprised. Prejudice, traditions, friendship, conscience – and Brendan Fraser (oh, and Matt Damon, Chris O’Donnell….) My circle will love it.

Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 68%; Audience 67%

The Lovely Bones (2004)

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Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

UPDATE: This review is for the book, not the movie

How do you make a beautiful story out of the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl? You let Alice Sebold write it. I bought this book a while back but hadn’t had the guts to dig in – just couldn’t wrap my mind around the premise. I needn’t have worried. Though there are a couple of missteps, or rather “unnecessary detours” which I will discuss in more since they are spoilers, all in all it is a wonderful ride.

I have not yet decided whether to recommend this to my sister, as the Heaven presented here is not the one she believes in. But the way it follows the characters and their different grieving processes is remarkable. Those type of questions cost it on the word of mouth scale, which you may remember is based not on how good the product is but on how likely I am to recommend it to my family & friends.

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Shrek 2 (2004)

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Shrek 2

Shrek 2

Princess Fiona’s parents invite her and Shrek to dinner to celebrate her marriage. If only they knew the newlyweds were both ogres.

A movie that survives as a sequel. Loved all the references to other films, love Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy, love John Cleese and Julie Andrews. Don’t get why they needed Cameron Diaz in the part, let alone paying her $20 million to do it – she doesn’t bring anything extra to the role. We laughed straight through, I would definitely watch this one again. And again.

Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 89%; Audience 69%

About A Boy (2002)

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About a Boy

About a Boy

So, last night S.O. Man suggests we “do something together”

Great. Sounds good to me.

“Hey, let’s rent a movie. We’ll get something you want to see, a chick flick – how about Basic?”

That’s what he considers a chick flick? Well, there is a chick in it ~ I think. I heard it was incredibly bad and I am not in the mood for a bad John Travolta movie (of which there are many)

Fortunately, I managed to get “About a Boy” instead. I had heard it was quite good, and I really enjoy Toni Collette’s work. Happy to report it was a nice movie. A middle-aged man coming of age story. Heartwarming, moving, funny and all that.

I enjoyed it and it got S.O Man laughing. A smashing success.

Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 93%; Audience 51%

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