Movie Review: An American Carol

I honestly feel bad for the people who produced and starred in "An American Carol". These poor souls will never be able to work in Hollywood again, after making a Pro America comedy that pokes fun at those on the left, such as Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell.

"An American Carol" is hilarious, and sadly, true on a lot of levels. The narrator of the story is a grandfather (Leslie Nielsen) telling his grandkids a Dickens style story about the 4th of July. The story he tells centers around an overweight, slobby documentary film maker named Michael Malone (played by Kevin Farley, Chris Farley's younger brother). Malone makes films that blame America for all the worlds problems, and has set out on a quest to abolish the 4th of July. In order to help Malone see the error of his ways, he is visited by 3 spirits to teach him about how great America is.

The cast includes Kelsey Grammer as General Patton, Jon Voight as George Washington, and Dennis Hopper as a judge. Additionally, country music star Trace Adkins plays the Angel of Death. Grammer is great in the role of General Patton, and I was glad that he was the "main" spirit visiting Malone.

There is one particularly funny scene where Bill O'Reilly is interviewing Michael Malone and Rosie O'Connell. Very much like his real show. It's funny stuff, and definitely worth watching.

I gave this movie 4 stars because I laughed my behind off, and because of the career risk these guys took in making this movie. We need to support things like this so we get more pro America movies, rather than the endless line of hate America movies coming out of Hollywood.

Movie Review: Fellowship of the Dice

A friend of mine lent me this movie to watch. This week, we were talking about the game Dungeons and Dragons, which I had played some in college, but ended up quitting because it took too much time and too often there were conflicts in the game that made it less fun. When the games ran well, it was great fun.

"Fellowship of the Dice" is an independent film (I almost never watch indies), that is sort of a documentary, but mostly a story about a specific group of "gamers" who welcome newcomer into the group.

I'll be honest, I nearly turned this movie off halfway through, but I decided to stick it out, and I actually ended up enjoying it somewhat. The group of gamers in the movie reminded me so much of the group I used to play with. The "game master" was really concerned about everyone having a good time, yet still wanting to be in complete control. There was the quiet one, the sometimes inappropriate one, the guy who tries to make sure everyone gets along, and the one person who takes it WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Intermixed in the movie are documentary style discussions with real gamers, and that made for some pretty good entertainment.

In the end, I found this movie, while sort of poking fun at gamers, leads one to conclude that gaming is really an ok thing. "Fellowship of the Dice" is a 3 star movie.

Movie Review: Push

Today was a good day. I went to see a movie in the theater, which I rarely do.

"Push" was not the movie I expected it to be. I was expecting an over the top action thriller, chock full of awesome special effects, along the lines of "Jumper". What I got was an action movie, with some good special effects, but not with the over the top nature I expected. However, the movie was still surprisingly awesome, getting an easy 4 stars.

"Push" has far more character interaction and bonding than I would expect from a normal, action movie. The relationship between our hero, Nick Gant (played by Chris Evans) and 13 year old Cassie (played by Dakota Fanning) really builds throughout the movie. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep you interested, and I can honestly say that I didn't see the ending coming.

If you go into this film with the right expectations, you won't be disappointed. Just don't expect to be blown away by the action and effects.

Fairness Doctrine

Barack Obama has only been President for a little over 2 weeks, and already, nut-job liberal senators are talking about instituting the "fairness doctrine". Ok, just one nut-job liberal senator, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), but she claims she has talked to others about this.

For those who don't know, the fairness doctrine, in its simplest sense says that for every hour a radio station plays the Rush Limbaugh show, they have to play an hour of some crappy liberal host that no one wants to listen to. And I'm not making it up, they are crappy. That's why they all fail, while the top 3 most listened to radio shows are, Rush, Hannity and Glenn Beck.

Here's why I don't think this will happen:
1) The broadcast stations won't go for it...they have to make a living and they won't be able to sell advertising for crappy shows that no one listens to.
2) Talk Radio will get the word out. While the drive-by media (the fairness doctrine doesn't apply to them) ignores this, talk radio won't, and if enough people get ticked off, Senators and Representatives who want to keep their jobs will not support this.
3) It's an infringement on the 1st Amendment. I'm probably a bit naive, but somewhere in this country, the Constitution still has to count for something. At least I'd like to hope it does.

What this really is, is an attempt by some Democrats to silence the last real opposition to what they want to do. Talk Radio is the only force in this country that can inform the people about what's really going on in Washington. The drive-by media isn't going to do it...they're too busy carrying water for the democrats. Talk Radio is the only reason anyone has looked into this "stimulus" bill, and while it's still going to be a giant waste of money, talk radio forced some in Washington to take a hard look at it, and remove some of the pork.

Talk Radio is good for this country. If we ever have a day when the "news" media actually reports the news without spin, there will be no need for talk radio to exist.

Must See Movies

I've been kicking this around for a long time. Being a sort of movie buff, I think there are certain movies all people must see. These are not necessarily the best movies ever, but movies that are either quotable, or have some type of "coolness" to them that must be seen. Note, that my favorite movie of all time is "Batman Begins" didn't make this list, because I will admit that it's not for everyone. Without further adieu, here's Jake's list of must see movies (in no particular order):

• Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail - you may hate it, but everyone should experience it
• Unforgiven - in my opinion, the best Western ever made...just really, really good.
• Forrest Gump - Great story, great characters, great music...what more could you want?
• The Princess Bride - One of the most quotable films ever made.
• Braveheart - Definitely the best medieval conflict movie I've ever seen.
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind - if you've never seen Richard Dreyfuss construct Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes, then you've never lived!
• Ghostbusters - Bill Murray at his comedic best.
• Toy Story - the first Pixar film, revolutionized animation.
• Star Wars - watch at least the original trilogy...the prequels are good too, but optional.
• Band of Brothers - ok, not a movie, but a mini-series that should be required for all high school history students.
• Field of Dreams - "If you build it, he will come." If you don't know what that means, watch the movie.
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - if you've never read the books, watch the movies. If you've read the books, watch the movies.
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - the film-making is revolutionary. Pretty much the entire movie was shot in front of a green screen.
• The Untouchables - I can't believe 2 Kevin Costner movies made this list. Just a great film.
• The Right Stuff - I only watched this for the first time about a year ago...it's great.
• Indiana Jones - definitely watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Last Crusade". The other 2 are optional.
• Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - This movie gets better every time I see it. Plus, the parallels to Christianity that C.S. Lewis had in the books carry through to the movie.

Just missing out were "Office Space" (because if you don't work in a cubicle, you probably wouldn't get it), "The Wedding Singer" (because it's Adam Sandler, although it's really good, trust me), "Silverado" (because it also had Costner and it's a distant 2nd in the Western category), and "Mr. Holland's Opus" (because the ending is great, the rest of the film is only good).

That was really fun for me...let the debate begin!

Disclaimer - I don't watch many older movies (pre 1980), so I'm missing many of the "Classics" from my movie viewing repertoire.

A Sort of Super Sunday

Today was a big day at our house. My wife and I are both big football fans, and we made plans to watch the Super Bowl together.

Of course, first thing we had to do on Sunday was go to church. It was a good mass, the kids were good and we got in some good fellowship with friends afterward. Plus, we got a see a Smart Car that a friend just bought. Pretty neat actually...not much bigger than a golf cart, but lots of room.

After we got home, we spent time with the kids, watched golf, took naps, etc. Normal Sunday stuff. About 5, we got the food out. We had little smokies, salmon on crackers with lemon pepper seasoning, chips and salsa, and some veggies. I also bought Root Beer for the occasion because David and I like Root Beer. Of course, I ate WAY too much, and am still regretting it some 3 1/2 hours later.

The game itself was a really great game, except for one thing. The Arizona Cardinals lost. Now, being Broncos fan, I would normally root for the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, which was the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, living in Iowa like we do, we were rooting for Kurt Warner to win another Super Bowl. The game was really good. Pittsburgh was up 20-7 entering the 4th quarter. The Cardinals played an awesome quarter and went ahead 23-20 with about 2 minutes and 30 seconds left. Unfortunately, there was too much time left on the clock and the Steelers scored the go ahead touchdown with 35 seconds remaining. The Cardinals had one last shot, but didn't get it done. The game ended 27-23 in favor of the Steelers. An exhilarating game with a disappointing ending. Oh well, there's always next year...hopefully the Broncos will be there. I know one thing for sure...next year I won't eat so much!