Morgan Freeman stars in this movie about a United States Congressman’s daughter who is kidnapped while she is at school. i don’t want to go into too much of the movie because it is one of those movies where there are a lot of little details, and they all get put together at the end of the movie and it gets wrapped up and put in a box with a pretty bow on top.

i really liked this movie.  this is one of those movies that just when you think you’ve got it figured out, the movie turns and switches things up on you. you’ve really got to stay on  your toes and pay attention when you watch this one. those are the kinds of movies i like. they suck you in and make you feel like you’re a part of the movie. 

i’m a fan of Morgan Freeman. he’s great in everything he’s played in. if you’ve never seen this movie, rent it. it is a great way to spend an evening at home.

i got this email in the middle of the night last night.

netflix told me in this email that i could forward it to my friends and family so they could enjoy one free month of the netflix experience. so, if you want it – let me know. shoot me an email at ericrosby [at] gmail [dot] com and i’ll hook you up. better act fast! quantities are limited!

1. great idea for a movie
2. what a completely sad and depressing story

i thought the idea for Benjamin Button was a great plot, great idea, great premise for a movie. however, it ended up being the saddest and most depressing movie i’ve ever seen in my life. i’m very glad now that i didn’t pay $9.00 to go see this in the theater to feel like my dog has just died – again. 

Callie really wanted to go see this one in the theater and i’m so glad we got it on Netflix. it took us two days to watch it because we both fell asleep in the middle of it. which means it was either late at night when we were watching it or it got real slow in the middle. i’m thinking it was slow.

Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button – a boy who was born as an 80 year old man and grows younger looking as he grows older in age. i was intrigued by this movie more because i wanted to see how someone could portray a man growing up as he was growing younger. really interesting idea. Cate Blanchett is also in this movie and plays Button’s primary love interest, Daisy. i say “primary” because Button has many interests in the movie. 

the movie begins with Daisy on her deathbed in a hospital in New Orleans. her daughter is there with her and Daisy asks for her daughter to begin reading to her from Benjamin Button’s journal – basically, the story of his life. as she reads, Button becomes the narrator and the movie takes over. 

the hospital scenes were really unnecessary in my book. the only tie-in to the movie was Daisy. the movie could have been just as good (if not a little better) if it had just been narrated by Button. not read by a woman to her dying mother. 

overall, i’ve got to give the movie only 3 stars. to me, it just didn’t live up to the hype. it was a great idea for a movie, and the makeup and everything it took to make Brad Pitt into the various stages of life for Benjamin Button was incredible, but the utterly depressing and sad ending and the unneccesary hospital scenes ruined it for me. this is a movie that i’m glad i saw once, but have no desire to see again.

the movie is set in Canton, Mississippi. Samuel L. Jackson plays Carl Lee Haley, a black man whose 10-year-old daughter was kidnapped, abused, raped, hung, and left to die by two white men. as the two men prepare to be presented to the court, Haley attacks and murders the two men that raped his daughter. the police take custody of Haley as Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) agrees to take Haley as his client.

i thought this movie was brilliant. you will definitely find yourself pulling for Carl Lee Haley. i don’t want to give away too much of the movie because i want you to see it. it is a great film and should be next on your Netflix queue.

but surprisingly, it played out very well. i really liked this movie. it had more “in-the-courtroom” scenes than The Pelican Brief or that other movie that i watched that i didn’t like (what was it? oh yeah, The Firm – not one of Tom Cruise’s best movies). i like being in the courtroom. something about the back-and-forth action between the prosecution and defense and all that tension makes for a good movie.

anyway, the basic premise of this movie is Matt Damon’s character is a new lawyer and picks up his big case against an insurance company who denied a claim from a family whose son needed a bone marrow transplant. Matt Damon and Danny DeVito’s character (who has failed the bar exam 6 times) put their case together against one of the big time companies and their 6 lawyers. to give the movie a little more spice, Danny Glover plays a judge who absolutely hates insurance companies.

the movie lasts about 2 hours and 20 minutes which seems really long once you get to the end. it starts out pretty slow but the major portion of the movie is so compelling, you forget about the time. i gave it a 4 out of 5 on Netflix.

i will say that renting a movie at Blockbuster truly made me grateful for Netflix. our movie from Blockbuster was $5 and change and it was due back in two days. for Netflix, we pay $15/month and we can have 2 movies out at a time and we can keep them as long as we want with no late fees. and as long as you watch more than 3 movies per month, you’re beating Blockbuster. jackpot!

as for Slumdog, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture so i was expecting a GREAT movie – and i got one. Slumdog is probably the best movie i’ve seen in a very long time. the overall story is good (a kid from the slums of India wins $1,000,000 on “Who Want to be a Millionaire?” because he knows almost all of the answers based on his life experiences), the acting is excellent, and the cinematography is awesome. i’m telling you, if you have not seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, watch it. you will be impressed. there is a reason this movie won the Best Picture Academy Award. 

here’s the basic plot of the movie. Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) is convicted of murdering her husband. through a series of events, she learns in prison that she was framed and also learns of a legal term called “double jeopardy” which basically states that you cannot be convicted of the same crime twice. Libby stays in prison for six years and finally gets out on parole where she meets her parole officer played by Tommy Lee Jones. the rest of the movie is about Libby trying to get her son back and possibly kill her husband for the second time.

its very interesting to me how you can watch a movie and instantly realize which decade it came from. this movie was very “90’s” – not a bad thing, but obvious.

anyway, that’s not important. i’ve got to say that i enjoyed this movie. however, i felt like it skipped over a lot of things. for instance, Libby was in prison for six years. those six years were encompassed in 20 minutes of the film. it seemed like the movie had to skip a lot of time in order to get to the real high point of the movie. without giving away the ending, the movie stopped very suddenly. it was weird, actually – you could feel the movie coming to a close and then it did.

as for the rating, i give it three stars. it was a good movie, but not one i’m going to want to see again.

now i know what you’re all thinking but i do not know Kirk Cameron. however, two of my friends are in this movie. one of those guys is Jason McLeod who also played in “Facing the Giants” (another Kendrick brothers film – whom i also happen to know of them. they worked at a camp that i went to when i was in middle and high school. Steven Kendrick was a great teacher and his brother Alex, who directed this movie, and played the coach in “Facing the Giants” and made a cameo as the minister at the end of Fireproof, wrote, directed, and edited all of the videos for that week of camp.) as the guy who did the “death crawl”. i met Jason in New Orleans, LA when he was speaking at a Disciple Now that i was working at.

my other good friend Stephen Dervan was also in this movie. Stephen played the fire truck driver and the guy who lost in the hot sauce scene. the great thing about Stephen’s character (and what i kept telling Callie during the movie) is that the character isn’t that far off from Stephen’s real-life personality. Stephen would be the one to talk to himself in the mirror, so it was really funny to me to see him “act” in this movie.

the movie itself was ok. i didn’t hate it, but i didn’t really like it other than the fact that i had friends in it. it’s one of those movies that you need to see, but probably only once. if your marriage is in trouble, i definitely suggest it. seriously, if nothing more than sitting down for two hours with your spouse to watch a movie together, it will be beneficial. even if your marriage is not in trouble, sit down with your spouse and watch it anyway. 

for those of you that want to see fire fighting action, this movie is not for you. i can only remember one actual, real-life fire that the team was called to. there was more time devoted to what the guys did in the fire station than being called out to save lives and rescue cats out of trees (thank God they didn’t do that). 

so, going along with Netflix’s scale, i give it three stars.

John Malkovich was awful. his character was awful. his part was awful. everything about his part of the movie was awful.

i gave this movie 2 stars (Didn’t Like It) on Netflix.

2. MOVIE REVIEW – The Great Debaters
one of Denzel Washington’s greatest movies. this movie takes place in 1935 in a little town in Texas. Denzel’s character, Tolson, is a debate team coach at an all-black school – Wiley College. He leads and coaches them to an undefeated season against other “Negro” colleges in the state and even a victory over all-white Oklahoma City University on a “neutral” site. the team eventually receives and offer to debate Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. the team is thrown for a loop when the topic of debate is changed on them 48 hours prior to the debate. the little Wiley College team defeats the NCAA Champion Harvard debate team as their coach looks on.

there are a lot of twists and turns and expected scenes in a movie that takes place during segregation in the south so be prepared. don’t worry, i didn’t spoil the movie. you can tell they are going to win. plus, if Denzel is your coach, you’re gonna win. especially if your “coach” is directing the movie.

3. Callie has been making me smoothies for breakfast with our Magic Bullet and i’m loving them! don’t ask me what she puts in there because i’m not real sure. all I know is that it tastes good!

4. Freedom Church is continuing to DOMINATE this Sunday! 10:30am Barber Middle School. AND… Freedom Generation Sunday night at 6:00pm! my main man, Tyler Orr, spoke at my alma mater, Kennesaw Mountain High School at their FCA this morning and I’ve heard it was good. Make sure you get your middle school and high school students out to Barber Middle School this Sunday night for Freedom Generation! it gonna be zoppity!