Besides being a Pastor I also work at a video rental store, and Friday night we are usually pretty busy. People always come in looking for the movies that came out that week and they are hardly ever in, so they end up leaving disappointed or just picking something else up. To that end I thought I might help you out, tonight if you go looking for a new movie and can't get it, may I suggest these five titles, they a little older, sometimes a few months, mainly a few years, some more than that, so they should be in. They are my favorite movies that no one knows about.
(in alphabetical order)
Bottle Shock (2008) starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, and Freddy Rodriguez directed by Randall Miller.
Bottle Shock is the true story of the beginning of the California wine country, at least the moment when it reaches a world stage as opposed to a local one. Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier who in 1976 goes to California to find wines that are good enough to go against French wines in a blind taste test. There he meets Jim Barrett (Pullman) whose vineyard is overly mortgaged while he tries to perfect his chardonnay. Along the way we meet Bo (Pine), Jim's son who is at odds with his father, and Gustavo (Rodriquez), the foreman who is making his own wine on the side. As the movie moves along Jim is reluctant to enter because his chardonnay stays cloudy, but Bo realizes it is their only chance. It is a smart, occasionally funny, drama of perseverance.
the Children of Huang Shi (2008) starring Jonathan Rhys Myers, Chow Yun-Fat, Radha Mitchell and Michelle Yeoh, directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
The Children of Huang Shi is another true story, this one following George Hogg (Myers). Hogg is a war corespondent that goes to China during the Japanese occupation of 1937. Along the way he meets several people including a nurse (Mitchell), the leader of some resistance fighters (Yun-Fat) and an aristocrat (Yeoh). Leaving the relatively safe confines of Beijing in order to see the real war Hogg ends up at a boys orphanage. First taking control of the orphanage and then later realizing that it is no longer safe Hogg, the nurse, and the boys set off on a 500 mile journey to safety. Heroes are not mutants or avengers or men in capes, they are the ones who see injustice and decide to do something about it, this movie is the story of one such hero.
the Way (2011) starring Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Yorick van Wageningen and Emilio Estevez, directed by Emilio Estevez.
Tom (Sheen) is a California eye doctor whose son has left on a trip to see the world. His son dies on his first day walking El Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage through France and Spain to the resting place of Saint James. Tom goes to France in order to pick up his son and decides to walk the camino. Along the way he encounters three pilgrims (Unger, Nesbitt and Wageningen) who become companions along the way. Walking the pilgrimage Tom begins to move from a closed man into becoming a more open one. The Way is a tale of life flowing from death, a tale of grace and redemption. It has become one of my favorite movies of all time, if you only watch one of these movies make it the Way, you will be ever so glad you did.
Wide Awake (1998) starring Joseph Cross, Dana Delany, Rosie O'Donnell, Denis Leary, Robert Loggia, and Julia Stiles, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Yes you read that right, M. Night Shyamalan, before Signs our the Village or even the Sixth Sense, this was his first movie and what a movie it is. Joseph Cross (later of Jack Frost and Running with Scissors) plays Josh, a 10 year old boy who has lost his grandfather (Robert Loggia) to cancer. Devastated by the loss Josh decides to spend a year looking for God so that he will know that his grandfather is okay. His parents (Leary and Delany) at first go with it, then question it, then worry about it. His sister (Stiles) seems to think that it is all for naught, but is still there for him at a very important time. Rosie O'Donnell plays a nun who teaches at Josh's Catholic school. At times funny at times emotional Wide Awake is a story of determination and of only having to look correctly to find what we have been searching for.
White Squall (1996) starring Jeff Bridges, Scott Wolfe, Ethan Embry, Ryan Phillippe and Jeremy Sisto, directed by Sir Ridley Scott.
White Squall is, once again, a true story (I kinda like reality, just not reality TV), in the vein of Dead Poets Society. Jeff Bridges runs a school at sea program for young men. White Squall is the story of a group of boys becoming a group of men through danger and death. The acting is superb, the story is bittersweet, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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