(500) Days of Summer Sneak Preview Entertainment 2009 • Rated PG-13 Directed by Marc Webb ~ by Joel Try Depending on where you look, this film’s genre is listed as either Comedy or Romantic Comedy. And while I am a hopeless romantic, much like the main character Tom, I am not at all a fan of Hollywood’s romantic comedies. I generally find them trivial, unimaginative and not funny. So I sat down to watch 500 days with a very skeptical view, that lasted for ...

Up Pixar Animation Studios 2009 • Rated PG Directed by Pete Docker & Bob Peterson There is a lot of beauty is Pixar's latest film Up (released on DVD 11/10/09), not the least of which is the stunning animation, brilliant colors and spot-on "set design". But the transformative power of the story lies in two primary relationships: Carl and his wife Ellie and later, Carl and young Russell. The former relationship (which technically last through only the first 11 ...

Away We Go 2009 • Rated R Directed by Sam Mendes (2009) My wife hated this movie. She said it was vulgar and crude. I have to agree with her, particularly in the first 20 minutes of the film. But as we lay in bed after watching it, talking about why she hated it we discovered the value of the film. It’s in the questions it raises and the underlying hope that serves as its foundation. As actor John Krasinski says in the DVD bonus features, “It’s about searching for a place where you belong and searching for who you really are.” Away We Go is the story of Burt and Verona ...