Favorite Movies

Note my favorite review site is metacritic.com

The Ninth Configuration

My personal favorite.  I'm not really sure I recommend it, but again it's my favorite.  An odd film.  A sloppy, dated film.  One that wouldn't have been made had not the author made a lot of money from writing The Exorcist.

Have you ever had a dream?  One that you really committed to,  work hard for, and sacrificed for?  Did you decide you couldn't do it?  Did you give it up?  Out of fear?

If you answered yes to most of those questions, you'll get the film.  Do you want things to make sense? Do you crave God's bosom, but fail to believe?  You'll get the film.  Do you yearn for redemption?

The story starts with an astronaut aborting a mission right before launch.  The movie touches a lot of big themes and big questions in answering why he did so.  

Why did I like the film so much?  I saw the film shortly after transfering from the US Air Force Academy, ending my dream to become an astronaut, for similar if not so dramatic reasons.

Transcendence.  Redemption.

After the Wedding 

(directed by Susanne Bier)

I like the Wall Street Journal's blurb: "A thrilling -- and harrowing, and beautiful -- celebration of the unpredictability of life."

and the Philadelphia Inquirer's: Bier primes us for a catfight, but she gives something tastier: a feast of reconciliation and love.

Remember when "Basic Instinct" came out.  The said "Don't see it with anyone you don' want to sleep with."  Same here but for much purer reasons

Others

The Prestige. A fun, well-done film.  You're enjoying it a lot.  And then it goes a couple levels deeper.

Fun: Aliens. Terminator 1 and 2. The new Star Trek. John Carpenter's The Thing.

Comedy: Holy Grail; Groundhog's Day; The Jerk