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Reviews
The Red Pill (2016)
Eye opening, even if you're familiar with the main issues
This view of the men's movement from the perspective of a self-described feminist is persuasive and instructive. In my mind, the greatest evils systematically perpetrated against men today are child custody legal abuses, unreported abuse of men by their spouses, and newborn genital mutilation. But there are many others. This is a must watch for anyone who seeks to be informed about the movement.
Unplanned (2019)
Planned Parenthood turns the ultrasound monitors away from mothers because...
...90% of abortion-minded women who see ultrasounds of their unborn children will change their minds and keep their babies.
There's an additional reason why Planned Parenthood turns the monitors away. Sometimes Planned Parenthood will perform "abortions" on women who think they're pregnant, but aren't. Planned Parenthood collects $350 cash, and the woman collects a lifetime of guilt.
"Unplanned" accurately portrays the standard practices of Planned Parenthood. Abby Johnson, the main character in "Unplanned," was a director of a Planned Parenthood abortuary, and a one-time PP "Employee of the Year." The abortionist who she once worked with also consulted with the writers of "Unplanned," to make sure that the abortion procedures portrayed in the movie were accurate.
Although the subject matter is grim, the movie is excellent. The woman who portrays Abby Johnson should win an Academy Award. She is that good. In fact, all of the performances are top notch, except for one secondary character (Sean's fiance/wife) who is fairly wooden.
The movie begins with perfunctory background events that set the stage for the main story. But from that point forward, the action intensifies. Both pro-life and pro-abortion sides are presented fairly, as thinking human beings, not caricatures. But having attended Saturday prayer vigils outside abortion clinics in the Boston area, the one thing missing from the Houston protests depicted in the movie were the pro-abortion protesters who would blast speed metal and curse at us, so that the women being led into the abortuaries by their mothers or "boyfriends" wouldn't be able to hear us pray. So much for "choice."
It's been 45 years since abortion through all nine months of pregnancy was decriminalized by the Supreme Court, yet this is the first time that a movie has been made that accurately depicts the horror of abortion. If every American saw this movie today, abortion would end tomorrow. This is why the media and government schools will suppress it. This movie is the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of our age.
It's up to us to spread the word about this movie. Certainly every Christian youth group should show this movie. I dare all "pro-choice" people to watch "Unplanned." Do you want to know the truth?
God save the women and children, and everyone else who has been impacted by the greatest evil in the history of America. 50 million dead and counting.
The Americans (2013)
Superior to "Breaking Bad" in an important way
'When men choose not to believe in God, they do not ... believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.' --G.K. Chesterton
"The Americans" and "Breaking Bad" are both excellent series. Both feature superior writing and story arcs. Both are exciting and unpredictable from beginning to end. And while the characters are believable and fleshed out in both series, the characters in "Breaking Bad" are missing an essential human characteristic that is central in "The Americans." None are searching for truth.
Everyone has a god in their lives. If it's not the true God, then it's something else. The possible substitutes are limitless. In "The Americans," the central characters serve the god of the State, devoting their lives to Mother Russia and the "inevitable" triumph of a worldwide Marxist utopia. On the other side is an FBI agent serving justice. While the latter cause is vastly superior to the former, neither is the complete Truth. And while the characters make enormous sacrifices for their causes, their faith in their respective causes is not complete, since they continue to seek after transcendent spiritual truth (Stan, Stan's wife, Phillip, Paige). Elizabeth is the exception that proves the rule, since she steels herself against any spiritual challenge to Marxist orthodoxy, an ideology which she has used to insulate herself from introspection regarding the enormous amount of suffering she has endured and inflicted.
Drama in the series is not driven primarily by spy derring-do, but is instead driven by internal conflict. Reality clashes with ideology. Consciences conflict with ideology, and in the end, one side is the victor in a tremendously satisfying conclusion.
At times you may find yourself admiring Phillip and Elizabeth, and it is excusable, because they are sincerely misdirected. They believe that they have the truth, and they are willing to make enormous sacrifices for it (while also, sadly, inflicting great harm). But a ship sailing in the wrong direction can be turned around to reach its port. A ship with no engine will be forever at sea.
" I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!" --Rev. 3-15-17
Will the ship turn around? See for yourself. You won't regret it.
(One important caution. There are numerous graphic sex scenes and intense acts of violence, so keep the clicker handy to fast-forward over these scenes if necessary)]
Justified (2010)
Couldn't survive past the first episode of this cliche fest
Cliche after cliche. Above-it-all, cool dude lawman. Wears a cowboy hat. Blase attitude when confronting a murderer. Shoots him three times at point blank range. Gets banished to Kentucky because his superiors only care how they appear in the press. Neo-Nazi villains. Did they leave any cliche out? Oh yeah, the prostitute with the heart of gold. Maybe that's in next week's episode.
Cube (1997)
I escaped the Cube
Imagine being trapped in front of a screen watching a group of bad actors trapped in a cube within a cube, within a cube, within a... well, you get it. Then imagine the same bad actors being dispatched in grotesque ways while complaining about not knowing how they got into the cube. Intrigued? Neither was I. The premise is ridiculous. The acting, Lifetime quality. But unlike these poor actors, I was able to find a way out. Get out while you still have a chance.
One star for a great title sequence and another for the absence of a lesbian sex scene.
House of Cards (2013)
Ted Cruz said HOC is accurate except for the murders
HOC struck me as having been written by an insider because it has such a ring of truth about it. In fact, Beau Wilimon worked in two Senatorial campaigns.
The plotting is terrific. The glimpse into backstage politics is sobering. And the level of tension is always high. My only quibble is that the leads are perhaps too stoic. People who are given over to evil and ambition are inherently unstable, since evil is always irrational.
I would like to see Netflix finish the series with a replacement for Kevin Spacey. The series is too good to leave unfinished.
Chappaquiddick (2017)
"The Lion of the Senate"
I was seven years old when this took place and don't remember it, although I do remember watching the moon landing.
By 1976, when Ted ran for president and was almost nominated by the Democrat party, I was 14 and very politically aware, because my father was a refugee from behind the iron curtain and had no patience for communist sympathizers like Kennedy. (This has been verified by KGB files that were unearthed after the Wall fell). My father was painfully aware of Ted leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown, and avoiding criminal charges.
I've lived in Massachusetts for my entire life and remember the widespread Kennedy worship and the perpetual fawning media coverage, led by the Boston Globe. Regardless, there were plenty of sane people in Massachusetts who saw Ted for what he was, and were made physically ill when the media would describe him as "the Lion of the Senate."
This decades-overdue movie does a good job of recounting what has been known about this night for a long time, but the dramatization hits on an emotional level that a simple recounting of the timeline cannot.
On a film-making level this is fairly pedestrian, but as a public service, this film is invaluable. The truth must be told.
Je m'appelle Bernadette (2011)
Simple yet deeply moving account of the miracle of Lourdes
The movie doesn't deliberately pull on the heart strings, and it isn't a hagiography. Yet the movie left me in tears. "Truly I tell you, unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." I understand this passage better now.