Dallas Jenkins’ Christian drama is one of the more perfect movies for the religious target audience who appreciate films that revolve around re-claiming faith and getting back in touch with God, and deep down in to its core, “What If…” is a much more faith based remake of Brett Ratner’s “The Family Man.” Instead of Nicolas Cage as a sex crazed cocky corporate executive who comes across an angel who shows him what his life would be like if it were more fulfilled with family and friends while testing his morality, “What If…” stars Kevin Sorbo as a preacher who goes off on a religious retreat leaving the love of his life, loses touch with his religion and is shown how his life would be revolving around family and his beliefs by a kindly angel.
Tag Archives: Family
My Dad & The Movies
I’ll just be honest here once and for all, I had nothing growing up. In spite of my parents best efforts to give us everything they could, my brother, sister and I didn’t have much in the way of games or toys, or even luxuries such as the newest sneakers on the block that everyone wanted to own. We didn’t even get a computer until the late nineties, but what we lacked in material possessions we were more than wealthy with parents who would do just about anything to help the summer pass by with as many experiences as possible. Water parks, the zoo, carnivals, block parties, if it was in their power to give it to us, we were more than appreciative to accept it.
The Long and Winding Yellow Brick Road
When you get down to it, Toto is the most important aspect of the entire epic. He discovers the Cowardly Lion, The Wicked Witch, The Flying Monkeys, he marches in place with the incognito troop from Oz, and surely enough he is the one who manages to uncloak The Wizard and reveal him to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. He’s the twisted government official who is little more than a sniveling little man hiding behind a sheet and some smoke. Toto has always managed to be regarded as something of a secondary element to the overall narrative of this adaptation, but when you get down to it he’s pretty much the audience, the one who watches and goes along with all of the other characters in hopes of making heads or tails of this whole charade. He’s the watcher, and surely enough, he’s the one who keeps Dorothy and the group’s moral center in tact the entire time they’re fighting with apple throwing trees and that dreaded field that puts the entire clan to sleep.
Whip It (2009)
For a film that basically revolves around the feminine experience and empowerment of the opposite sex, “Whip It” is pretty much one of the most humble homages to female independence I’ve seen in years. Director Drew Barrymore chronicles the evolution of the modern female through sports and shows how these warrior women are indeed one of a kind and promoting the ideals of feminism in their own ways. Barrymore never quite looks down on any one sector of women, but instead opens up a wider scope of exposition that posits every female character before us and explores how they help to influence young women of today with their strength and adversity. Even Marcia Gay Harden, a bonafide pageant mom, is not held up to scrutiny or turned in to a villain as Barrymore and Shauna Cross pull back mid-way and allow us a second look at a women who might have a more justified and well intentioned goal when pushing character Bliss in to the pageant circuit.
Everwood: The Complete Third Season (DVD)
“Everwood” was always the wonderful drama on the WB that was humble, but very emotional and gripping. At its cheesiest it was basically bearable to sit through, but most times it was absolutely compelling to watch and enjoy in its scenic and conservative sensibilities. Every thread and character was just magnificent and it’s good that Warner has finally released every season on DVD once and for all allowing folks a chance to see what they may have missed out on. It’s a shame because the third season is where the writers were finally finding their strides and developing some fantastic new sub-plots.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
What many are assuming is the final installment in the “Toy Story” franchise (until Disney assigns these characters to a new child protagonist) is an otherwise classy and entertaining finisher to what has been a three part exploration in to childhood and the doldrums of growing up and getting rid of the past. While the child audience has taken great joy in the adventures of Buzz Lightyear and Woody for the last ten years, like every other Pixar production it’s about much more than what’s on the surface. “Toy Story 3” much like its predecessors is about recalling a more innocent time and the relics of our past having to face that they’re just not needed anymore.
Family Matters: The Complete First Season (DVD)
Before Michael Cera and “The Big Bang Theory,” Steve Urkel made it cool to be a geek. And not just an uber-geek but a mega-geek, someone so unashamed to be himself that he was hip, and we loved him. I won’t deny it. When I was a kid watching this series, everyone including me loved Urkel, and we thought of him as the supreme nerd to idolize even prompting the Urkel Dance to be imitated over and over. As I’ve said before: kids are stupid and we were. Watching “Family Matters” many years later, it was interesting to see the evolution of this series that started out its life in “Perfect Strangers.”
While the show does begin as a sort of new age “The Cosby Show” with a middle class, honest, loving African American family, its premiere on TGIF on the ABC network here in America was pretty boring. And I think after a while even ABC began to realize that deep down this was just a lackluster and forgettable retread of “The Cosby Show” that tried its best to muster up interesting characters and storylines and bombed big time.