Dedicated Review: Wolf Children

This review is dedicated to my longtime best friend–a lover of wolves, a conservationist, and an anime fan. And, very recently, the birthday girl!

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Director and co-writer Mamoru Hosoda delivers in Wolf Children a gem of an ode to the heartrending challenges and unimaginable joys of parenthood. Hana is a university student who falls in love with a kindhearted man who gives her a daughter and son–and also happens to be a wolf–but is taken from her all too soon. Enduring through her tears, Hana gathers every ounce of her strength and determines to make a life for her unusual family, and to raise her children into wonderful people who would make their father very proud, wherever they may go and whatever they may be.

Dedicated Review: The Fifth Element

Forget May the Fourth, how about some Fifth? This post is dedicated to a dear friend of mine who loves this movie, has a birthday today, and is currently on a mission trip halfway around the world. You can see a sample of the work she is doing for the Lord and for people here.

Korben Dallas is your ordinary 23rd-century taxi driver who has an unexpected encounter with a gorgeous girl who so happens to be key to saving the universe. Aliens and a greater evil are threatening innocent people everywhere, and they and the rest of this delightfully absurd but thoroughly messed-up film are about to learn why you just don’t mess with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich … or Chris Tucker.

Dedicated Post: Star Trek (2009)

On tonight’s very special edition of Projected Realities, we salute the passing of Leonard Nimoy, an entertainment icon whose many roles spanned the likes of Dragnet, Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, and of course Gene Roddenberry’s magnum opus.

Director J.J. Abrams’ take on Star Trek is a relentlessly exciting and accessible work that despite a few inside jokes requires no advance knowledge of the series or its ten earlier movies to enjoy. The simple story is given the finest presentation and its own continuity, thoroughly invigorating this long-standing franchise and making for a wonderfully engrossing watch.

Dedicated Review: Disney’s Frozen (2013)

(Happy new year! I had to get around to writing this eventually. I had planned to open 2015 with this film right away, but since I wound up being busy, I decided to dedicate this review to a friend who loved the movie and to post my own thoughts as close to his anniversary as possible. Enjoy!)

Frozen is foremost a love story, but not so much of the romantic sort; the truer and more skillfully written centerpiece is the sisterly relationship that lead characters Elsa and Anna share. While the former primarily sets the plot’s events into motion, the movie largely emphasizes the latter’s selfless attempts to provide physical and emotional support for her sibling, regardless of what happens to be in the way (which sometimes includes Anna’s own behavior). Regardless of Frozen’s few issues with structure and focus, it is a compelling and fun story from start to finish that is well worth checking out no matter the season.

Dedicated Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Spectacular.

DreamWorks Animation’s latest feature takes nearly everything that was great about the first How to Train Your Dragon film and expands on it. The characters are funnier, and none of them are nearly as annoying as they sometimes used to be. The setting was gorgeous to start with, but its scope now seems to accommodate the viewer’s imagination instead of feeling more restricted to what can reasonably be shown in a movie. Most importantly, regardless of the story’s remaining flaws, it does way too much right for me to call it anything less than excellent.