You can also see it here. Let me know what you think… remember it was made from scratch in 48 hours!

Just in case you don’t make it over, I’ll post the film here tomorrow so everyone can see it.

You can read a few of the stories from the stimulus here: stories.baycommunity.com. They are slowly coming in and some of them are absolutely amazing. There’s one particular story that I like a lot, one that truly reveals the heart of this project:

I just ran across this website and was really inspired. I am not a member of the church, but last week, I was pumping gas in Fairhope and went inside to pay. I never go inside to pay  and I also never pay with cash at the gas station. This time, for some reason, I decided to go inside. The woman in front of me was counting pennies to get enough money to buy a few dollars of gas. I have had that feeling before, of barely having enough to get home. I put down an extra $20 over her pile of change and said, “that is not enough, you need more than that.� The look on the woman’s face was priceless! She was shocked , and so was the attendant. I said, “Jesus loves you� She was still in shock as she was pumping gas, it was hilarious. I just kept saying, “Jesus loves you!� as I got in my car. I road away with the biggest smile on my face. -Amy

I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time, its seen quite a few snags along the way, but its finally coming to a theater near you and me.

‘Where the Wild Things Are‘ is probably my favorite childrens book of all time, and I’m so excited that Spike Jonze is the man bringing it to the big screen.

The first trailer has finally debuted and it looks amazing, I like what Cinematical said, “it intensifies the film’s fantastical elements and makes the thing look so wondrous. The Wild Things look great and real and not CGI — I have a feeling that this is the sort of film that will feel 20 years old, but look brand new.”

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the Poster

It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is trying to upend the schools’ strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James (Amy Adams), a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence. (Miramax)

Doubt was incredible, an edge of your seat thriller with no guns, explosions or special effects (except maybe a wind machine or two). The power of this film rest on the stellar performances of its actors, and they are so good because of how they play off of each other. Especially Hoffman and Streep, when they go toe-to-toe you can feel the intensity and conviction that not many could bring to the roles. 

I think this film was near perfect in every way, the soundtrack was subtle and almost non-existent in parts and eerie and suspenseful in others. It compliments the way the story slowly simmers before the kettle explodes right off the stove. The characters conflict is one that you will leave the theater talking about, it leaves you doubting and rethinking the conclusions you’ve personally made to the last minute.

It reminded me just how powerful our words are, that they truly have the power of life and death. There is so much truth in this movie. It screams at how out dated and out-of-touch the old school thinking and religious people are. How they’ve lost touch with the world around them in order to keep their list and police those that don’t live by the same list. It makes evident the sad truth that religious people are further away from the heart of God because they’ve lost any sense of compassion for the people around them, as well as their sense of superiority and judgement over those who have a different approach to life and ministry.

In the end, you’ll have to make a decision about what you believe, and that’s why Doubt will stick with you long after you’ve walked out of the theater.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Milk
• Frost/Nixon
• The Dark Knight
• Doubt
• Revolutionary Road
• WALL•E
• The Wrestler
• Gran Torino
• The Reader
• Rachel Getting Married
• Changeling
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona 
• Tropic Thunder
• Happy-Go-Lucky
• The Visitor
• I’ve Loved You So Long
• Frozen River
• Nothing But the Truth
• Man on Wire
• Synecdoche, New York
• The Duchess
• Defiance
• Australia

I’ve only seen about half of them (oh the downside of living in a small town). I’m planning to catch a few more tho before the 22nd. How many have you seen? Which ones are you dying to see before the big night?

This was my list last year… 

Step Brothers:
I love Will Ferrell. Love him. Not so much though, that I think everything he touches is gold, and this is one of those cases. Its hilarious, don’t get me wrong, but the movie gets boring and cheesy toward the third act. But it’s so much fun to watch he and John C. Reilly together because they are crazy funny. I gave it 2.5 stars.

 

 

Pineapple Express:
I’m not a huge fan of Judd Apatow’s brand of humor, however I thought Pineapple Express was really funny. Seth Rogen and James Franco were both good, but ‘Red’ (Danny McBride) steals the movie. His scenes alone make this movie stand out in my mind and make me laugh out loud at the most random times. I gave it 3 stars.

 

Tropic Thunder:
Ben Stiller is great at taking something to the max, to him the bigger and more ridiculous, the funnier… and normally he wins big time. Tropic Thunder is no different, I laughed so hard my jaws hurt. I’m not his biggest fan, but I loved Zoolander and Dodgeball and this fits in that same vein perfectly. Robert Downey Jr. steals the movie, no doubt, Tom Cruise is a close 2nd. Both were great in this movie, but Downey Jr. was incredible. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Another of my faves this summer was Get Smart, I reviewed it early on, you can read it here. Let me know what you thought about these movies.

I’ve wondered how they would adapt a book of essay’s into a 3-act story, and today I came across the answer and I wanted to share it with you guys. If you loved Blue Like Jazz, you need to read this Q & A about the movie. Miller said,

It’s a movie about coming out of the closet regarding who you are as a person. The character happens to be a Christian and is very ashamed of that, but he’s able to come out of the closet by the end of it. It’s really a film more about a human being than it is about Christianity. Christianity is really just the thing that this human being is dealing with. 

He also says that he’s fallen in love with screenwriting, and he plans to do a lot more, which really excites me. He’s exactly what Hollywood needs. The biggest drawback to the movie that I can see right now is that Steve Taylor will be directing. I’m not so sure about that, but I’m hoping that even with him at the helm, this is gonna be a great movie.

According to this article it looks like we can expect to see it hit theaters sometime during the first half of 2009.

h/t: Wingo