• GENRE: Thriller
• ACTORS: Hayden Christensen, Lena Olin, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Christopher McDonald, Thomas A. McMahon, Sam Robards, Poorna Jagannathan, Steven Hinkle, Charlie Hewson
• RATING: R
• PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Some bad language and questionable situations. Cutting of flesh in a hospital operating room setting.
• INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
• GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) A rich man goes into a heart transplant operation immediately after his late night wedding. You are supposed to be asleep during this type of surgery. See if you can guess from the title if this was the case in this movie.





• REVIEW: The basic premise portrayed in the movie — being awake during surgery, despite anesthetic — is apparently accurate though rare. But not nearly rare enough if it is YOU under the knife. Actually, the statistics are pretty consistent with the 1 in 700 cases as quoted in the movie. As someone with absolutely no familiarity with hospital protocol, many of the other events portrayed in this movie seem hard to believe. Apparently, my suspicions are well founded. But aside from the inaccurate portrayal of hospital procedures in heart transplants, this was really a pretty good movie. Plus, I’ve been informed by people more knowledgeable than me that Jessica Alba is not too hard on the eyes, if need be. The plot swerved wildly from what I would have expected. HINT (but no spoiler): I expected a sappy romance.
• RECOMMENDATION: This is a thriller movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the bad language and other questionable elements. However, if you are a fan of this genre–I think you will enjoy this somewhat sappy love story. But–unexpectedly, the two people REALLY in love are not the husband and wife.
• RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

• GENRE: Drama, Science Fiction



• ACTORS: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jane McLean, Brooklynn Proulx, Alex Ferris, Michelle Nolden, Tatum McCann, Hailey McCann
• RATING: PG-13
• PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for young children. Brief nudity. Implied pre-marital sex. Although in a time traveling movie, it’s hard to say whether something technically happened before or after the characters were married. Some violence, but nothing extreme.
• INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie has romance, which could please fans of that genre. It has science fiction, which could please those fans. Or it could be just enough of each element to alienate everyone.
• GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) A man travels through time, meeting his wife and his daughter along the way. You get one guess as to whether things will end well in this story line.






• REVIEW: As a general rule, people don’t want to know what lies in their future. Other than the next winning lottery number.[1. This time traveling cliche is put to use in The Time Traveler’s Wife] The concept of time travel is fascinating. The Time Traveler’s Wife actually plays the concept pretty reasonably and realistically–assuming you suspend the laws of nature and physics long enough to accept the concept that time travel is possible. For example, do you remember the campy 1960’s TV show called “The Time Tunnel?” The time traveling leading characters travel through TV time fully clothed. In fact, their clothing appears to be laundered, dry-cleaned and pressed as they bounce uncontrollably through time and space. Not so in The Time Traveler’s Wife. In fact the time traveler in this movie is stripped, and arrives at the end of his time travels completely naked. Too bad he never seems to time travel to his bathtub. I’m not sure this variation on the time traveling theme makes sense. But it does present a twist on the experience. Imagine being uncontrollably thrust into a foreign time and place wearing no clothes whatsoever.

  I’ve never seen a time traveling experience end well. And this film is no exception. It seems as though a time traveler ought to be able to avoid his downfall, by taking a little peek into the future, and then avoiding the danger that awaits. It seems like it–but it never quite ends this way.

• RECOMMENDATION: Actually, I liked the film, notwithstanding the “romance” factor mentioned above.[1. Come on Hollywood, how about a big budget movie about time traveling zombies?] The film makers obviously put some thought into making the non-sequential elements fit together. The “romance” part of the story line was a bit too sappy for my liking, but I’m sure it would appeal to some.
• RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

FOOTNOTES:

I think you know, if you read the title to this blOg article, that there must be some pretty serious disclaimers here. There are. But indeed, as of May 12, 2010, if you type “Christian Movie Review Night of the Living Dead” (no quotation marks) into Google© search, the top ranked unpaid response is “MOVIE REVIEW: Night of the Living Dead (1968) – K_Line Christian …” I believe the ranking will change over time, depending on the age of the online article, and lots of other factors that only the gnomes in the Google factory know, so look quickly, before my ranking slips.