• GENRE: Thriller / Action
• • ACTORS: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, and Alexandra Daddario
  • RATING: PG-13
  • LENGTH: 1 hour, 54 minutes
  • PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Violence. Lots of implied killing–mostly non-graphic.
  • INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
  • GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) The San Andreas Fault makes a major split, devastating big parts of urban California. A helicopter pilot rushes to save his daughter and almost ex-wife.
  • REVIEW: One word for this movie: Ridiculous. OK, two words: Ridiculous, ridiculous. Many movies ask us to suspend the normal rules of heaven and earth. For example, to pretend that zombies or ghosts exist. Such an exercise seems a reasonable tradeoff for watching a fictional story. But this movie suspends the rules of human nature. That is, human being don’t behave (I hope) as suggested. To summarize, with a few spoilers included, Dwayne Johnson’s character apparently abandons his job as a rescue pilot to go in search of his daughter and almost ex-wife. He steals his work helicopter, a truck, and airplane in search of his family. The scenes of earthquake and tsunami disaster look convincing to me. But watching the portrayal of thousands (or maybe millions) of people being killed in a natural disaster isn’t what I consider wholesome entertainment.
  • RECOMMENDATION: This is a thriller movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre because of the violence, and other questionable elements. Good computer generated imagery (CGI). Too good, really.
  • RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

• 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: Thriller, Mystery, Horror
• ACTORS: Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Josh Charles, Chandler Canterbury, Celia Weston, Shuler Hensley, Anna Kuchma, Rosemary Murphy, Malachy McCourt, Laurel Bryce, Luz Alexandra Ramos
• RATING: R
• PARENTAL NOTE: Not intended for children. Nudity. Presentation of Death is contrary to Christian beliefs. Bad language and questionable situations. Some violence, but there is little gore or excessive blood. If a behind the scenes look at a funeral parlor (heavily fictionalized) makes you queasy, I don’t think you’ll enjoy the subject matter here.
• INTENDED AUDIENCE: This movie is intended for fans of the genre, and may not be appreciated by others.
• GENERAL PLOT: (No spoilers) A young woman has a fight with her boyfriend, and storms off in her car. She’s killed in a car wreck. Wait. Oh, yes–she’s killed in a car wreck. (?)





• REVIEW: I have no idea why the title of this film has a “dot” in the middle of the name, “After.Life”. This story presents a view of what happens to a young woman after she dies, but before her her funeral. If this concept doesn’t sound like something that would interest you, rest easy. That may not be what the movie is about at all. This is one of those movies that keeps you guessing as to exactly what is happening. The whole presentation is extremely creepy. Which is good for a horror movie. The lead roles in this film are played by Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, 1993) as the funeral director, and Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan, 2006[1. Black Snake Moan also stars the top grossing actor of all time, Samuel L. Jackson]; and Addams Family Values, 1993), as the possibly recently departed. I don’t know what corpses really wear while awaiting their funerals, but in the case of Christina Ricci’s character, it is not much. As the story plays out, you are never sure whether she needs to call 911, or just relax and accept her fate. In the end — and despite lots of leads and possibly false leads — there is a strong argument that the central question in the film is never answered.
• RECOMMENDATION:[2. If you wonder why zombie themes and horror films have space on a Christian website like K_Line Christian Online, please see my blog post on point] This is a horror[2. Although I label this movie as “horror”, some would call it a thriller or mystery.] movie. Many people will be highly offended by every movie in this genre. Additionally many people will be offended by the presentation of death in a manner contrary to Christian beliefs. Or maybe not. In any event, this is an interesting story, which is played out well. If you enjoy thoughtful horror, you should appreciate After.Life.
• RATING (out of 5 stars): ★★★★★

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