http://betterangelsnow.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:47:08 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/252/7/inception.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/252/7/inception.html After emerging from the dark theater into the glaring midday sun, following a 148 minute descent into Christopher Nolan’s dream sequence, Inception, I’m not embarrassed to say that it took splashing my face with cold water to assure myself that I was really awake. Not as efficient as being ‘kicked’ awake (as they say in the movie); but it worked.

Because I knew I had to write this review, I paid extra close attention to the movie. My hyper-conscious brain followed the ... Read More]]> Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:53:37 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/251/10/him-screamworks-love-in-theory-and-practice.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/251/10/him-screamworks-love-in-theory-and-practice.html The Finnish rock band known as HIM has returned with its seventh studio album, "Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice". The five musicians from Helsinki, Finland have started off the new decade with another sonic surprise of a rock album. This album is filled with heavy, goth-tinged, guitar-driven rock tunes that beckon the music-world to relish, savor and urge them to attribute this work to their precious rock and roll compilations. As an observer and listener of HIM's previous alb... Read More]]> Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:19:36 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/250/7/the-pacific-installments-iii-iv.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/250/7/the-pacific-installments-iii-iv.html A Time to Rest and Regroup

But war can be Hell even when the Marine Corps is not fighting.

With the battle of Guadalcanal won and Henderson Field operational, the. Marine Corps 1st Division needed and deserved a fine rest. Australia was the nearest civilized, at least by the Marine Corps standards, haven for these battle weary Marines. The Melbourne, Australia destination offered a good bit of drama, nonetheless, for these lonesome marines as they struggled to strike a balance between w... Read More]]> Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:31:09 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/249/8/the-blind-side.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/249/8/the-blind-side.html Christian Charity in a Strong Willed Southern Woman

Memphis native Leigh Anne Tuohy exemplified the best of both attributes and it made a huge difference in the true-life story of one young man - Michael Oher. Michael Oher was a large bodied, athletic, young black man, with the sweet spirit of an untainted child, who received an athletic scholarship to attend Wingate (actually the private school is known as Briarcrest in Memphis circles) Christian School.

Wingate was a private school for ... Read More]]> Thu, 20 May 2010 10:08:27 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/248/7/the-warlords.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/248/7/the-warlords.html The Blood Oath Transcends All

A half a world away in the short time after the conclusion of the American Civil War, there existed another bloody conflict, The Taiping Rebellion, in the late Qing Dynasty in China. The Taiping Rebellion was long and bloody with an estimated 20,000,000 casualties, most of them civilians, that weakened the social fabric of China to the extent that communism took hold before, during and definitely after the second world war, which began in 1931 for China. This h... Read More]]> Mon, 17 May 2010 11:59:26 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/247/15/the-gizmo-guys-will-play-the-turnage-theater.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/247/15/the-gizmo-guys-will-play-the-turnage-theater.html Press release from the Turnage Theater for immediate release, May 14, 2010. For More Information, contact Katherine Buchholz, Box Office Manager.

Gather the whole family to see the Gizmo Guys Comedy Jugglers perform live at the Turnage Theater in Washington, NC on Saturday, May 29th at 2pm. It’s all of the fun of the circus, with none of the animal smells!

Simply put, the Gizmo Guys are a comedy juggling act. But really, they are much more. Their act includes original routines, quick... Read More]]> Fri, 14 May 2010 16:26:25 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/246/15/james-gregory-leaves-them-laughing.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/246/15/james-gregory-leaves-them-laughing.html Rubber faced comedian James Gregory, self-billed as “The Funniest Man in America,” took to the boards of the Turnage Theater on April 24, 2010 and gave this near capacity crowd their money’s worth.

The man runs a clean show, and no one is safe from ridicule - especially the “calorically challenged,” rednecks in trailers, ardent and fatalist environmentalist and other sissified men. Before the end of the show I was even feeling a bit uneasy. Am I next?

Fortun... Read More]]> Thu, 13 May 2010 15:44:59 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/245/9/gladiator.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/245/9/gladiator.html "My Name is Gladiator"

I remember the day I saw the greatest movie ever – Ridley Scott’s "Gladiator." I was in my sixth month of pregnancy and had just finishedor taking a final exam in my last year of law school. I had read the book and just loved the story, and couldn’t wait to see it on the big screen. I called my husband to meet me at the theatre but he was busy so I went by myself. I got a big tub of buttered popcorn and a diet soda (of course) and was ready to e... Read More]]> Thu, 6 May 2010 10:18:21 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/244/10/high-fiasco-for-some-bop-to-you-drop-for-others.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/244/10/high-fiasco-for-some-bop-to-you-drop-for-others.html And still I found the Holy Ghost Tent Revival, hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina, an enigma. Was it the music, or their stage presence - a high octane jump and dance competition, where all of the band members finished in first place - that forever colored my opinion? I don’t know.

The one thing that I do know is that their music suits their antics, and their antics were maddening in the sheer force of their constant energy in the second show of the first night of the Beaufort Co... Read More]]> Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:49:03 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/243/10/turnage-theater-full-of-warm-spirit-lacking-warm-bodies.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/243/10/turnage-theater-full-of-warm-spirit-lacking-warm-bodies.html At $12 a ticket, the three-and-a-half hour opening concert to the Beaufort County Arts Council’s second-annual Beaufort County Music Festival was a smart buy. Nevertheless, only 150 of the 300 tickets were sold, according to Turnage Theater Box Office Manager Katherine Buchholz.

The low turnout can be partly attributed to the ignored back-story of performer Lipbone Redding, aka Citizen One, aka Lawrence Vanderpoel Behr II, in preview stories and advertisements leading up to the event.

Lipbo... Read More]]> Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:16:36 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/242/7/the-eclipse.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/242/7/the-eclipse.html
Small Independent Irish Film Quickly Tells a Timeless Tale …

Ghosts in the British Isles, and this film, written and directed by Dubliner Connor McPherson, does what any good story should do: it speaks well in broad cinematic strokes of a story that interested the Director, and in turn communicates to the audience.

The film centers around the Cobh Writers Festival in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, which is a where this small film was actually filmed. The Director incorporates this sleep... Read More]]> Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:21:58 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/241/8/food-inc.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/241/8/food-inc.html Information is the Key

Robert Kenner, Magnolia Pictures Participant Media and River Road Entertainment deliver an amazing glimpse beneath the veil of our nation's food production system with their documentary Food, Inc. Food, Inc. contains all the elements of a great documentary: the exposure of a great "social wrong" in this case, the entire system of food production; profiles of greedy villains who fight to maintain the status quo to protect financial interests at the expense of workers an... Read More]]> Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:15:15 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/240/7/the-pacific-installments-i-ii.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/240/7/the-pacific-installments-i-ii.html The Adventures of Young Men Chronicled in the Annals of War

Welcome to Guadalcanal. Hell’s just around the bend.

Was it worth me purchasing HBO for the next 3 months? If the first two installments of the new HBO miniseries, “The pacific,” is any indication: Yes. This 10 part miniseries was produced by the same crew: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg that produced the classic war film / miniseries, “Band of Brothers.”

From that first installment that premiered... Read More]]> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:34:50 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/239/8/up.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/239/8/up.html Pixar Scores Again

Those crazy kids at Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios have done it again. After giving us the much celebrated Finding Nemo and the much less celebrated, Monsters, Inc., they really outdid themselves with their latest offering, delivered to us in the form of the highly entertaining, funny and surprisingly touching, Up.

The Brainchild of Peter Docter, Bob Peterson and Tom McCarthy, Up is a poignant parody on the adventure of life. It begins with an episodic glimpse ... Read More]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:31:56 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/238/7/shutter-island.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/238/7/shutter-island.html Martin Scorsese Keeps the Impregnable Island Central to His Story

The great director also turned my mind inside out, as I struggled to conceive the point nd purpose of his lavish film, which examined the inner recesses of a damaged mind. By the end of the film, with my mind struggling to reconcile this story’s many twists that suggest the realty within Scorsese’s surreal depiction of the upside down existence of his protagonist, Detective Teddy Daniels, played by Leonardo DiCapri... Read More]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:55:11 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/237/9/the-lost-boys.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/237/9/the-lost-boys.html
The Late Corey Haim's Best Film is Also One of my Favorites

I will forever watch "The Lost Boys" through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl. Though it was produced in 1987, when I was 5, it wasn’t until my teens that I saw this coming-of-age vampire film. At the time, my girlfriends and I loved horror movies. Better still, we loved horror movies with cute bad boys playing the title roles. "Pet Cemetery II," with Edward Furlong, was our typical slumber-party rental, and, like pizza, it n... Read More]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:50:42 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/236/13/where-the-wild-things-are.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/236/13/where-the-wild-things-are.html I know this Will Anger Some, But the Movie Did Not Need to be Made

I do try to give films a good go of it when I try to enjoy them as art or simply entertainment. In terms of "Where the Wild Things Are," I tried to look at the picture trough the eyes of an unruly child, but I came up empty. The movie was 101 minutes long and was about 60 minutes too long to tell the story of the unruly Max in a make-believe-world that originated from a short, but very interestingly illustrated book by Mauri... Read More]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:40:56 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/235/8/the-hurt-locker.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/235/8/the-hurt-locker.html For Love of Country or Love of the Rush?

Does it really matter? Staff Sergeant William James is still an American Hero - almost along the order of Audie Murphy. Sergeant Audie Murphy saved the lives of many American soldiers by killing hundreds of well armed Nazis. Staff Sergeant William James saved the lives of many American soldiers by dismantling hundreds of IED's in war torn urban Iraq.

The Staff Sergeant, portrayed by virtually unknown actor Jeremy Renner, had just disarmed a very... Read More]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:36:59 EDT http://betterangelsnow.com/post/234/8/funny-people.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/234/8/funny-people.html The Return of Adam Sandler

If you like really good, side splitting comedies, and you have considered that Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen were dependable comedy staples, you’ve been sadly disappointed of late. However, you may believe that formula comedies, safe but vulgar, are great and funny art. If you have followed any of my previous recent reviews of these two actors, you would know, I don’t.

Funny People is a return of sorts to a better written, better conceived comedy that, ... Read More]]> Mon, 8 Feb 2010 20:10:08 EST http://betterangelsnow.com/post/233/8/julie-julia.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/233/8/julie-julia.html This Dude Really Enjoyed the Ladies

"Julie & Julia" takes two outstanding actresses, who are entirely comfortable within their own skin and with each other (having worked very well together in the very fine film, "Doubt"), and makes a female buddy picture. The oddity here is that these two women: Julie Powell, portrayed by Amy Adams and Julia Child, played by the magnificently talented Meryl Streep, actually live in different time periods and are very different people, and yet one is drawn... Read More]]> Sun, 7 Feb 2010 11:24:25 EST http://betterangelsnow.com/post/232/7/red-cliff.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/232/7/red-cliff.html Drama Played Out in the Reality of War

The film, “Red Cliff,” “Chi Bi” is the Chinese derivative, from Director John Woo showcased the brutality of war, while emphasizing the subtleties of diplomacy as coalitions of need are built and the subterfuge of diplomacy is explored. In other words: “Red Cliff” is a fine film that not only mixes the authenticity made possible by the excellent computer graphics in staging the mega battle of Red Cliff, but the tactfu... Read More]]> Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:51:21 EST http://betterangelsnow.com/post/231/13/the-ugly-truth.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/231/13/the-ugly-truth.html I Really Wanted to Like this Movie, But ...

Get ready for the ugly truth. "The Ugly Truth" is just not that good of a movie. It's not an awful comedy. There were some laughs along the way, however, they just were not the belly laughs the that a good comedy bring, and the story was pure formula. And that is sad, because there were many good actors wasted, and that is a terrible thing to waste.

Katherine Heigl plays Abby Richter, a young career driven TV news producer, whose talents are l... Read More]]> Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:46:25 EST http://betterangelsnow.com/post/230/8/extract.html http://betterangelsnow.com/post/230/8/extract.html Mike Judge ... He's an Acquired Taste

At least that has been my history with this creative genius that when he hits, he knocks it out of the park, and when fails - it's a veritable a belly-flop. "Extract," a short 92 minute community inspired morality play, is no dinger. It is full frontal assault upon one's funny bone that just doesn't let up. But then that's just my subjective opinion.

My ongoing Mike Judge opinion: "Beavis and Butthead" - makes fun of heavy metal fanatics / idiots - di... Read More]]> Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:36:41 EST