Kris Rasmussen: August 2007 Archives

In between all of the big-budget action adventures and horror films in theaters earlier in the year, one thriller slipped under the radar, but resurfaced on DVD a few weeks ago. "The Lookout" could have been nothing more than another cat and mouse crime caper, but this movie surprised me with a fresh premise, some truly interesting characters, and a strong redemptive theme. "The Lookout" might not be quite at the level of a few of the film noirs it honors, like "Memento," but I still enjoyed it enough to recommend it as my DVD pick for this week.

The anti-hero in need of salvation in this tale is Chris Pratt (a fabulous Joseph Gorden-Levitt of "Third Rock from the Sun" fame), a teen who was once a popular, revered, but arrogant and selfish hockey player. One night while driving on a dark country road with friends, Chris pulls a crazy stunt that leaves two of his pals dead and his girlfriend permanently disfigured. Chris also sustains life-changing injuries including brain damage.

A few years after the accident, Chris is now a shell of his former self. He works as a night janitor at a bank because he is not capable of doing much else. He is estranged from his wealthy family and lives with an eccentric blind man (Jeff Daniels ) in a rundown apartment.

I was probably the biggest cheerleader here at Idol Chatter last season for NBC's small town football drama, "Friday Night Lights." I appreciated the intelligent way it dealt with serious teen issues as well as how it incorporated small moments of grace and faith into the storylines.

But if you are one of those few Idol Chatter readers who still haven't given the show a try, NBC and Universal Studios have now released the entire first season on DVD this week so that you can get caught up with the lives of Coach Taylor and the Dillon Panthers before the second season premiere October 5th ( I think my two favorite episodes from last season would be "nevermind " and "Mud Bowl").

And the studio is so confident you will love every episode on this DVD that they are even offering a money-back guarantee to anyone who purchases it--so it's a win- win for old and new fans alike.

"The Live of Others" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film last year for its haunting but restrained depiction of life in East Berlin in the 1980s before the Berlin Wall crumbled. Yes, that means you have to deal with reading subtitles and a slow-moving plot, but trust me, it’s worth the extra effort. "The Lives of Others" is a thoughtful portrayal of oppression of the soul, and it is my DVD pick for this week.

The action of the movie consists primarily of one Stasi (secret police) agent monitoring (via elaborate wiretapping) the lives of a playwright and his actress lover. The Stasi are lead to believe--by a corrupt East German official--that the playwright is worthy of surveillance because he has connections to other subversive, revolutionary artists who the Stasi would like to arrest. But as time goes by, the agent becomes more and more caught up in the couple’s lives. As his conscience is awakened, he makes a choice that permanently changes the lives of the couple as well as his own.

I have been reading author/critic/blogger Jeffrey Overstreet's continuous and always glowing comments about musical duo Over The Rhine for over a year now without having a clue who they are. But since I agree with most of his opinions on artistic matters, his comments have convinced me I have been missing out on a musical treasure. So with their latest effort, "The Trumpet Child," hitting stores Tuesday, I am officially joining the ranks of those who appreciate their jazzy, quirky, innovative style.

Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist are the husband and wife duo whose musical musings might be most closely related to the likes of Norah Jones or Diane Krall on the secular music side. On the contemporary Christian music side, well, a group like Sixpence None the Richer is the only comparison I can think of that might come close. But with Over The Rhine, the nature of their Christian faith is more often subtly implied than overtly proclaimed. And when their songs do take a spiritual turn, it is with clever, sometimes even obtuse, lyrical juxtapositions that explain why they have not found a high profile home in the contemporary Christian music arena.

Because I needed a serious attitude check this week, I perused the video store looking for something that would make me realize that whining about my personal circumstances is really petty. That's when I discovered the critically acclaimed but hard-to-find documentary "God Grew Tired Of Us," which was just released on DVD. It's a moving portrait of the journey of three young Sudanese men, who had to flee their homes (along with thousands of other refugees) when war between the Muslim northern territory and the Christian southern territory broke out.

"God Grew Tired Of Us" is a touching and sometimes humorous film that still raises questions about the plight of those left behind. For making me feel humble as well as grateful, it is my DVD pick of the week.

I don’t care for disease-of-the-week TV movies, and I especially don't care for movies that think they know how to dramatize the plight of Alzheimer’s Disease (don’t even get me started on "The Notebook"). And a lot of this has...

The one movie I have been anxiously waiting to see all summer long is the limited-release romantic drama-posing-as-a-musical, "Once." Critics have been heaping praise on it, and now I can understand why. What seems like a very simple, formulaic tale--boy...

This may be a banner summer for Hollywood at the box office, but a movie milestone of a different kind was reached last month for the evangelical association Campus Crusade, International. Their cinematic adaptation of the Gospel of Luke, titled...

Last year at the Traverse City Film Festival (organized by Michael Moore), most of the documentaries were, to no surprise, about the war in Iraq. This year, however, I was pleasantly surprised that there was a wide range of diversity...

Nine movies. Two panel discussions. Four days. It all adds up to one tired film reviewer--and the week’s not over yet! I have spent most of this week attending the third annual Traverse City Film Festival --a.k.a. “The Film Festival...

Many a fellow film critic has looked at me in shock and dismay when they discover that I have never seen the cult comedy/ horror spoof “Shaun of the Dead.” So when the creative team behind that movie released their...

Just when it seemed there could not be any more bizarre headlines to be made regarding O.J. Simpson and the unsolved murder of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman, a court order has allowed the Goldman family to...