Kim Gentes

Excellent-- must see!

You are an overworked, over stressed yuppie couple. You take a nice relaxing vacation to an island paradise. The highlight of the trip is a group excursion to a nearby ocean reef, where both of you will use your scuba experience to enjoy an exploratory dive. Its just the rest and relaxation you have needed from a hectic world. But when you come up from the water, the excursion group is gone , and so is the boat. You are left in open water. This is the premise of the new movie from director Chris Kentis, Open Water. You might be tempted to look for a comparison to the epic "Jaws" trilogies of the 70's but if you did so, you would find no similarities at all, save for the dreaded sharks. What's more, Open Water is based on "true events". The main points of the story are taken from the real lives of Daniel and Susan, an American couple. The movie starts off with flashes of footage from both cinematic and handi-cam captured scenes. You are brought into the film by its nuances of "home video" flavor, but you are kept confident by the returns to cinematic shots. Then the plot starts to unfold. What follows is the most riveting examination of human character in crisis that has been placed on film in recent history. The terror of this film is not so much in the biting, taunting and evil of the sharks at their heals. The real terror here is the horrible tearing of the human soul as fear and doubt bites its way through the couple, driving them into a roller coaster of some of the most honest dialog on film. While shark fright is there, this movie is really about relationships and what is at the core of them. The ending is simply the coup-de-grace of Open Water- startling, while remaining consistent with the plot. You won't leave without a gut wrenching sense of that same fear and doubt gnawing on your own psyche. This is NOT a movie for the kids, and unless you want to test your relationship, not a feel-good "date" movie either. This movie works at every level because you cannot help but sympathize with these characters, not because of their emotional likeability, but because they are so precisely human. You will be drawn in, and you will get wounded, just like Daniel and Susan. Are you ready to dive into Open Water?

Rated R for some language and brief nudity.

Scene after scene of unshakeable fear & humanity!

WorshipMusic.com is engaged in the vision of "increasing worship in the earth". Along that track, we have seen tools in many areas that help with musical and worship related resourcing. When the opportunity to watch the Musicland videos came to us, we took it seriously. As a parent, I used that second perspective to view this product through, instead of just my normal music/worship lens. In all respects the Musicland video and concepts exceeded our expectations. Simply put, Musicland is a children's video that uses musical instruments as the characters for putting forth its message. To help breakdown the areas of the video for you, I have listed each category below.

Enjoyment: My whole family (3 boys, my wife and myself) all sat down on Sunday afternoon and watched the video. We all really enjoyed the video. My sons were singing the tunes right away and I can tell that they will be wearing out the VCR with that video. They loved that the characters were instruments, especially since our family is already musically inclined.

Core concepts: I think I liked it especially because the characters were not trying to create a new set of personifications that my kids will want to idolize-- instead the core topics dealt with character issues that engage children at their level. It is very rare that media properly conceptualizes abstractions for children. Musicland has done this. Dealing with honesty, friendships and peer pressure, Touch Studios (the independent producers of this video) has remained spectacularly message-centered, while being great communicators to children. Additionally, the ethos of the video promotes music appreciation for children, again in an enjoyable way.

Video Graphics: The visuals are stunning and more detailed than I have seen in computerized children's ani-graphic art, outside of perhaps Pixar level productions (like ToyStory and Jimmy Neutron). Normal stark 3D renderings seen in things like Veggie tales have been replaced by texture, movement and surfacing- I noticed this especially in the beach scene where the ocean surf was actually detailed wave motion, the sand and drifts had detail and the buildings and vegetation created a complete 3D world, all that in contrast to blank rectangular planes and 2 point perspective objects on our "other" videos.

Music: Musicland plays into its strength by being themed against instruments because the songwriting it top notch children's material. My kids were repeating the tunes immediately (ages 4, 7, 10). The vocals on the songs are very impressive, allowing adults to actually not cringe! Let me say as a parent, there is nothing more annoying than hearing a nice children's song sung by an annoying nasal character voice. And, children actually like good singing and pleasant voices! Musicland did everyone a favor by making the music quality as strong as the graphics and great content. Of course, adding Crystal Lewis to the roster really puts the icing on the cake. In my estimation, the production of music on this video is the best I have heard on any Christian video. Because music is my area of expertise, I would have to listen to the accompaniment CD more times to give more insight on this area. The feather in the cap of the music on this video is theme song, "Stick Together Like Glue", which will join the ranks of "My Cheeseburger", and "Larry-boy theme song" as one of the best written melodies from any children's video. Because of its great music, its encouragement of music appreciation in children, its powerfully communicated themes, and it phenomenal execution on all three levels (graphics, music, and theme) I am giving the Musicland Band video an "Editor's Choice Award". My hope is that the children's publishers take note of this production, and refocus many of their efforts back to great communication of great concepts, as Touch Studios has done with this video.

If you have children or grandchildren who love videos, they will greatly enjoy this video. At this time of this writing my three boys are ages 4, 7, and 10, and they each authentically enjoyed the Musicland Band! It is several months later now, and I am still hearing the video and its songs echoed through rooms of our home.

Product Link http://www.worshipmusic.com/82184730013.html

Reviewed by: Kim Gentes

Stellar work, but very R-rated!

Cast: Eminem, Kim Bassinger, Brittany Murphy, and Mekhi Phifer.

Music and film have always had a kinship that has raised the greatest offerings above the fold. From John Williams' Star Wars theme, to Kenny Loggins "Footloose", to Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On" (by James Horner and Will Jennings - performed by Celine Dion) the generations of each are drawn not by the great acting or chart topping singles that are combined in movies. What connects in the box office is the recognition that we all look for a song that says what we couldn't express on our own. When we find that in a movie, when song and acting connect in a way we deem 'real', we hold that moment as true 'art'. Director Curtis Hanson's recent film, 8 Mile, is exactly that type of film.

Anyone who has seen this film, and watched it to learn, has been ripped by the power of the art form. The story line is classic: gifted young man rises above self-doubt and painful life to conquer his foes and fears. Cinderella in 1995 Detriot. I doubt Enimem wishes much to be called Cinderella, but what is told in 8 Mile exposes a story that is just as transformational. I am musician, but I have to admit that before I watched this movie, I had little appreciation or understanding about rap, it's origins or its outgrowths in the 90's. After watching 8 Mile, one could hardly stand in the torrent of such a story without looking for more history and context. Apparently (to this naive observer), a whole world exists here in US inner city cultures that not only contains a violence-washed lifestyle, but has birthed a new music. Rap is not only a very creative song form, my guess is that in a few hundred years it will be hailed as a completely revolutionary time in music from which the only new form of literary/poetic expression was created since modern music began with the slaves in colonial America.

As a story, 8 Mile is the legacy down-and-out to up-and-coming ballad. As an artistic work, this movie might be too revolutionary, too much of a culture shock for wide spread acceptance on many other levels. But those who dare to let the actors and actresses be real, this story is fantastic. Enimem plays the trepid character 'Rabbit' in this film. His character rivets through life, without the usual father-to-blame hate-filled motivation. Instead, he lives primarily in search of his own sense of being- whether good or bad. It is that raw honesty that fuels this film. Kim Bassinger plays the stereotypical, but believable, middle-aged strung out mother. Her character lives in hope of real love, but only finds younger, abusive men in her path. The last major character is Alex (played by Brittany Murphy), the seductive love interest who doubles as the good/bad pivot point to the story.

If you can stomach the extremely harsh language, pervasive sexual references and situations, and occasional violent outbursts, this film is likely to be already one of your favorites of all time. For all those who have already checked out of American culture, deciding to leave your rememberances with another era- I challenge you to see this film. You won't like the harsh scenes, but I guarantee you will learn from the story these people are telling. For once, it isn't a self-agrandizing rise to the top. As parlayed by the final climatic 'rap duel' scene, this movie is about revealing your worst, not showing your best. And finding out if that is enough. It was enough for me. From our nuclear movie ratings system, I give this film a top rating of 5 atomic warheads. Go blow yourself up!

Definitive era picture.

The power of this story is so much bigger than a retro-fitted modern movie with black and white sculpting. Spielberg cleanses something of his soul and ours when we are forced to take an honest look at the inhumanity of humanity through the eyes of these characters. People will hallow back to many tragedies as the eras pass, but no single tragedy has come close to the wiping out of 6 million Jews at the hands of Hitler. When I read some other reviews on Yahoo and other places harping on propaganda I can only imagine them as anti-Semites or simply ignorant.

The acting in this classic is not surface to stereotype at all (epitomized by the supportive roles of Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley). Each person has a slice of brute and beauty. Schindler (the stand out career role played by Liam Neeson), though obviously the benefactor of many Jews, is not without his moral corruption and conflict. The one ray of innocence is perfectly captured by the children, as it should be. I thought the black and white coloring of the film was succinct and appropriate, bringing more realism to the story because it related one to the historical time period we can associate with the tragedy.

Spielberg, of course, is masterful in exposing the world of sound, movement, wistful, drudging and visceral action that he has the uncanny way of weaving into every part of cinema he makes, into this story. You are right there. Living it, hearing it, feeling it, thinking it.

An uncompromising masterpiece of film making.