Warning: Spoilers

I just watched 4 movies I’d not seen before and I’m not sure I could have picked 4 any more different!

The first was Eragon. Let me sum up the sequence of events in this movie:

Once upon a time long ago, the land was protected by a group of magical warriors who were eventually wiped out when one of their own betrayed and killed them all in his quest for power.
Many years later, a rebellious princess steals something that could destroy the evil king and though she is captured during her flight, is able to send it to a young farm boy living with his uncle. The farm boy then learns that he has the same magical powers as the former warriors, and after his family is killed and their farm burned, sets off with the one remaining old warrior who attempts to train him.

In the process of rescuing the princess from the lair of the evil wizard the old warrior dies and the farm boy teams up with a seemingly untrustworthy rogue (who later proves himself by assisting in the final battle against the evil army). The trio flees to the hideout of the rebels but is tracked by the evil army bent on destroying them.

In a final battle, the young farm boy proves he has what it takes to be a warrior when (armed with a magic sword, by the way) he helps the rebels defeat the attackers!

I’ve never read any of the books, but forgive me if this plotline sounds vaguely familiar. As a camp counselor I used to tell kids the story of Star Wars as a fairytale with wizards, rogues, and warriors just to see how long it took for them to catch on to what I was doing - to bad I never added a dragon! I could have made...wait, how much money did this series make? I especially loved it when the evil sorcerer/warrior killed his captain for failing to find the farm boy, and then promoted the next guy standing there! Very Vader-like.

All in all, worth watching if it comes on cable, but don’t pay to rent the dvd.

The second was United 93 and I actually only saw about half of it. I came in at a point just before the second plane hits the tower and before the hijackers of 93 take the plane – so I got to see the whole events onboard as portrayed in the film.

The fact that this was filmed with low-quality hand held cameras to give it a documentary look was very effective, and the lack of significantly recognizable actors was also effective. It made it easy to get lost in it and feel as if you are seeing live footage of the actual events – especially the scenes of civilian and military air traffic control centers.

I also thought the director did an interesting job of keeping the emotional reaction to the hijackers ‘on the fence’ as it were. You see just enough about their side of the story to humanize them, but not enough to let you fully empathize; while at the same time you never get to fully hate or fear them. That’s a hard line to walk, but I think it was executed really well.

I didn’t start crying until the title cards started giving some of the facts following the crash. I did jump a little watching the moment that the second plane hit the tower – having seen that live on TV at the time. Thankfully the story didn’t last long enough to see the towers fall.

As a movie I think it’s absolutely worth watching if you think you want to.

As an event, it’s still hard for me to grasp.

I was thinking recently about the iconic image that is stored in my head from that day. Every now and then I look up at plane overhead and it happens to be at an angle going away from me in a partial turn to the left…the exact angle I remember seeing the plane in as it hit the tower…and I shiver. I look at planes overhead all the time and its nothing, but that one particular angle is the iconic image that reminds me of the whole day.

The other really iconic image of a tragedy that has a significant effect on me is the Challenger explosion. The image of the smoke trail that rises into a big ball from the explosion, with the two booster contrails leading away from it like horns from a head makes me shudder a bit. Maybe it’s because of my fascination with space flight, or because of the knowledge that one of my favorite teachers was in line to be on that mission, but it’s a personal event that I will always remember along with 9/11 as the ‘Kennedy’ events of my lifetime. And if you don’t know what I mean I mean by a ‘Kennedy event’ it’s a tragedy so shocking and profound that you always remember where you were and what you were doing when it happened – and you felt like your world changed somehow because of it, and it probably did.

So then I cheered myself up with Little Miss Sunshine! Brilliant. One of the things I love about story telling is how the scope of the production is completely independent from the quality of the story! I love big movies with big productions, like Lord of the Rings for example, but a small production can tell just as intriguing a story, as in Little Miss Sunshine. Ok so this is nothing new, I know, but it never hurts to say it again.

Everyone played their parts so well that it’s not worth spending the time to say how good each one was.

I found it interesting to learn that Abigail Breslin (Olive) actually wore a fat-suit to play the role.
Rent this one right away if you’ve not seen it.

Finally there was The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. An enjoyably terrible movie about car racing. Like all terrible movies with terrible plots, predictable love stories, stereo-typed characters, and forced emotional reactions, it survives on ridiculous action sequences and a few moments of redeeming dialogue.

The car races are fun, though not as breathtaking as they are intended to be. Most of the girls are not as hot as they are supposed to be and they all look 14 which I’m happy to say is a turn-off for me, but might be ok for others.

The good dialogue comes mostly from Han, the ‘mentor’ for our hero, who says things like: “There’s no ‘wax on wax off’ to drifting”, “you’re representing me now, what, you think I’m gonna let you roll in a Hyundai?”, and in a moment of serious contemplation “Money I’ve got plenty of, what I need is people around me with character…who you chose to be around lets you know who you are.”

Of course the cameo at the end by the series starter Vin Diesel is the best part. In response to the Shawn’s (the hero) comment that ‘this is no 10 second race’ (referring to the drag racing from the original) Dominic Taretto smiles and says “I’ve got nuthin’ but time!” Clearly this is a reference to the state of Vin’s acting career at the moment, sine I think his last movie was ‘The Pacifier.”

Basically though, if this movie is on late at night when you can’t sleep and nothing else is on…feel free to watch it guilt free.