Mind the Gap

Home made movies or as they prefer to call themselves Sundance type movies are not always fun to watch. In fact Mind the Gap has some serious audio issues for the last 15 minutes of the DVD which almost made me turn it off.

Mind the Gap is a great movie despite its technical short comings. It follows the lives of 5 people and as the Dad in the film says about his son "If they can not have small dreams come true, how will they every believe they can achieve the big ones." This movie is a surprise gem. It gives a reason for hope to anyone no matter the circumstance.

Rated 8.0

Million Dollar Baby

This movie is less about euthanasia than I thought which is a good thing. The fact that a person accustom to fighting the odds her whole life would want to die after being crippled seems strange even though they did a decent job explaining why she wanted out. I just don't buy it.

It just seems to me that someone that is as determined as Hillary Swank's character never quits. Did Christopher Reeve quit? Did he stop acting? If anything the Superman's and Steven Hawkins of this world stop wanting to live when they die. On top of all of that why would Clint's character euthanize someone after all the supposed mistakes he made in his personal life? Would this character really not see that this would be the worst thing he has ever done? Would a father end the life of his daughter because she was no longer valuable? Does a father tell a child it is ok to quit or give up. He may want to or even wish that he could take the burden but a good father never gives up on his children. I realize that Hillary Swank was not blood related but Clint certainly became a surrogate father to this lost soul. In fact she was his redeeming act of kindness yet he discarded her life when he had the chance to do the right thing. The ending of this film killed any joy it brought. We don't need a typical happy Hollywood ending where Hillary Swank is repaired and reborn as the best female fighter in the world, but it would have been nice to see Clint become the hero and stay by her side until her natural end.

From a cinematic perspective the gritty Hit Pit gym and filth of the environment gives the story great visual interest and adds to the feel of the story's authenticity of an intercity gym. The fact that Clint's character apparently has enough money to retire but decides to miserly use electricity is a distracting irritation that did not add to the story. This movie is not an art film but the producers must have needed the extreme drama of half lit faces talking in the shadows. Who really sits in complete darkness in a building with the exception of the little bit of light coming in through window while at a gym working out? They are not relaxing or watching a movie, they're throwing punches. This movie was not deep enough to merit any of this goofy over the top lighting.

I enjoyed the movie and am glad that I saw it, to see what everyone has been talking about, but I would give this film a 5 out of 10 for telling a story that hope is a fairy tail.

Rated 5

Crash

This is a truly great movie. Like in life, good people are usually not always doing good and bad people are not always bad. Real life is a series of decisions made without knowing all the details of how things will turn out. Crash explores the whole gamut of bad people doing kind things and good people being mean. As we age we all have decision to make. Many of those decision would never have been made if we hadn't made other small decisions. Big decisions are built on smaller ones which are built on smaller still. Sometimes doing the right thing turns bad.

decisions are what make this life. Crash celebrates decisions in a raw form. It gives a perspective we rarely see. This movie is certainly one of the best this year.

Rated 9.5

Downfall

This movie certainly requires a lot of the viewer. It is a German docu-drama about Hitler's last days. It does have subtitles but to really understand how well this movie was made you really need to be able to understand German. If you can get beyond this movie being in a foreign language and it being about a historic tragedy it is a must see.

It is quite possibly the best told story of Hitler's last days. In the few documentaries in which I have heard Hitler speaking the actor who played Hitler seemed so like him I watched thinking this is really what he was like. His Austrian German sounded like Hitler's, his mannerism were like Hitler's, as were the Parkinson symptoms, and his fits of rage. He nailed every aspect of the furher's life. When the film was made they included some brief conversation with Hitler's actual secretary too. I do not know but I imagine they got many of there facts about who did what from her. There is no way to get any closer to what his last days must have been like than this movie does.

Unfortunately Downfall does not show the whole story. It only covers the last days of Hitler's life. It does not teach us how to avoid repeating this terror. For that you will need to see "A warning to all nations". In fact I would recommend seeing a warning to all nations first to set the stage.