Destin Daniel CrettonRecensioni

I enjoyed this. The fights mostly didn't go on too long and I enjoyed the story.

An ancient guy with magic kung fu powers wants to destroy his dead wife's home.

2/4 (Indifferent).

It takes itself way too seriously; the comic relief was clearly inserted as an afterthought. And the action scenes are boring and fairly nonsensical.

(Dec. 2021)½

2021 movie #195. 2021. Lots of Kung Fu fighting, mysterious story, and dragons. Very entertaining. My favorite in the movie was Awkwafina. She's not a superhero, just a regular person gawping at everything. Highest grossing movie in the US this year.

A book for our times of Black Lives Matter. A vivid description of the injustice people of color have faced in the country for generations and the injustice of the courts and prisons not just in the Deep South where the author lives but throughout the US, even California. As a nation we are too quick to convict and too slow to correct our errors. Bryan Stevenson is to be commended for writing a powerful book and dedicating his life to providing equal justice under the law. The book used the case of Walter McMillian, a black man wrongfully convicted of murder and being placed in death row as the vehicle to drive the narrative that brought in many more cases about children being incarcerated for life in adult prisons, etc. This book is a powerful narrative about the inequalities in our nation based on race, poverty and abuse.

Due to its outside-the-box approach, THE SHACK is an excellent springboard for discussions regarding theology, evangelism, ecumenism, racism, sexism, and one’s own personal hierarchy of values. Father Anthony Perkins of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has many good things to say about it (http://www.orthoanalytika.org/2017/10/19/book-discussion-the-shack) while the Orthodox Church of America's Department of Christian Education presents nothing but criticism (http://dce.oca.org/assets/templates/bulletin.cfm?mode=html&id=28). Navigate these two appraisals and this controversial film by using the Orthodox Study Guide also available for checkout. This film is highly recommended for an adult discussion group. In such a discussion group, it is important to pay attention to people's emotional reactions to various parts of the film and any irrational thoughts associated with such feelings.

An employee at a short-term foster care facility had a bad childhood.

(Spoilers ahead.) There's a character who likes to tell stories, and it's pointed out that he's not necessarily faithful to reality. He chooses to end his favorite story at a happy point, although the "real ending" is bluntly tragic. This movie would seem to be one of his stories. You know these characters don't get to live happily ever after. The rules of tragedy, everything about their situations, and clear foreshadowing, tell us something earth-shatteringly horrible is about to happen. Cretton doesn't make us watch that part; he chooses to end the story at a happy point. I appreciate that. This movie's depressing and miserable enough as it is.

Concept: D
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.7/4

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them. (source: TMDb)