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Reviews
Soul Surfer (2011)
Terrible Execution of Great Story
I was excited to screen soul surfer at the Cinequest film festival and even had the honor of meeting Bethany Hamilton for a minute. Bethany is such an amazing, inspirational human being. This movie is a missed opportunity that may still play well to tweens and maybe a faith based Christian audience that is looking for confirmation of their beliefs.
The best part of the movie was the surfing as John Leonetti as DP does have some great moments and captures the waves and natural beauty of Hawaii. The screenplay was written by Bethany and host of others and maybe there were too many cooks in the kitchen. The dialogue is trite and maybe not even up to the level of a Lifetime TV movie.
This may be the worst performance of Helen Hunt's career. She isn't believable and is way too perfect as Bethany's mother. Dennis Quaid fares little better as her loving, surfing fanatic father. Their star power actually detracts from this hero's journey type story. I think non A List actors might have fared better as it is hard to forget that Helen and Dennis are the actors on the screen, rather than think of them as Bethany's parents. AnnaSophia Robb is gallant in her attempt to give some depth and believability to Bethany's character, yet she is crippled by the poor dialogue. Oddly enough, I felt Carrie Underwood was the most convincing as a church group leader. Who knows, maybe Carrie really is Christian and was a church group leader in the past so she was able to pull her performance from reality.
In fairness, I believe a lot of the non-industry people at Cinequest enjoyed the film although all the industry people I spoke to were very critical and felt it was sappy TV melodrama. This film will need a box office gross of at least $60M to not to be a financial disaster so I will be tracking to see if there are enough tweens and audience looking for an uplifting themed movie even if it has a poor screenplay and bad direction. I predict this film will be thumbs down by 80% of the major film critics in the USA.
PrimeMates (2010)
Sex, sex, and more sex
The film, Primemates, is an original bright star in a dulled sky of cinema repetition! I reviewed this film and give it 5 stars out of 5 stars. Rudy Luna, the director, proves that good cinema is about good story and great acting and CGI, blood and guts, and gratuitous sex is completely unnecessary. From the very beginning of the film, when the young hot girl walks in the cigar lounge, I was intrigued. Throughout the film I kept thinking that I knew where the plot was heading, but I was dead wrong which is very rare for a avid film reviewer. The cast, Joe Estevez, Leo Rossi, Ethan Phillips, and Will Wallace are exceptional and I had to continually remind myself that it was scripted because they all played the roles so convincingly. It was as if I were eves dropping on their very intimate and vulnerable conversations. This film will make every man wonder and question his desires and it will validate every woman's notions of what the real meaning of commitment and love is! I love it and so will you!