The Blind Side (2009)

Based on the book written by Michael Lewis, "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game", "The Blind Side" is an inspirational film.

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is admitted to Briarcrest Christian school by a coach hopeful that he will be able to contribute to his sports program. Michael is basically illiterate at this point, he has a GPA of almost 0, but he is not unintelligent. A teacher discovers that he does well when he is given his tests orally. She meets resistance from the other teachers initially, but they come around.

Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), an interior designer, first notices Michael when he sees her son S.J. (Jae Head) speaking to him at school, she is told that he is known as "Big Mike". When she sees him walking along the road in the freezing cold, she and her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) pick him up and set him up on the couch in their palatial home (her husband owns a large amount of fast food restaurants). Most of the rest of the movie is about how he began to live with the Tuohy's and became a member of their family (they eventually became his legal guardians). He brings up his GPA thanks to a tutor, Miss Sue (played humorously by Kathy Bates) and begins to play football. He has a hard time at first, but picks it up fairly quickly with a little help from Leigh Anne and S.J. Michael does so well, that he is recruited by colleges and ultimately makes it to the NFL.

Along the way they face the expected resistance from friends and family. They made a special point of the fact that a large African-American male was living in the same house as their teenage daughter Collins (Lily Collins). A large part of the movie shows that although the Tuohy family helped to change Michael's life, it highlights the fact that he changed theirs as well.

This film kept me interested, made me laugh and yes, made me teary. Sandra Bullock delivers a great performance here and Tim McGraw as Leigh Anne's husband does well as her patient, fast food magnate husband. Jae Head steals the show as the perpetually spunky S.J. This is one of the most uplifting movies that I have seen in quite some time.

During the college recruitment scenes, there are appearances by several current big name coaches such as Nick Saban and Lou Holtz. Michael played at Ole Miss and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens where he is currently spending his rookie year as an offensive lineman. Make sure that you stay for the credits and watch the pictures from Michael's real life with his family!

130 Minutes. Rated PG13. I give this movie FOUR AND ONE QUARTER STARS!

Amelia (2009)

Starring Hillary Swank as Amelia Earhart and Richard Gere as her husband George Putnam, "Amelia" is on the boring side. How can this be when she is such an interesting and iconic figure? Most of the film dealt with her relationship with George and her affair with Gene Vidal, an aeronautics instructor and the father of the famed author Gore Vidal. She was way ahead of the game when it came to feminism. When she and George finally married, she made him promise that they would both be free to do what they wanted in their marriage and even had the word "obey" removed from their vows, which people didn't do in those days. The film begins as she approaches George Putnam to be the first woman to go across the Atlantic in a plane. She would not be the pilot, she would just be a passenger, she was not happy about this. She would later remedy this with a solo flight across the Atlantic at a later date. She was made to endorse products that she didn't believe in and hated it, seeing it as fraud. The best parts of the movie were of the shots when she was flying, whether it be above the clouds, or flying over parts of Africa and seeing the animals on the ground. The film ends while on her second try to fly around the world and couldn't locate Howland Island where she was to refuel and disappeared along with her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937.

I like Hillary Swank (great in "Million Dollar Baby" for which she won an Oscar) and thought that she did a good job in this movie. There just wasn't much to keep my attention.

Amelia received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress for being the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic. It was mentioned that she felt that her wanderlust came from her father, but it was not mentioned that her mother was the first woman to summit Pike's Peak. Amelia also became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt.

There are several theories as to what happened to Ms. Earhart. The most popular theory being that she ran out of fuel and ended up in the ocean somewhere around Howland Island. Her radio was not working correctly and although the people on the island could hear her, she could not hear them and therefore could not locate the island. It was also thought that she had somehow gotten herself to Gardner Island as it has been suggested that radio signals came from there and signs of recent occupation were there even though the island was uninhabited. A skeleton was later found, but was thought to be that of a man. By the time that better tests were available, the bones were lost. One of the others was that she was actually alive and changed identities. This was not believed by most.

Rated PG. I give this movie TWO AND A HALF STARS.

Julie and Julia (2009)

What makes this movie so good is Meryl Streep's performance as Julia Child.

This film is made up of two stories. The story of Julia Child is her time spent in post-war Paris with her diplomat husband (Stanley Tucci)with whom a deep, mutual love is evident. Julia is not your usual woman of the time, she got married late, is a virtual giant (compared to the French and her husband) and is childless although not by choice. She is looking for something to take up her time and tries hat making and Bridge before stumbling into cooking. She attends the Cordon Bleu and the rest is history. She always looks like she is having a great time even in tense moments and when her equally tall sister arrives for a visit, hilarity ensues. The story of Julie Powell doesn't have nearly the spice that Julia's does. Julie is a clerical worker that seems to have been passed by by her more successful friends. She feels that she needs to do something, so she decides that she is going to cook all 524 recipes from a cookbook that Julia co-wrote called "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in 365 days and blog about it. She is encouraged by her supportive husband Eric(Chris Messina)in completing her task.

The director, Nora Ephron, moves between the present as Julie prepares her meals, and the past with Julia's time in Paris. The screen time spent with Julia is much more entertaining. Other than a few cooking mishaps including how to kill a lobster, I found that the Julie part of the story dragged on a bit.

This is not the first time that Streep and Adams have worked together. They recently starred together in a movie called Doubt in which they both play nuns in a more serious film. It might also be interesting to read the book in which Julie and Julia was based. Written by the real Julie Powell, it is called "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen". I am going to try to read it as I think that the kitchen mishaps will be much more fun in the book.

This movie was very entertaining, I would buy it. I give it THREE AND THREE QUARTER STARS.

PG-13