New On DVD
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Flicka 3: Country Pride.
Lisa Hartman Black, Clint Black, Kacey Rohl. Directed by Michael Damian (Flicka 2, Marley & Me: The Puppy Years). New on DVD 5/1/12. Both the Blu-ray and the DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment contain two behind-the-scenes featurettes and a music video.
FILM SYNOPSIS: When Toby (Clint Black) takes on a job at a riding stable with Flicka in tow, the owner’s daughter Kelly (Kacey Rohl) quickly bonds with the horse. A budding equestrian, she hopes to break Flicka for an upcoming competition, despite her mother disapproval. With the competition approaching, a rival trainer stealing business, and a growing fear they may be forced to sell their land, Toby step in to turn things around for Kelly and her mother.
REVIEW: If you’re a female around the age of eight, you probably won’t be comparing this one to National Velvet or The Black Stallion or even Flicka 1. The rest of us however, will find it a paint-by-the-numbers member of the kid and his/her horse genre. Filmmaker Michael Damian is a fine filmmaker, but he seems to be making this one simply because Flicka 2 did fairly well in DVD sales. Our teenage lead has to deal with snooty girls, while her mother has to content with the bank about to sell her farm. Will the new boarder/stable hand and his mare save the day for both? Oh, please. How many times do we have to see this story?
Rated PG, I found nothing objectionable. Positive messages about family and caring for people who are hostile towards you. The family are churchgoers.
One Kine Day.
FILM SYNOPSIS: On DVD from Osiris Entertainment, with a release date of 4/24/12, the teen-aimed drama One Kine Day takes audiences over the mountains of Oahu and hidden from the beaches of Waikiki, where a local skater named Ralsto (Ryan Greer) discovers that his 15-year-old girlfriend Alea (Christina B. Allen – 13 Going on 30) is pregnant and considering an abortion. Scared of ending up like their parents, the young couple agrees “getting da kine” is the best plan. As Alea leaves for school, Ralsto embarks on his journey to raise the funds for “da kine.”
Ralsto’s day goes from bad to worse when he is fired from his job at a skate shop. Comforted by her best friend Leilani (Janel Parrish), a manipulative teenage mom, Alea tells Ralsto that it must be a sign to keep the baby. Scared of becoming a father, Ralsto pleads for one more chance to raise the funds. Desperate for money, Ralsto’s last chance lies in his best friend Nalu who takes him on a journey into the dark world of cockfights and drug deals that ultimately leave him penniless. With no job and no money, Ralsto now must face Alea in this harrowing journey to the other side of paradise.
REVIEW: The problem for Hollywood when it comes to a woman’s right to commit abortion is that the storyline leading up to the procedure makes the person seem selfish. The pregnancy is always seen as an inconvenience for the mother and father. I can’t think of any film attempting to address this subject from that point of view where the couple doesn’t come across as self-centered. Whereas, films like Juno ultimately reveal the wonder of a growing being within. They begin to realize it is a life form and the outcome of this being can not be taken lightly.
Though In One Kine Day is centered around the young man as he tries to get money for the operation, between partying with friends and skateboarding to the beach, the girl, who has had an abortion once before, having gotten pregnant by another boy, is beginning to have doubts that a second abortion is the right decision.
The contrived ending allows the teenagers to catch a break (of sorts) when she loses the baby. Did her partying, which included drinking and smoking, play a part in the loss of the unborn child? Most likely not, as it was so early on, but her decisions, based on hearsay from other teenagers, probably would have led to problems for the child had it lived.
I think that’s the purpose of this film – to show how easy it is to make life-changing mistakes when you are guided by peers as callow as yourself.
This film is a conversation starter, for sure, but it’s difficult to find anyone to care about. Both adults and teens are governed by a secular point of view devoid of any spiritual input. These kids, for instance, aren’t just adolescents who made one mistake, giving in to a night of sexual temptation. Rather, they live together in his mother’s house. Her mother is a drunk and promiscuous. His mother works hard, but has no problem with her 16-year-old son sleeping on a regular basis with his 15-year-old girlfriend.
Everybody smokes pot, or deals it, everyone drinks, including the pregnant chick, and our protagonist hangs with guys who steal. There’s a code among these people, but it is not one based on biblical principles. This leads to an ending that may leave those who do attempt a life built on a more religious upbringing.
In fairness to the filmmaker, it is a provocative, interesting, well-paced story and it has been well received, winning the following prestigious awards:
Audience Choice Award for Narrative Feature – Hawaii International Film
Festival Official Selection – Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Official
Selection – San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
The disc contains several bonus features, included deleted scenes and a director’s audio commentary. Released on DVD 4/24/12
Not rated, it has some violence and a great deal of harsh language, with nearly every character indicating a mastery of the f- and s-words (nearly 50 of the f-bombs, alone). Some might be offended by the site of a T-shirt baring a provocatively dressed woman, hanging crucified on a cross. Others may not care to view the cock fight the boy attends, gambling his paycheck away. Others may be upset to see the casual use of drugs. This content, however, reveals the lifestyle frequented by many of today’s youth. And while no one gets through life without making mistakes, this film’s characters seem to court bad decisions.
LOVE’S EVERLASTING COURAGE
Hallmark Channel’s captivating saga returns with another touching film based on the best-selling Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke. Centering on family values in the 19th century, the heartwarming story, LOVE’S EVERLASTING COURAGE, enlightens on DVD May 8 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Clark Davis (Wes Brown, True Blood) struggles to maintain his land and support his family during a long drought. With a bank loan to repay, his wife, Ellen (Julie Mond, General Hospital) takes a job in town as a seamstress, but soon becomes ill with scarlet fever. Devastated to lose his beloved wife, Clark and his young daughter turn to his parents for support. Clark must find a way to save his farm and survive Ellen's death without losing the person he loves most: his daughter.
The program also features Cheryl Ladd (Charlie’s Angels), Bruce Boxleitner (TRON franchise) and Morgan Lily (X-Men: First Class).
REVIEW: This is the 10th in the series and the producers have stretched it about as far as they can. Several past productions had something going for them, either nice performances or potent messages, or filmmaking that despite the made-for-TV feel, managed to hold our attention. But this one is merely trite and contains performances that are perfunctory at best.
That said, it’s clean, with positive messages about family and endurance, and it contains a respect for religious convictions, with prayers being spoken. But it’s cornball and clunky, with a syrupy background score. It’s innocuous, you won’t get a headache from watching it, but you will most likely fine early installments more satisfying. Better yet, rent Sarah, Plain and Tall.
Sarah, Plain and Tall was also a Hallmark Hall of Fame story. It starred Glenn Close as a woman in the 1880s who answers an ad to share a life on a Kansas farm. Nominated for nine Emmys, it entertained and moved. It was an intelligent made-for-TV movie.
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