America & Co., LLC

In this lifetime movie called America, Rosie O’Donnell gives an inspired performance in a dramatic and enlightening story about the plight of this country’s forgotten youth. 

America (newcomer Philip Johnson), a 16-year-old biracial boy, seems like just another statistic from a broken foster care system when he arrives in a residential treatment facility where psychiatrist Dr. Maureen Brennan (O’Donnell) works. 

She helps a troubled youth teen, who has spent his entire life in the foster-care system, confront his painful past.  Through a series of confrontational sessions, Dr. Brennan helps America find the one thing missing from his entire life: hope. 

Co-starring acclaimed actress Ruby Dee, America is a powerful and provocative journey that will stay with you forever.

This is a very touching movie.  It is a must see for all.  Everyone should buy the dvd and sit with your children and discuss the movie so they can understand how the foster system works and the impact it has on these children. 

I love watching Lifetime Movies.  During the weekend, I cannot get enough of them.  Repeats are not a problem.  You can watch them over and over again or just buy the dvd. 

Today, I watch Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas.  It was about two simultaneously unfolding romantic stories which involve a writer, Jonathan Schaech, who stuns his girlfriend, Kathleen Rose Perkins, on the most important night of their relationship, by ending their affair without explanation because of unresolved feelings for a past love, Christina Applegate.

Soon after, Schaech sends Perkins a package containing a diary written by his departed wife, Applegate to their son.  As Perkins reads it, she learns of the Martha’s Vineyard marriage between the housepainter who dreams of being a writer and the woman doctor with a diseased heart who yearns to be a mother. 

This was a romantic drama.  Christina Applegate played an amazing part as a doctor.  I’m used to seeing Applegate play comedy roles and not dramatic role but she was great.  Jonathan Schaech scruffy look made him look sexy.  The movie was heart warming and sad but I could not get enough.  It was great!

The DVD movie Defiance is a 2008 war film directed by Edward Zwick.  Set in the eastern regions of German-Nazi-occupied Poland (now western Belarus) during World War II, the film is an adaptation of Nechama Tec’s Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, which is based on the story of the Bielski partisans.  Tec’s book told how Polish Jews welcomed the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and then operated as Soviet partisans in Poland protecting Jews when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941.

Defiance stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and George MacKay, as four Jewish brothers from so-called ‘Belorussia’ who escaped the Nazi persecution and fought back to rescue fellow Jews. 

The movie was okay.  They really tried making the movie as real as possible.  Since I am not into war movies, I rate it a three out of five.

Microfiber cloths are a quick way to clean a DVD. These are the same kind of cloths people use to clean eyeglasses, monitors, and laptop or LCD monitors. Because of microfiber’s very tight weave and the synthetic materials used to make microfiber, dust and particles of dirt are attracted and lifted up into the microfiber, which prevents you from simply spreading the dust around and scratching the DVD further. Every serious DVD collector should have one of these and wash it regularly.

Rubbing Alcohol is also used to clean DVDs and just about every sensitive piece of technology out there because it doesn’t act like strong solvents do, and it evaporates quickly without leaving a residue. Usually a 1:1 mixture of 90%+ Isopropyl alcohol and water will do the trick. Simply dab a small, clean cotton cloth into the mixture and wipe in straight lines from the center of the DVD to the outside edge. To dry the DVD, just let it sit for a moment or two in a vertical position.

The DVD movie The Haunting of Molly Hartley stars Haley Bennett as Molly Hartley, Jake Weber as Robert Hartley, Chace Crawford as Joseph Young, Shannon Marie Woodward as Leah, and Shanna Collins as Alexis. 

Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) is a 17 year old girl who looks to put her troubled past behind her with a fresh start at a new school where she sparks with one of the most popular students.  Molly has physically recovered from a stab wound inflicted by her mother, but the psychological scars that remain run deep.  So to help her begin a new life after her trauma, her father has moved her into a new school.

But can her secrets stay buried especially as she learns more about the horrific truth that awaits her once she turns 18. With her eighteenth birthday approaching, Molly is haunted by nightmares of her mother’s attack upon her while dealing with the stress of being the new girl in school.  Symptoms of psychosis that seem to be affecting her seem to foreshadow an onset of the mental illness that took control of her mother’s life, but of several different explanations for her distress, the most unforeseen and terrifying is revealed as the truth.  Ultimately, Molly discovers that her mother and others who share her mother’s concerns want her killed in order to save her from a preordained life as a servant of the Devil.

Movie was Rated PG-13.  There did not seem to be any hauntings to me.  Not scary at all.  I give it two stars.

This DVD movie is Rated R.  It stars Keifer Sutherland as Ben Carson, Paula Patton as Amy Carson, Cameron Boyce as Michael Carson, Erica Gluck as Daisy Carson, and Amy Smart as Angela Carson.

When he goes to the rounds in his first night, he finds that the mirrors are impeccably clean and his colleague explains that the former night watch was obsessed by the mirrors.  After a couple of nights, Ben sees weird images in the mirrors, but due to the lack of credibility of his past, his ex-wife Amy believes he has hallucinations as a side effect of his medication. When Angie is found brutally murdered in her bathtub, Ben discovers that there is an evil force in the mirror that is chasing him and jeopardizing his family.

Kiefer is excellent is this movie.  The movie is a thriller and it was great!  I definitely give it 5 stars.

The DVD movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a 2008 sequel to the 2005 film, Madagascar about the continuing adventures of Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo, Marty the Zebra, and Melman the Giraffe.  It stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Alec Baldwin, Bernie Mac, Will.i.am and Sherri Shepherd. 

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, is a failed attempt by maroons Alex (Ben Stiller), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman (David Schwimmer), Marty (Chris Rock), King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), Maurice (Cedric), and Skipper (Tom McGrath)and his fellow penguins to fly to New York.

They board a repaired airplane in the hopes of using it to fly back to New York.  Though the plane does fly, it ends up crash-landing in Africa because of lack of fuel.  By wild coincidence, this is where Alex was born–and where his father (Zuba) is still the alpha lion, and where his malevolent uncle (Makunga) seeks to take over. 

The movie was not as funny as the first one.  I would give it 2 stars.

The DVD movie Transporter 3 stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, Francois Berleand as Tarconi, Robert Knepper as Johnson, Jeroen Krabbe as Minister Leonid Vasilev, and Natalya Rudakova as Valentina.

Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official (Vasilev), from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea.  They both have metal devices around their wrist which is a bomb, and if they get more than 75 feet away from the car, they will explode.  Frank is to be released after completing the mission.  

The movie was great.  It was full of action.  Lots of fighting.  I would give it 5 stars.

The DVD movie My Best Friend’s Girl stars Dane Cook as Sherman ‘Tank’ Turner, Kate Hudson as Alexis, Jason Biggs as Justin and Alec Baldwin as Professor William Turner.

This is a romantic comedy about a man (Cook) who makes his living convincing women to run back into the arms of the men they have recently dumped by taking them on the worst possible dates imaginable. 

The nightmare lucrative scheme hits an unexpected hitch, however, when Tank is hired by his best friend (Biggs) to take out the girl (Alexis) he longs to win back.

Cook played a wonderful role and he was very believable.  The movie was definitely a romantic comedy and I enjoyed it.  I would give it 5 stars.