Gidget (1959): A Movie Review

It can sometimes be challenging finding a movie that's both appropriate for children and enjoyable by adults. So, when I saw The Complete Gidget Collection at my local library, and noticed that two out of the three movies were rated G, and the third PG, I decided to borrow it. I remembered Gidget as being silly and funny and thought it would make for some light-hearted entertainment, though I was puzzled by the PG rating on one of the movies. I was also puzzled by it being called "complete collection" as I knew there were more movies than these three.
A 'G' rating, in my books means it's appropriate for my Grandson to watch. He's not yet 4-years-old. Gidget was definitely not appropriate for a child of that age. Later, when I looked carefully at the back, I noticed that 'G' is the Canadian rating. The US rating is PG. My daughter has pointed out to me before that the US ratings tend to be stricter than the Canadian ones. Good point to remember for next time. However, neither my daughter nor I found it appropriate for us, either. It was very sexist, protraying the teenage girls, with the exception of Gidget, as boy crazy, that having a boyfriend is the be-all and end-all of a girl's existence, and the sole purpose of summer vacation is to chase boys. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it wasn't long into the movie before the girls were sashaying down the beach in their bathing suits, directly in front of the surfer boys' shack, just to attract their attention (with the exception of Gidget, who at first appears to be the only level-headed one).  I actually remember having fun at the beach, even as a teenager, without feeling the need to attract a male's attention. And I resent it when women, even teenage ones, are portrayed as mindless ninnies.
Another concern was the witless parents. Sure, I'd be happy to have my teenage daughter spend her summer vacation hanging out with a bunch of older, male surfer bums that I don't even know, without any other females present. NOT!!! And when Gidget comes home from the luau, whining that she's still "pure as the driven snow" to her MOTHER, no less, her mother fails to pounce on that and give the requisite talk about saving yourself, if not for marriage, at least for a committed relationship. Seriously, maybe I'm old-fashioned (yes, I am old-fashioned), but what kind of parent wants their daughter to engage in casual sex? And even if the parents did not believe in "saving yourself for marriage," how about the talk about birth control and safe sex? Yes, we might not have been using the term "safe sex" back then, but STDs did exist in 1959. And so did unplanned pregnancies. Neither of which is a joking matter.
And then there was the luau itself, which portrayed multiple couples lying on the beach "making out" in the middle of the party. "Get a room," as my daughter would say. Definitely not what I want my grandson seeing and nothing my daughter or I wanted to see either.
The scene where Moon-Doggie pushes Gidget under the water, while all the other guys are laughing, until Gidget doesn't come back up again, is infuriating. This is abuse, and there's nothing laughable about it. The idea that manhandling a woman is humourous is a frightening concept that has evolved into the rape culture prevalent today. That scene was especially offensive. The fact that Gidget went on to "fall in love" with the perpetrator of this abuse is very troublesome. There are too many women involved in dysfunctional relationships with abusive partners. We should never be portraying this situation as amusing entertainment, nor that the perpetrator turns out to be a "nice guy" after all. They never do and we should not be encouraging young women in the delusion that "he will change."
Four thumbs down for this movie, mine and Sophia's, and we definitely did not watch the other two movies in the set.

End of the Spear: Movie Review

Based on actual events, this movie tells the story of the murder of 5 missionaries in the Ecuadorian jungle in 1956 and what happens afterwards.
Honestly, I just sat through all 111 minutes of this movie. It ranks right up there with One Million Years BC, The Adding Machine and Marooned as stupidest movies of all time, movies that you watch to the end waiting for them to actually get interesting. It never happens. I think this movie really missed the whole point. It was a bunch of disjointed scenes, some of which were entirely in native dialogue. I do not speak Waodani, so had to just assume what was going on. It wasn't until I'd watched the whole thing that I decided to turn on the English subtitles and see if it actually translated the dialogue. It did, for the most part. Seriously, I would have thought that if it were necessary to turn on the subtitles to understand the majority of the dialogue in the movie, it would have either been automatic or somehow indicated that during the opening credits. However, even English subtitles couldn't redeem this movie. It really went nowhere. The characters were flat and boring. Such a story of tragedy and triumph should have moved me, but I was only "moved" to turn it off and do something more worthwhile. I also feel that the use of "intense sequences of violence" was deplorable (I fast forwarded those scenes) and they really would have been unnecessary to the plot, if there was one.
I would think that the missionaries this movie was about, who died to bring the message of salvation to the Waodanis, would be deeply disappointed that the name of Jesus was not even mentioned in this movie. I know I was. But even if this movie wasn't meant to be about salvation, it doesn't even pass as entertainment.
The only good thing about this movie was the popcorn I ate.

Movie Review: A Greater Yes

Full title: A Greater Yes - The True Story of Amy Newhouse

The description on the jacket of this movie is compelling. Unfortunately, the jacket promised more than the movie delivered. "After climbing Pampa High School's popularity chain, taking her volleyball team to the State championship, and founding the school's first drugs, alcohol and violence-free club (none of which is portrayed in the movie), Amy Newhouse must now fight the biggest battle of her life - cancer." Later in the description: "However, with her death comes life and redemption of Pampa High, as her club grows exponentially, redeeming the school of the once-rampant violence, drugs, and alcohol that she so passionately fought against." Again, none of this is portrayed in the movie. Instead we see Amy befriending a loner/loser who she witnessed stealing the student council money. By the end of the movie, he replaces the money.
What this movie needed was a lot more grit. There are serious issues that could have been dealt with and would have given this movie a lot more depth. The characters were not well-developed and the lead character came off as somewhat of an obnoxious, arrogant twit. I didn't even get to like her well enough to be sad when she died. "God always answers my prayers," she said more than once during the movie, implying that she always got a "Yes" as if somehow she was more special to God than others. That really rubbed me the wrong way. God answers all faithful prayers (and even a lot of doubting ones), but the answer is sometimes "No" and sometimes "Wait." God is not a cosmic vending machine where you put in your prayers and God dispenses the answer you selected. No, He loves us too much to give us an answer that is not in our best interests, and we need to submit to His will. Even Jesus prayed, "Not My will, but Thine be done." It's a bit of a paradox that we can pray in faith, but realize that God may not answer the way we desire. That's one of the things that was lacking in this movie, until the very end when Amy didn't have any choice but to accept the fact that she was dying. God, in His infinite wisdom, does allow people to die, and it is not expressing a lack of faith to submit to the fact that healing might not be in His plan for someone. I know from personal experience, having lost a niece at 6 years of age, my brother at age 57 and my mother at 73. All of these family members were much prayed for, but God said "No."
At the beginning of the movie, Amy seems to lead a charmed life: a perfect Christian family, a perfect boyfriend, and when she needs to raise $3000 to go to Africa, she gets the full amount from one woman. And of course, God always answers her prayers. It's all a little too syrupy for me and definitely not a life that the average person in the universe can relate to. My daughter was watching with me and disliked the movie and the lead character right from the start. And unfortunately, little of this movie is the "true story." You can see the real Amy's obituary here: Amy Newhouse Obituary. In it you will find that she came from a broken home, with both parents remarried and living in different towns from both each other and Amy. Her mother and husband are listed as "of Amarillo," her father and wife as "of Clarendon," while Amy is listed as "of Pampa." Who on earth was Amy living with? Now that's some grit that lots of us can relate to. Instead of portraying her as the cheesy girl from the perfect family, why didn't the producers show us who she really was? There are lots of teens who could have more effectively been reached by this movie if they knew Amy hadn't actually lived the perfect life before having the misfortune to die of cancer. Furthermore, in a comment on another review of this movie (The Practical Passion of 'A Greater Yes'), a real life schoolmate of Amy's says that she doesn't remember either Jordan (the loner/loser that Amy helped in the movie) or Tyler (Amy's boyfriend). In other words, they probably didn't exist. While I respect the rights of an author/script-writer to add fictional people and situations to an otherwise true story to create more appeal or drama or whatever, from the sounds of it, the real life Amy led had plenty of drama without fictionalizing most of the story. And leaving out a big part of it: the volleyball state championship, the drugs/alcohol/violence-free club, and so on. When Amy actually addresses an issue at her school during a presentation on her trip to Africa, it appears to be apathy that she's confronting, not drugs, alcohol or violence.
The acting was rather lame in this movie. My daughter said that it reminded her of her high school drama class and that it obviously was a budget movie. Oh, and the shot of Tyler putting a rose on Amy's headstone - that's definitely not a new grave he was on. And headstones are not usually added until after the grave has had a chance to settle. Why didn't they show both him and Jordan at her funeral instead? Surprisingly enough, for a movie centred around a young girl dying of cancer, there is no death scene, nor funeral scene.
While I admire the goals of Pure Flix Entertainment in producing Christ-centred movies, I'm sorry to say this one was a disappointment. It really didn't move me, and my daughter was bored. It is not necessary to avoid issues like drugs/alcohol/violence and broken homes in order to qualify as a Christian movie. From the sounds of it, the real Amy Newhouse deserved a better movie than this.