if you ever want the human notion that one should be repaid for the good one does while on earth to be completely skewed, give it to someone experienced at making movies.

in their attempts to make a movie that will "make people smile," feel warm and fuzzy, and somehow have a rekindled faith in the intrinsic goodness of mankind, moviemakers (especially veterans) completely miss the point. So much time in Hollywood is spent making the impossible happen that they fail miserably when they try to portray something believable and inspirational.

never mind that people are, in fact, often willing to help those by whom they have been helped in the past; that's not the point. the point is that never in our culture will one man gather a literal crowd of followers based solely on his personal virtue. a communal outpouring of support is completely implausible and out of place in an individualistic society.

the best way to give people hope is not to show something that will never happen to them; it is to follow one person through a personal journey where they make progress within their own psyche and become a better person for it. effectively show someone grasping a concept that many struggle with, and you've accomplished something. anything less is a cop-out.

while the premise of the terminal was plausible, the plot was laughable - not in the good way. tom hanks' incredible acting is not enough to save this movie from pure mediocrity, if it even reached that.

a brief and terribly undescriptive return - 10.28.04
- - 09.17.04
- - 08.16.04
- - 08.13.04
- - 07.30.04