Tag Archives: Dennis Quaid

I Can Only Imagine (2018)

If you haven’t seen the news, there was a bit of a surprise in the weekend box office numbers. Black Panther continues to rule and the new Tomb Raider film is getting mediocre reviews, but a film based upon the hit Christian song, I Can Only Imagine, hit theaters as well and it picked up 3rd place at the box office. It was in only about 1600 theaters compared to the others which were in twice as many. Its budget was a measly $7 million, and in its opening weekend it raked in $17 million and has made some big waves and will be expanding to more theaters this weekend.

I have to say that based on the trailers that I was a few months back it wasn’t really on my radar either. However after getting the chance to see it tonight, I had to let folks know that it is the real deal and I hope that other Christian directors and writers and actors take some notes because there is much to learn here.

While I am a Christian, I’m often embarrassed by the poor quality of the films that bear the name of my faith. They usually suffer from wooden performances, awkwardly written and over-spiritualized scripts. This was different.

A note of bias, I do adore Mercy Me’s music however, like the tagline of the film says, even though I knew the song I was completely unaware of the story behind it. The film combines equal parts touching redemption story with musical biopic. Sadly, I thought that the musical portion was the weakest link.

Unless you grew up like I did, you would have no idea who some of the important musical figures were like Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. This was not well explained and was unnecessary for the most part. Trace Adkins was humorously refreshing as the band’s manager, and newcomer J. Michael Finley does a good job juggling between funny, emotional, and exhilarated. Here’s hoping this doesn’t remain the only listing on his IMDb page.

The high note of the film was the abusive father played brilliantly by Dennis Quaid. I don’t think I’ve seen him this good since the early 2000’s with Far From Heaven and Frequency. The anger and bitterness of many years was all visible on his face and even through the powerful redemption story line the scars still remain. This is a deeply human story and it is emotionally affecting with the waves coming in rapid succession and hitting hard.

This isn’t a perfect movie by any means, there a a half a dozen characters that could have been better fleshed out, the romance felt tacked on and unnecessary (although I was happy to see Madeline Carroll. I’ve missed her since 2010’s Flipped).

You can feel good about taking the whole family to see this, it deals with some hard issues like abuse, divorce, and forgiveness, but it’s not overly preachy. It will act as wonderful counter programming to the LGBT drama Love, Simon. While I have no hate for my LGBT friends, it is very nice to see my lifestyle and beliefs portrayed in a good film finally.

If You Liked… Independence Day

As we prepare for the sequel that has been 20 years in the making, lets take a look back at this alien invasion film. Independence Day is a 1996 American epic science-fiction disaster film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. The film stars Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox, and Harry Connick, Jr. The film focuses on a diverse and interesting group of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a destructive alien attack and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4th.

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Has anyone not seen Independence Day? Seriously? I want to meet you if you’ve never seen it. I would be highly surprised if you could find anyone between the ages of 30 and 50 in the United States who hasn’t seen Independence Day.

That doesn’t mean everyone loves it. In fact, according to icheckmovies.com, only 2.6% of those that have seen the the movie listed it as one of their favorites, and 1.1% disliked it. This is one of those guilty pleasure movies for me. I saw this film in the theater on opening weekend during the summer between 7th and 8th grade. If you can find a more formative time in a kid’s life I don’t know what it is. It was then that I decided I really liked Jeff Goldblum’s stilted speech and acting style and found out that the Fresh Prince could do more than dance.

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If you are like me and like Independence Day you might be looking for some other movies to watch while you wait for Independence Day: Resurgence to be released next weekend. I told my oldest son (12) that he could only see the sequel if he watched the original with me, so he obliged his old man and we sat down and watched this movie a few nights ago. Time has not been great to the effects on this film. Director Roland Emmerich loves to destroy New York City and threaten the annihilation of all mankind (Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, 2012), it will be nice to see what he can do with the technology that 20 years has given him. In keeping with the guilty pleasure nature of Independence Day, all of my selections will also be selections that I might not often openly admit to loving.

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