The Star of Bethlehem (2007)

*Get "The Star of Bethlehem" on Amazon here*

I guarantee the amount you enjoy this film is related to the amount of faith you have in its subject.

Aping Al Gore's monumentally successful (and now debunked) "An Inconvenient Truth," lawyer Frederick A. Larson also presents a slide show about a subject. That subject is whether or not the star of Bethlehem, which brought the three (or so) wise men from the east to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ was real. Larson does not have Gore's live audiences, so he presents his findings in a library to a small gathering. Larson is the first to tell us he is not an astronomer. He is a lawyer. He started doing research on a whim, after refusing a neighborhood boy's efforts to decorate his lawn with non-Christian Christmas decorations. Larson wanted to display the star, and began to do a little research. Well, thank goodness for the age of the computer. Larson began to read the Bible very closely, not for theology but for time clues about what was seen in the sky back then, and when. Using computer software, he is able to reconstruct what was seen, and eventually rule out hypotheses such as comets and exploding stars. Taking the Book of Matthew as his word-for-word starting point, Larson is able not only to explain the star, but also what was going on in the sky when Jesus was crucified as well.

The documentary is not a bunch of talking heads and questionable Biblical scholars. Larson gives his talk, which never bored, and then illustrated his findings with his animated vistas of the night sky. Intercut with his lecture is footage of Larson reenacting his moments of discovery, all put to a very impressive soundtrack by Julie Davison Larson. Most documentaries I see on the Bible fall into two camps. One has the frothing evangelist foreseeing the end of the world unless I send them money, and the other has liberal scholars explaining away miracles dismissively through science, making one wonder what drew them to study the Bible in the first place. Larson and the film makers here are a little different. The project is very short, barely an hour, but is also very earnest in their beliefs. Larson is not damning anyone to an eternity in pools of fire for not believing, and he does not look down his nose at the other theories that are presented about the star. He takes the facts he has, interprets them, and presents what he finds- which is very convincing. He is easy to listen to, and passionate about what he found, talking honestly about how he surprised even himself with what he learned.

To put it simply, if you are an atheist, you are not going to believe Larson's presentation. But if you are a practicing or lapsed Christian, looking to expand your knowledge of the Gospel aside from yet another Bible study program, you might want to give "The Star of Bethlehem" a look.

Enchanted (2007)

*Get "Enchanted" on Amazon here*

As the older brother who was stuck taking my younger siblings to all those Saturday matinees back in the day, I am overly familiar with the Disney animated output. I know every whitewashed fairy tale, every catchy song, and every talking woodland creature. So with weary trepidation, I turned to "Enchanted," and I have been smiling ever since the "The End" credit rolled.

In the magical kingdom of Andalusia, Giselle (voice of Amy Adams) is swept off her feet by local prince/heroic troll hunter Edward (voice of James Marsden). The two fall instantly in fairy tale love, and plan to marry the next day. Evil Queen Narissa (voice of Susan Sarandon) is against the marriage, dresses like an old hag, and sends Giselle down a magical well which leads to a manhole cover in the middle of Times Square in New York City. Another problem, Giselle (Amy Adams) is no longer animated, she is real but burdened with story book sensibilities. As Giselle wanders around the city, she meets sad divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). Robert plans to ask girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) to marry him but Giselle quickly complicates their relationship with her naivete. Prince Edward (James Marsden) follows Giselle through the well and begins looking for her, as does buffoonish Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), sent by Narissa to kill Giselle with poison apples. Robert begins to fall for Giselle despite his harsh outlook on love, and after Nathaniel fails one time too many, Queen Narissa herself makes a grand entrance in Times Square.

Writer Bill Kelly and director Kevin Lima could have taken the easy way out. They could have turned this into a weak "Shrek" knock-off (a film series whose success astonished me) or "Airplane!" it up and make "Princess Movie" complete with fart jokes, a Pamela Anderson cameo, and an unrated DVD release. Instead, respect (but not false reverence) is shown, keeping the story familiar but never making fun of the audience that enjoyed "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty;" the same audience that turned the Disney brand into an icon. Many sequences in the film are just nutty genius. Giselle making do with city animals to clean Robert's apartment was hilarious. The live action dance numbers are fun and catchy. Even the maligned action finale, which Disney used to do in their classic animated fare to give the little boys and older brothers in the audience something to enjoy, is handled well, with Sarandon making the most of her brief live action screen time. A nice medium is struck between Giselle and Edward's idealistic love and Robert's harsher reality without the audience being pummelled into submission with the message. Even the character Nancy is handled correctly, as the film makers fight the urge to turn her into a shrewish evil stepmother in training. Adams is all sorts of fun as Giselle, striking a ridiculously sympathetic chord. Covey is thankfully not overly cute in the daughter role, but I wish Dempsey had put a bit more pep into Robert- oh, what Ben Stiller could have done with this role. Spall is merely okay, but my greatest enjoyment was watching James Marsden as the charming prince. Just like Adams' Giselle, Marsden also does not play the role "stupid" but invigorates every scene he is in- from the bus scene, to mistaking a seedy hotel room's television for a magic mirror. This is his best role since the underrated "The 24th Day."

The goodwill and talent of the cast and crew more than make up for the film's occasional hiccup. "Enchanted" is a wonderful surprise. Followed by a sequel.

FILM & TELEVISION REVIEW INDEX (in progress)

#
41 (2007)

A
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
Another Body (2023)

B
Because I Said So (2007)
Bloody Current Exchange (2007)
Born to Kill? {"Fred West" #1.1} (2005)
Bride Hard (2025)

E
Enchanted (2007)

M
Making a Monster {"Rose West" #1.1} (2020)
The Man in the Lighthouse (2007)
Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)
Monster in My Family {"John Wayne Gacy" #1.6} (2015)
Montana Sky (2007)

S
The Soham Murders (2023)
The Star of Bethlehem (2007)

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)

*Get "The Anna Nicole Show- Season One" on Amazon here*

This tell-all surface Netflix documentary profiles one of the most famous women of the 1990's and 2000's, and covers the exact same material that I, a non-fan, have seen before. Think of it as "The E! True Hollywood Story (Now with Bewbs!)."

Vickie Lynn Marshall was from Mexia, Texas (which is filmed like it's one of Dante's Circles of Hell). Born in 1967, she was a beautiful child who attracted attention almost immediately. She married early, had a child, and ran away from an abusive homelife, ending up dancing in strip clubs in Houston. She met another stripper there who would become a lover, and Vickie changed her name to Nikki. Pictures of Smith (her married name) made their way to Playboy and Guess Jeans, and a model was born. Now known as Anna Nicole Smith, she descended on Los Angeles, taking modeling gigs and an occasional film role (she was offered only $50,000 to appear in "The Mask"?!), and becoming more and more famous for not doing very much. Behind the scenes, she married an oil billionaire sixty years older than her. Drugs became a part of Smith's life, starting out as pain medication for her breast augmentation surgery. Her son, Daniel, was by her side as she saw billionaire J. Howard Marshall, and the stripper friend, before her life began to spiral out of control- which was caught on camera by ever-present paparazzi, and eventually her own infamous "reality" show. She died after giving birth to a daughter in 2007, but her life made tabloid headlines even years after she was laid to rest.

One of the many flaws in this documentary is an odd one- it's not long enough. We get six hours on serial killers and their "unheard" audio tapes, but less than two hours on a household name who was in the public eye for fifteen years? Smith had a rough upbringing, and an hour could have been spent on her parents alone, instead of a gotcha moment that seems tacked on to the end of the film. The film makers could not get some important interviews that could have opened up the documentary, so Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead are relegated to "archive footage" roles. Smith seemed to be surrounded by enablers, some of whom do talk, but she's as much a mystery after the documentary as she is before. Talking about her deep love for Marshall while she was having a fling with her stripper friend is given a pass, as is footage of Smith presenting a giant, inappropriate semi-nude picture of herself to the old man while her toddler son is standing there. Was Smith a pathological liar, an innocent, a narcissist? I don't know, and neither do the film makers. Instead, we unironically get old footage of shamed newsman Brian Williams lecturing the mainstream media and public for treating Smith's death with so much attention before playing video from other news outlets. It's a fine balance between giving the public what they want, and shoving this exposure down our throats. We finally got rid of hanging on to Paris Hilton's every move, yet she still tries to get back in the spotlight every couple of years. Is it any better today? No, one of the last articles I saw on Fox News' website before writing this review was about Demi Lovato's difficulties sticking to preferred pronouns. It's all about the clicks, baby. How many hours did people waste watching Smith's show, or news stories about her daughter's paternity? Or the case that went all the way to the Supreme Court about her husband's estate? What did you do with that knowledge? Just like me after watching this, you hopefully cracked open a book and moved on with your life.

I never saw her "reality" show, or paid much attention to her when she was in the news. I don't hate her, I think it's sad that a person would go through all of this to become rich and famous, and to have that same fame completely destroy her life and the lives of those around her. This isn't a cautionary tale, because very few celebrities today are taking this caution and leading fulfilling lives. I hope her daughter is being raised "normally," and everyone caught in the hurricane existence of Anna Nicole Smith has moved on as well- including the producers of this documentary.

Montana Sky (2007)

*Get "Montana Sky" on Amazon here*

A cable television network adaptation of a Nora Roberts novel should not be this entertaining.

Old Jack Mercy has gone and kicked the bucket. He has left his ranch to his three daughters- spoiled Hollywood screenwriter Tess (Charlotte Ross), the daughter who stayed on the ranch- Willa (Ashley Williams), and Lily (Laura Mennell), who no one around the ranch has met. Apparently, Jack was kind of a jerk, as his will indicates. In order to inherit the ranch, valued at over twenty million dollars, the three sisters must live there together for one year. If either of them leaves, the land is donated to a nature conservancy.

The three women are strangers, and take a disliking to each other. Willa's life revolves working with the animals, and spurning the advances of neighbor rancher Ben (John Corbett, who is achingly likable here). Lily is on the run from her ex-husband (Scott Heindl), and the shallow Tess cozies up to uncomplicated sheriff Nate (Aaron Pearl). Along with the familial conflict, animals are being killed around the ranch. The killer then graduates to murdering one of the ranchhands, and the viewer has to juggle both the suspense of whether or not Willa and Ben will end up together, and the multitude of red herring suspects in the grisly deaths.

While a very average television film, I found a lot to like about "Montana Sky." The trio of women are all wonderful, and work well together. There is an edge here that I did not expect at all. The opening funeral scene is both catty and darkly funny, and the cast keeps up the snark throughout the film. Veteran director Robe does not become so enraptured with the Alberta, Canada scenery- no Montana location shoot here- that he forgets about his cast and story. Technically, there are some hiccups, especially with some funny dubbing mistakes- listen for some scenes where lines sound like they are being delivered into an empty baked beans can. While I eventually figured out who the killer was, the screenplay had me changing my mind a couple of times beforehand. I did wonder about Jack's change-of-heart concerning his family, and the film never satisfyingly addresses his motives behind his odd will. Why John Corbett is not a huge star is beyond me. He is great in this- and you can see why Willa melts when he is around. I had recently watched a little movie he was in that nobody saw called "Bigger Than the Sky," and his portrayal of a frustrated actor was perfect.

"Montana Sky" could have served as a pilot for a television series about these three different sisters living in Montana, and the show could have worked. It's not great, but not the disaster I smugly thought it was going to be. Also known as "Nora Roberts' Montana Sky."

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

*Get "Mr. Bean's Holiday" on Amazon here*

Rowan Atkinson breaks out his best-known character for one final hurrah.

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is a British nebbish with a funny voice and mannerisms. He is hard to describe, unless you have seen Atkinson's many television incarnations of the character, and the fun "Bean: The Movie" from a few years before. He gets in harmless trouble, and is actually endearing in a sympathetic way. Bean wins a raffle for a trip to Cannes and the beaches there, and a video camera to record his trip. Of course, the trip is far from ordinary. Through his own cluelessness, he is saddled with a young Russian boy (Maxim Baldry) who is also headed to Cannes to meet up with his father Emil (Karel Roden), a Cannes Film Festival jury member. Bean and the boy team up to earn money and complete the trip, and Bean falls in like-like at the first sight of struggling actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes). Toss in Willem Dafoe as ego-maniacal film director Carson Clay, and this bizarre G-rated adventure plows ahead full steam.

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" is not laugh-out-loud shtick but I found myself smiling through most of it. The character of Bean is so loopy, even when things finally work out for him, you await the next complication- whether it be forgetfulness, or a runaway chicken. Bean does get frustrated at what life deals him, and his rare rants and fits about something that has happened are funny to watch, but then he recovers and moves on to his goal.

Bendelack's direction is assured, and keeps up with Atkinson well. The screenplay moves along very quickly. There are expected set-pieces where Atkinson can work his audience, but they don't drag like they sometimes did on the television series. Bendelack, and screenwriters Hamish McColl and Robin Driscoll, seem to know right when to get out, and on to the next bit of business, and special mention goes to Howard Goodall's simply wonderful musical score. In all honesty, the biggest laugh comes courtesy of Willem Dafoe. The screening of Carson's incredibly boring film, with the audience falling asleep while he is transfixed, is nothing short of brilliant. Having been in the movie review game most of my life, I could associate with the snoozing audience very much.

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" is as good as it's inspiration, "Mr. Hulot's Holiday," another film centered on a character just trying to get away from it all. It is quite an appropriate swan song for Mr. Bean, unless Atkinson changes his mind.

"Monster in My Family" {"John Wayne Gacy" Episode #1.6} (2015)

*Get "Monster in My Family" on Amazon Prime Video here*
*Get "Dear Mr. Gacy" on Amazon here*
*Get Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders by Courtney Lund O'Neil on Amazon here*
*Get Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind by David Nelson on Amazon here*

There's an interesting premise behind this show- the relative of a renowned killer meets with the family of one of their victims, mediated by Melissa G. Moore, the daughter of a serial killer. This could have gone wrong in so many ways.

The basics of the John Wayne Gacy case and capture are trotted out again, but this time Gacy's sister Karen Kuzma and her daughter Sheri Hockenberry are meeting Patti Szyc Rich, sister to victim John Szyc. Kuzma's memories of her brother, and the aftermath of his killings, takes up the majority of the time in the episode, culminating in the emotional meeting.

I am thankful that the show runners brought Moore aboard, and didn't turn this into a Jerry Springer-style nightmare of screaming and fisticuffs (at least from this lone episode). Kuzma is a damaged woman, and she is obviously as much a victim as other survivors of her brother's terror. We don't get as much time with Patti Rich, I would have liked to see more about her brother, even if it was boring minutiae. We're so used to hearing the story of the killer, I wish someone would do mini-biographies of any of these victims, and let us get to know these young boys and men.

This episode of "Monster in My Family" still presents some new information, and Rich, Kuzma, and Hockenberry display a strength that I don't know if I would have in the same situation. Also subtitled "Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy" and "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.", and I've seen this numbered as Episode #5 of the first season.