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annonymous73
Reviews
The Brooke Ellison Story (2004)
Inspiring
I just caught this on A & E. The dedication is to Christopher Reeve, who directed it, so it makes me think it is the premiere of the movie but I don't know (I thought it had aired earlier this year).
The story is about Brooke Ellison, who was struck by a car at a very young age. Her family helped nurse her back to health and to get through the rest of school as well as university, her mother attended all classes with her and helped her physically. According to the movie, Brooke used a voice-activated computer system for her work and she controlled her chair by a retainer in her mouth.
It is amazing what she and her family went through to get her through school. As it turns out, she was/is very bright, thus getting accepted to Harvard.
A great story. If you have no disabilities, it shows how lucky some people are not to have them; but at the same time, some who do have them do not let it slow them down and are probably more determined to get on with a meaningful life.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is always lovely to watch and Lacey Chabert, as Brooke, is wonderful. Highly recommend it!
Seven Days: Pilot: Part 1 (1998)
opinion
I was wholeheartedly and dreadfully disappointed when they took this show off the air. I even sent an email to UPN (because I didn't have the address of the office of the producers) but it was to no avail. I loved the premise of the show but especially the ensemble cast. The chemistry between all the players was wonderful and the cast was quite impressive, including Nick Searcy (film actor whose films include Castaway and Fried Green Tomatoes), Jonathan LaPaglia (formerly on NY Undercover), Norman Lloyd (best known for his role on St. Elsewhere), and Don Franklin (formerly on Sea Quest). Ah, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. This show is still sorely missed by at least one viewer (and probably more)!
Full Frontal (2002)
opinion
This movie concept has been done before, but, I daresay, much more successfully. One example would be the movie Playing By Heart - where we, as the viewer, follow a host of characters and see all their lives tied together by a string at the end. Full Frontal made its feeble attempt to align itself with the idea that if you keep the audience guessing, you keep the audience interested. That could not be further from the truth. While watching this movie, the most interesting thing that happened to me was when I saw a group of people leaving the theatre. Watching these people walk out was more interesting than the movie. Unfortunately for me, it only took the people about 10 seconds to walk out whereas the movie droned on for well over an hour.
Full Frontal was slow-paced, slow-witted and thoroughly uninteresting. There were a couple of good emotional scenes, well-played by Katherine Keener and David Hyde Pierce. But aside from that, the movie was a bust. Drama is seen by the dramatic arts community as a heightened sense of reality. The intention is to take the audience on a wonderful ride. What Soderbergh did with Full Frontal was take reality and leave it at the same level where it started, maybe even down-played it a bit. He took the audience on a wonderful nap. The scenes that were supposed to be somewhat humorous barely qualified as mildly funny. It was a disappointing movie all around.