Well, maybe I will have more than two to write about, actually. It seems like really good movies come in waves. For a while there is nothing, then all of a sudden you get to see two, three, or four really good ones right in a row. I don't know why that is, but it is. Must be some kind of movie zen or something...I don't know. Anyway,

This is an older movie, I think it came out in 2003, but for some reason I completely missed it, until now. It's called "A Painted House" and it's a Halmark movie adaption of the novel with the same title by John Grisham. It's a wonderful story about a young 10 year old boy growing up on a cotton farm in Arkansas in the mid fifties. There is plenty of adventure in this movie when they hire hill people and mexican migrant workers to work the farm. This is an excellent film and well worth the money spent to rent it. And the boy is played by a young Logan Lerman, who is SO huggably cute! I highly recomend this one.

Another movie I recomend is called "Rails and Ties" and it stars Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, and young Miles Heizer as a boy who looses his mother in an "accidental" train/car collision. Bacon plays the engineer of the train who is losing his wife to cancer. Just before she decides to leave him, the boy shows up at thier doorstep and they wind up taking him in. This is such an exceptional movie as it deals so brilliently with some very difficult subjects like loss of a parent or spouse, and forgiveness. This movie IS a definate tear-jerker, but it has a good ending. I give it a big double thumbs up!

Ok, just to prove that I don't watch only movies with young boys in them, I will recomend another movie that I've seen recently. This one is called "Be Kind Rewind" and it's a comedy starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, and Mia Farrow. When I first rented it I thought it might be a good goofy comedy, knowing Jack Black, but I was in for a pleasent surprise. This comedy has a wonderful message about community. It's about how this video rental place is slowly going out of business because they are still renting VHS movies and haven't switched to DVD. They are in a run down section of town and have been targeted for renovation. But then Jack Black manages to get himself magnatized and accidetaly erases all of thier inventory. He and his friend (Mos Def) try to save the store by remaking the movies themselves. They call thier versions of the movies "Sweded versions" and, to thier surprise, they become big hits. This is a goofy movie, to be sure, but like I said, it has a very cool and worthwile ending. You won't be dissapointed with this one. (And, yes, there are a few boys in this movie, but they are only extras and don't count.)

So there are a few movie picks for my friends here for this summer. Enjoy!

Chris