Movie Recommendations for October 10th Weekend

SEBRING, October 12, 2008 – Here is a quick rundown of some of the best movies playing in the Heartland.

FIREPROOF – An outstanding Christian romance about a troubled marriage and what it will take to save it. Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea shine as the spouses bitterly disappointed and angry with each other. Fireproof plays exclusively at the Regal Eagle Ridge in Lake Wales. See our right hand column for a link to movie showtimes.

BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA – Top notch Walt Disney kids film featuring voiced-over real animals. It’s the No. 1 film in North America for a reason. Playing at the Fairmount Cinema 6 in Sebring.

EAGLE EYE – good, poignant film with Shia LeBeouf and Michelle Monaghan about our loss of privacy and how the safegaurds we put in place to protect our liberties sometimes betray them. Eagle Eye also stars Michael Chiklis and Billy Bob Thornton. Playing at the Fairmount Cinema 6 in Sebring.

BILLY: THE EARLY YEARS – People don’t usually go from sinner to saint in a snap of the fingers, not even big-time preachers. This film explores Billy Graham’s early life and influences and how they shaped what he became. Playing exclusively at the Carmike Cinema 8 in the Lakeshore Mall.

THE EXPRESS – It’s the story about how a football coach, a player, and a team defied the racial bigotry of the 50s. This movie is rated PG, so it’s family friendly, and a good history lesson. Plus it has exciting action. Playing at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

QUARANTINE – See the review in the previous article, but tis the season for horror movies, and Quarantine does it nicely. At the Fairmount.

BODY OF LIES – We’re all a little sensitive to spy films in the wake of 9/11, but Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe certainly provide star-studded reasons to take a gander at this one. At the Fairmount.

MOVIE REVIEW: Tears Flow At ‘Fireproof’

Fireproof explores a fire department captain’s priorities at work, where his motto is “Never leave your partner behind” versus at home, where he tears down his wife and pushes her toward divorce court. Above, Caleb Holt (Kirk Cameron) angrily corners his wife, Katherine (Erin Bethea) and spews his criticism at her.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMUEL GOLDWYN PICTURES

SEBRING, October 6, 2008 – I cry at movies. I’m a big baby.

So when I sit down with a big tub of popcorn and a soda and a film begins to play my heartstrings like a guitar that gently weeps, I have to pull apart the napkins I use to keep the butter off me and surreptitiously wipe my eyes.

My wife and I did that a lot Sunday, when we drove to the Regal Eagle Ridge to see Fireproof, the heart-wrenching film about an angry husband’s last ditch, halfhearted effort to save his marriage.

It’s a compelling romance told amid the dangers of Captain Caleb Holt’s (Kirk Cameron) firefighting and the temptations his wife (Erin Bethea) faces from a slick hospital doctor.

The journey is torturous, as Holt must woo his wife anew when he feels she already fails to give him the respect he deserves. When he accepts a dare from his father, Holt expects immediate results; instead he is slapped with his wife’s chilly rejection.

The acting is a bit forced in the beginning, but as the film progresses, the chemistry between the actors and the characters they portray becomes tangible and powerful. The issues are real – the need to feel loved, the need to be respected, the failure to help, secret surfing to salacious sites on the web. Cameron’s and Bethea’s acting made many a couple in the theater feel their own marriage, as the uncomfortable shifting in seats indicated.

FIreproof is rounded out with action and humor. The train scene is one of the most realistic and urgent scenes I have seen all year.

But if FIreproof’s realism made people uncomfortably cognizant of their own issues, past or present, it wrenched tears and sniffles from around the theater through its later stages. This is no slick, spiritless secular effort. This is a meaningful love story as only a Christian could tell it.

We also saw Nights in Rodanthe, with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. While technically it was good, in fact the sound in the film was excellent, it just does not compare to Fireproof.

Sebring Cinema and Sports heartily recommends Fireproof as an outstanding achievement in this profane age. It plays at the Regal Eagle Ridge in Lake Wales. We saw a van load of folks from First Baptist of Lake Placid there.

Our Sebring Cinema and Sports Rating, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being a classic):