Movie Review

I recently saw two new releases, both entirely different than the other. I thought I would briefly comment on both...

The first was The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Aside from my fascination with horror movies, I was intrigued by this movie because it was based on a true story. From what I read, "Emily Rose" was actually a young girl from Germany who died in 1976 from what some say was demonic possession. Others believed that she actually suffered from a rare and serious form of epilepsy and died as a result of severe neglect by her parents and priest. The movie was not a true horror flick but was actually more of a court room drama that flashed back to scenes from Emily's life. Some scenes were eerie (I did jump a couple times) but definitely not as flashy as scenes from "The Exorcist". What was interesting about the movie is that I walked away not completely convinced about the cause of Emily's death. I won't give too much away, but I will say that it sparked some interesting conversation about religion versus science. (And for those that pay attention to legal details, as I naturally do, some technical aspects of the trial made me laugh solely for the apparent lack of a legal consultant on the set. But again, it's Hollywood).

The second movie I saw was Just Like Heaven, the definite opposite of the previous movie. It wasn't Reese Witherspoon that did it for me, but Mark Ruffalo was great, as he usually is. This was the perfect "date" movie. It had it all...romance, laughter, sadness, cheesiness, predictability. Despite my usual dislike for cookie cutter movies, I thought this one was pretty enjoyable. I think I even found myself laughing outloud a few times (and apparently the girls sitting behind us thought everything was just hilarious and made that well known). It may be a "wait and rent", but I don't regret paying to see it on the big screen. It was entertaining and overall I would rate it "cute".