McCormick's quick takes on angelic films.The Bishop's Wife (RKO RKO Radio Keith Orpheum (movie studio) RKO Randy Keith Orton (wrestling) RKO Relativistic Klystron Oscillator RKO Rural King Ohio (farm supply store) , 1947). Overwhelmed by the twin tasks of raising a family and a cathedral, Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for divine intervention. Director Henry Koster puts wings on Car/Grant and sends him to help out. While dapper, debonair deb·o·nair also deb·o·naire adj. 1. Suave; urbane. 2. Affable; genial. 3. Carefree and gay; jaunty. Dudley (Grant) has the magic touch and proves to be quite helpful to everyone else, Henry begins to worry that his wife (Loretta Young), daughter, and parishioners are growing too fond of this heavenly creature. Still, Dudley has not come to replace the bishop but to remind him that a church and a home are built of living stones and that a bishop has to tend his flock with love. *** Michael (Columbia TriStar, 1996). In Nora Ephron's small comedy about two tabloid reporters sent to investigate sightings of an angel in middle America, Michael (John Travolta) is a beer guzzling, barroom brawling, bullfighting bullfighting, national sport and spectacle of Spain. Called the corrida de toros in Spanish, the bullfight takes place in a large outdoor arena known as the plaza de toros. cherub--definitely not your father's idea of an archangel archangel, in religion archangel (ärk`ānjəl), chief angel. They are four to seven in number. Sometimes specific functions are ascribed to them. The four best known in Christian tradition are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. . World-weary Frank Quinlan (William Hurt) and cock-eyed optimist Dorothy Winters (Andie MacDowell) have written about three-headed dogs and extraterrestrials' babies, but both are caught off-guard by a molting molting, periodical shedding and renewal of the outer skin, exoskeleton, fur, or feathers of an animal. In most animals the process is triggered by secretions of the thyroid and pituitary glands. angel who looks into their hearts and finds the frail seeds of love. Will these fools rush in where their angel wants them to tread? *** Dogma (Columbia,1999). Writer/director Kevin Smith is a parochial-school theologian who uses arcane Catholic trivia to fashion a film about two fallen angels trying to sneak back to heaven on a technicality. When Loki (Ben Affleck) and Bartleby (Matt Damon) learn of a wacky bishop (George Carlin car·line or car·lin n. Scots A woman, especially an old one. [Middle English kerling, from Old Norse, from karl, man.] ) handing out plenary indulgences like candy, they decide to use one as a ticket home. But this would mean God can be outwitted, which would end the universe, so the heavenly headquarters enlists Jesus' grandniece grand·niece n. A daughter of one's nephew or niece. grandniece Noun same as great-niece Noun 1. (Linda Fiorentino) and the lost 13th apostle (Chris Rock) to bar the door. Warning: This film contains as much sex and violence as found in the whole Bible and as much vulgarity as Chaucer. *** Bruce Almighty (Universal, 2003). Jim Carey finally found a role that gives him room to use all his talents--God. When bad things happen to newscaster Bruce Nolan (Carey), he complains that the Almighty is asleep at the wheel. But the master of the universe (Morgan Freeman) does not take such complaints lying down and invites Nolan to see if he can do better. The results are comic as Nolan soon discovers that omnipotence without omniscience Omniscience Ea shrewd god; knew everything in advance. [Babylonian Myth.: Gilgamesh] God knows all: past, present, and future. produces chaos. By the end he's learned the lesson of the Philippians, that we ought not "grasp equality with God." *** |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion