I enjoy anticipating upcoming films. For those of you who are like me, Hayden Vartiainen put together this montage of scenes from some of the big blockbuster films that will be released in 2014. Featured films include 22 Jump Street, 300: Rise of an Empire, Noah, Transcendence, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Near the end, the video shows the title cards for the featured movies.
The music in the movie supercut is John Murphy‘s “Surface of the Sun” from the soundtrack for the movie Sunshine (2007).
What 2014 movie most excites you? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you are looking for an unusual holiday movie, you should check out The Crossing (2000). The film is an excellent A&E made-for-TV movie starring Jeff Daniels as George Washington. The Crossing portrays the story behind Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware River on the night after Christmas in 1776 to fight the Battle of Trenton.
While one may only pack so much information in an 89-minute movie, few holiday movies will put you on the edge of your seat like The Crossing. Director Robert Harmon does an excellent job of condensing the story to convey the drama, risk, and importance of George Washington’s decision to cross the Delaware.
Most people are familiar with the crossing because of the famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. But in watching The Crossing I was surprised by how much I did not know — or had forgotten.
Perhaps because of the painting, many think of the crossing as being near the end of the American Revolutionary War. But it occurred closer to the beginning of the war. The crossing took place less than six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when the war would continue until 1783. Also, the battle was not against the main British forces but against hired German Hessian forces.
None of that, though, lessens the significance of the battle and George Washington’s decisions. The Crossing does an excellent job of portraying the risks involved and the importance of the battle.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast, and it takes some liberties for dramatic effect. But the film sets the big picture accurately. The Colonists had suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the British. And the British were expecting a quick end to the war. But Washington decided to take his weary men in a risky move. The result of his decision would gain supplies for the winter and provide a much-needed victory to inspire the Colonists and future enlistments.
While the personality of Washington remains somewhat elusive, Jeff Daniels does an excellent job portraying one of the most important people in American history. He conveys the difficult decisions encountered by the steady leader.
Even though you know how the story ends, the film will still draw you into the tense tale, seeing the men battle against the odds. The Crossing does a good job of portraying the challenges, including the cold weather and Washington’s realization that it is impossible to encounter the Hessians before daybreak.
Conclusion? While The Crossing has little Christmas cheer, it is a great way to remember an important event in American history that occurred on the night of December 25 into the morning of December 26. Watching The Crossing, one cannot help but think how American history may have gone differently — or never existed at all. What if George Washington made a different decision or if the outcome was different on that Christmas night more than two hundred years ago?
At least for now, you may watch the entire film on YouTube:
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?Rotten Tomatoes provides no critics rating for the TV movie, but it gives a disappointing audience score of 53%. I suspect some may have had high expectations for the film and were disappointed because they expected a movie theater film on the life of George Washington. But others appreciate the film for what it is: a short dramatization of the important events over a short time period. By contrast, GJ’s Closet called The Crossing “the greatest American Revolutionary War film ever made and an ideal history lesson.” The film won a Peabody Award in 2000.
Check out the new trailer for the upcoming movie Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Like The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), the sequel features Andy Serkis as the intelligent Caesar. Gary Oldman stars in the new film as the leader of humans who survived a plague a decade earlier. The surviving humans and the apes must reach a peace or go to war. It sounds similar to the plot of Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). Either way, the trailer looks cool, and I cannot wait to see this one too.
Jason Clarke and Keri Russell also star in the movie, directed by Matt Reeves. 20th Century Fox plans to release Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on July 11, 2014.
What is your favorite Planet of the Apes film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On December 17, 1843, London publishing house Chapman & Hall published a novella called A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. The novella, by Charles Dickens, would become a classic.
Charles Dickens had already found success from writing projects, including The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836), Oliver Twist (1838) and Nicholas Nickleby (1839). His new book, which he only started writing three months earlier in September 1843, was an immediate success, and many today credit it with reviving Christmas traditions in Victorian England.
We now know the book simply as A Christmas Carol. While it may seem odd that a book about ghosts would become a Christmas classic (instead of a Halloween story), Dickens was not the only one telling yuletide ghost stories. In Victorian England, it was a tradition to tell ghost stories around the fire on Christmas Eve. I guess many places still have that tradition, but it is now called, “watching A Christmas Carol on television.”
Adaptations of “A Christmas Carol”
Soon after the novella was published, people began adapting the story for theater productions. Dickens himself often gave readings of the book throughout his lifetime.
As technology changed, there were adaptations for radio and screens. Thomas Edison created an early silent version of the story in 1910.
One of the most famous movie versions of the book — and the most highly regarded in many quarters — is 1951’s Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim. Sim, who was born in Edinburgh in 1900 and starred in a number of projects on stage and screen before his death in 1976, had the perfect voice and face for Mr. Scrooge.
And now with modern technology, we can add the tradition of watching Scrooge on the Internet.
Other famous versions of the movie feature George C. Scott, Jim Carrey, and Albert Finney as Scrooge. The Alistair Sim one remains my favorite.
An American Christmas Carol
But I must admit I have a soft spot for a 1979 made-for-television movie called An American Christmas Carol, starring Fonzie himself, Henry Winkler as the Scrooge character named Benedict Slade.
Maybe I was at an impressionable age when I first saw An American Christmas Carol. Or maybe I liked the way it put a new twist on an old story by setting it during the Depression in New England.
You also may watch An American Christmas Carol below.
No matter who is your favorite Scrooge, may the future find that it always be said of him (or her), “that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
What is your favorite version of A Christmas Carol? Leave your two cents in the comments.
A new video examines “Everything Wrong With Back To The Future in 8 Minutes Or Less.” CinemaSins compiled the errors and created the entertaining video. What happened to one of George McFly’s pens? How did Doc open the doors on the DeLorean inside the truck? How did Marty McFly turn around the car inside the barn? These and other questions will be raised (but not answered). Check it out.
What is your favorite mistake in “Back to the Future”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
, and Albert Finney as Scrooge. The Alistair Sim one remains my favorite.