Civil Love

Add this to your list of favorites!
Once in awhile you come across a love story to be added to your list of favorites. For me, "Civil Love" is one of those movies.

Rachel and her two children must find a way to survive on their own after the death of Rachel's husband a year earlier. A soldier for the Union Army during the Civil War, Rachel's husband was killed by enemy soldiers. When faced with a proposition to remarry the local sheriff, will Rachel do so, even if it means being married to someone she doesn't love? And what will she do about the stranger she found injured in her barn? After all, the stranger is a Confederate soldier - just like the ones who killed her husband.

Daniel recently escaped from a Union Army prison. A Confederate soldier from Georgia, Daniel is shot in his attempt to return home. Will he survive the brutal cold? Will he be able to outrun the two men relentlessly searching for him? What happens when he collapses in a barn, only to discover later it is the barn of a woman...

A Romance First and Foremost
This story provides an interesting premise for a love story, and for the most part, it delivers.

The set-up is not totally unfamiliar: a single mom with children, isolated, trying to make a go of it in a primitive enviroment. Along comes a handsome(once he shaves) mysterious stranger in need. The added relish, it's the Civil War; he's of the enemy that killed her husband, and he's recently escaped from a brutal prison.

It's a great plot for interesting interactions, and an ever present feeling of danger looms overhead, makes it all the more romantic. Can he be trusted? Will the authorities catch up to him and kill him? Can the heroine resist the growing feelings she's developing?

In general, the filming, sets, and acting are fine. It's a tad low budget, and in places, it comes across like TV show and the costumes a bit stagey looking. The outdoor shots with the cold were much better, and the music flows fine with the scenes, which can be problem...

Good idea for a story but.....
I love the civil war era and so was excited to see a new movie from the era...but with all the information about the 1860's couldn't somebody have done some research? The costumes are awful. Totally awful!! There was no synthetic fabric in the 1860's. Also no zippers and the styles were totally wrong. Besides that the mom seemed way too young to have kids that old. The Confederate soldier has no southern accent but one of the men hunting him did. The wood chopping scene...it was obvious that the wood was already split. I gave it 2 stars because it was a sweet love store.

Click to Editorial Reviews

Genetic Roulette - The Gamble of Our Lives

Must See if you eat food!!
I got a chance to see this video for free and still bought it because I wanted to lend it to others to see. We've all heard a little bit about genetically modified foods and I thought the issue had more or less been taken care of. I couldn't have been more wrong. These crops need to go and our politicians will never have the will power but we have the power of the almighty dollar to stop it by not buying the stuff. I get a voice in how the world's and my own food is produced because every dollar I spent is a vote for what I want to see. Of course the worst affected are those unable to make decisions for themselves the children. Immoral and unethical are words too good for the multinationals that produce this garbage that they call food and feed for animals. This is something that everyone who eats needs to see. I cannot stress enough that everyone who is reading this review has already consumed genetically altered foods and so have their loved ones. I am not an alarmist by nature, but...

A Must See Documentary
Jeffrey Smith just released an incredible new documentary called Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives. It's narrated by Lisa Oz (daughter of Dr. Oz) and features interviews with physicians, scientists, farmers, dieticians, chefs and educators all discussing the problems with genetically engineered foods.

Americans get sick more often then Europeans and people in other industrial countries and we're getting sicker. Since the mid 1990's when Genetically Modified Organisms (Genetically Engineered Foods) when our food supply was taken over, without our knowledge or our consent. The number of Americans suffering at least three chronic illnesses nearly doubled. Why is this taking place?

We've had an epidemic increase in cancer, obesity, allergies, autism, diabetes, asthma, and intestinal disorders. These are the same conditions that animals eating genetically engineered foods develop in the lab. It seems like we, and our children, are the guinea pigs of the...

Genetic Roulette movie review
This is a very informative documentary.
google geneticroulettemovie

Public officials' connections to Monsanto Former Monsanto employees currently hold positions in US government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Supreme Court. These include:

Michael A. Friedman, MD, was Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Medical and Public Policy for Pharmacia, and later served as an FDA deputy commissioner.[195][196]
Linda J. Fisher was an assistant administrator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before she was a vice president at Monsanto from 1995 to 2000. In 2001, Fisher became the deputy administrator of the EPA.[104]
Michael R. Taylor was an assistant to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner before he left to work for a law firm on gaining FDA approval of Monsanto's artificial growth hormone in the 1980s. Taylor then became...

Click to Editorial Reviews

Changing Hearts

So nice to have family value movies.
The movie is well done and supports family. Something harder and harder to find in movies anymore. I know my grand kids can put it on and be safe. It's in my library as my tv is going off more and more.

Mild Family Drama with a Touch of Romance
A clean family drama with a bit of humor, romance, scenery and decent enough acting and directing to keep one's interest.

The story's familiar: successful, big city son returns to beautiful, country home at news of ill father. The family needs help with their flailing B&B as a ruthless, competitor, Daphne Zuniga, pressures them to sell out. There's also internal strife between brothers, and a girlfriend urging the son to return to the city. Will he do the right thing? Can the family and the B&B be saved? Is there a love with the right person blossoming? Stay tuned.

We pretty much know the outcomes, and it's a pleasant enough journey. There's no earth shattering revelations or shocking discoveries.

SunWorld Pictures puts out these films, Scents and Sensibility, Civil Love, Christmas Angel. They offer the same premise of romance, a light moral message and a Dove approved film. They interchange the actors; same crew and directors, Brian Brough...

Wonderful family movie!
Family is very important to me! I didn't like that the main character started out with some kind of problem with his family. I loved that he changed and family relations were mended!

Click to Editorial Reviews

The Bride Walks Out

So-So Stanwyck Fare
This was one of only 5 minor projects Stanwyck committed to in the emotionally turbulent year following her divorce from Frank Fay. It proved a solid box office hit, but it hasn't aged gracefully. The movie begins with snappy promise: Stanwyck is a disillusioned bride whose new husband can't afford to support her in the manner to which she is accustomed. Enter a charming and very eligible drunk in the form of Robert Young. Unfortunately, the movie veers sharply away from any interesting developments in order to chastise Stanwyck - and every woman - for entertaining the least notion of dissatisfaction with a borderline-abusive spouse. A wife's proper place, afterall, is in the home, even if that home is no more than a squalid rat hole and the husband a bore and a boor. For roles far more worthy of her sparkling talents, check out THE LADY EVE and BALL OF FIRE and CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT.

Anything
Anything Barbara Stanwyck did in the 30's and 40's is wonderful. She was a terrific comic actress - one of the FEW truly gifted actresses.

Gene Raymond as Fred Flintstone...
... in a production that is an OK time passer but is based on entirely archaic ideas on the subject of marriage. If I'm going to watch a film from 1936, I guess I should be prepared to deal with the values of 1936, but this is just too much.

Mike Martin (Gene Raymond) is an engineer who basically nags model and long-time girlfriend Carolyn (Barbara Stanwyck) into marrying him. The arguments begin at their quickie civil marriage ceremony and continue as Mike's estimate that $35 a week is enough for them to get by on is incorrect. Plus no wife of his is going to work! It's a Martin tradition. Before this film is over I felt like if it was a Martin tradition to walk a tightrope strung between high rises on your 30th birthday Mike would be up there doing it. He's not exactly a deep thinker.

Meanwhile, Carolyn is stuck making Mike's maxims work. Mike gets to live the dream of supporting a wife that doesn't work, but his dream is really a mirage. Carolyn is the one...

Click to Editorial Reviews

Corvette Summer

Corvette Summer...summer release...what a concept!!!
Yeah, that's right, I'll admit it: I've been waiting for this one to be released on DVD. Is that so wrong? Back in '78, this was Mark Hamill's first post-Star Wars project; we were excited to see "Luke Skywalker" again; even if he wasn't Luke here. We were also excited because Corvette Summer boasted one of the coolest custom 'vettes we'd ever seen, not to mention Annie Potts as a "working girl" This is a nice time capsule of the late 70's, I would recommend to anyone who grew up in that decade, Star Wars fans in particular.

Nostalgia aside this isn't a bad comic chase as Hamill ("Kenny" here) searches for his custom car, made by his own 2 hands, neither of which is robotic at this point, aided and hindered by Potts, as the love-right-in-front-of-his-eyes interest. Hamill's youthful overacting is a pleasure to watch in itself.

This film has aged well and has some really funny moments, like Hamill hitchhiking encounter with a lowrider fleet creeping to Vegas...

Deeper Than You Might Think
I saw this at the drive-in when it came out. It's an easy movie to get totally lost in.

When I first saw it I completely empathized with Mark Hamill's character "Kenny" when his car / catharsis was stolen. The moment in the film when he first realizes he is looking at his stolen car at the car wash, the moment when the music inserts just enough of an orchestrated punctuation mark...that's magic. I am always very aware that I can't avoid a tremendous smile during that moment every time I watch this movie, just as I did when I first saw it.

I couldn't envision another actor in this film and have it work on the same level with the same impact as Mark Hamill. He always had a very likeable, sincere and positive energy throughout this film and wore his ideals with pride. A performance that leaves many of today's leading men looking like arrogant posers.

Many aspects of the 70's are encapsulated here as well, only sweetening a fantastic experience...

The Movie held upGreat over the years but the Car didn't
This is one of those great summer movies that you see as a kid and sticks with you all of your life. It's a very fun movie to watch that flows great, the movie really has stood the test of time but looking at the Corvette with today's standards the car looks really Cheesy, funny how it looked like the coolest thing when I was a kid but not anymore.

Great Movie though

Click to Editorial Reviews

Taxi

Cagney and Loretta Young make a great team
In 1932, James Cagney was on a box office role in a series of cheaply made contemporary stories "torn from the headlines". In this one, he is a cab driver in New York, competing for business and always ready with his fists. Loretta Young is his leading lady, the improbable daughter of cabby, Guy Kibbee, who is jailed for shooting the guy who smashed his cab in order to run Kibbee out of business.

The film has the usual quota of slang and low lifes and moves at a fast clip under Roy Del Ruth's slick direction. The first half is probably the best before melodrama takes over but the real highlight is the unexpected rapport of the leads. Cagney and Young may seem an ill matched pair but at this stage of her career, Young was not only beautiful, but hot and she plays off Cagney's energy with a nonchalant and submissive air which is perfect. She is as riveting as Cagney and who could ignore those beautiful big eyes!

The DVD has been issued under the Warner's Archive...

Another great cagney picture
If your a jimmy cagney fan like me,you will love this movie,shot during the gangster movie years----been waiting for this one

early Loretta Young
If you don't appreciate looking at life in the early 1930s, if you don't like the music from the early 1930s, if you don't like the snazzy cars from the early 1930s, if you don't like seeing the feminine clothes and pretty fluffy soft & shorter hair on women in the early 1930s, if you aren't interested in seeing movie stars long dead who were very young and appealing in the early 1930s, don't buy this dvd. My parents were a really good-looking couple with 2 kids and one on the way, but they lived from hand to mouth during this period known as the Great Depression. In many respects this movie reminded me of them. I loved this movie the first time I saw it on Turner Classic Movies. When it became available on Amazon.com, I had to own it so I could view it every few months and think about my pretty mom. She looked so much like Loretta Young in the early 1930s - - not so much in later periods. Now you may understand why I gave it 5 stars. There are many other early 1930s movies with...

Click to Editorial Reviews

Nobody Knows - The Untold Story of Black Mormons

Very informative
My family is from Puerto Rico which has a mix of ancestry including descendants from Africa. Although I am a devout "Mormon" or member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I was unclear/misinformed about the past "policy" regarding the ban for African men from receiving the priesthood. This documentary was very informative, it has strengthened my testimony. I recommend everyone to watch it, because it depicts a very important part of history and present, but it is not sugar coated.





Click to Editorial Reviews