This 'Sister' Has 'Soul'

 

I saw one of the four new films released this coming Friday, Soul Surfer, this evening and couldn’t think of anything bad about it other than wondering about why Carrie Underwood was in this when the Hamilton Family (with Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid as the parents), Alana (Lorraine Nicholson), fan letters, and the country of Thailand providing more hope and inspiration for Bethany Hamilton (Annasophia Robb) to continue on pushing to reach her dream of being a pro surfer. Robb amazed me with her performance and triumphs all of hers from the past including that of her last film Race to Witch Mountain. If you don’t cry through the film, I recommend you to check out Bethany’s time in Thailand where we were presented with the sweetest and sentimental scenes that make you forget about how the film didn’t try to make you cry before….well after seeing what happens to our heroine.
If your daughters are looking for an inspirational film, look no further unless you still believe that Sucker Punch is the best women’s empowerment film of the year.

Note: I liked Sucker Punch. The majority of the movie attending world doesn’t.

With little to complain about the film, I give it four gnarly waves out of four.

Longer review below:

When I was looking through rottentomatoes.com's percentage rating for the film, the quote mentioned in its Tomatometer made me think back to Tuesday night when the film, while I felt that the film wasn't bogged down by these things stated after the quote, I could see why people would be turned off by them.

"There's an amazing true story at the heart of Soul Surfer -- and unfortunately, it's drowned by waves of Hollywood cheese."

1) The dialogue is hit-and-miss. Often, you'll hear quotes from the Bible or lines that you've heard in other films. For example: "I can do all things through Him that gives me strength." For me, it's been one of the pieces of information from my home church that have stayed in my mind for years. For those people who may not be into God, He's mentioned a few times, but through the rest of the film, the determination comes from Bethany herself along with her parents. Another example comes at the very end of the film where I felt that it connected with what has been going on with the Bethany in the real world, it came off as a "heard/read it all before" moment. If you can guess what line I'm thinking about, I'll think of a prize to give you. I'll even help you get started:

"The end..." Figure out the rest.

2) Wasted Cameos: While I may not know anything about the surfing pros who were in the film, seeing 90's live-action Hercules (you know there's only one) and Mr. Incredible in this film was quite the surprise. I guess they were brought to tears when reading the original source material for the film and wanted to take part. Maybe they wanted to say, 'Hey, we may not have done a lot of films but our careers haven't died and neither have we.' They don't really do much, even though one of them is the father of Bethany's best friend (who is absolutely stunning beauty-wise), and don't really add much to the plot. Without them, the movie wouldn't have been hurt. How about Carrie Underwood? You could tell that she was brought up in a very religious family and plays the role of the youth minister perfectly, but anyone could have played the role. One thing I noticed was when she cried, she did it beautifully. In short, I didn't see not one drip of mascara in a heart-to-heart talk with Annasophia which didn't have enough impact. I mean I really felt the pain from Robb but with Underwood, there were some sniffles but other than that, Underwood wasn't used to her full potential.

3) The Rivalry: It made me think about the film Cars with Chick Hicks trying to give Lightning McQueen a run for his money. Then, I remembered the rival of the title characters of the original and remake of the first Karate Kid when they were complete jerks then gave respect to them at the end of the films. This is the same with Bethany and her rival Malina (Sonya Balmores) who, unlike Chick Hicks, was more like the Karate Kid rivals/bullies and didn't feel like much of a threat. Maybe she was like that in real life or the rivalry was written to give Bethany a foil character but it did give her more determination to be the best and ride the waves without thinking about her missing limb.

Other than these mentioned points,.I don't want to talk bad about the film because I liked it even if I don't see myself getting the DVD, but it's good enough for a rental if you end up missing it in theaters. For the young girls of any age, again, you can't do wrong with this. If you check out any of the other films this week, that's fine. Soul Surfer is one that will catch you by surprise.