The Ray Pletcher Blog

  This faith-based picture works incredibly well as a real, breathing, and entirely engaging theatrical experience which shouldn’t be discounted or dismissed. Starring Kelsey Grammer, this true story follows a national spiritual awakening that took place in the late 60s and early 70s that originated within a teenage community of hippies in Southern California. This film has it all from romance to drama to emotional stakes and sensational thrills.      Chuck Smith played by Kelsey Grammer is a pastor with a rebellious daughter played by the ever so lovely Ally Loannides who takes in a hippie by the name of Lonnie Frisee (Jonathan Roumie) who has a real heart for Jesus and from the connection they make a movement is sprung in Southern California to save hippies who are lost in their quest for God. On the other hand we follow military school student Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) that embarks upon a tantalizing romance with a blonde hippie named Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow) and in his downward

SHAZAM! Zachary Levi excels in this delightful followup to the 2019 film which explores the theme of family and coming-of-age in a truly resonant fashion. The story follows Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who on the verge of turning 18 and aging out of his foster home struggles to keep the gang together while a new threat emerges in the form of Helen Mirren and her equally treacherous sisters. Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam: Fury of the Gods proves to be a remarkably entertaining action comedy that continues to deliver on the Big -inspired touchstones that the original film brought us.    The actors playing young Billy and his foster siblings are all growing up fast as evidenced by the nearly four year gap in between installments and two year jump in the storytelling, so it’s only natural that the screenwriters decided to move the story forward with the narrative of Billy’s fear of being kicked out of the home he has built for himself over the last two years. This is done in such a