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) a...

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 ...

  It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. A hundred years ago life was exciting and full of romance but it was also a time of horrors. And so from the mind of Taylor Sheridan comes the prequel to the critically acclaimed Kevin Costner drama Yellowstone (a show which I still haven’t seen) entitled 1923 . The series stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren and follows them as they lead the Dutton family through a time of hardships including Western Expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression, in the vast beautiful yet harsh landscape of Montana. Billed as a two-season only show with each season set to consist of eight episodes, the series premiere or pilot as you call it recently debuted and it didn’t disappoint in the least.      The novelty of having Harrison Ford as the lead star of a TV show is not lost on me. In recent years we have continually seen the lines between film and TV blurred so much that there is practically no line. So the only explanati...

  Avatar: The Way of Water is a beautifully shot and breathtaking Titanic-sized epic that at its core is a family drama. That and a story about the environment. Director James Cameron ( True Lies , Titanic ) saw to that from the lush green forest environments to the depths of the awe-inspiring oceans of Pandora. All of that however is threatened by the formidable Stephen Lang who reprises his role as a U.S. Marine that commands his forces into battle against the Na’vi race with his old nemesis at the top of that kill list: Jake Sully.    Sam Worthington excels here, reprising the role of Sully from the original Avatar alongside Zoe Saldana as his wife Neyitiri as they raise a family on Pandora. At first I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be all that invested in watching mostly “blue people” for an entire three plus hour movie but I quickly found myself engaged by the performers and the dynamics between the Sully family were fun and very relatable to watch play out. And when t...

   "It's not the years honey, it's the mileage." This is what Indiana Jones said to Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) after she tells him, "You're not the man I knew ten years ago." And this sentiment that age is just a state of mind couldn't ring more true as Harrison Ford, 80 is set to reprise the iconic role next summer in what will truly be Indiana Jones's last crusade. “It’s full of adventure, full of laughs, full of real emotion. And it’s complex and it’s sneaky,” Harrison Ford tells Empire . Stepping back into the world of Indy was no mean feat. “The shooting of it was tough and long and arduous,” he says. “But I’m very happy with the film that we have.” That's the word on the street from Ford who aims to bring back the same level of ambition that he brought to the role in the beginning to service the people who go to see his movies who he sees as "his customers, not fans."   Directed this time by James Mango...