Media Reviews: Video and DVD

The Girl in the Café Rated 4 Stars by Michael and Denice

Tagline: Love can't change what's wrong in the world. But it's a start.

Actors: Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald, Ken Stott, Meneka Das, Penny Downie, Anton Lesser, Paul Ritter, Corin Redgrave, and Alysha Westlake.

Lawrence (Bill Nighy), an aging, lonely civil servant falls for Gina (Kelly Macdonald.) Finding the courage to overcome loneliness, he takes her to the G8 Summit in Reykjavik where he is representing the United Kingdome as a financial advisor for the millennium budget. He shares with her is agony over having to make compromises. For instance, the government subsidizes cattle in one country. "You can send a cow around the globe first class on an airplane for what they subsidize them for. That same money spend on only one cow would save the lives of 100 women with AIDS." Yikes.

Quote from the movie: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're handing around new proposals. And remember, even if the Prime Minister and I are alone on this, we are not alone. Behind us stand the 30,000 children who will die of extreme poverty each day and we are proud to be their representatives. I didn't give my life to politics in order to say that I was part of a generation that succeeded in cutting the tariff on the import of processed coffee to 27.3%. I want to be a member of that great generation that for the first time had in its power to wipe out poverty, and did so. Are we alone in this? Or will someone else stand beside us?"

The end quote by Nelson Mendela (2005) was really great:

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation."  

Just Like Heaven. I rate this one at 5 stars. I'd like to own this movie (but then, I have a collection of metaphysical movies.) Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon have great chemistry. A romantic/ comedy with a great ending you won't want to miss. He's a depressed landscape architect trying to get his life back together; she's a disgruntled spirit (her real body is in a coma), wondering what happened. David has sublet Elizabeth's apartment. She hates how he doesn't use coasters or pick up trash in HER apartment, he hates how she appears without notice in what he now considers HIS apartment. He is the only one who can see her. As they try to piece together the course of events that have left her in this state of limbo, a relationship develops. Cool effects. I love that he becomes dedicated to trying to help her, despite appearing insane to everyone in San Francisco, except for a wonderfully quirky psychic bookstore clerk played by Jon Heder.

Pay it Forward  This is one of the best movies I've every seen on  Random Acts of Kindness. It started a whole movement, actually. Michael and I once gave a trailer away to a fellow because he saw the movie and said that he would give the trailer to the next person when he was done with it AND do two other "pay it forward" activities.  If you've seen the movie, I'd love to know what you are doing to pay it forward. Write to me.

Question of Faith  It's a scary thing trying to heal your cancer with alternative therapies when your family is telling you that you will die without chemotherapy. This is a true story of a woman who healed her breast cancer with alternative medicine. I require this movie to be seen by all my clients who are using alternative cancer treatments.

Sirius Puppy Training by Dr. Ian Dunbar, D.V.M. Now most of us veterinarians don't get a lot of dog training during our vet school years. It's quite pathetic, actually, because you all think we know so much about that. This was my first introduction to "cookie training" way back in 1992.  I used to thing that you  just overpowered the dog by choking them when you wanted them to do something (that was what I had always been taught in obedience school when I trained my dogs.)  I am SO happy there is this type of alternative. I tell my clients that training people is a lot like training dogs. We respond better with kindness and redirection. This is a must-see for any dog owner.

Spiritual Cinema Circle Movies with Heart, Movies with Soul. We are members of this subscription service. Michael and I look forward to the new DVD each month. We love most of the movies on the disc.

The Spiritual Cinema Circle is a monthly subscription that brings you award-winning movies you're unlikely to see anywhere else. The founder of the circle, Stephen Simon has produced movies such as Indigo, Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come and is the author of The Force is With You. The movies and shorts are family-oriented. Feel free to share the movies with singles, groups, or as fund-raising projects. The monthly fee is around $27. Each CD has 2-4 shorts, or clips and at least one full-feature film.

www.SpiritualCinemaCircle.com 402 West Ojai Avenue, Suite 101-413 Ojai, California 93023. Customer Service 1-800-280-8290.

Tellington Touch www.tteam-ttouch.com. I had a cat once who didn't like to be on my lap.  Forty minutes of this technique done by someone who knew how to use it, changed her whole personality. It was incredible. Great technique for fearful dogs and anxiety problems.

What the Bleep Do We Know? "Did you see that new movie, What the Bleep?" I heard that from my clients from the East Coast for weeks when this movie came out. "It's all about what you do." So, when it came to town, I told Michael that we needed to go (we don't go out to movies that often.) I noticed it was at the theatre on Weds., we saw it on Thursday. There were 6 people in the whole theatre. Before the show started, I felt the room rustle with about 150 people, only there were not visible people there! My guides and a bunch of their friends from the other side decided to watch the movie with us, I guess.  Oh, and my clients are right. Same concepts. I actually recognized one of the doctors in the movie!  Fun. It is very deep and a stretch if you've never experienced energy work. Go rent it. 

 Aerobic Prayer Series: Dancing A Miracle

To order call: 1-800-DANCE-61.  I love this series. I was in an aerobic prayer class that Dr. Irene Lamberti taught in the basement of the Methodist church for about a year before she made this video. The music just really connected with me (see music links for examples of this kind of music). I wrote a story about being in this video which will be out November of 2005. 

Aerobic Prayer Series: Native Spirit by Dr. Irene Lamberti.  To order call: 1-800-DANCE-61. The cost is about $15 last time I checked.

What would you like to find?