This past weekend, Keli and I were actually able to go out, without the kids, on a date. It was the first such occasion in about 3 months. That may not sound like a lot, but when you throw into the mix the stress of both of us being self-employed, adjusting to the new town we recently moved to, two very rambunctious, high-energy and very independent kids, three months seems like an eternity.

We went out to dinner then we decided to go see “Reign Over Me” – the new movie with Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Liv Tyler, Jada Pinkett Smith and Donald Sutherland just to name a few. I had heard about the premise of the movie and from watching the previews thought it was something I’d want to see. I’m a big fan of Don Cheadle and while most of his movies I tell myself are things I don’t think I’d be “in the mood” to watch, I almost always walk away from the viewing feeling very glad I saw it.

I was concerned about a couple other things as well.

1. Adam Sandler is freaking hilarious. I love his comedy CDs and flicks like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. I wasn’t too confident that he would be able to deliver the type of compelling, serious performance this role would demand.
2. 9/11. As the previews tell us, Adam Sandler’s character is a man who lost his wife and kids “in 9/11.” I was very afraid that this movie would be nothing but yet one more way for the media to, once again, invoke the tragedy of September the 11th, to stoke the emotional fires in the watchers.

I could not have been more wrong. I’ll try not to reveal too much but I’d feel better just telling you all that I might be inconsiderate enough to mention some spoilers. Read on at your own risk!

As mentioned above, Adam Sandler plays a man by the name of Charlie Fineman. Charlie’s wife and three little girls were on one of the hijacked airplanes that crashed on 9/11. After that, he fell into a downward spiral into a world that was all his own.

Don Cheadle plays a man named Alan Johnson. Alan is a dentist and when he was in college he was roommates for two years with Charlie Fineman. After college they drifted apart and hadn’t talked for years. Alan sees Charlie one day while sitting in traffic. Charlie’s means of transportation is a gas-powered Go-Ped which he zips and zooms around New York on, while listening to music through his Bose Noise-canceling headphones. Eventually, Alan sees Charlie again around town and gets to talk to him. He quickly realizes that the Charlie he knew in college is hidden away somewhere. He sets out on a personal quest to reunite with his college buddy and ultimately becomes consumed with the thought of trying to help Charlie confront the horrors of what happened to his family and resume a normal life.

Without giving away too many details, let me say this: Be prepared! This movie starts out slow. By the time things pick up and the pieces start to fit together, I was getting nervous that the ending would be rushed. We’ve all seen movies that spend a lot of time on character and plot development and then suddenly the end is upon us, many times before we even realize the ending has arrived. This movie is not like that.

As the movie goes on, I found myself concerned for the wellbeing of every character I was watching. Adam Sandler is phenomenal in this role. There were times when the entire theater was laughing their asses off and then a moment later he brought the entire audience to tears – and they weren’t tears from laughing so hard. This type of movie isn’t exactly the kind that would attract a younger crowd, so the annoyance of chatty teens and their mental incapacity for common courtesy will hardly be an issue.

The soundtrack for this movie is superbly fitting and acts as yet another way to make this movie even better. After seeing this movie, you won’t be able to listen to Pearl Jam’s “Love, Reign O’er Me” without thinking of Charlie Fineman. I definitely recommend you go see this movie. It’s a long one though, coming in at a hair over two hours.

If you like movies involving street/pub brawls and proper football (soccer to us Yanks) this is the movie for you.

I saw this movie on the New Release wall at Hollywood Video and decided to Netflix it (we had free rental coupons at Hollywood…). I’ve become more of a fan of Elijah Wood over time, and the premise seemed promising.

The movie begins in London when two groups of men confront each other on opposite ends of a train track. They exchange insults and before you can even catch what is being said and decipher their accents, a fight breaks out. Then we’re introduced to Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) – a promising, young journalist-in-training. We very quickly come to find out that Matt was framed and expelled from the prestigious Harvard University, only to learn that his roommate, son of a wealthy political family, set him up, as he hands Buckner an envelope with $10,000 as a “thank you.”

Rejecting the money at first, Buckner then decides to take the money and head to London to visit his sister. No sooner does he get there then his brother-in-law pays him a bunch of money to go out with his younger brother, Pete Dunham, to a football match. What Buckner experiences is a crash course in London street culture and the intricate details of Pubs and football.

It turns out, that Pete is the leader of the GSE (Green Street Elite) “firm” (a gang of violent football fans) that is loyal only to the West Ham United football team and the locale of which they live. Buckner soon learns the ropes of being in the GSE, the firm’s history, and hopeful future of having the best reputation of any firm in England. But that reputation comes at a price – blood spilt in the streets.

At the onset of his first fight – with the GSE and of his entire life – Matt is given this one rule from Pete: “You don’t run, not when you’re with us… You stand your ground and fight!”

From there, the movie is a speeding bullet of pints, blood, soccer, character development and a couple plot twists that leave you completely entertained. Elijah Wood’s character did sort of remind me of Edward Norton Jr. in Fight Club, a sissy at first, then a bad-ass as the movie progresses.

For a movie that didn’t hit theaters in the U.S., it was really good. Chances are I’ll buy this to add to my collection. The soundtrack was pretty damn good too, a mixture of rock and hip-hop.