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Review: Secondhand Lions (2003)
Every once in a while, you come across a movie that both kids and adults can enjoy - repeatedly, a movie that has poetry and wisdom and humour, that is sweet and sentimental but not syrupy. Secondhand lions is such a movie.
We have a Friday night tradition in our family. We prepare a nice dinner, mostly cold stuff like tomatoes with mozarella, cold cuts, bread, beefsteak tartare, fruit, and sometimes muffins or yell-o. We carry everything to the sofa and watch a movie, while we eat. This may not sound special to some, but in Germany, eating in front of the TV is actually frowned upon, the kind of thing you don't admit you're doing. Anyway, we don't just watch TV, but we watch a nice DVD together, all four of us. We started out watching Disney movies, but lately it gets more difficult to find things to watch. The girls are no longer at an age, where they want to watch the same movies again and again. They want new movies, the kind that grownups watch. So, we watched stuff like Back to the Future, two Seasons of Star Trek the Next Generation, two of the Indy movies, some Star wars, sports comedies and dance movies. And in order to have a constant supply of "new" movies, I buy second hand DVDs that look promising. Secondhand Lions is such a purchase, and boy, am I glad I bought it!!
Michael Caine and Robert Duvall starr as Uncle Garth and Uncle Hub, two eccentric and apparently very wealthy old brothers, who have retired in some remote place in Texas, where they amuse themselves by shooting at travelling salesmen. Hub, as we find out, is weary of life and ready to go out in a blaze, but the arrival of their young great-nephew Walter (Haley Joel Osment) changes everything. Walter has been dumped on their doorstep by his flighty mum - and he is charged with the task to find out where the old men have hidden their fortune....
This delightful movie is full of unexpected twists and turns, it is colourful and magical, mostly because the two crusty old men are more fun than a barrel of monkeys, the performances are perfect, the casting excellent, the script is clever and imaginative and often funny, and the direction is flawless.
Awesome.
Also, Buffyverse fans may be happy to hear that Christian Kane aka Wolfram & Hart's Lindsey appears as Robert Duvall's younger self in some very dashing and colourful flashback scenes. He looks quite different, but still yummie. Personally, I really liked the moustache.... Definitely worth a look.
We have a Friday night tradition in our family. We prepare a nice dinner, mostly cold stuff like tomatoes with mozarella, cold cuts, bread, beefsteak tartare, fruit, and sometimes muffins or yell-o. We carry everything to the sofa and watch a movie, while we eat. This may not sound special to some, but in Germany, eating in front of the TV is actually frowned upon, the kind of thing you don't admit you're doing. Anyway, we don't just watch TV, but we watch a nice DVD together, all four of us. We started out watching Disney movies, but lately it gets more difficult to find things to watch. The girls are no longer at an age, where they want to watch the same movies again and again. They want new movies, the kind that grownups watch. So, we watched stuff like Back to the Future, two Seasons of Star Trek the Next Generation, two of the Indy movies, some Star wars, sports comedies and dance movies. And in order to have a constant supply of "new" movies, I buy second hand DVDs that look promising. Secondhand Lions is such a purchase, and boy, am I glad I bought it!!
Michael Caine and Robert Duvall starr as Uncle Garth and Uncle Hub, two eccentric and apparently very wealthy old brothers, who have retired in some remote place in Texas, where they amuse themselves by shooting at travelling salesmen. Hub, as we find out, is weary of life and ready to go out in a blaze, but the arrival of their young great-nephew Walter (Haley Joel Osment) changes everything. Walter has been dumped on their doorstep by his flighty mum - and he is charged with the task to find out where the old men have hidden their fortune....
This delightful movie is full of unexpected twists and turns, it is colourful and magical, mostly because the two crusty old men are more fun than a barrel of monkeys, the performances are perfect, the casting excellent, the script is clever and imaginative and often funny, and the direction is flawless.
Awesome.
Also, Buffyverse fans may be happy to hear that Christian Kane aka Wolfram & Hart's Lindsey appears as Robert Duvall's younger self in some very dashing and colourful flashback scenes. He looks quite different, but still yummie. Personally, I really liked the moustache.... Definitely worth a look.
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And for me, this film was a case of colliding fandoms, because I instantly recognized the swordfighting style as that of Anthony DeLongis, one of Hollywood's top swordmasters/fight coordinators. He appeared twice as a K'IMMIE (bad immortal, starts with K, you figure it out) on Highlander, and was terrific both times because he and Adrian Paul were so well-matched in their ability to use swords! I've met him, watched him work, taken a class with his partner Bob "The Bob" Chapin, and literally shrieked out loud in the movie theatre when I finally saw his name in the credits - vindication! LOL! AND I read somewhere that it was because Christian Kane had learned from Anthony that he was able to suggest to the Angel folks that he and Angel should fight with swords in... what ep? Welcome Home, right?
Cool, huh?
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I'm trying to think of more movies that older kids and adults can enjoy. Your daughters might not be as interested as my son was, but when he was about eight he loved the movie 'October Sky'.
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