What we see and think about affects our mental, physical, and spiritual health. It is important that we make good choices in movies and media for ourselves and for those is our care. With some careful research, it is possible to find good movies that enhance our well-being that are entertaining while also inspiring, uplifting, and edifying, as they show the good consequences of good actions and the bad consequences of bad actions.
The best picks in theaters in box office order for the last week of July are the following: Incredibles 2 (PG), for older children through adults; Solo: A Star Wars Story (PG-13) most suitable for teens through adults; Show Dogs (PG), for older children through adults; Black Panther (PG-13), for teens through adults; Chappaquiddick (PG-13) for older teens and adults; and Newsies, for teens and adults.
Wonderfully, there are many more promising movies to look forward to. Although theater release dates can change, here is what is known about the “what and when” of some of the most promising redemptive and family movies due in theaters this year Christopher Robin, 8/3; Little Mermaid, 8/17; An Interview with God, 8/20; Beautifully Broken, 8/24; Rudy, 8/28; Pick of the Litter, 8/31; Moses, 9/13; Unbroken, Path to Redemption, 9/14; God Bless The Broken Road, 9/21; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 10/14; Mowgli, 10/19; Indivisible, 10/26; Mulan, 11/2; The Nutcracker and The Four Realms, 11/2; The Grinch, 11/9; A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War, 11/11; Wreck-It-Ralph, 11/21; Mary Poppins Returns, 12/21; Walking with Herb, 12/30, and more.
Along with many other promising redemptive and family movies scheduled for 2019, there are others with release dates to be announced in the near future that include: Heavenquest: A Pilgrim’s Progress; Indivisible; Run the Race; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair; Peter Pan; Staines; Faith, Hope, and Love; In God’s Underground; Palau the Movie; Megan’s Christmas Miracle, and many more. Watch for interviews and insightful stories for these movies on Sonoma Christian Home.
Uniquely, each week Sonoma Christian Home publishes the top picks for the best choices in movies in theaters for all ages that are not only entertaining but edifying with quality production elements. Sonoma Christian Home also provides valuable reviews and substantive interviews for these top picks in family-friendly and edifying movies.
Reviews, summaries, and interviews for top picks movies continue on Sonoma Christian Home and for this week are as follows:
Incredibles 2 is a sequel to Pixar and Disney’s classic animated movie, The Incredibles, in which the family protects civilians when a supervillain hypnotizes them to harm them. Incredibles 2 is another fun, exciting, family superhero movie with humor, heart, and overall moral value (there are a few inappropriate words). It is a movie for the whole family with themes of challenges of parenthood and family life; making good moral and courageous choices; and overcoming screen addictions and harm.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Solo is like an American space western about Han Solo, a character from the Star Wars saga. This movie is about Han Solo’s first adventures, which include how he first encountered future copilot Chewbacca, how he first met Lando Calrissian to become owner of the Millennium Falcon space ship, and how he first became involved in space adventures before joining the Rebellion.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a heartfelt movie in which Han and Chewbacca often do the right thing as they fight for justice against totalitarian, criminal evil to protect and liberate the oppressed and weak.
Directed by Ron Howard and produced by Lucasfilm, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second of the Star Wars anthology of films and follows the 2016 Rogue One. It is set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, as it explores the adventures of younger Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian.
Star Wars is an American epic space saga set in “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” based on the film series created by George Lucas. The series has appealed to audiences who are now of grandparent age, to current young audiences. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars (with the later subtitle in 1981 of Episode IV: A New Hope. It was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), which along with the first movie make up the original Star Wars trilogy.
A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed reactions and reviews. A sequel trilogy emerged in 2015 which included Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The first eight films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been commercial successes. Animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and Rogue One (2016) have been spinoff films. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm and gained distribution rights to all subsequent Star Wars films, which began with the release of The Force Awakens in 2015.
Show Dogs features a charming and lovable cast of talking canines. Max the hero (voiced by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) is a rugged, loner Rottweiler NYPD police dog. Max and his human FBI partner (Will Arnett) are investigating the kidnapping of a baby panda by an underground network of illegal animal traders. They get a tip that the crime ring is planning to sell the panda at the prestigious Canini Invitational Dog Show. To go undercover and thwart the plot, macho Max must undergo a makeover with the help of a seasoned trainer (Natasha Lyonne) that includes mud baths, ballet lessons, and a Brazilian waxing. As he works with human handler Frank, Max gets in touch with his inner show dog. He learns that trusting the help of others can sometimes be more rewarding than working alone.
Show Dogs is entertaining and comical with positive moral lessons; but be aware it does have some doggy potty humor. Themes in this movie include the following values: rule of law, loyalty, choosing right over wrong, friendship, teamwork and more. This movie first came out with some scenes which have now been removed due to protests concerning their danger to children.
Addressing hope for reconciliation, Black Panther picturizes how to avoid, thwart and prevent evil through sharing and coordination of technology with good leaders. In the dangerous world in which we live, superhero movies with heroes of with good moral character, integrity, and self-sacrifice are popular partly because audiences want to see heroes who enable good to prevail over evil. This movie is rated PG-13, due to the violent struggles between good and evil. It is appropriate for middle schoolers-adults.
Black Panther is about Wakanda, an African nation, which has developed “vibranium,” an invaluable metal from a meteorite. Vibranium has helped Wakanda produce extremely advanced technology and civilization, which they have kept hidden from the world, as they pose as an impoverished country.
Wakanda struggles with the following universal questions and dilemmas: Should they share what they have with those in need? If they share, will they lose control of their resources? Will those with whom they might share use their technology for evil? Is the king’s highest loyalty and duty to his nation or to humanity? If Wakanda refuses to help those they can, how will it affect Wakanda? Can Wakanda use its power and technology for the good of all, as well as for their own country?
Where the earlier American Black Panther group used power for militancy, this latest Black Panther uses technology and power for the Good of All.
Another top pick movie, Chappaquiddick, (produced by Mark Ciardi, who also produced The Miracle Season) continues in theaters. It highlights the need for truth and true Christian virtues. This PG-13 movie is appropriate for older teens through adults. Chappaquiddick gets beneath the spin to the facts of a critical day in the life of Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy to shine light on that darkness of the events related to that day. It is a much-needed look at political spin that covers over, whitewashes, and hides the truth.
This riveting suspense drama picturizes the events surrounding the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne, after Ted Kennedy drives his car off the infamous Chappaquiddick bridge. This movie, which gets behind the scenes to reveal the truth of these events, features Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy and Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne. The cast also includes: Ed Helms, Jim Gaffigan, Clancy Brown, Taylor Nichols, Olivia Thirlby, and Bruce Dern.
This movie is based on true accounts, documented in the inquest (a judicial inquiry to ascertain the facts relating to an incident, such as a death) from the investigation in 1969. From these facts from true accounts, director John Curran and writers Andrew Logan and Taylor Allen, intimately expose the hiding of truth by political power and spin as they focus on the life of Ted Kennedy.
On July 18, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy and campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne left a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, heading into darkness in Kennedy’s car. There is no question that the car ended up overturned in shallow water with Kopechne trapped inside or that Kennedy waited 10 hours to report the accident. It was the tragic end of a promising life for Kopechne and the end of any presidential hopes for the senator.
Allen and Logan decided to focus on this critical week in Kennedy’s life with its historical backdrop. At this time, the country had seen the back-to-back assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 and Bobby Kennedy in June 1968. Ted was at his brother’s side the night he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Mary Jo Kopechne too had worked on his Bobby’s presidential campaign. For contrasting historical context, in July of 1969, the country watched the Apollo 11 space mission on TV, which fulfilled JFK’s promise to take America to the moon. Just two days after Ted left Kopechne to die in shallow water, Neil Armstrong planted a flag on the lunar surface.
Always living in the shadow of his two more successful older brothers and now the last political hope of the Kennedy family, Ted believed that winning the presidency was his chance to redeem his brothers’ and family’s legacies, as well as securing his own. However, these desires were spectacularly and tragically stopped one fatal night in the darkness due to Ted’s own choices and behavior.
“We never wanted this to be a conspiracy movie,” Logan says. “We pulled from objective facts to lay the groundwork—no insinuation, no innuendo, but the real truth,” adds Allen. “That’s why our collaboration with director John Curran was so successful because we shared that passion for fact-finding.”
See my interview on Sonoma Christian Home with Chappaquiddick producer Mark Ciardi (The Miracle Season, Invincible, Secretariat, The Rookie, McFarland USA… and former major league pitcher, whose company fully financed the production of Chappaquiddick).
Like Allen and Logan, Ciardi said in our interview, “…We did not want to editorialize but just tell the emotional story based on the facts.” Further, he said that the many layers of the Chappaquiddick story are what make it relatable today. “It does feel uniquely current right now, even though the story happened in 1969,” Ciardi said. Furthermore, in my interview with him, Mark Ciardi says that this movie speaks to the issues of ”… abuse of power and gives voice to the voiceless… putting oneself in potentially dangerous situations…We must each read between lines, seek Truth, and have a rational sense of right and wrong… History repeats itself. There are consequences for our actions…The end does not justify the means…”
Another top pick for the last week of July is the Fathom Event in theaters of the Disney musical, Newsies. This summer encore of the Disney Theatrical Productions’ Broadway Musical is loosely based on the newsboys’ strike of 1899, when U.S. youth-led campaign successfully changed the way that Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers compensated their child labor force of newspaper boys.
The Tony Award®-winning musical returns to cinemas with Jeremy Jordan, reprising his Tony Award®-Nominated performance as Jack Kelly. Along with Jordan from the original Broadway cast are the following: Kara Lindsay “Katherine,” Ben Fankhauser “Davey” and Andrew Keenan-Bolger “Crutchie,” with North American Tour stars Steve Blanchard “Joseph Pulitzer” and Aisha de Haas as “Medda Larkin.” Additional cast from the Broadway and North American Tour ensemble also perform. The two-day event was captured on film during live performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.
The musical is set in New York City at the turn of the century, when a ragged band of teenaged ‘newsies,’ are led by Jack Kelly. They dream of a better life that is far from the hardship of the streets. When newspaper titans, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack rallies newsies from across the city to strike and prevail for what’s right.
The cast in this high-energy production is outstanding. There are good songs and some of the best dancing on screen. The close-ups enable audiences to see the characters actions and emotional responses more clearly.
The best picks in theaters in box office order for the last week of July are the following: Incredibles 2 (PG), for older children through adults; Solo: A Star Wars Story (PG-13) most suitable for teens through adults; Show Dogs (PG), for older children through adults; Black Panther (PG-13), for teens through adults; Chappaquiddick (PG-13) for older teens and adults; and Newsies (PG), suitable for teens and adults.
Please continue to search for and support the best movies for your friends and families. The best is yet to come as long as we continue to support the ongoing reformation in content and renaissance in artistry in media and movies.
As audiences continue to see good family and redemptive movies in theaters, keeping them at the top of the box office, more good movies like them are being made. Watch for many top picks this year of redemptive movies that continue to improve in the ongoing renaissance of artistry and reformation of content in movies. Remember that consumers can facilitate the success and wide global distribution of good redemptive movies. Remember that a movie’s success opening weekend is important. Continue to research movies before you see them and hold out for the best for you and yours.
Think on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable… (The Bible)
To learn more about this author, please visit Dr. Diane Howard
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