The new movie “Crawl” gets high marks for originality. A father and daughter are trapped in a basement during a major Hurricane surrounded by very large Alligators. I have to admit, I have never seen something like this before. The only problem with this story, is the same problem with all movies like this; people do stupid things more for Hollywood drama rather than because they are panicked. If someone panics and does something stupid because they are about to be eaten by a huge Alligator, then this makes sense and is understandable. However, some of the decisions in this movie, especially towards the end are just plain dumb and are only for increasing the drama, rather than enhancing what is a pretty good story. Crawl delivers what it promises, I just wish it could have done this with some more common sense and intelligence.

The Rotten Tomatoes are a surprisingly high 88% for Crawl, but my grade is only an average 75%, mostly for the very well done special effects than the story and some of the very bad decisions the characters make to try and survive.

There should be more movies like “Wild Rose” made, for the millions of young people who aspire to move to Hollywood to be an actor or a famous singer. The odds are very long and what this film shows, is the truth about these long odds. The reality of the luck involved, the disappointments and heartache, the breaks that are needed and might never come. It all amounts to gambling with your entire life. There are the lucky few and the thousands who never make it. It doesn’t matter that you work hard to achieve your dreams or that you may actually be the most talented, like the singer in this movie. What matters is that Rose-Lynn has been the absentee single mother to 2 kids starting at age 18. Her talent will always come in second to her children.

The lead character of Wild Rose,Rose-Lynn is played by Jessie Buckley, who is not only an outstanding actor in this role, but a great singer as well. Her mother Marion, played well by Julie Walters comes to her daughters rescue frequently because of the late nights and drinking that come with her daughters life as a lounge singer.

This movie takes place in Scotland, a very unlikely location for a singer who wants to become a country singer who lives in Nashville. One problem wit this film is because of the very thick Scottish accents, many times it was impossible to fully understand what people were saying.

The message of this movie is a good one. Just because the odds are long and probably impossible does not mean to not try to achieve your dreams.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Wild Rose are a very high 94% and I agree with this assessment and highly recommend this film.

Neither Kevin Costner or Harrison Ford have ever won an Academy Award for best acting, but just based on these two scenes below, they should have won for best actor for Ford and supporting actor for Costner. In terms of showing real emotion in a movie, it does not get better than these two scenes from “Air Force One”, released in 1997 and Molly’s Game, released in 2017.