annevejb Carly Schroeder. I consider Lizzie McGuire to have some retrograde aspects, grit stemming from the blatant vengeance culture approach of Lizzie's family. It was a step towards me considering modern Disney to be highly suspicious, but a few years on and I have to find Disney's Lizzie McGuire, also Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, still to be head and shoulders better than most other television series for kids that I have on DVD. Carly occasionally appearing as 'Melanoma', a memorable and very beautiful but scary friend of Lizzie's scary little brother.The past two years I have looked to see if Carly had anything else out on disk. I found Firewall, which did not appeal to me. Now I have obtained this.This story shows that she can handle a very different role to Melina. Not that all who have commented on this would agree. In this her beauty is usually tamed down but she is trying to head in directions that often feel to be sensible. The people around her have different understandings of sensible. For me, this is the power of the story.There is a lot of grit in this story as well. It is based on the 1970's and the males remind me of the males in such as Detroit Rock City, alien and really vomit level aggressive cavemen. The football field is not understood as a place with rules of good conduct, it is more a battlefield where the opposition are tough and players are tough even to players on their own team who they do not consider to rate good conduct. They are supposed to be tough, skilled but tough. This would never be a Dr Spock understanding of manly male? This is nothing like the bits of football or UK rugby league that I used to occasionally go to in the 1960's.It reminds me of the world of battling 'heroes' that I occasionally noticed in sports posters, local UK in the 1990's. An alien world. In the UK 1970's I did not notice the violence in people, it was there but more a hidden thing, silent and deadly.In this, lead character Gracie is damaged by the violence, it knocks her down for more than half a year. She shows herself as having what it takes to gradually become a survivor. For me that is not the important part of the story, what counts more as this being a story that I can find okay on a second or third viewing. It is an okay way to pass the time.Add the soundtrack including the sort of 1970's related music that I can rate as hot.The bird is an American Kestral, aka American Sparrowhawk. A young male, not European but very common in the USA. The commentaries add detail. These are more real than one's average commentary.

freakfire-1 A family tragedy involving sports. That has been done before, however I think better than this work. Very much different from "Death Sentence", although it does have in common the gifted child dying and the less gifted one living. It is also not anything like "Mean Green", except it revolves around soccer.Gracie wants to play soccer, but her father prefers not to after the death of the other child. However, he warms up to the idea and fights with her to make her dream come true. They both suffer discrimination for this event and the movie revolves around that.A family that can't fully cope and a father who invested it all in one child to have to support the other. Been there, done that. But the soccer angle was original. But yet it really fails to get the audience into the film. I was bored throughout most of this film.Overall, not very good. "D"

Roxburyfunny1 Judging by the trailers you know this movie is going to be a tearjerker. It did not let down. They did not though dwell on certain subjects forever meaning the story progressed and in doing so kept you locked and wanting to see the rest of it. I was really impressed and shocked to find out the family aspect behind the creating of this movie. The story was just brilliant and I've watched Carly Schroeder grow up on T.V. in Lizzie McGuire. Mean Creek is a movie that showed she can do dramatic and can do something different then Teen Television and this movie sealed the deal. Dermot Mulroney as the father was by far one of the best castings in this film. You saw his give and take and his struggle to either help or be against the obstacles in front of him. Elizabeth Shu can do no wrong. This was a the perfect role and she did not over play it. She really did have the believability of a concerned mother in the 70's. Weighing everything around her. The siblings especially Johnny were casted great as well as Kyle and Peter. They gave such a believability to their roles that you loved and hated them at the right times and you really struggle for Gracie in the since where putting yourself in her shoes and saying well I would have done this but your not Gracie and you have to stick with her and watch her triumph. I recommend this to Anyone and Everyone especially families or just mom's and daughters to watch and enjoy!~!

cookeje I was fortunate enough to attend a Preview of this movie at the beginning of May in Houston. Two of the actors were in attendance, Carly Schroeder and Andrew Shue. It was obvious from the way both of them talked about the movie that it was going to be very special and close to the hearts of the Shue family. It certainly wasn't a disappointment. It was one of those 'feel good' movies where, as a viewer, you are just so passionately rooting for the lead character. Carly Schroeder did a wonderful job in her role and was an inspiration. I would highly recommend going to see this movie, especially if you are a soccer fan or any sports fan. This is a great family movie, so take you children to it, you won't regret it!