My son persuaded me to watch The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising with him. It was a load of crap, in my humble opinion.

Will Stanton, on his 14th birthday, finds out he is "the seeker" and has to collect 6 signs before "the rider" unleashes darkness on the world.

What the movie failed to explain, until near the end, is why Will was the seeker in the first place and why things didn't start happening until he was 14.

Judging by the reviews at IMDB and comparing the movie with the plot of the book series started over 40 years ago, I think I'm correct in my opinion that this movie isn't worth the time to watch it.

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising stars Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston and a bunch of other forgettable actors. Here's a trailer:

The Da Vinci Code is an excellent film. The religious content could be replaced with just about anything else and it would still be entertaining. I know a lot of people wouldn't agree with me, but I don't care. This movie (and the book it was based on) isn't about religion; it's about power and the people who use power to suppress information that shouldn't be suppressed.

In this story, Professor Langdon is lured into a treasure hunt for the most valuable treasure in the world: The Holy Grail. It wasn't his choice — the French government, along with some powerful people in the Catholic church, implicated him in murder. Anyway, this is as far as I'll go with it, lest I spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

The Da Vinci Code stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany and Alfred Molina. Here's a clip of the final scenes in the movie with some awesome background music.

I've seen the first few episodes of the new SciFi channel series, "Flash Gordon". It's not the greatest thing since, er… um… whatever, but it's different and I like it. I just finished reading a whole bunch of reviews on IMDB. I really think they were written by 12-year olds with nothing better to do. Who else would spend that much time writing in-depth reviews of the pilot episode?

This is a complete rewrite using the same character names of the original from the 1930s and that's about it. Flash (Stephen) Gordon is an ordinary guy becoming something of an unsung hero. It's an interesting story and I hope it continues longer than one season. Who needs superheroes anyway?

"Flash Gordon" stars Eric Johnson, Gina Holden, Karen Cliche, Jonathan Walker and more. Here's the opening title sequence:

I whipped out Jerry Maguire in July and watched it with my son, who had never seen it before. I had the VHS tape copied to DVD a couple of years ago, but I hadn't watched it since the day I bought it.

Responsible for "show me the money", "you had me at hello" and "you complete me" becoming part of the American culture, it won a whole slew of awards for both the film and the actors involved.

Jerry Maguire stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr. (who won an Oscar) and Renée Zellweger, with some notable appearances by Beau Bridges and Jerry O'Connell. Instead of presenting you with a trailer, I'm going to present a National Geographic slideshow that uses Bruce Springsteen's "Jerry Maguire" version of "Secret Garden" as the music. I heard this quite a few times before I ever saw the movie:

Why anyone would compare "The Prestige" to The Illusionist for anything other than the illusions is beyond me. Unlike the love story of the latter, this film is the story of two up and coming magicians whose rivalry becomes deadly. In my opinion, and based on their own individual merits, they're both excellent films.

An interesting inclusion to the film were some inventions by Nikola Tesla, who was made out to be an even madder scientist than told by history.

"The Prestige" stars Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine and others. Here's the trailer:

I almost made the mistake of not watching this movie. I was treated in earlier years to some of the most boring movies ever that were billed as period pieces. Slow dramas don't interest me much.

This is not the case with "The Illusionist". The story involves a young peasant and his relationship with a young lady of the upper class. The relationship was forbidden. His talents included magic and illusions and during their separation of 15 years, he honed his craft and returned (with an alias) as a master illusionist on the stage. He gets back together with his love and then things go terribly wrong. The crown prince, who wanted her as his bride, killed her while in a drunken stupor when she said she wasn't going to marry him and walked out. Or did he?

This movie kept me captivated until the last five minutes when everything was revealed. The Illusionist stars Edward Norton (who will play Bruce Banner in the upcoming Hulk movie), Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti, and Rufus Sewell. Here's the trailer:

The Karate Kid was released in 1984 and my son, Jon, was born in 1985, so he never saw the widescreen version. He told me he had never seen any version, even on television. I asked why he wanted to see it and he said "because of all the references to it" that he'd heard in other places.

You can know when a movie has made a cultural impact when it's quoted by later movies and when other entertainment venues use items originated by the story. Wikipedia has a section called "Impact" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid. The movie "Dogma" even has a character who quotes the line "Wax on, wax off" from this movie.

The Karate Kid stars a much younger Ralph Macchio, the late Pat Morita, and Elisabeth Shoe. Here's a video I selected for it: