Kate Perry's "Part of Me" Movie

DVD Release Date: September 18, 2012 Theatrical Release Date: July 5, 2012 Rating: PG (some suggestive content, language, thematic elements and brief smoking) Genre: Documentary/Music Run Time: 96 min. Directors: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz Cast: Katy Perry, Shannon Woodward, Rachael Markarian, Glen Ballard, Mia Moretti, Johnny Wujek, Bradford Cobb, Tasha Layton, Angelica Baehler-Cob, Adam Marcello

Behind every pop star, there’s a carefully crafted persona, and for anyone wondering, yes, watching a Katy Perry concert is a lot like seeing your childhood Candy Land game come to life.

A world where everything’s sparkly, candy-colored and sporting the requisite cherry on top, it doesn’t take long for some serious cuteness fatigue to settle in, especially if like me, you’re not part of the target demographic. But in Part of Me, a 3-D movie chronicling the last year of her life on the road, 27-year-old Perry insists that all these sweet accoutrements are simply part of who she is, and that making people happy is, perhaps, the greatest joy of doing what she does for a living.

Perry’s journey to success was a rather long and winding one. Kicking off with a failed foray into the Christian music market in Nashville (and yes, there’s a couple quick clips with her singing Gospel), she later tried her luck on the pop music circuit in Los Angeles, only to be bounced around from label to label. In fact, one of the funniest scenes in the movie is when she tries channeling her inner Avril Lavigne per an industry exec’s request.

Since being faux-angry didn’t really work for her and she wasn’t interested in being the next Kelly Clarkson or Ashlee Simpson either, she kept pressing forward until she finally met a few music industry folks who “got” her. Incidentally, if there’s a theme that rings the loudest in Part of Me, it’s to be true to yourself, even if that seems “weird” to the masses. Further underscoring this message are the testimonies of several fans who also feel out of place in the world but find comfort in Perry’s songs.

And speaking of striking out on her own, Part of Me also documents Perry’s slow rise to superstardom and how it was a bit of a learning curve for her close-knit family, too. Her breakout single involved “kissing a girl and liking it,” quite a departure from her strict Christian upbringing where her parents didn’t even let her listen to Michael Jackson or eat Lucky Charms for fear of getting too close to Satan’s clutches. Her father, a traveling evangelist, even worried that her success might shut down his ministry for good. But while her parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, didn’t necessarily like what she was singing about, they stood by her nonetheless. Keith admits to the camera that his platform hasn’t been affected in the least.

As for Katy’s personal beliefs, she acknowledges that she still believes in God and that she has a “one-on-one relationship” with Him, even if it looks a little different than her parents’ strict Pentecostal foundation. Those looking for deeper insight into what that means won’t find that here, as the movie dedicates most of its running time to highlighting the music, costumes, fan interactions and how all the working parts come together for a production like this.

For the record, the process of transforming the venue near you into Katy’s magical fairy land is one time-consuming endeavor, as evidenced by everyone from the busy seamstresses who make her costumes to the construction workers building the intricate sets. And while the musical numbers themselves provide a peek into how thoroughly over-the-top her performances are (in eye-popping 3D, naturally), it’s actually the stripped-down moments where Perry is sporting subtler makeup and street clothes that are most revelatory.

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Here Comes the Boom Movie

Release Date: October 12, 2012 Rating: PG (for brief mild language, comic violence) Genre: Comedy Run Time: 105 min Director: Frank Coraci Cast: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Greg Germann, Bas Rutten

Kevin James (Hotel Transylvania) has built a successful film career primarily playing the sidekick in adult-skewing PG-13 comedies to the likes of Adam Sandler, Will Smith and Vince Vaughn. His short-but-growing list of starring vehicles, however, stands out from the contemporary movie landscape in a rather striking way: they’re live-action family-friendly movies that are surprisingly pretty fun.

To the extent that Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Zookeeper are actually "funny" is certainly relative and intermittent, but even when jokes fall flat and gags are dumbed-down, the spirit and charm of a Kevin James performance has a way of making the time go by easy with a smile on your face. Here Comes the Boom continues that trend.

James plays Scott Voss, a high school biology teacher who has lost his passion for teaching. He admires beloved band teacher Marty Streb (Henry Winkler, Click) for his ability and desire to connect with students, but for Voss the motivation is gone.

That changes when the school is forced to make deep budget cuts into the tens of thousands. All extra-curricular activities will be axed at the end of the school year, including the entire music department – and Streb’s job along with it. Voss vows to raise the funds to make up the difference, and is willing to fight for it. Literally. As in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) cage fighting.

With thousands of dollars to be earned even when losing a match, Voss decides to take his experience as a wrestler into the MMA ring and lose/survive his way toward eliminating the school’s deficit. The journey follows a basic formula of training, montages, gritty early fight failures, successes as he goes up the circuit’s ladder, and so on. Not only is James’ body amped up (less doughy, more solid) but so too is his usual “Fat Guy Fall Down” brand. These fights have been seriously choreographed, staged to both athletic and comedic effect.

This mix of comedy and action includes its requisite dose of romance, too, in the form of Salma Hayek (Savages) as school nurse Bella Flores. Along with everyone else, she has her doubts about Voss and isn’t keen to his lame pick-up attempts. Needless to say, she is eventually won over just as we are and ends up in his corner. As perfunctory and occasionally sappy as it all is, at least the familiar story is driven by Voss’s personal growth as he decides to stop being a part of the problem and become a part of the solution.

Not that his character arc is necessarily deep, mind you. It follows predictable narrative beats just as the overall story does, and often too quickly. Choices and changes are made without a whole lot of soul-searching but rather, more easily, with plot-timing. The inspirational moments still land (in particular with the subplot of a female Asian student) but only in the moment. Things exist and occur by design rather than any unique creative expression. Nothing resonates or proves memorable.

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Undaunted dvd

Josh McDowell was born into the harsh realities of a cruel world. His father’s violent alcoholism coupled with his own childhood molestation filled McDowell with shame. Over the years, that shame drove him further and further from Christ, until it finally turned to rage. Eager to rail against the existence of a loving God, McDowell sought out conflict with the Christians he encountered in college. He mocked their beliefs and scorned their faith until they issued him a challenge: prove God doesn’t exist. Obsessively, McDowell travelled the world scouring sacred historical texts for evidence contradicting Christianity. What he found instead was truth — and a faith that led to grace and redeemed a broken man.

Undaunted is the true story of how Josh McDowell set out to prove Jesus Christ never existed — but ended up on a journey that brought him face to face with God’s love and transforming power. His ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ has allowed him to share the good news of his Savior to millions people around the world, and he’s published over 120 books in the field of Christian Apologetics, including More Than a Carpenter and Evidence That Demands a Verdict. He is living proof that a life can be transformed.

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