Ask a mother who home educates her children, ask which question she encounters most frequently and she will undoubtedly respond, “What about socialization?” In the decade since I began teaching my three daughters at home, this question has remained, even…

What happens to a happy-go-lucky ten-year-old girl when the bottom falls out of her world? When she looks around to see that things are changing for the worse all around her? If she’s an “American Girl”, she follows the advice…

Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) is a pencil pushing bureaucrat in CONTROL, a US government spy agency. His moment has finally arrived. After eight attempts to pass the field agent’s exam, he eagerly awaits the good news that he has passed,…

My father told me that he and his three brothers spent every Saturday afternoon in the 1940’s watching double features at the local cinema, usually Westerns and war films. His mother never had to check in her local Catholic paper…

“His soft spot smelled of lambskin

                  as I lifted him from his tiny bed,

He nestled close, wisps of hair glued with sweat,

                  his eyes closed with concentration.

First feeding, my favorite moment.

So still, before the house awakens,…

The four Pevensie children found everyday life in London tiresome following the high adventure of defeating the White Witch and establishing the Golden Age of the Kingdom of Narnia with the help of Aslan (voice by Liam Neeson), the lion.…

The dark history of the shameful movement underpinning the biggest human atrocities of the 20th century was powerfully outlined by Ben Stein in his important documentary which is a must-see for anyone serious about science, about faith, and about freedom.…

The week before the arrival of the Holy Father, the American media was abuzz with predictions about the reception he would receive from American Catholics. Fringe groups used the media to promote their agendas, and the specter of the sex…

How many TV shows have you seen about the conspiracy theory behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? Imagine if they had the technology now available to examine and re-examine the event from a multitude of vantage points.

That is the premise of this hard-hitting action film which is about a terrorist assassination plot of the President of the USA as he takes the podium to address a rally in Salamanca, Spain. At the center of the investigation is a Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes, (Dennis Quaid), who has taken a bullet for President Ashton (William Hurt) and is just re-entering active duty. Barnes' paranoia over concerns for the President's safety prove an obstacle in finding the perpetrators of the bombing, and it takes the tape on the camcorder of American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whittaker) to get Barnes on the right track. Lewis is an ordinary citizen who refuses to stand by and ‘let the authorities take care of the situation'. He knows he has seen something amiss, and films the action, putting himself at great risk.

Charlie and Maura Weis were living on Long Island, NY while he worked as offensive coordinator for the New York Jets. Their life seemed ideal, it was springtime in the lovely community they called home, and they were blessed with two children, Charlie Jr. age 4 and a vivacious, blue-eyed daughter Hannah age 2.  Hannah's serious kidney problems at birth seemed a distant memory, and the road ahead looked smooth and uneventful. Then, one symptom at a time, it became obvious to Maura and Charlie that something was not right with her beautiful daughter. Not only that she wasn't developing at the rate of other children her age, but she was losing interest in her surroundings, and was upset easily. She was not the same child she had been only five months ago. Her preschool teacher said, "It's as if she's in a world of her own" (p19). At two and a half years of age, the dreaded diagnosis "autism" hit the Weis family like a Mack truck. Nothing in their lives would ever be the same.

Last October I attended a pre-screening of the first feature film of independent filmmakers at Grassroots Films, The Human Experience. I was familiar with their previous work: they had done an powerful infomercial on the priesthood called, Fishers of Men for the USCCB, and a short documentary about a Eucharistic Procession on the streets of New York City which was beautifully done. Both showed that these two men had great promise as Catholic filmmakers.

One of the hardest things to bear is the illness or loss of a child. I brushed up against this terrifying possibility briefly last December, when my five year old daughter with Down syndrome, normally so healthy, was suddenly stricken…

In the Academy Award-nominated film, The Kite Runner, the friendship of two boys is set in pre-war Afghanistan, in a wrenching, memorable drama of betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption.

Amir (Khalid Abdalla) a married Afghani immigrant in San Francisco is thrilled to…

Michael Clayton is gritty, divorced, forty-something gambler, who works for one of New York's most prestigious law firms as a fixer. When one of the high-priced clients of his law firm gets into trouble, Michael Clayton, son of one cop, and…

Benjamin Franklin Gates reunites his scattered treasure-hunting team, Riley Poole(Justin Barth) a wanna-be celebrity author with financial problems, ex-girlfriend Abigail(Diane Krueger) and his father Patrick (Jon Voight) for another fast-paced historical adventure with looming disaster if the treasure isn't found.…

Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie, the best selling DVD of all time, which sold 50 million copies, is admittedly a tough act to follow, but The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything valiantly takes up the challenge. Not that its heroes look…

A rollicking fantasy about the world's most famous mystery monster, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is set at a mansion on the shores of Loch Ness in 1942. Angus (Alex Etel), a boy too timid to swim in the…

Juno the film which has wowed the critics and is at number five in the nation (despite only being shown in a quarter the number of the top four's screens) joins Bella, Waitress, and even the raunchy Knocked Up, as part of…