A Father's Love

1774   7.4   7.9 

Neeson plays retired CIA agent, Bryan Mills, who possesses a very unique set of talents. ;) When his daughter, and her friend, (played by Maggie Grace and Katie Cassidy, who is, incidentally, the daughter of 70's pop star David Cassidy) are kidnapped while vacationing in Europe, he takes it upon himself to investigate and track down the men responsible for their abduction. Vengeance is mine is an apt saying to apply here and, not so sadly, the criminals do not live to regret their transgressions.

A thriller of a film that shows just what a father will do to protect his children.

Fortunato's rating:

3987   6.1   6.3 

When a series of extreme weather events ushers in a new ice age (because of global warming) Jack Hall (Quaid), a paleoclimatologist, sets out from Washington D.C. w/ two friends and co-workers to trek across the frozen wasteland that is the eastern seaboard of the U.S. to rescue his son, in Manhattan. Jake Gyllenhall, who plays his son, is stuck there on a school trip along with his classmates, one of whom is his love interest - played by Emmy Rossum.

During the whole disaster his son never loses hope or has a single doubt that his father will come for them and postmen have nothing on Quaid as he does just that.

Fortunato's rating:

588   6.6   7.2 

This one's a bit strange but I personally love that in a tale. John Sullivan (Caviezel) is a 36 year old homocide detective and still lives in the house he grew up in. He's also still living with the loss of his father, (Quaid), who was a NYC firefighter and died in the line of duty when he was a child.

Following a break-up with his girlfriend, John discovers his dad's old ham radio and fires it up. During a strange aurora borealis event, he discovers he's able to talk to his father - exactly 30 years in the past and the day before he dies. He warns him of this and saves his life but discovers that he still has lost him - only this time to lung cancer. On top of this, now his mother was murdered by a serial killer.

Across time father and son help one another to try and solve the murder mystery, save his mother and find out who the killer is. If all this sounds weird...well, it is, but that doesn't make it any less riveting and absolutely cool! Neither time nor space...not even death can keep a father from being there for his son - and vice versa!

Fortunato's rating:

1305   7.1   7.3 

Post-apocalyptic survival tale w/ Viggo Mortensen and his son traveling The Road in search of safety and food. This one offers a father doing nothing more - and nothing less - than all he can to simply keep his son alive and safe! It's quite grim and depressing but it certainly gets the point across. An excellent film!

Fortunato's rating:

1394   8   8.4 

A classic! Quite possibly the best tale of a loving father ever. The novel was an instant success, winning a Pulitzer, and the film is a classic in it's own right.

Peck is marvelous as Atticus Finch; a moral hero, loving father and model of integrity for lawyers, too. The tale deals with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, as well as the destruction of innocence. Yet there is far more to this tale than even that.

I won't spoil the tale in any way for those who have not seen it, for I highly recommend that you do. It is one of the finest offerings of American cinema ever. Peck's Finch leads by example and holds fast to his beliefs, morals and integrity. What more could one ask for in a father?

Fortunato's rating:

1850   7.2   7.7 

Hanks plays a mob enforcer (not the most ideal of parental figures, I know) who finds himself on the wrong side of his Boss. Using his wits and skill, with his son in tow, he seeks to meet out vengeance for the murder of the rest of his family.

The film also stars Paul Newman, Jude Law and Daniel Craig, but it's Hanks who steals the show in a role like none he has done before...or since, I believe. Despite his gruesome vocation, he is a loving father and family man. It shows, too!

Fortunato's rating:

2434   7.3   7.8 

I haven't seen this particular film yet but I do know the high points. Will Smith plays a father and a struggling salesman who takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional endeavor. Homeless, he struggles to care for his son, and his self, while trying to get back on his feet.

113   6.4   6.6 

Bob Jones (Keaton) runs a Los Angeles public relations firm. He is happily married to Gail (Kidman), who is pregnant with their first child. Bob is horrified to learn that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness (kidney cancer) and might not live to see their baby born.

Bob begins to make home movies, to immortalize himself, to be shown after his death to his son, so he'll know who his father was, showing him things that ,as a father, he would teach his son were he there with him.

It's a sad film but very well done. Keaton and Kidman are both excellent actors and show it.

Fortunato's rating:

1867   6.5   7 

Farmer, veteran, widower and father of seven wants nothing more than to raise his children in peace and keep them safe. Yet the times are against him and the American Revolutionary War intrudes - with a vengeance. His eldest, Ledger, shows up injured and Gibson soon finds himself caring for a multitude of wounded. British soldiers soon arrive led by a malicious officer, in the form of Jason Isaacs. Executions are ordered, his eldest taken and another son, who rises to his defense, shot and killed. Their home is ordered burnt to the ground.

This serves as the catalyst for a father's own vengeance to be visited upon the British soldiers, in general, and Tavington (Isaacs), in particular. Gibson sees his children to safety, along with his deceased wife's sister (Joely Richardson as Charlotte Selton), and takes his place among the Colonial Militia; there ensues many campaigns in which he lives up to the reputation earned in the French and Indian War and the nickname of The Ghost among the British.

Gibson's character loses even more as the film, and the war, progresses but finds love, in the form of Selton, justice in the ultimate death of Tavington and incidentally, freedom.

Fortunato's rating:

460   6.9   7.4 

Kevin Kline plays a man who has spent the past ten years divorced and alone, living in his father's lone inheritance to him - a rundown shack - on the southern California coast. On the same day that he is fired from his job at an architectural firm, a job he has had for the past twenty years and hates, he finds out that he has an advanced case of terminal cancer.

He chooses not to tell his family or friends and spends his last days building a house that he can call his own and reconnecting with his son - a sixteen-year old delinquent that he has arranged to spend the summer with him.

This is a depressingly-sad film but quite good, nevertheless, and I can't help but wonder what I would do myself if I knew that I only had a short time left. The house, as you can probably guess, is a metaphor.

The film also stars young and promising talents of Hayden Christiansen, Jena Malone and Ian Somerhalder, as well as the well-honed presences of Kristin Scott Thomas and Mary Steenbergen

Fortunato's rating: