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The Green Mile remains an audience favorite after more than two months, taking the sixth spot this week. A new review from Gene Breitenbach of WindWords highly recommends the film, describing how the character of John Coffey, a childlike miracle worker, reflects the lives of the prophets and Jesus. "A blessing of God is not always a joy for the one who delivers the blessing. Prophets are misunderstood and sometimes hated for the gift they bring. … Even Jesus had to pay a great price for his life of love." Previous reviews have been divided between those who have understood Coffey's miracles as God-given, and those who thought that he was representative of a murky, feel-good spiritualism.Galaxy Quest returns to the seventh spot for the first time since it opened quietly in that spot two months ago, before it became a word-of-mouth hit.

More good words come this week from Jeffrey Overstreet of Green Lake Reflections, who calls it "a solid, consistently funny, creative, visually impressive sci-fi spoof that stands out from other spoofs because it manages to balance silliness with sincerity." This sincere approach captures the optimism of the Star Trek fan. "Legendary heroes like these may be absurdly idealistic to grownups, but for viewers with enough imagination and childlike enthusiasm, they can be an inspiration." But PlanetWisdom thought the sincerity was a liability rather than an asset: "At first, it seemed to be making a good point about the patheticness of living in a TV fantasy world. … But, eventually, the movie itself turns into kind of a celebration of the campy sci-fi series."

Eighth-place finisher Down to You received another round of stinging reviews this week. The romantic comedy, which charts the on-again off-again relationship of a college-age couple, was found by reviewers to be neither romantic nor comedic: "Many of [the] characters are little more than rutting animals," writes Bob Smithouser of Focus on the Family. "It tries to be sweet, inspired and romantic at the same time, [but] sugar-coats reality by ignoring the couple's problems." World agrees, calling it a "dull comedy" preaching that "romance conquers all." Childcare Action heard the sermon somewhat differently, distilling the equally faulty message "youth=sex + booze."

Christian Spotlight is offering a knowledgeable review of ninth-place finisher Girl, Interrupted, which chronicles author Susanna Kaysen's stay in a mental hospital in the '70s. Guest reviewer Bob MacLean has "worked in the emergency room and the counseling room and seen all kinds of abuse that people heap on their own flesh and blood on a regular basis," and from this vantage point he can "recommend this film to those who have and can deal with life's underbelly." MacLean says the film's profanity, which was a problem for several other reviewers, is a reality of helping the less fortunate. "Having worked with needy people, these words come with the territory so it's up to you to endure them." For MacLean, the power of the film is how "it painfully reminds us how we all participate to cause our culture to force young people into and over the brink … [which raises] some very basic questions about how you are fulfilling Christ's commission not just to evangelize but to LOVE the world."

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February (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44