The Descent answers the question: How tough can a woman be? Director Neil Marshall chose to make this movie with an all-female cast. The women depicted are brave to the point of being foolhardy nutcases, but that’s only my opinion.

The movie starts with three friends having fun while whitewater rafting in Scotland. Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) is host and her husband and daughter are along on the trip. On the way home in the car, her husband seems distracted while driving, and suddenly there’s a horrifying accident that kills the husband and daughter. Sarah wakes up in the hospital, traumatized for life. Still, after some recovery time, she decides to visit America where her friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza) has an all-woman adventure planned in the Appalachian Mountains.

What do Sarah, Juno, Beth, Rebecca, Sam and Holly all have in common? They are all athletic, adventurous women ready to have an exciting cave exploration weekend. Juno leads, and the five others are misled into believing they’re exploring a well-known cave system in the National Park. Juno decided, alone and on her own, to take them instead to an unexplored cave so they can have the honor of naming it.

They rappel into a huge open pit chamber, then make their way deep inside the earth. While crawling through a narrow passageway, Sarah gets stuck but Juno talks her out of her terror and rescues her just as there’s a cave-in. By this time the movie viewer is on edge. I was literally ready to pack up and run because horror movies that put me on edge are far from my favorites. My significant other, “The Mystic”, talked me out of it.

I’m glad I stuck around to see the beautiful cave painting that was in the next room they passed through. I’m one who appreciates great artwork, including movie-art, by the way. But when Sarah saw a strange white creature lurking in the distance I felt sure their troubles would multiply.

The main thing I got out of the film was the impression that some women are tougher than others. They have mental prowess, irrepressible bravery, quick instincts, and the guts to do the necessary things to survive. Others melt in the heat of battle, in varying degrees. The women who survived longer did so because they had those special qualities that belong to the toughest, bravest, most-courageous of all.

The Mystic was favorably impressed with this film - especially the acting talents of the women involved. They looked  sincerely traumatized, claustrophobic, and frightened. The directing was flawless and I’ll admit the women were very talented.

If you like sitting on the edge of your chair, frightened half out of your skull, this is an excellent film. If however you are like me and prefer sweet love stories, this is not going to be your cup of tea.

The cast included Shauna Macdonald (Sarah); Natalie Mendoza (Juno); Alex Reid (Beth); Saskia Mulder (Rebecca); MyAnna Buring (Sam); Nora-Jane Noone (Holly); Oliver Milburn (Paul); Molly Kayll (Jessica) and Craig Conway (the underground creature).

A pregnant woman who doesn’t want to be a mother; a husband who doesn’t know how to care about his wife, two ditzy waitresses, a handsome doctor, and a sweet little old man. These are a few of the characters in the odd but intriguing chick flick melodrama, Waitress.

Keri Russell  stars as Jenna, a young woman whose fantasies take the form of creative pie recipes. She works as a waitress at Joe’s Pie Diner, along with two other waitresses, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly). Though she is miserable when she finds out she’s pregnant with her abusive husband’s child, her co-workers give her a baby diary in which she writes letters to her unborn child.

Unable to restrain herself, she passionately throws herself at her handsome obstetrician, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) and he gladly engages with her in a torrid extramarital affair. This sets the scene for a roller-coaster pregnancy and plenty of soul searching.

This is a cute movie with plenty of depth as Jenna feels her way through her distress. It brings up ethical issues when she involves herself in the illicit affair, and many will find themselves disgusted with the doctor-patient relationship. Still Jenna redeems herself and the beauty of the film triumphs over the confusion and pathetic attempts at finding happiness.

I enjoyed the creativity of this movie - it definitely wasn’t your ordinary chick flick comedy though there were many amusing moments. For example, when Jenna finds out she’s pregnant she imagines a new pie recipe and names it “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie” - shortened to “Bad Baby Pie”. She sees a mother with a tyrant of a boy-child in the restaurant and though you don’t hear her say a word, you know what she’s thinking. And Dawn’s first reaction to her odd, persistent new boyfriend is understandable - he’s quite a dweeb.

A regular customer at the restaurant is Joe (Andy Griffith) who claims to own Joe’s Pie Diner. He warms to Jenna, occasionally extending his old-age wisdom and advice. I loved Andy’s performance - he was perfect in every way.

At the official website you can name your own life-inspired pie.

Note: Adrienne Shelly was the writer and director of this unusual chick flick. She also played the role of Dawn. A tragedy occurred, and a great talent left us. This amazing, creative woman was murdered in November 2006 in New York during a failed robbery, leaving her husband and two-year-old daughter, both of whom had bit parts in the movie. The 19-year-old murderer was sentenced to 25 years without parole in March 2008.

Waitress has its own official blog with interviews, news, reviews, and more.

If you want to see a gorgeous horse, watch The Appaloosa. The horse is silky black in front with the brightest, most intelligent looking eyes. I was mesmerized by this horse and didn’t get to see enough of him. He kept getting kidnapped, which is what made the story move. The rear of this horse was white with black spots. He really was outstanding - and you can see why the evil Mexican ranchero, Chuy (John Saxon,) wanted to take him away from good-guy Mateo (Marlon Brando.)

Mateo was adopted as a very young homeless child by a Mexican family somewhere in the Southwest. At the beginning of the movie Mateo returns from the war and a wayward life, to his hometown, Ojo Prieto. He wants to be forgiven by God, and wants to settle down and help his adopted brother, Paco, start a horse ranch. The Appaloosa is expected to be the father of all the horses Mateo wants to raise there.

Unfortunately he runs into Chuy’s wife, Trini, who is the first to kidnap the Appaloosa in an attempt to run away from her husband. She’s quickly apprehended and returned to Chuy, but at that point Chuy becomes obsessed with owning the Appaloosa. He is a cruel man, and as the movie unfolded I was appalled by some of the misery-making I witnessed.

Marlon Brando looked awesome at the beginning of the movie - all scruffy, unshaven, with long hair. It is a shame he had to clean up and shave. Others might think differently, but I liked the wild and natural look on him.

This movie hasn’t gotten any great reviews over at Netflix: The Appaloosa at Netflix, but it has nearly five stars. I gave it 4, but that was mostly because I thought Brando was cute before he shaved, and the horse was drop-dead gorgeous. Speaking of dropping dead, a lot of people did just that in this film… something I’m not a big fan of.