Home Video Picks & Passes 11.11.18

Wonder is one of the three picks this issue.

Wonder
Wonder (photo: Register Files)

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007) — PICK

The Water Horse (2007) — PICK

Wonder (2017) — PICK


Whatever streaming service you prefer, there’s decent family fare worth checking out this month.

Amazon Prime subscribers can enjoy Mr. Bean’s Holiday, a delightfully goofy G-rated excursion into the world of Rowan Atkinson’s signature character at his most whimsical. As usual, Bean inadvertently wreaks havoc everywhere he goes, but with the perfect timing and conceptual wit of Charlie Chaplin or Jacques Tati.

Netflix subscribers should check out The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Jay Russell’s Scottish-set fantasy based on the novel by Babe author Dick King-Smith, about a young boy named Angus who discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a mythical creature that becomes the Loch Ness monster. For Hulu subscribers, there’s Wonder, Stephen Chbosky’s uplifting adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s novel about a sensitive young boy named Auggie with a rare facial deformity, starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as his caring parents. Varying points of view make a potentially sappy story something richer and more satisfying.

 

Caveat Spectator: Mr. Bean’s Holiday: Slapstick violence; brief potty humor; mild peril. The Water Horse: Mild action and peril; fleeting cursing and mild language. Wonder: Mild depictions of bullying and menace; a profanity and mild rude language. All fine family viewing.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis