Sometimes you watch a movie, and you enjoy it for no apparent reason. "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is one such movie. It's satire, but not great satire. It has very good, but not great performances from two of the lead actors, along with semi-disappointing performances from the other two. It has a plot that meanders about all over the place, without ever making much sense. And it has an ending that leaves you a bit befuddled, but not totally confused or upset at the conclusion. So why did Mitch enjoy it? He tells us in his latest movie review.

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For Zoe

After taking a break from writing over the past few months, I feel the time is right to resume my duties here at TheClevelandFan.com, starting with bringing back The Crystal Ball as a weekly feature.

I took the time off as it was very difficult for me to find the proper frame of mind to write given the events that were transpiring for my family.

On June 3, my daughter Erin gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Zoe Aris Fisher.  But she was not even able to hold her after her birth.  Zoe had an insidious birth defect called a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a hole in her diaphragm that allowed her stomach, about half of her small intestines, and part of her liver to form in her chest cavity as opposed to her abdomen, which did not leave any room for her left lung to develop.  The cause of CDH is unknown, but it does occur in one out of every 2,500 births...and the survival rate is only 50%.  She was immediately rushed to Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC, one of the finest pediatric care facilities in the world.

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Another fall, another Bruce Willis Sci-Fi action film, this one called "Surrogates". The plot line takes us to the "not so distant future", where robotic technology has evolved so much that humans can now stay indoors 100% of the time, using their "surrogate" robot to interact for them. We sent The Mitch Man out to the theater to check this one out for our readers, and he ended up handing out a rating to it that he rarely doles out. Mitch reviews "Surrogates" for our readers.

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And we bid a not-so-found adieu to the month of September. And Mitch isn't sure which side of him is happier to see this month end; the Sports Fan wanting to forget about the horrible start to the Browns season, and the end of the disastrous Indians year, or the Movie Fan who saw nothing but crud released this month. So as we go into October, for Movie Fans, there are some things to look forward to. While the big ticket movies won't come out until next month, there are some potential gems starting this week. Mitch tells us about them.

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