Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

At some point I'm going to write a post about sequels - how they usually fall short and why I think that is...

but until then, I want to talk about a sequel that didn't disappoint. The new Night at the Museum movie was fantastic! It had a good story and great humor and it had the original actors (which is always a positive when talking about sequels).

The story starts after Larry has quit his job as night watchmen and become a successful entrepreneur. He returns to the museum one day for nostalgia's sake and finds that all of his friends are being packed up and shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington.

But it's not until he receives a call from them one night that he goes to D.C. to find out what's wrong.

The story is not very different then that of the first movie, but it still works.

The theme is best summed up in Honest Abe's words "A house divided cannot stand" (who in fact was quoting Jesus when he said it)

Overall this movie is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Also check out hollywoodjesus.com for another take on the movie

What did you think? Was it as good as/better than/or worse than the first movie? What did you like? What didn't you like?

Up

Pixar has done it again. Up is a fantastic movie! Everything about it - visual, story, acting - fantastic! And it's in 3-D!

One of the things that struck me about the movie was how mature it was. Not in a vulgar or a violent sort of way, but in a thematic way. It's rated PG and for good reason. It deals with death in a way that doesn't take it lightly.

Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't about death per say. The movie is about an old man who sets off to find paradise by strapping thousands of balloons to his house. It's about ambition, you can see both the positive and negatives aspects of it from Carl, Russell, Charles, even Dug.

I hope all of this though doesn't make you think that the movie isn't funny; quite the contrary - the movie is hilarious.
The dogs and squirrels and the climatic fight scene between the hero and villian is pure Pixar genius!

Also, check out this blog for some good perspective

My review: If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?

Teminator: Salvation

I have a confession - I enjoy the Terminator movies. Heck, I even enjoyed the Sarah Conner Chronicles on Fox. And I was kind of excited about the new movie, especially when I heard Christian Bale was playing John Conner.

For my bachelor party, the guys took me to see it and I wasn't disappointed.

The story takes place at the beginning of the War against the Machines when John Conner first meets his father, who is only a teenager at this point.
There are two stories woven through the plot, one of John searching for his future (and past) father and one of Marcus Wright figuring out who/what he is.

The movie wrestles with the themes of what it means to be human and even some prejudice issues between man and machine.

The story was good, the visual effects were stunning; overall the movie is great.

My only complaint is that Christian Bale's John Conner is very similar to Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne (more specifically his Batman - with the raspy voice and such). Because the two characters are so similar, it would have been nice to have them a little more distinguished from each other.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Check out this blog for another perspective:

I love summer movies. It's one of the things I look forward to the most during the summer season. This summer seems to be shaping up to be another good one: Wolverine, Transformers 2, Angels and Demons, Star Trek, Up, Terminator, Land of the Lost, and Year One just to name a few.

I had the opportunity to go see Wolverine at midnight on Thursday when it came out. I must say, a very good start to the summer movie season

As someone who doesn't know much of the Wolverine (or X-men) canon and didn't enjoy the X-men movies very much, the only complaint I have is that they never really explained why Wolverine's name was changed from James to Logan.

Also, I would have enjoyed seeing Gambit's and Deadpool's characters fleshed out more, but other than that, it is a great movie and I recommend it to anyone.

Watchmen

I haven't seen a movie that has blown me away this much in a long time (probably last summer with The Dark Knight). It was absolutely fantastic!
Let's start on the surface level. Visually and musically stunning. The look and feel of the movie was outstanding. The visual and sound effects were great as well. The acting was great, the actors really knew their characters well. Really, I can't say enough good things.

One of my friends and I had a discussion today about some of the questions that the movie raises, like "Is Ozy a good guy or a bad guy?" "What does being a superhero (or vigilante depending on how you look at it) really mean?" We also talked about the change in the ending.

This is a pretty good article about one writer's opinion of the movie.

But here's the thing: even though I loved the movie, it is hard for me to full out encourage people to see it. It's rated R (for good reason) for sex and violence. But there is enough of both that if they took out one of them from the movie, it would still be rated R. In other words, if they took the sex out, it would be rated R for violence and if they took the violence out, it would be rated R for sex.

In the end, I don't think I would ever not encourage someone to watch it (given they are at least 17 and mature enough to handle the gore and sex) but I would want them to know what to expect.

What do you think? Have you seen it? If so, what did you like about it? What did you dislike? If not, why not? Do you think you would consider watching it ever?

From: Faith Journey through Fantasy Lands

"The Bible is not simply a collection of theological essays or a list of abstract doctrines and ethical principles. It does not come to us as a handy answer book with clear-cut answers to frequently asked questions. Instead, the Bible has been revealed to us as historical narratives, stories, poems, prayers, songs, and letters written to specific communities in specific circumstances. Christian educators sometimes treat the Bible as though they think that the writers who wrote it or the Spirit who inspired it made some terrible mistake. They seem to believe that they must fix a Bible story or psalm by decoding it into a theological doctrine or ethical principle. They try to reduce Bible passages to one or two handy points for their students to apply to their lives. But the Bible is so much richer than that. The narrative and the poetic nature of the Bible is not a mistake, but a generous gift from God. Each Bible passage provides learners with the wonderfully rich nuances - if only teachers would allow their students to explore it without the goal of reducing the passage to just one lesson or sound bite. Through the genres of the Bible, the Spirit of God can speak to people in many ways, on many different levels, and to many different life situations."

Do you agree? If you do, how should this change how we read and study the Bible?

Check this out

This is a link to my youth pastor's blog. He's now in the church planting business and has started Awaken Church down in Colombia. You should check out today's post (3/31) from him.

I'm a fan.