Archive for the 'movies' Category

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Published
by
Mike
on December 10, 2005
in movies
. 13 Comments

We went to see “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” yesterday on the opening day. Good job, Grant, on grabbing those Fandango tickets ahead of time!

It’s amazing. Unbelievable. Not quite “Lord of the Rings,” perhaps, but not far behind.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve read about Narnia; when Lucy backs into the land through the wardrobe, just see if you don’t feel a surge of emotion.

And it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve imagined Aslan walking to the stone table; when he is mocked, tied down, and stabbed, just see if you don’t wince with memories of the central story of Christianity. (Much more powerful to me than “The Passion of the Christ.”)

I’m so glad this wasn’t made a decade ago when it might have seemed cartoonish. The technology is incredible.

Narnia

Published
by
Mike
on November 10, 2005
in Books, General and movies
. 23 Comments

We had some amazing stories last night. At the end I had a roving microphone for people to share stories about Narnia. One university student said she read the Chronicles for the first time last year after her dad died, and they ministered to her in every book. Another student said that his two parents were artists, and so, in addition to reading him the books, they painted Narnia–Aslan, Peter’s sword, etc.–all over his walls. (For those who’ve been to Zoe conferences, do you have any guesses about who those two artists might be?)

More stories came in afterward. One is from a friend whose family was reading through the Chronicles of Narnia last January. Just before the wreck, they had come to the part where Caspian is told to take Susan’s horn and to blow it if he ever desperately needed Aslan’s help. When they got word of the wreck–that Brody had died and that other broken bodies were flown out–they knew the only thing they could do was to blow the horn and ask for help. (By the way, I vaguely remember seeing him as I arrived at the emergency room at Cook’s. How he got there before me, I don’t know. Or maybe the timing is off a bit in my mind.)

“It is said that whoever blows it shall have strange help - no one can say how strange. It may have the power to call Queen Lucy and King Edmund and Queen Susan and King Peter back from the past, and they will set all to rights. It may be that it will call up Aslan himself. Take it, King Caspian: but do not use it except at your greatest need.”

I like this passage from Alan Jacobs’ The Narnian: The LIfe and Imagination of C. S. Lewis: “Lewis could make Narnia because the essential traits of Narnia were already in his mind long before he wrote the first words of the Chronicles. His reading and his other experiences had formed him that way. He was a Narnian long before he knew what name to give that country; it was his true homeland, the native ground to which he hoped, one day, to return.”

Don’t Try to Be the Cool Parents

Published
by
Mike
on June 19, 2005
in family and movies
. 22 Comments

A Father’s Day Encouragement to Young Parents

A while back I wrote about how pleasantly surprised we were by the message of the film “In Good Company.” By the previews it looked like a mindless plot about the romance between a hot-shot young executive (Topher Grace) and the college-age daughter (Scarlett Johansson) of the man whose place he took (Dennis Quaid) after a company buy-out.

But the romance is short-lived. The movie isn’t about that. Rather, it’s about the fathering of this young exec by the man he replaced. Near the end, he says to this older guy after being punched in the eye for sleeping with his daughter: “No one ever took the time to give me a hard time.”

What a great line.

I want to encourage all you younger parents out there in blogsphere. It is hard to be the parent who lovingly gives a hard time. It’s hard to be the one who enforces tv/computer time limits, homework, and bedtimes. It’s difficult to set age-appropriate limits to movies when “every other kids’ parents let them watch whatever they want.” It’s tough to be firm when you’re exhausted from work and life’s stresses.

But hang in there! Your kids are counting on you — whether they yet know it or not. (I just saw a teenager on the plane whose t-shirt had two words: NO LECTURES!)

Your children need to know that YOU are the parent. In too many homes, the children run everything by parents who are overly-eager to please. If they don’t like the Bible class, they don’t have to go. If they have more friends at another church, the family leaves. If they want to eat unhealthily — well, we reassure ourselves that at least they’re eating something. If there is a problem with a coach or a teacher, the child is always assumed to be right.

Be the adult! Be the loving, compassionate, tender, but very-much-in-charge parent! It’s one of life’s ironies: that the one thing kids say they don’t want (rules and limits) is what they need.

I’m not talking, of course, about being a tyrant or about being inflexible. I’m talking about being lovingly in charge.

It may seem to kids that parents who mind their own business, don’t serve vegies, let them wear whatever is in style, allow unlimited time on the net to chat, permit any movie to be shown when friends come over, and ask no questions about where they’re going in the evening are the cool parents.

Here’s my encouragement: Don’t try to be the cool parents. Be the parents who take the time and the love to give a hard time.

Eventually, when your kids age a bit, they’ll know that you really were the cool parents.

The Best of Star Wars Returns

Published
by
Mike
on May 21, 2005
in missional and movies
. 15 Comments

It’s fantastic. Wesa happy. Back to the best of Lucas’ Star Wars. Really even better than I expected after hearing the positive responses on the blog the past couple days.

Dark? Oh, yes. Way dark. But he’s going to the DARK side. The film gives a rather complex answer to the question of why a person becomes evil. It’s fear . . . and misguided love . . . and anger . . . and deception. Rather profound, really. The same question that great writing often deals with. (Remember plowing through Dostoevsky? or high school Shakespeare plays?)

- - - -

Today we’re headed to the Ballpark to see the Rangers and Astros. Yoda yesterday; two Texas teams today. Good weekend.

- - - -

My alma mater (Harding) just named a very good man as the new dean of the College of Bible and Religion. (He’s also been named a Vice President.) I want to emphasize again: he’s a very good man.

But as one alumnus, I’m puzzled. How can they name as dean of a college someone without a doctorate? (I think he has the same degree as I do from Harding Graduate School. Maybe I was a candidate, too, and didn’t know it.) I was told by Harding people that when the new dean of the College of Business Administration was named (another good man — the president’s son), he didn’t have a doctorate either.

Maybe I just don’t understand this whole accreditation thing. I keep hearing of all the changes and requirements being made at ACU in the College of Biblical Studies because of accreditation. Just hard to imagine that a dean — the academic head of a college within a university — doesn’t have to have a terminal degree. But what do I know.

I assume it’s all right for an alumnus to ask this question.

- - - -

Recently I wrote about two young couples going from Highland this summer to Rwanda (the Kendall-Balls) and Sudan (the Shearins). Someone sent a very large check to our financial person at Highland, asking to be anonymous. So I don’t know who it is. But this person wrote on the check, “keep blogging, Mike.”

So, whoever you are, THANKS. I will try to provide an update soon on where they are with the fund-raising.

Entertained Us Well, He Has

Published
by
Mike
on May 20, 2005
in movies
. 16 Comments

Some of you will remember when the original Star Wars movie came out in 1977. Do you remember wondering, “Episode IV? What about I, II, and III?” We didn’t have Roger Ebert to tell us to just wait 22 years for the first one and 28 years for the third one!

It’s hard to appreciate today how fun the saloon scene in Tatooine was. Great music, great aliens, and Han Solo to dominate the screen.

Last night, in preparation for taking THE LAST KID IN AMERICA TO SEE “SITH” to an after-school showing, he and I watched Episode II.

Once I again I was wondering this: If Star Wars is the story of the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, wasn’t there ANYONE ELSE Lucas could have gotten to play Anakin/Darth Vader? Hayden Christensen is so weak in Episode II. He’s sullen; he seems weakest when he’s trying to portray strong; and he seems to have the ability accent the wrong word in every line. (Surely no one was coaching him to do that. “Hey, let’s throw them for a loop. Let’s shoot for emphasizing the wrong word in all your lines.”) Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised tonight.

Well, Star Wars hasn’t really been about great performances, has it? Or great dialogue? It has been a well-imagined and well-told story that has spanned three decades. And it has been a great musical score and great action scenes. And above all, it has been Yoda! Entertained us well he has.

The Last Kid in America to See “Sith”

Published
by
Mike
on May 19, 2005
in family and movies
. 23 Comments

I’m a bad parent. We still haven’t seen “Return of the Sith.”

Yes, we could have gone to the 12:02 showing, the 12:10 showing, or the 12:20 showing early this morning, but that tends to be when I like to sleep. If there had been a 4:04 showing, I would gladly have taken Chris.

“You have school on Thursday. You can’t go without sleep. You already have a hard time sleeping with the brace on.” All good points. None seem to matter.

It made it worse that I accidentally let it slip that Caroline and Holton (who are like an older sister and brother to him) had invited him to go with them. I didn’t even have to take him. He could have slummed a ride with them.

But there’s still that school thing.

We do have tickets for 4:50 tomorrow afternoon. But that’s like A WHOLE GALAXY AWAY. He’ll probably be the last kid in America to get to see it. :)

So did anyone out there go to the midnight showing? Don’t spill anything significant. But was it good? Does Yoda kick some serious sith butt? Does Leia have the cool hair even as a little girl? Do all wookies speak like Chewbacca? Inquiring minds want to know.

In Good Company

Published
by
Mike
on May 14, 2005
in Church, family and movies
. 13 Comments

To fill a braindead evening recently, Diane and I watched “In Good Company.” (As always, please refer to screenit.com to make decisions about whether you want to watch a movie or not.) While it isn’t a great movie, it’s more than we thought.

Based on the commercials we’d seen, we thought it was primarily a comedy about a young executive falling in love with the college-age daughter of one of the men working under him–a man twice his age whose place he took at the top of the firm.

But it isn’t really about the young exec (Topher Grace) and the student (Scarlett Johansson). It’s about how this high-octane, 26-year-old man who was never really parented winds up being fathered by this older man (Dennis Quaid). There’s a scene where Quaid hugs him that is the highlight of the movie.

Everyone needs to be fathered (and mothered). For many, this doesn’t happen with their biological dad. Some never knew their dads; others rarely saw them; and still others had dads who themselves hadn’t been fathered and didn’t have much to give.

But there are other older men who can provide some of this fathering — even later in life. I’m thinking especially of godly men who can model respect, responsibility, and faith. Men who teach school, coach little league, volunteer for the band trips, teach the high school class at church, work with the Scouts, etc.

As I sneak up on 50 (in fourteen months and eleven days!), I realize that there are younger men all around who need affirmation, encouragement, and guidance.

I think you can’t go around volunteering to be someone’s “other dad” or “other mom,” but when the opportunity is there you’ll know it.

It’s an amazing thing, but one hug, one note, one word of encouragement can change a life. To receive a blessing from an older man or woman is a great gift.

In the movie, the young exec realizes that he is on the fast track to emptiness. But he sees in this older man a person who is grounded, a man who deeply loves his family and is loyal to friends. By the end of the film, you realize it wasn’t the beautiful blonde he needed in his life. It was her father.

So blessings on you this weekend — those of you who have become like moms and dads or like grandmas and grandpas in the lives of others.

Hotel Rwanda

Published
by
Mike
on February 15, 2005
in Books, justice and movies
. 12 Comments

If you haven’t read We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, I’d highly recommend it. He gives an amazing account of the genocide in Rwanda. It’s hard reading, but something that Christians need to hear (since “Christians” contributed to the problem at many levels). Maybe later I’ll write more about sections of this book that moved me most.

I haven’t seen Hotel Rwanda yet, but want to go as soon as we can. Has anyone seen it yet? What were your reactions?

Thanks to Dr. Jim for passing along these words of Brian McLaren from Sojourners:

Hotel Rwanda and The Passion of the Christ
by Brian McLaren

Maybe it’s because I spent time last summer in Burundi, the poorer twin sister of Rwanda that shares a similar history, tribal makeup, geography, culture, and terrifying undercurrent of genocide. Maybe it’s because while I was there, I met Anglican priests serving in Rwanda who told personal stories of the tragedies there - and their efforts to bring healing and reconciliation in the aftermath. Maybe it’s because (some readers may be tempted to write me off after reading this sentence) I was so frustrated by last year’s promotional hype surrounding Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ - and I was so frustrated by the movie itself, though I know many found it moving and spiritually edifying. Maybe it’s because I have deep concerns about the alignment of major sectors of Christianity with “red-state Republicanism,” and I worry that a kind of modernist, nationalist neo-fundamentalism is trying to claim all Christian territory as its sovereign domain.

For whatever reason, when I walked out of the 2005 film Hotel Rwanda this thought wouldn’t leave me: If we really had the mind and heart of Christ, this is the movie we would be urging people in our churches to see. In fact, I can’t think of a more worthwhile experience for Christian leaders than to watch Hotel Rwanda and then ask themselves questions like these:

Which film would Jesus most want us to see, and why?

Why did so many churches urge people to see Gibson’s film, and why did so few (if any) promote Terry George’s film? What do our answers to that question say about us?

What were the practical outcomes of millions of people seeing Gibson’s film? And what outcomes might occur if equal numbers saw Hotel Rwanda - as an act of Christian faithfulness?

In what sense could Hotel Rwanda actually be titled The Passion of the Christ?

What do we make of the fact that a high percentage of Rwandans who participated in the 1994 genocides were churchgoers?

What do we make of the fact that a high percentage of the Americans who ignored the 1994 genocides (then and now) were and are churchgoers?

What kind of repentance does each film evoke in Western Christians? Why might the kind of repentance evoked by Hotel Rwanda be especially needed during these important days in history?

You Are the Parent!

Published
by
Mike
on January 5, 2005
in family, food and movies
. 12 Comments

Are you one of those parents who would like to help your children exercise more and eat a more healthy diet, but you’re just too tired? Or maybe you’re susceptible to guilt when a child complains about having to eat vegies instead of chips (pointing out that none of her friends has to eat that way)? Or perhaps you tend to overcompensate through fast food rewards when you don’t have enough time with your kids? Or could it be that you’re just too pooped to do anything, so the television becomes a free babysitter?

I understand.

But YOU ARE THE PARENT! This is the year to change. Even if your children fight you over it. It’s always important to remember that you are the parent!

It’s going to be a tough battle. A Big Gulp and a bag of chips are cheap. A run through McDonald’s is easy, quick, and the kids love it. (So does Ronald McDonald, who owns a major chunk of stock in the company.)

This isn’t about cosmetics to me. We have to be careful about making people think their identity or worth comes from what the mirror or scales are telling them. “People look on the outside, but God looks on the heart,” Samuel learned. We come tall, short, wide, and thin. Our culture obsesses on the outside (I hope to write more on that in a day or two), but God looks at the heart.

But there is a major health crisis in our country. A recent essay by Elizabeth Weil points out that “the burden of childhood obesity is one created by adults and borne by children.” Kids who are overweight have a much greater risk of developing diabetes (type 2). And eventually they’ll be at greater risk of all kinds of nasty things (colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, etc.).

Need a bit of shock therapy? Check out “Super Size Me.” (See my brief comments on 12/19/04, and please note the parental warnings at screenit.com.)

Those who’ve read this blog for a long time know I’m not against desserts or an occasional trip through Wendy’s. It’s about moderation. A healthy lifestyle. (The low carb diet is currently crashing about as fast as the low fat diet did. A healthy lifestyle is about moderation. Burning as many calories as you take in. Not rocket science. Save money you were going to spend on that diet book and buy new walking shoes instead!)

We have to be parents, even when it isn’t fun.

There has to be a steady diet of fruits and vegies to go with the other food groups. There has to be a reasonable limit on tv. There has to be a time of exercise and play. Water needs to take the place of Big Gulps–yes, even if ALL THE OTHER KIDS AT SCHOOL get to have the Big Gulp.

We need to encourage by example as well as by words.

Parenting is hard when you’re tired, isn’t it? Enforcing bedtimes (not one of my strengths!), putting limits on television, encouraging healthy eating and exercising . . . well, sometimes it just isn’t fun.

But I think it’s worth it. (Have you seen Spanglish yet? It’ll make you appreciate every time you said “no” when doing so made you miserable being a parent.)

War (of the Snowball variety) Breaks Out

Published
by
Mike
on December 23, 2004
in family and movies
. 6 Comments

Yesterday was one of those days Bill Murray referred to in “Groundhog Day” when he asked , “Why couldn’t I get that day over and over and over?”

I came home from the office at 1:00 and Chris was waiting for me. So the games began. We picked sides of the sidewalk, drew boundary lines, and started firing snowballs. I had the most hits, but Chris had the best hit: a baseball-sized one with a bit of slush that landed in the exact middle of my ear. I think pieces of it came out the other ear!

Last night we ate Becky-Almanza-tamales in front of the fire while watching “King Arthur.” It was a great movie, but there was one tense moment. I’m the guy who’s always encouraging parents to check out screenit.com before deciding whether their children can watch a movie or not. But this was KING ARTHUR, for goodness sakes. Sure, the Saxons were going to take an arrow or two to the chest, but that fit our war motif from the afternoon of snowball fighting.

I hadn’t factored in Guinevere. Late in the movie she entered Arthur’s chamber. He put his hand on her knee and headed north. At that moment, I could feel my wife’s eyes locked down like a laser beam on my temple. The unspoken question was, “You didn’t check this out, did you?” Best I can remember, no one was breathing (in our house, that is — the others seemed to be breathing fine). I was trying to decide: do I hit the “skip a chapter” button or come up with something clever to say (”I guess they neglected to show the wedding . . .”).

Thankfully, the scene cut quickly away. Back to good clean battle scenes. (Even there, it wasn’t the bloodfest you’d get in a Mel Gibson movie.) At one point Diane said, “the only thing that could make this more perfect is if Matt and Jenna were with us.”

Anyway . . . a great day. Today is pack-for-Ohio day. This is an Ohio Christmas year (as every other year since 1978 has been).

Enjoy the day, friends.