Baggas' Blog

Managed to get out to the movies succesfully for the first time in quite a while last night, and saw District 9. This excellent film derives from the old premise of aliens come to earth, spaceship hovers over a major city etc etc, but with some major variations on that theme. The major variation is that the aliens aren’t powerful super-intelligent invaders, rather they become impoverished refugees, mistreated and discriminated against by humans, and forced to live in a ghetto slum shanty town camp (couldn’t decide which word was best there so why not use em all?). And the second major twist, which makes the first one even more poignant, is that the spaceship is not hovering over New York or LA or some other big American city like most of these movies – rather it is set in Johannesburg, South Africa. Setting this movie in the continent of refugee camps, and in the nation of apartheid helps give the movie a strong underlying element of cutting social commentary. It’s not exactly subtle, but neither is it overplayed. We are presented with a selection of characters with a diverse range of biases and bigotry, including the flawed hero, but we are left to make our own judgements on the characters and the story. The documentary style presentation helps with presenting a range of perspectives. Special effects are well done, with the CGI blending seamlessly with the squalid African refugee camp conditions. This is a fantastic movie. Nice to see a “blockbuster” action movie which stimulates some serious thought and discussion, and coming from South Africa instead of Hollywood (although Peter Jackson of LOTR fame is a producer). Definitely worth watching, as long as you’re not too squeamish.

Here’s a trailer for it. I picked this one, because I thought the other one (number2 ) gave too much away..

Greetings from sunny tropical Queensland, where aside from missing my wife and kids I am suffering from serious guitar withdrawals. I can’t find any station on my TV where I am staying except ‘Max’ and have had the radio in my hire car alternating between my iPod, some new CDs I got, and the local country FM station (Kix – the Best Country in the World!) – why doesn’t Perth have a country music station?? seriously one of the worst things about Perth… anyway I digress… so yeh, I’m listening to lots of interesting music but have no guitar to play – very frustrating!

I seriously think that the airlines should allow guitarists to take one guitar in addition to their usual baggage allowance.. would make for a much happier, more melodic travel experience. How bout it, QANTAS?

When I got my first Fender from Nashville I flew with it half way back around the world to Perth, but at that point I was able to just count it as one of the kid’s pieces of baggage. Sadly I have no kid with me this time so no baggage allowance to co-opt. I shall have to think of some cunning plan to bring a guitar for my next 2 week trip here…

I did visit one of the local ACC churches here on Sunday : here’s my ‘mystery worshipper’ review. Smallish church but the music was good. Lots of energy courtesy of the excellent young guy who was worship leading and the youth who were moshing in the first couple of rows. The band was simple – they didn’t play any super complicated licks (except the bass solo in Salvation is here), but they were really tight and it was a nice mix (my only complaint would have been I couldn’t hear the girl plying lead guitar). Overall I took out of it that you can have a really quality sound without doing anything too complicated if you have a tight band who knows the songs, a good mix, and a dynamic worship leader who can really take the music in the right direction. I liked that they also (in a couple of songs) left space for people to worship freely, although even that was fairly brief and the worship leader had his finger on the pulse and the band followed him diligently. So nice to have a great worship experience away from home. I think it is valuable for us as worship leaders and musicians to visit other churches from time to time and get a feel for what others are doing.

Anyway I should turn out the lights… getting late here in Qld and I have another day of biostatistics awaiting me tomorrow (actually make it today now… zero hours). Just one last plug if you want to listen to some classic music – I just watched the movie ‘The Boat that Rocked’ – not bad for a laugh.. think Austin Powers meets Titanic and you’ll be on the right track. I can’t say I can recommend it as a good wholesome Christian movie (don’t say I didn’t warn you) but if you want a fun movie with some awesome old 60′s music… check it out.

And on that note I’m signing off. Keep on rockin’

This movie has kinda crept up on us without a lot of buzz or hype – the new CGI Star Wars movie which will be released on August 14th in Australia (one day before America). I first saw the preview in the cinema just a couple of weeks ago but before that hadn’t heard anything about it. Apparently this will be the lead in to a new series on Cartoon Network.

Here’s the preview which I just found at Hello Internet. As Ben points out it’s a bit strange seeing Lucasfilm and Star Wars with a Warner Bros intro instead of 20th century fox

Went and saw the 4th instalment in this series yesterday with my brothers and dad. Don’t have time to write a full review but my advice is that if you even mildly enjoyed the other movies, you should definitely go see this one. It recaptures the whole vibe and feel of the series well, and the storyline and action sequences are what we should expect from the team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. They include plenty of in-jokes and references to their other movies – and not just the Indiana Jones ones – even Close Encounters and Star Wars get a look in. Harrison Ford does well, slipping back into the character like into a comfortable old suit. And they manage his advancing age very smoothly – at no point does the age factor seem stupid or unbelievable.  So go see it – a  fun and nostalgic way to spend a couple of hours.

Now we’re just waiting for the Lego Indiana Jones computer game to be released. Owen especially can’t wait to see that one…

Along similar lines to my last entry about wild west cowboys to be blamed for legalism in 20th century evangelical/fundamentalist churches, one of my favourite bloggers Fred the slacktivist weighs in with his take on C.S. Lewis’ book Prince Caspian :

I haven’t seen Prince Caspian yet, but since it was the “No. 1 Movie” this weekend, let’s revisit what that wonderful little book was about:

Prince Caspian is about beer.

He then goes on to quote Lewis from Mere Christianity discussing this very issue of legalism, especially relating to alcohol. And Lewis, as you may or may not know, enjoyed his beer. Fred’s interpretation of Prince Caspian is that the bad guys (Telmarines) represent excessively legalistic “anti-beer Christians” and the mission of the Pevensie children is to help Caspian and Aslan restore joy and wildness to the land.

It’s a long long time since I’ve read the book, and I’m also yet to see the movie (not sure when it comes out here in Australia) but it’s an interesting take on a classic children’s book. I’ll have to try and revisit it sometime soon.

You can read Fred’s post here.

We watched a couple of movies over the weekend, both of which I quite enjoyed, although for different reasons. I’ll just mention them briefly and you can check them out if you want.

Into the Wild was the first one. This is a true story of a young guy named Chris who, upon college graduation, decides to leave his troubled family life behind and disappear, living life as a “supertramp.” Ultimately he finishes up living a solitary existence in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska, but on the way we share in his journeys across America and the people and places he encounters. As the story progresses we learn more of the back story of his home life that led to him doing this, and also of the anguish of those he left behind. This is a brilliant movie – one of the best I’ve seen in a long while. Amazing scenery combined with fantastic performances as the odd-ball characters that Chris encounters along the way. It is a classic road movie but with an emotional intensity and depth few road movies can match. Nevertheless it’s added further fuel to my burning desire to get out and travel again, particularly to America – I just can’t wait to get back over there!

The icing on the cake of this already excellent movie is the wonderful soundtrack by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder – a bunch of original acoustic folky songs that fit perfectly with this film. I got this soundtrack (from iTunes ironically) last year before my last trip to Africa and have been looking forward to seeing the movie ever since.

Briefly, the other movie we watched was Run, Fatboy, Run! This is an English take on a romantic comedy formula you’ve probably seen at least half a dozen times before. You know, the one where the slightly screwed up nice guy who goes for regular visits with his child meets the new boyfriend of the child’s mum, who he is still carrying a torch for. The new guy is always “perfect” on paper – wealthy, good looking, great job, apparently good with kids. And then the rest of the movie shows how the dad works at keeping his kid, regaining the love of the mother, and generally proving that he’s at heart a better man than Mr Perfect. Run fatboy, run takes that tested formula and delivers it in the manner of the standard British comedy, set in London with a range of colourful supporting characters. Simon Pegg does a good job as Dennis, the main character, and he’s well supported by a good cast including Hank Azaria who plays the American interloper Mr Perfect (“Whit”). Interestingly, this movie was directed by David Schwimmer (who I assume is the same guy as Ross from Friends?), yet it still retains that British film-making feel. It’s a predictable movie, but still worth watching for a bit of fun.

Quick movie recommendation. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is an older movie by the Coen brothers (made in 2000) but we only got around to watching it last night.

Set in Mississippi during the Great Depression it’s a comedic travel/adventure movie in the vein of Homer’s Odyssey, on which it is very loosely based. George Clooney is the central character, but he basically plays himself, like he does in pretty much all of his movies – it’s just a 1930s version of Clooney. Fortunately I like George Clooney so it’s not a bad thing (another guy who always plays the same basic character is Hugh Grant). Anyway it’s a funny, fast paced movie with a very interesting cultural backdrop. And the Grammy winning soundtrack is brilliant – well if you like blugrass you’ll appreciate it. I’m in a bit of a bluegrass phase at the moment so it was right up my alley – in fact that’s why I decided to watch the movie.

Well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it before and are in the mood for something a little different.

It’s another long weekend here down under, this time for Australia Day, January 26th. We’ll be having the customary lamb dinner tonight with some chops before yet another public holiday on-call for me tomorrow.

So far this weekend’s been good though. Jen and I went out for dinner and a movie on Friday night – saw Charlie Wilson’s War which is an excellent cold war political drama starring Tom Hanks. Full of history, humour, and irony, if you like The West Wing (my all time favourite TV show) then you’ll probably appreciate this movie. I also like the understated way the movie referenced the USA’s failure to capitalise on its victory over the Soviets in Afghanistan – as the characters discuss the dangers of not following through with helping rebuild the country, you hear the ominous sound of a jet airliner flying over Washington in the background.

Saturday we took the kids to Garden City Shopping Centre in Booragoon to do a bit of shopping and see a movie. Our only choice was Alvin & the Chipmunks which was not the best but the kids seemed to enjoy it. While doing that I dropped our Prado into a hand car wash they have in the undercover carpark there to get all the dirt off it from our previous weekend down south. The beauty of that place is not only do they do a great job for a pretty good price, but it saves me having to drive around for 20 minutes looking for parking. Now the car looks like new again, or perhaps even better than new

Speaking of last weekend, I’ve posted a video on YouTube with some footage I took while we were down south. Have a look here if you like :

In the next few days I’ll upload the rest of the video. Also I’ve posted all the photos from the trip on my flickr page.

I’ve never been much of a trekkie – missed the last few movies and never watched any of the TV series after the one with Pickard. But the upcoming movie produced by J J Abrams does sound like it might be worth watching. And a particularly interesting thing about this movie is that they have the actor who plays Heroes’ Sylar (the coolest, and scariest, TV villain in years) to play a young Spock. Judging from these grainy pictures he’s a pretty good choice for the role.

Speaking of Heroes, Jen and I have finished re-watching season 1 on HDDVD and are now working our way through season 2. It took a little while to get into it while they were introducing all these new characters but eight episodes in and it’s looking as good as ever. I especially enjoyed the ‘Hiro in Japan’ storyline. My big frustration now is that we only have one episode left to watch and we will be up to date! After a few weeks of watching Heroes several nights a week, having to endure the pain of waiting for one episode every week will be agony, especially if the screenwriter’s strike results in a big mid-season gap.

Good morning from not so sunny South Africa. Actually it’s pretty cold here in Johannesburg – 9 degrees. I had a fairly smooth, but long flight from Perth overnight. I got a bit of interrupted sleep but still feel pretty tired now. In the end I gave up and sleeping and watched the mildly entertaining in-flight movie The Wendall Baker Story, starring Luke Wilson, with the usual appearances from Will Ferrell and brother Owen Wilson. I always liked those Wilson boys Owen and Luke. Was sadden to hear about Owen’s recent suicide attempt. Hope we see him back on the big screen again soon.

Also, whilst waiting in the airport last night, I listened to Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows, which I downloaded yesterday afternoon. It’s actually a pretty good album, perhaps their most accessible since OK computer, thus making their exclusively online distribution experiment even more interesting.

Right now I’m in the Diners Club (or Premier Club) arrivals lounge at the airport. Free coffee, juice, soft drinks, free hot breakfast and a wonderful shower have gone some way to making me feel human again. Seriously this is the coolest shower I’ve ever seen. It has so many options and dials and different places for the water to come out. I even took a picture – check it out here. Once I’m done here I’ll try and dump my bags at my hotel, which is just around the corner, then rent a car and head off to explore Johannesburg. Hopefully the dodgy weather will keep the criminals away. First stop might have to be the Lion Park.

Independence Day (film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Independence Day (also known as its promotional abbreviation ID4) is an Academy Award winning 1996 science fictionfilm directed by Roland Emmerich. The film’s main plot is about an attempted alien takeover of Earth and features several scenes of major landmarks being destroyed by the aliens, such as the White House, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles.The film’s success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign which began in the United States with a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX. The movie was scheduled for release on July 3, 1996, but due to the high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, 1996, the same day the action in the film begins. The movie’s total gross was $816,969,268, the 15th highest gross for a movie all-time. [..read more..]

Less than 3 weeks to go now until we head off on our trip, or to put it another way, 13 more days of work. The first, and most important, stop on our journey will be Kampala, Uganda, where we will again visit the Sanyu Babies Home.

It’ll be good to get back to Uganda again. My enthusiasm to see the country again was piqued last night when we finally got around to watching the Last King of Scotland DVD which was filmed almost entirely in Uganda. In addition to the film itself we watched an excellent featurette about Idi Amin, and the movie’s treatment of him. Much of the countryside, architecture, and some of the city sites were very familiar. Can’t wait to be there again.

As for the movie itself, it was very good. Forrest Whitaker’s Oscar winning performance as Amin was superb, and James McAvoy (aka Mr Tumnus in Narnia) was excellent as the central character Dr Nicholas Garrigan. Having read the book on which it was based though, I must say I was a little disappointed. In many ways the plot deviated significantly from the book – many key events and characters were left out entirely and certain events were completely changed. There’s always a challenge in making a movie out of an excellent book and while this movie certainly is very very good, I’d have to say the book is much better. If you haven’t done either I’d say watch the movie first, and then read the book – that way you might not find the movie to be a bit of a let down. You can read my initial thoughts on the book from last August here.

Aside from that the weekend was pretty good. Owen’s soccer match on Saturday was an intense, high standard game (well by 6 year old standards it was), and we spent the afternoon shopping before watching the classic movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Sunday at church we had an excellent sermon preached by Pastor Julie and then went up to our nephew Jason’s 4th birthday. Almost a shame to be back at work but I’ll just keep counting down those days – 12 work days to go after today…

As you might infer from the lack of posts and Twitter updates over the last few days I’ve been very busy (actually you could possibly infer the opposite as well). After a frantic second half of last week at work with lots of babies born and pre-dawn hospital visits, we then had Owen’s birthday on Friday, which spilled over into Saturday. Also on Friday I finally picked up our car, which has been in the smash repair shop for 2 months after the accident in early April.

After soccer on Saturday morning we went with friends to see Shrek the Third, which was enjoyable, though perhaps not quite as good as the first two. In the afternoon on Saturday I went to pick up my new phone (which I’ll post about later) and then had our church “World Changers” missions dinner. Sunday morning started early as I was playing guitar in both services. One minute before I left home I managed to cut my left middle finger on something and hence had to play with a bandaid on. Although my lead work was a bit clumsy in places overall it wasn’t too bad and the band as a whole really fired well and we had great services with a top guest speaker Mark Wilson.

Much of the rest of the weekend was spent trying to work out how to use my new phone and installing software on it. Also the realisation has begun to hit that it is less than 4 weeks now until we head off on our big trip and we have an awful lot to do between now and then, both in terms of trip preparation and other things we have on. Also work looks like it’s going to be a very busy month as I am looking after a lot of pregnant patients for another of the doctors who is off on holidays, in addition to my own patients of whom a lot are due this month. So I really need to start getting well organised now – time to start making some lists to avoid forgetting things I have to do. I’ve already started to make good use of the Tasks function on my new phone.

And hopefully amidst all this I’ll still find the time to do blog and twitter posts… watch this space…

Hello Internet: Moofies – Hijacked Penguin – Ben is getting annoyed at yet another penguin inspired movie coming out hot on the heels of Happy Feet, continuing a disturbing trend in animated movies… See if you can think of any other examples.

On the weekend, between delivering babies, I finished reading Long Way Round, which is an excellent book by Obi-Wan Kenobi Ewan McGregor and his actor friend Charley Boorman. It tells the story of a trip they made where they spent four months riding motorcycles across Europe, Asia, and America. They went well and truly off the beaten track, visiting places such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia, enduring innumerable difficulties but ultimately succeeding in an interesting and fulfilling journey. Along the way they also made a TV series about their travels and I simply must get my hands on the DVD of it.

Reading about this journey just added further fuel to the burning itch I have to travel (one of my two current obsessions – the other is a renewed interest in guitars), especially to out of the way places like the ones these guys visited. I think I’d take a car though, not being a bike enthusiast like these two. Jennifer has risked further fuelling this firstly by giving me another travelogue type book by Nicholas and Micah Sparks, and secondly by getting the movie Beyond Borders with Angelina Jolie, which we watched last night. This excellent movie was more about humanitarian travel, involving a doctor who worked in areas like Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya – but then again that’s a big part of the sort of travel I want to do also. I seriously think if someone offered me a job travelling and doing full time medical aid work I would take it, but then again I’ve got two kids, two cars (well one at the moment, but still two payments) and a mortgage to think of. But if anyone form the UN or WHO or world vision or whatever can think of the perfect job that balances all those things, give me a call. Once again, it’s nice to dream…

Last week we watched an incredible documentary about the refugee crisis in Northern Uganda. Invisible Children was a film made by 3 college age guys who planned to go and film the poverty in Southern Sudan, but wound up encountering the problems caused by the LRA in Gulu and surrounding districts in Uganda. Rebel fighting and abductions of the populace, especially children, have displaced millions from their homes, and have forced thousands of children to ‘commute’ into the towns every night and sleep there for their safety.

The film is slick, very youthful style filming and editing – almost like an episode of Survivor at times. It begins quite humorously as these 3 young guys ebmark on their big adventure, but it doesn’t take long before it gets very serious as we are confronted with some of the victims of this crisis. But then at the end (and in the abundance of DVD extras) it gets more positive as we are shown the work of the charity that these guys started on their return. Their Invisible Children charity is pitched squarely at high school and college aged American kids, giving them opportunities to help those less fortunate than them in Uganda. It’s a very upbeat, uplifting program. And they have an uber cool website too – Invisible Children

Ever since I first heard about the LRA and the problems in Gulu when I was in Uganda last year I’ve had a strong desire to visit there and help in some way. In fact we tried to get up there last year but there wasn’t enough time and it was deemed unsafe by our hosts. Watching this doco has inspired me more to want to help these people, victims of a tragedy that has been descibed by the UN as one of the worst, and most under-reported humanitarian crises in the world : “I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda, that is getting such little international attention.” (UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland) I don’t know if I will get the opportunity to get to northern Uganda when I visit there this year, but I really hope to do so at some point. In the meantime check out the Invisible Children website and watch their movie if you get the chance. Very moving.

One of the great things about having the Foxtel-IQ recorder now for our pay TV service is that I can scan through and record shows and movies that I’ve previously missed seeing at the cinemas or on DVD. In the last two weeks half I’ve watched 4 good movies.

The Island – Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsen in a futuristic sci-fi. This movie was nothing earth shattering, but an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour. Once you get your head into what’s going on it’s reasonably predictable.

Saved! – this movie is set in a Christian High School in the USA. Some Christians may find it insulting or sacreligious but if you can get beyond that it’s actually a biting social commentary on evangelical culture (admittedly quite an extreme version but there’s enough reality mixed in there) with messages on hypocrisy, loving your neighbour and getting the right priorities. Well worth watching.

Kingdom of Heaven – another religiously themed movie which speaks to issues of religious tolerance and missing the point. This one is set in Jerusalem during the crusades and stars Orlando Bloom. Plenty of action, brilliant battle scenes but enough background drama and exploration of the characters to make this an excellent, well balanced movie.

Elizabethtown – another movie starring Orlando Bloom, who I think is one of the most likeable actors today. This is a feel-good romantic comedy about a failed shoe designer who travels back to a small town in Kentucky to arrange his father’s burial. It’s a comedy with a dash of moralizing and large heapings of sentimentality…. sounds a bit dodgy on paper right? Well I’m surprised to say I loved this movie. The characters are engaging, the dialogue is fresh, the humour is original, the music is fantastic, and it closes with an extended road trip through middle America. I’m even more inspired to want to go on an American road trip myself now!  Great movie.

Ok now this is cool, well at least in a nerdy sort of way. I’m sure everyone has heard of Wikipedia by now, the incredibly useful internet encyclopaedia. Well now the StarWars Universe has it’s own version, the aptly titled Wookieepedia – the Star Wars Wiki. The depth of information here is surprising, going far beyond the six movies and deep into the vast realm of other Star Wars related fiction. A person could get lost in this world, and it seems to me some devoted fans probably have…

Thought I’d post some brief thoughts on the movie Happy Feet, which we went and saw yesterday. For those who aren’t aware, it’s an animated musical about penguins. For those who have seen the brilliant March of the Penguins documentary this will be quite familiar, especially the early sequences. I would have to say this is one of the best animated pictures I have ever seen. This movie has the whole package – brilliant animation, a good plot, catchy musical numbers, and a level of depth unprecedented in the CGI genre. In fact I’d actually say this is more of an adult movie than a kids film. Our kids were fine with it – Owen (5) paid attention for the whole duration (nearly 2 hours), and Luke (3) wandered a bit, and both came away trying on some pretty cool tap dancing moves. But for most kids, especially younger ones, this movie is a bit long and perhaps a bit serious. On a serious note this movie explored a number of themes including parenthood, acceptance/tolerance, religious fundamentalism, the generation gap, and an enviromental narrative with enough punch to give Al Gore a run for his money. Also for the adults there is a brilliant pop soundtrack ranging from the Beatles and Elvis through Queen to Prince and beyond. As I said this is one of the best CGI movies ever – not only entertaining but it grabs you on a deeper level than most. Definitely one to see.

CNN.com – Jesus Christ Superman – Jun 14, 2006

I for one can’t wait for the upcoming release of Superman Returns. Superman has always been the ultimate superhero, even though some of the later movies from the 80s didn’t do justice to the legend (Superman IV anyone?). From the previews, the new movie looks like it’s going to be awesome – a much more worthy successor to the original Superman : The Movie, even to the extent that it features the voice of Marlon Brando as Superman’s Father, as well as the wonderful score from John Williams.

But this CNN article explores yet another aspect of the Superman legend, which apparently is given free reign in the new movie – Superman as a Christological figure. These themes have always been latent in Superman stories of the past, (even though the original creators drew more from the character of Moses) but in Superman Returns are made even more explicit. With a growing awareness of the vast American Christian market, studios are ever looking for new ways to appeal to them. Fortunately though, they aren’t marketing Superman in this way.

Interesting article to read which makes me even more keen to see this movie when it comes out.

By jove… it explains everything… right here!

Well I saw the movie the other night and it was not the best. I imagine if I had never read the book and hadn’t heard all the hype and just saw this for the first time on DVD I’d probably say it was not a bad thriller, albeit with some heretical elements to it. But after all the hype this movie was quite a let down. It just didn’t have anywhere near the level of suspense and “edge of your seat” factor that made the book so hard to put down. And some of the mysteries like the identity of the “Teacher” were handled so sloppily as to be very obvious even to people who’d never read the book (like Jennifer). As for the more controversial elements surrounding Mary Magdalene and Jesus, they were watered down so much as to be a big “so what?” – the pagan and “sacred feminine” aspects were virtually ignored so as to make the whole figure of Mary and the threat to the established church a much less coherent theme. Of course there were still several blatant historical untruths including the parts about Constantine, the Council of Nicea, and the Gnostic gospels. (for more resources on all that see my previous post and in particular Mark O’Brien’s entry and the article by N.T. Wright) Overall the movie was okay, but it could have been a lot better. Perhaps the mediocrity of this movie will help speed the inevitable dying down of all the fuss and controversy.

Well I still haven’t had the chance to see the movie yet (still waiting for the elusive confluence of a free night and available babysitters), and I must admit I’m rather less enthused after listening to Father Roderick’s scathing podcast review of it. And I know I promised not to blog on the subject any more until I’d seen it, but I just wanted to direct your attention to Mark O’Brien’s comprehensive post, Diluting DaVinci, which includes some very useful links on the subject, some great principles on how to “filter truth” in The Da Vinci Code or anything else, and an excellent podcast message. Do yourself a favour, and check it out.

Star Wars creator George Lucas gets perhaps the ultimate Star Wars honour as toy maker Hasbro have decided to make a limited edition model of him in Imperial Storm Trooper costume. How cool is that? I guess we now know what side of the Force George is really on, but then again maybe he’s in disguise, like in the original Star Wars movie.

Speaking of the original Star Wars, Lucasfilm have announced that they will be releasing some limited edition DVD sets later this year, with the original theatrical versions of the original trilogy. Many hard core Star Wars fans have been crying out for this for years and will finally get their wish. I can understand where they are coming from but personally I think I’d rather watch the newer digitally restored and enhanced special edition version in 5.1 surround than the original prints in Dolby 2.0 surround, even if Greedo does shoot first. But even so, I think I’ll definitely have to make some extra space on my Star Wars DVD shelf when these ones come out on September 12 this year. You can read more about this story here.

I saw this movie last night and left with mixed feelings. It certainly wasn’t the superlative movie I expected from the reviews I read about it. In many ways it was very good, just not completely satisfying. As expected the special effects were fantastic and Spielberg masterfully built up the suspense. Unlike other alien invasion stories Spielberg maintained his focus at an on-the-ground level, following his humble stevedore character and his children around – we only see small glimpses of the larger worldwide story that is obviously taking place. I like the way the story began, with strange events hitting a small community in America. Echoes of 9/11 were clear to see, most obviously in the fine ash that covered Tom Cruise’s character. I don’t know why every single house in the street needed to have the stars and stripes flying outside though.

Throughout the movie I kept finding myself waiting for Spielberg to pull his camera back, expand his field of vision, and involve his character in the greater “war”, but it just didn’t happen. Cruise’s character Ray (how’s that for a stereotypical New Jersey man?) just ran from one little drama to the next, only really worried about saving his own skin and that of his children. Spielberg is a master of building edge-of-seat suspense, but at times I felt like “enough with the suspense, how about getting on with the plot?” Tom Cruise did a fairly good job of playing his character, but to be honest that consisted of basically running around looking scared and confused most of the time. I won’t spoil the ending, but I have to say it would be one of the most anti-climactic finishes to a movie that I can remember. Not being very familiar with the original War of the Worlds I don’t know whether to blame Spielberg or H G Wells for that.

Anyway despite what I’ve said it’s not a bad movie. It just doesn’t live up to the hype. But probably worth seeing just for the spectacle, and to see Spielberg showing his craft – it’s just a shame he didn’t have a better plot to work with.

Last night with our small group I watched one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen, “Hotel Rwanda.” For anyone who hasn’t seen it, this is a story of how one man, who was part of the dominant ethnic majority, helped others to survive in the midst of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The story is much more complicated than that, and it is a film that I think everyone must see. Although the subject matter is very dark, and even horrific, it isn’t an especially gruesome movie, so don’t let the subject matter put you off. If I had to compare it to anything it is like a modern day Schindler’s list, but it has a much greater personal impact, because in this movie you not only sympathise with the hero, but share in the guilt of the international western community who stood by and let this tragedy happen.

This movie spoke to me on so many levels on a range of themes including evil and suffering; ignorance, racism, and selfishness; and sacrifice and loving one’s neighbour. Although not explicitly Christian you could get a strong Christian message out of it (in fact Brian McLaren called it an “even more Christian film” than the Passion of the Christ), with a great example of a man who was able to exhbit the qualities taught by Jesus of loving one’s neighbour and enemies, going the extra mile etc etc. It also speaks volumes about how we in the “Christian” west, both individually and collectively, so often fail to live up to these ideals. This is a movie I need to watch again, and one I strongly encourage you to watch too. Certainly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Just took Owen to see a preview screening of Madagascar, which is a new animated comedy from the makers of Shrek. Needless to say he loved it, although for some strange reason the part that got the biggest giggles out of Owen was when a couple of the animals launched into a rendition of “New York, New York” – go figure! Anyway it was a great movie – beautiful graphically (as we’ve come to expect from today’s CGI movies), good characters well acted by the stars (Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and others), and an entertaining albeit simple plot. A good one to take the kids to. You just might want to watch out for the bit where they rescue the little duckling and set him free. What happens next was for some reason a little upsetting for Owen – we had to calm him down and reassure him (falsely) on the way home. If you see the movie you’ll see what I mean. And see it you should, cause it’s a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Yet another quiz here that I just couldn’t resist doing (I even have a category for these quizzes now so I must be succumbing to the dark side). This one is ‘What’s Your Theological Worldview?’ and I found it via Simian’s blog. I’m pretty happy with the results, seems fairly accurate, although as always I’d like some definitions, especially of “Neo orthodox” (didn’t know Neo had his very own worldview category – lol) and “Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan.” I’m reasonably pleased that both modern liberal and fundamentalist rated quite lowly. I’m sure they could have found a better picture of McLaren though…
Anyway check it out for yourself – if nothing else the questions will make you think…

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern		82%
Neo orthodox		64%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		61%
Roman Catholic		54%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		50%
Classical Liberal		36%
Reformed Evangelical		36%
Modern Liberal		25%
Fundamentalist		21%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Actually speaking of post-modernism, I saw the weirdest movie last night “I Heart Huckabees” which is a tale about a disturbed young environmental activist who signs up to have himself investigated by a pair of ‘Existential detectives’ played by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin. This is a film that to understand you almost need a degree in Philosophy (which I wouldn’t mind actually – have been thinking recently about perhaps going back to uni to study philosophy and/or theology at some point…) – in fact it even has some philosophical in-jokes (like Kafka in the garbage bin). It’s the kind of movie that you will either love (like I did) or hate (like Jenni did) so watch it at your own risk, but if you like things a bit strange, existential and/or post-modern then this comedy might be right up your alley – “How am I not myself?”

A Star Wars quiz this one is, so I’ll make (another) exception to my no quizzes rule. Meaningless are the results, but it’s certainly one of the coolest looking quizzes I’ve seen. Take a look, you should :

[via Simian, same result as me he got. This next quiz also I found on his site... a much more complicated and serious one it is...]

Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion – this site is pretty funny. I haven’t watched the whole thing through yet but it looks pretty good – kinda like Star Wars meets Veggie Tales. [via Stevey]

So we saw Star Wars Episode III last night and it was awesome. I’m sure hard core fans of the original trilogy would still rate it below those films but for me it was at least on a par with them and certainly eclipsed the first two episodes. The action in this movie was almost unrelenting, with a sense of urgency and building climax that was maintained throughout the story. And the scale of the battles, the villains, the duels and the personal drama was far above anything we’ve seen in Star Wars before. And in the midst of all this, George Lucas managed to weave enough in political, religious, and philosophical themes to keep any person looking for a deeper side to the film happy. This was always going to be the movie to tie up all the loose ends and bridge the two trilogies, and it was amazing how effortlessly it all just fell into place. None of the plot seemed contrived or forced to make it fit the original trilogy – it really for the first time looks like this was the story that was there in the beginning 30 years ago, before any of these movies were made, rather than simply a prequel that was added on later. The final scenes of the movie flow seamlessly into “A New Hope” – the title of which now really genuinely makes perfect sense.

The acting was a touch above what we’ve seen in the last two movies, and although the Anakin-Padme romantic dialogue was a bit syrupy, the romance itself was more like a Shakespearean tragedy. Hayden Christiansen did fairly well as Anakin, but the actor who truly shone was once again Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Like Harrison Ford as Han Solo in the original trilogy, McGregor is the heart and soul of the prequel series, especially in this movie where he gives a brilliant performance. In fact I’d probably say he’s one of the best big screen actors going around today full stop.

So see the movie. If you’re already a Star Wars fan I don’t need to tell you this, but if you found the last two movies disappointing, hopefully Lucas has redeemed himself, and the series, with this amazing movie. A perfect climactic close to the films that have helped define a generation.

PS – looks like I am currently the top “revenge of the sith blog” on Google Australia. How cool is that? (thanks to Saint Gaz for that piece of information)

Discovered an interesting blog with a review of a movie I’d never heard of. The Blogodoxy blog is an interesting, well presented and well written group blog from a Catholic and Eastern Orthodox perspective. While a little conservative in places it’s still a good read.

The movie, Millions, tells the story of some English kids who find a sack of a million pounds a week before the British currency changes to the Euro, thus they have to spend it all at once. The Blogodoxy Review mentions a bit about the various moral and religious challenges they face in dealing with this. Sounds like an interesting film.

Anyway, back to work…

Yesterday evening I sat down with Owen to watch a DVD of Disney’s “Country Bears.” This movie illustrates the point from my last entry about giving credit to styles of music we don’t necessarily like all that much, as it’s full of country music, which is not usually my cup of tea. Having said that, I actually quite enjoyed the music in this movie so maybe I’m not as anti-country as I once would have thought.

Anyway it’s actually not a bad movie and Owen and I both enjoyed watching it and even having a bit of a dance around. The premise is that of travelling around “getting the band back together” ala The Blues Brothers. The difference here is that it is a country-rock band made up of bears. Sounds weird but it actually works pretty well. And for what I thought was going to be a pretty lame movie they managed to attract a cavalcade of stars – Christopher Walken, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, Don Henley, Bonnie Rait, and even Elton John!

So worth checking out if you want a harmless kids movie with some reasonably good music. Probably because of the country-rock element I was reminded by this movie of “The Last Waltz“ which would have to be one of the best rock and roll movies of all time. Directed by Martin Scorcese, this film documents the last ever concert by country-rock outfit “The Band” in 1976. It’s beautifully filmed and the music is fantastic, featuring not only The Band but a few of their “friends” who just happened to include the likes of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Dr John, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, and Ringo Starr. It’s amazing seeing all these legends back in the prime of their careers. I stayed up after midnight last night re-watching this movie. Even if you’ve never heard of The Band, I’d still encourage you to check out this great movie if you have any interest in rock history or just great music. I’d never heard of them before I picked up the DVD last year for ten dollars but I’m really glad I did. For a good article on the importance of this movie, check out this one by Bill Wyman.

Anyway now I’m off to go invest in a slide for my guitar…

var now = new Date(); // set this value to the countdown date. var then = new Date(“May 19, 2005″); var gap = then.getTime() – now.getTime(); gap = Math.floor(gap / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)); document.write(gap); days until Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

And I’ve got tickets booked now – 12:01am Thursday 19th May, 2005.
I don’t usually go to these midnight premieres but since this is gonna be the last ever Star Wars movie I thought I might as well. Besides, I have the following day off anyway. I can’t wait.

Less than a month now till the final Star Wars movie “Revenge of the Sith” comes out – here’s an interesting interview about the making of the movie : Star Wars: Episode III | Inside Del Rey’s Episode III Library. Among other things it mentions that Stephen Spielberg helped George Lucas on a few of the scenes in the movie. He also makes the point that once this movie is out, then the central character in the saga as a whole becomes Anakin Skywalker, rather than Luke, who we’ve grown up with as being the main character. Funny how perspective can change like that.

Less than a month to go – time to let the hype start buildng I think

Tonight I finally got around to wtaching the Metallica documentary “Some Kind of Monster” on DVD. It truly is an amazing film, that I think even people who are not big fans of the band could appreciate. Fascinating to watch these guys stripped bare, struggling with their personal issues and relationships with each other, and the changes they went through, especially the lead singer James Hetfield. After a period of rehab he transformed into this quite clean-cut guy spouting a lot of psychology talk. We see them working with their therapist, and ultimately firing him, and auditioning a new bass player. Imagine auditioning to join the biggest heavy band in the world, and then having to discuss contracts and percentages etc. This band had so much going on during the making of this movie – so many upheavals and changes – makes for compelling viewing. And of course I can’t forget the music, and watching the process of songwriting and putting together and album. It’s inspiring. I must admit I hadn’t really got into the St Anger album much before but listening to the music throughout this movie makes me want to go back and give it another chance. Having said that they still played a few of their earlier songs in the movie and I still feel like their old stuff is better than their new stuff. Be interesting to see what they come out with next.

Right now I don’t know whether I feel like listening to Metallica, getting out my guitar, or going to bed. Probably bed will win though as Luke will be awake in 6 hours or less. Guess I’m not cut out for the Rock and roll lifestyle

Stumbled across this story today, about Mel Gibson’s movie, ‘The Passion of The Christ‘ At the time many people were dissuaded from seeing the original movie because it was too graphic and brutal. Well now Mel Gibson has listened to the concerns of those people and has re-edited the movie to make a more accessible, less brutal version of the story. This edition ‘The Passion : recut’ is about to be released in America in time for Easter, though I’m not sure if and when it will be coming out here in Australia. You can visit the official site of the new movie to find out more, and take a look at Mel Gibson’s video introduction.

Okay well I’m more and more hooked on the idea of Podcasting, at least in theory if not in practice (since I rarely get the time to listen) – on the way to my seminar in Perth this afternoon I listened to a cast on my iPod by Father Roderick, the Catholic Insider, as recommended by Mark – it’s a really well presented professional show and more inportantly is very interesting, with a ‘Sound-seeing’ tour, Q&A, and ‘Catholic Trivia’ to boot. And he’s a big Star Wars fan too. If you’re into podcasting, check it out.

Speaking of Star Wars, here’s a link to an Episode III parody movie my brother sent me. I haven’t watched it yet, so take no responsibility for the content

How cool is this poster?

Can’t wait til this movie comes on. Just hope it lives up to the hype – it’s gonna be the last Star Wars so I hope it goes out with a bang!

May 19 is the big day – mark you diary now

PS – if you want to see a larger version of the poster, just click on the image to the right and it will pop up. Love the older looking ObiWan and Anakin, and especially the shadow of Darth Vader in the background…

Last night, in need of a night out, we decided to go to the movies and see what’s on, and took a chance on “Bride and Predjudice” – this is a Bollywood style treatment of the similarly sounding boring old Jane Austen novel. Like many Indian movies, it has some very over the top song and dance numbers, with the cast unexpectedly breaking into song at many points throughout the movie. These songs, though often incredibly cheesy, were very catchy and has a great up-beat eastern sound. They were well choreographed and the cast were dressed in loads of bright colours. The plot, while a little predictable, was enough to sustain interest, especially in the second half of the movie. My biggest criticism was that the Tom Cruise lookalike who played the American male lead, gave a very wooden performance, in contrast to his beautiful Indian female counterpart who was brilliant. It’s not the best movie ever but for 2 hours of harmless cross-cultural fantasy it’s worth seeing.