Frozen Movie Review

It seems like Disney is hiring great new talent these days like Jennifer Lee who wrote the screenplay. Jennifer and her co-director Chris Buck who directed Tarzan, have done an amazing job with Frozen. It is a make-you-smile-for-most-of-the-movie-kinda-show.  The fresh songs, beautiful animation of powdery snow and ice and unlimited imagination mixed with superheroesque action held me for the entire running time.  I get bored easy so that is saying something.  I have four daughters.  They loved this show because it was a sister movie and not just your run-of-the-mill hero-saves-girl-type show.  

What else struck me was the theme of the show that fear is the enemy of love and that if you want to love then face the fear and expel it with the powerful and unstoppable force of self-sacrificing love.

Love it.

9 outta 10.

'Nuff Said.

Jesus and Turning Water into Wine

I always wondered why Jesus turned water into wine as his first miracle.  But when I think about it there are some amazing truths from John 2.  

The first reason why I think he did this miracle was that His mom asked Him to.  I can just picture the conversation.  Mary: "So, Jesus, they're out of wine."  Jesus: "Yeah? What do you want me to do about it, Mom?"  Mary just gives Him a motherly look.  Jesus: "Okay."  

That's what I think happened here.  

Funny if you ask me.

Then I think about the fact that Jesus did something, in one second, that usually takes years and years.  I mean that the people at the wedding said that said wine was the best wine ever.  Good wine takes a long time to get right.  Therefore it makes perfect sense that Jesus would prove He is the very Master of the Universe by altering molecules with a thought and demonstrating His power for all to see in an instant.  Can you imagine everyone's faces when they put water in the ceremonial washing jars and when someone dipped a ladle in there it came out full of the most robust and rich wine they'd ever seen?  I would've loved those faces.  

My brother Paul, who teaches Old Testament at McMaster Divinity School in Hamilton, Ontario also pointed out to me that Jesus showed that Jesus did this to show He was the new wine in an old religion by using Jewish ceremonial washing jars as the containers for the wine.  Those jars were meant for a ritual that was very important and Jesus turned that on its ear and filled the jars with His new wine and used them on His own authority. If there were any Pharisees at that wedding they would've been just a little miffed.  But He didn't care.  He was in charge of the religion...the religion wasn't in charge of Him.

So Jesus honored and loved his mom, proved He was God by the miracle and turning old religion on its head.  Pretty cool.

'Nuff said. 

  

Luxury Equalled Idol Worship

Hosea 10:1-2 How prosperous Israel is—a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit.But the richer the people get,the more pagan altars they build.The more bountiful their harvests,the more beautiful their sacred pillars. The hearts of the people are fickle;they are guilty and must be punished.The Lord will break down their altarsand smash their sacred pillars. (NLT)

Hosea 10:2 Their heart is divided and deceitful; now shall they be found guilty and suffer punishment. The Lord will smite and break down the horns of their altars; He will destroy their idolatrous pillars.  (AMP)

Lord, this is what has happened to my country.  I am sorry that I let prosperity turn me into an idol worshipped.  The gifted Worshipping the gifts instead of the gifter.

My Top Twenty Albums of the Last 35ish Years

Okay.

So I was having some fun thinking bout some of my favourite music albums released in the last 30 years or so.  This is what I came up with.  Some of these artists you will have heard of and some you won't because I'm older.  These stick out in my consciousness like tall mountains whose peaks rise above the cloud line.

These are in no particular order so that is why they look like this.

                     White Heart-Freedom    John Williams-Superman the Movie Soundtrack
      Amy Grant-Lead Me On    Sweet Comfort Band-Perfect Timing    Steve Taylor-Meltdown
                Adele-21      Matt Maher-Alive Again      U2 The Joshua Tree
                                  Hans Zimmer-the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack
         Steve Camp-Justice    Whitney Houston-Whitney Houston    Jill Paquette-Jill Paquette
     Michael W Smith-Live the Life    Brian Doerksen-Hungry
           Passion-One Day Live      John Williams-Star Wars A New Hope Soundtrack
                    Petra-Beyond Belief      Chicago-17    Genesis-Invisible Touch  
                                         Michael W.Smith-Christmas

'Nuff Said.

MAN OF STEEL Movie Review

Superman is an ideal of hope.   An Ideal of Hope is the the name of the Man of Steel theme track by Hans Zimmer, (you can hear it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr78tn873UQ).   Hans Zimmer, who in the words of Man of Steel director Zack Snyder, "crushed it!" meaning he knocked the Man of Steel music score outta the park.  He smartly went in a completely different direction from the John Williams fanfare, and that was a good move because that is quite possibly the greatest movie theme ever composed.  The music was deep.

From the get go I was captivated by the sheer vastness of the CGI artists' imagination and the design of Krypton.  Brilliant.  The costume design and technology conceptions were fantastic.  The flying was something else.  Pretty Cool.  I do think that there should be some flying scenes that would more allow us to take in the majesty of being able to fly.  When Supes is flying over what looks to be a herd of Zebras in Africa I would have liked to take it in better.  Having said that, I get it he is flying very fast.

The Christ imagery (its fun Easter Egg hunting to spot it) was clear.  Supes is indeed the super metaphor for Christ the Savior.          

The Lessons in human arrogance and environmentalism were something we can all learn from the fabled Krypton.  The moral lessons from the Kents to their Kryptonian son were solid, as usual.   The story was very well thought out and I am glad that Chris Nolan and David Goyer were in on the story and writing.  I am certain that this movie has resurrected a Superman franchise.  We can thank the previous Dark Knight trilogy and Nolan's fresh take on superheroes for that.  Zack Snyder is clearly an artistic visionary and he was able to pull the pictures out of his head and get the CGI guys to put those pictures on the big screen.

The action was bone-crunching and, to my 45 year old sensibilities, a little too elongated.  Having said that, the action did make up for the all-too-mellow 2006 Superman Returns.  By the end of it you feel bad for Metropolis and Smallville.  They get fairly leveled.  There were poignant moments that gripped your heart as you see Superman make tough choices.      

The cast was terrific.  Henry Cavill deserves to wear the cape.  He is a great actor.  Amy Adam's Lois Lane was clever and full of life and discernment.  Russell Crowe's work as Jor-El made me wish we had a two hour prequel about Krypton to Man of Steel.  Jor-El was one kick butt and noble dad.  I can see where Supes gets it.  Kevin Costner was a great choice for Jonathan Kent and gave Clark a good man to look up to.  Diane Lane played a tough farm-girl Martha Kent, who wasn't gonna get pushed around.  I found myself wanting more of the Daily Planet Staff because Perry White, played by Laurence Fishburne, was great.  Jenny Olsen, Jimmy Olsen's female replacement had a next-to-nothin' role as an intern until she got to act in a crisis situation and did very well.  Michael Shannon was brilliant as General Zod--whadda bad guy!  Shannon can act.  

All in all I am looking forward to seeing it again.  Which means I liked it.  I give it a 9.2 outta 10.

'Nuff Said.

Movie Review-Star Trek Into Darkness

I was surprised this latest Star Trek movie didn't make more than the 84 million it did on it opening weekend.  I loved the film!  From the start the Enterprise is engulfed in J.J. Abram's frenetic, camera-shaking style of film-making and holds you in a relentless grip.  Abrams has a way of getting the viewer emotionally invested and even caring for a villain...at least one of them.  This is a spoiler free review so I will not divulge any more about that.  The film is stunning in its CGI grandeur and scope.  The special effects that are the best I 've ever seen and I loved the fact we got to see a lot more of the Enterprise and its very cool new warp effect in this second installment.

The cast is fantastic at their job of portraying the crew of the Enterprise and Benedict Cumberbatch and RoboCop, Peter Weller, make great bad guys.

I like the fact that it got a little preachy about themes such as hunting down and executing a criminal without a trial and the futility of revenge.  It would seem that the writers have a problem with America's use of drones in summary execution of American citizens who are terrorists.  The drones in this movie happen to be souped-up photon torpedos.  The lessons Kirk learned in humility and when it came to his seeking revenge resonated with me as well :  "There will always be those who mean to do us harm.  To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves.  Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us.  But that's not who we are..."

Michael Giacchino's musical score was impressive and, being a big fan of soundtracks, I even heard some John Williamseque musical notes in there.  Giacchino's music has the power to evoke the emotion in a scene in a powerful way and his musical landscapes are ever the brilliant.

The tributes to and the mentions of the Star Trek universe were great.  The movie has a lot of humorous moments that made me laugh and I love the twists on the timeless stories from Trek lore.

I give this film a 9 out of 10.

'Nuff Said.

IRON MAN THREE - My Review

So, Tony Stark....you are a character.  One of the most colorful.  Robert Downey Jr's performance in the Iron Man trilogy certainly deepened the humanity of the Superhero movie genre.  I enjoyed the mixing it up of different elements characters and plot twists in Iron Man Three.  I'm sure that Gwenyth Paltrow enjoyed the fact that Pepper Potts had more to do than sit in an office in this movie.  Guy Pierce did a good job as he always does as a villain (he was a great bad guy in The Count of Monte Cristo).

Iron man Three was well-directed and managed to make the audience hold their breath a couple of times.  The movie's sense of humor was there too to keep watchers laughing.  As Tony bares his soul (you'll have to stay til after the credits to see who he is talking to) he acknowledges that he (like us) is responsible for a lot of the mayhem in our lives.  I think that that is a good lesson for us all.  Tony tries to find a solution for the turmoil in his heart by ceaselessly tinkering with his tech - like a lot of guys I know with their stuff.  But nothing helps.  He can't sleep and no amount of tech can rewire the human heart.  I enjoyed Iron Man Three much more than two, which was entertaining, but not as beefy in plot and deep in character development.

Director Shane Black brought his A Game and I'm glad that Jon Favreau was in the movie as a character but turned the direction over to Black.  This is something Lucas should have done in Star Wars episodes II and III the way he did with Empire and Jedi.  Fresh Directing perspective is a good idea with multiple sequels.  Brian Tyler's score was great and infectious and the new Iron Man theme stuck in my head afterward--a good sign the composer did his job well.

I'd say 8 out of 10.  Nuff Said.  

"You Don't Want to Mess with an Angel"

"You Don't Want to Mess with an Angel".  That is a quote from my youngest daughter as she saw the Asian "ninja" angel take down the evil men from Sodom who were trying to keep Lot and his family from leaving Sodom.

I will tell you the things that I liked about the Bible.

There was non-cheesy and fairly solid acting. 

I appreciated the well done CGI (computer generated imagery).  The movie cleverly began with the Ark of Noah being tossed about in the violence of the Great Flood and, in the Ark, Noah trying to help his family pass the time told them and us the story of Creation and the how sin, the sad fact of humanity, had brought this disaster upon mankind.    

I was glad there were non-watered down Biblical epic battles.  This is important if we are to capture the attention of young men who need to know that there are sword fights in the Bible and that it is a book of epic-ness and that angels are tough and don't look like Roma Downey.  

I liked that we got to see Abraham kick butt when he freed Lot and that father Abraham wasn't some wimp in a robe who just sat under trees talking to God.  I liked the way that we knew that that was the pre-Incarnate Jesus Christ visiting Abe - but they kept his face out of focus to maintain the absolute coolness and mystery of a theophany.

There was moving music by legendary cinematic composer Hans Zimmer that helped establish the mood of each scene.  They managed to truncate the many Bible stories so that the story tellers could move us through hundreds of years of Biblical history in two hours without losing the substance.

There wasn't much that I didn't like about these first two episodes of The Bible.  I do wish there had been the story of Issac and Jacob and Joseph, but when you have to take people on a flash tour through the Old Testament not everybody gets their time in the spotlight.  If this had been a series instead of a mini-series I'm sure we would have been treated to those accounts as well.

To me, a guy who has seen a lot of cheesy Christian stuff in his lifetime, I was glad that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's money was not wasted.

I look forward to next week's episode.

'Nuff said.