Category → movies
Been Busy
I am sorry for not posting regularly but we have been busy with life. We have some family issues and school that have take a lot of time and not allowed me to get online as much as I like. Those of you that know what I am talking about on the family issues I can tell you that it has not been resolved so please pray for us. Also the first fall session at OU ends in two weeks so there has been an extraordinary number of papers to write. At work, we had a person get another job in our office so now I am being moved into his position and it is pretty high profile so I am a little overwhelmed at that as well.
One thing that I just cannot understand is how I somehow always find myself in public speaking situations whether it be at work or school but I just do not feel comfortable in those positions. It is amazing that I get picked to speak on behalf of the group even when they do not know who I am. I just do not understand.
Today we have our Oklahoma wind back and I love it. It is looking like we may be able to get some rain tomorrow and I am very happy about that. It has been a month since we have had any rain at all. I bought a new camera about a month ago and I have been too busy to use it. I bought a Canon EOS 450D of a Digital Rebel XSi. I can hardly wait to have time to use it. This weekend we did take a couple breaks to go to see the Christian movie Fireproof at the Warren Theater in Moore. It was a pretty good movie in that they did not try to mask the intention of the movie. They talked about God and Jesus openly and even quoted scripture. I thought that was refreshing. I was pretty amazed at how full the theater was. I mean every seat was taken so that was nice to see there was an audience.
I really love the new THX sound check promo they do before the movie starts. It litterally shakes the chairs with the base. Man who ever put that together was pretty smart. Below is a video of it that someone put on Youtube. Man with the loud speakers and incredibly huge screen this is pretty cool.
You may remember the old one below that was pretty cool to hear on the loud speakers but it cannot compare to the new one. The one below has been in theaters for a number of years but is still pretty cool on the big screen with loud speakers. The one above was so loud with the mushrooms sounding like drums that I could feel my chair shaking.
It is pretty amazing how the movie theater technology has become so advanced. They now have stadium seating and curved screens to give a more three dimensional look. The sound systems seem to be most amazing. I have heard people complain about it being too loud and I guess I can see that but since I desire the total experience when I go, the sound is an integral part of the experience. The fully engrossing surround is hard to describe. This little THX intro to the movie in HD on a 60+ foot screen with several thousand watts of power will certainly shake your chair. I guess I have always loved technology and am amazed at how cool it can be used. It was an extra bonus to see a Christian movie while using this technology.
Movie not What it Appears to be
This weekend we rented two movies to watch as a family and were sorely disappointed. The first one we watched was called Witless Protection, starring Larry the Cable Guy. This movie was sort of boring and even my kids thought it was not any good. The movie was a disappointment from the first five minutes. The second movie was called Numb, starring Matthew Perry from the sitcom, Friends. This movie started out strange but looked like it was going to be a love story. We were sort of shocked when the girlfriend started throwing out the “F” word regularly, then decides that she wants to go to a female stripper club for dinner. Of course there was an extended time of full nude close up shots. We fast forwarded through that scene, just to be met with several other pornographic scenes throughout the movie. Of course we were disappointed since we were watching this with our teenage boys. For some reason I thought since Matthew Perry was in the movie that it would have been a little more classy but apparently I was wrong. For some people who have different morals than I do, this may have been totally acceptable but for us it was not. I am finding that standards are changing in America today. I have been ridiculed in the past for not wanting to watch movies that had nudity like there is something wrong with having those opinions. On movie labels, those same differences in standards are often expressed as being acceptable to the person putting the labels on while the viewer may have different standards.
I am beginning to see why my mom always chose to watch Turner Classic Movies all the time. There is not a lot of controversy involved in the older movies. Sometimes you cannot always put your trust in the movie description that is printed on the back of the movie. The description that was on the back of this movie made it sound like this guy had a mental condition, and then fell in love in the end. There was no mention of it being a porno movie. Looks like we will have to be a little more careful.
Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed
Last night we went to our local theater to see a documentary by Ben Stein called Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed. This movie exposes the hostility in the science community toward anyone that questions Charles Darwin’s THEORIES. It gives many examples of scientists that have either been fired, lost tenure, or even had their reputations ruined simply for questioning Darwin. I have been reading a lot about this movie before it was released and how violently hostile people have been toward its release. To be honest, I expected protesters at the theater when I showed up after all I have read. It was not like that at all but I did see some people standing outside the theater with clip boards approaching people as they exited the theater. I have no idea what they were doing but I assumed they were people doing some sort of poll but that is purely speculation.
Of course I did enjoy the movie because I agreed with it. I already had my mind made up before I arrived. This movie does not claim any sort of connection with a religious group and did not even claim intelligent design (ID), or creationism was true. It just raised the issue that in the science community, the media, and the education systems in the United States a person does not have the freedom to pursue the evidence where ever it may lead. A scientist can pursue any answers except creation by intelligent design. It interviewed many scientists and even a journalist or two on both sides of the issue. The purpose of the movies was to expose that evolution cannot satisfactorily explain where life began so why not entertain the idea for the sake of argument. When the movie was over, there was applause in the audience that I perceived to be groups of religious people that finally felt validated. After all, I am from Oklahoma where God still exists and I am fine with that.
As I said before, I had my mind made up before I arrived at the theater as I am sure most of the other people there did. As much as I would like to believe that it convinced others to agree, I do not think it did. I think there are those that agreed already and those that disagree and both sides are just as firmly entrenched as before. In rare instances there may have been a few that were neutral on the idea and may have been swayed but those are rare. I think that this movie though I agree with it is similar to Michael Moore’s attempt to make these documentaries disparaging George Bush. There are those that already agree with him that went to see the movies while those that disagreed with him continued to feel that way.
Now I am going to get “religious” so this is my disclaimer. I believe this movie by Ben Stein made a mistake by taking the view point that it is not a religious movie. I have taken this argument in the past by trying to argue an issue without bringing my religious views into the argument and it does not work. Ben Stein admits in the movie that he is a Jew and takes a balanced approach on the movie so that he will not be seen as a right wing extremist. I have found that if you believe in God, you are going to be called names anyway so you might as well tell the truth and not try to hide your religious beliefs. I personally believe that this argument is a spiritual thing. In the book of Ephesians 6:12 of the Bible it says…
12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
I do not think this is an accident so why hide it. Just like I posted in my earlier post I quoted John 15:18-20 about how you will be persecuted for being a follower of Jesus. This is something that is going to happen period.
Back to the topic of the movie, I did enjoy it and would recommend it to others. I completely agree with its premise but I do think this is just as symptom of a greater problem. Yes the Christian community is persecuted in the United States. Yes anyone that goes against political correctness is likely to be ostracized in America today. The big problem that all these issues are symptoms of can be summed up in Romans 8:7.
7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
The world hates God and this should be no surprise. I heard a person say “Do not curse the darkness but shine a light”. This has stuck with me for many years as I know the temptation to lose sight of the big picture. It is easy to curse the media and education system and put them in the back of your mind as evil institutions. It is too easy to blame them and sit back and be mad at the world and say it is their fault. We should be shining that light and joining these institutions and changing them from the inside out. Imagine a world where we would have a say because we actively pursued these careers instead of being mad at them with no control. I may be wrong with this approach but like the moniker at the top of this blog says “This is my take”.
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Tags: Expelled, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, God, Jesus, religion, freedom, science, intelligent, design
June 23, 2007
We just got home from seeing the movie Evan Almighty this evening. It was pretty good but also pretty crowded. We went to the Harkins Theater in Bricktown downtown Oklahoma City. It rained this evening for a little bit and I really enoyed the cooler evening. It was in the low 90’s but very muggy before the storm moved in bringing the temperature to the low 70’s. That was very nice for late June. We were suppose to go to my boss’ house for a party today but she canceled due to the muddy lawn from the recent rain.
My son has been pretty bummed lately because he likes to skateboard and the city makes it illegal to skate anywhere. I thought about looking up the regulation and seeing about trying to get a petition going or something to get that law repealed. I do think it is not right that our city council has put the teenagers into a position where they are outlaws for simply riding their skateboard. It is really a tragedy. I will post more later.
Well the kids got their cell phones yesterday along with unlimited text/picture/video messaging. They seem to love them and so does Sunday and I. It is nice to be able to get in touch with them while they are out with their friends. They keep sending message back and forth all night. Now that we have unlimited messaging with video and pictures, I need to get a new phone that has camera on it. That will be handy for all the storm chasing.
Man, I still have tons of school work to do and am having a tough time getting motivated since I have a couple of very boring topics to cover. Neither of them are interesting enough to keep you from dosing off. We just got back from Chili’s and Wal-Mart a few minutes ago. We got a new ice cream machine. Tonight we can make some home made ice cream. That should be exciting.
Technorati Tags: Evan Almighty, Harkins, Harkins Theaters, Bricktown, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, skateboard, skateboarding, Chilis, Walmart, OU, T-Mobile, cell phones