Review of Taken

The movie “Taken” is out on DVD, and I watched it this weekend.  Five Stars.

Taken and Liam Neeson does the same thing for being a super dad, that Airforce One and Harrison Ford did for being a good president. I hate human trafficking, especially when it is in my backyard, and I can totally understand why someone like this ex-spy dad would yield the baseball bat and start knocking off the bad guys to rescue his innocent daughter who is kidnapped from under her Hotel French bed! Mostly, he just inflicts “flesh wounds”. It is a very well researched entertaining movie about the world we actually live in today. I strongly recommend this good dad movie to anyone who is mad about the modern human slave trade and/or raising a teenage daughter.

It is violent and contains strong language.

Let’s Do It!

movie review: Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man

I loved both of these movies! Kung Fu Panda is an inspirational movie about dreaming big, how pride destroys, and how weaknesses can become strengths if you understand how the universe works. Jack Black is perfect as the voice of the Panda. I liked this movie better than Shrek or Shrek 2 by the same director.

Iron Man is a super hero movie which is a lot of fun. You do wonder how they made it – the special effects are spectacular.

If you like summer movies – I recommend both of these.

Movie Review: Son of Rambow

This is a charming coming-of-age movie of a naive teenageboy from a very religious one parent home where TV is not allowed, making a “Son of Rambow” movie with a “friend” that he meets at his secular high school. I did not think it was entirely fair to the Plymouth Brethern. The last time I visited a Plymouth Brethern Church was about 15 years ago in Wichita KS. I stayed up late into the evening discussing head coverings for women and how beautiful and biblical that was. The church service was very unique in that almost every man in the church took turns offering a  mini-sermon while all the women listened quietly.   The house we stayed at had a big piano in the living room rather than a big TV set.

“Son of Rambow” is showing at independent arts theaters.

DVD Review: What Would Jesus Buy?

This is the story of what a trip that Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping took during the Christmas season. It’s a little bit hard to tell where these guys are coming from besides their main point – we have culturally bought into the idea that shopping will make us happy when it really offers “eternal debt” which is wiping us out.

There is some good information here about how Walmart and Target get their stuff from paying eleven year olds minimal dollars a day in foreign lands to make shash-kahs for us. Nothing we did not already know. Something we should think about.

Reverend Billy is a little over the top. He is fun to watch but I did wonder whether he is making fun of religion at the same time that he is make fun of shoppers.

Overall – 4 out 5 stars. It is now out on DVD and is streaming on Netflix.

Jesus, the Spirit of God

Here is a movie that I am thinking of seeing at the Philadelphia Film Festival. It looks like quite a cross-cultural cross-religious experience. I do think that Islam is essentially a spiritual plot to make it difficult for millions to understand who Jesus *really* is, so I am praying about it.

http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/film-details.cfm?c=189&id=7512

Jesus, the Spirit of God
aka: Issa, Rouhollah
Iran  2007, 100 min

The Islamic view of the life and preaching of Jesus Christ as told in the scriptures of the Koran is depicted in this serious and controversial Iranian drama.
One of the more unusual entries in this year’s Festival, Jesus, the Spirit of God is an Iranian drama on the life and works of Jesus Christ as recounted in the scriptures of the Koran. The result is a serious, non-polemical and thought-provoking look at the man who Christians revere as the Son of God, and Muslims see as a holy man sent to Earth to announce the coming of Mohammed prophet. It is worth noting that the director is a follower of hard-line Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the film is far from anti-Western as it seeks to find the common ground among Christians and Muslims (his views on what Jews believe may not, however, be so inclusive). Director Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, a film he has publicly praised but sees as quite simply “wrong.” This is especially evident in the film as it depicts the Muslim belief that Jesus was not crucified, but rather it was Judas who was hung on the cross. The film presents Jesus with a fair complexion and dark blond hair, and his preaching is recounted in a serious fashion. With the screenings bracketed by Easter just before and Passover just after, this Islamic view of Jesus won’t result in mass anti-Muslim demonstrations but will make for intense post-screening religious and cross-cultural discussions. (Persian with English subtitles) — Raymond Murray

Prince Caspian Trailer

Prayer for Philadelphia

Watch Prayer for Philadelphia by Richard Hoffmann which won the grand prize in the Great Expectations Film Contest.

Movie Review: Forgiving Dr Mengele

This DVD  is an excellent documentary about forgiveness by a survivor of the Holocaust. Eva is a lot like how Anne Frank would have been if she had survived. A good contrasting movie is “The Pawn Broker” which is an old movie  about a holocaust survivor who never was never able to psychologically leave the concentration camp. Here is my review that I posted on NetFlex:

This is the best movie on the power of forgiveness. It is spiritually accurate. Eva and her twin sister were experimented on by Dr. Mengele in Auschwitz when they were girls. The rest of her family, along with a million other people were killed in Auschwitz. Eva’s sister eventually died from complications of the experiments. Eva wanted to know more about what the experiments were so she contacted a Nazi doctor who is very, very sorry (and appears in this movie). She talks him into going to the 50th anniversary of the liberation where he reads a confession of what happened. Later, she gives him a note of forgiveness – but she learns so much from this that she forgives all the Nazis! One point about forgiveness that is made very well is that it does not involve forgetting. This is very important. I thought the treatment of the Palestinians was very even handed and explained the situation very well. You cannot forgive someone while they are pointing a gun in your face and telling you that you should not exist! On the other hand, you should not point a gun in their face and tell them that they should not exist either! Watch this movie.

Children of Hurin: The Movie

My review, where I said Hurin would not make a very good movie, is here.

This is well done, and follows the story line of the Late J.R.R. Tolkien’s newest book quite well. The author took pieces of other movies (such as Willow) and spliced the story line together – but the characters really do look like I imagined them!