Movie Review: Annie

Movie Title: Annie

Year: 2014

Director: Will Gluck

Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx

The tune is catchy! My daughters saw Annie in the theater and pretty much came home singing "Its a hard knock life". Although I'm sure they had no clue what it meant; they were singing it.

Annie has the same plot line as the original. Its a modern version of the orphan kid who went to live with Daddy Warbucks. Well instead of a millionaire, now we have a billionaire! Mr. Stacks is a mobile tychoon who needs some help in his current mayoral race. What better way to get publicity and have the people love you than to let a foster kid from the wrong side of the tracks stay in your place. You will be captivated with the singing, storyline and humor in this modern version.

Honestly when I saw the trailer my first thought was: "This is lame, how can you redo Annie?" Well I like to admit that they have redone the classic and its a catch! We just bought it from Costco today and my family texted me to see if I could come home early so we could watch the movie. It made me laugh, smile, laugh, ponder and I might have had allergies also because I teared up.

God’s Not Dead: Movie Review

The other day at church a man told me, “You gotta watch this movie, I’ve already watched it 5 times!”

If I’m honest, I’m a bit skeptical when someone tells me ‘I have to watch something.’

It was a Sunday night and we had a long weekend so we decided to pull out the iPhone and see what Redbox was slinging that night. Right away there it was. It was like it stood out. It shouted to us in its quiet voice, “rent me, rent me!”

We reserved God’s Not Dead, made some popcorn and sat on the couch. While the movie began I realized it was going to be a slow starter. Slow starters aren’t too bad, except when you’re tired. Once the movie hit its stride it was obvious this movie was going to impact my heart. 

This movie tells an all true story of the many responses, attitudes and feelings toward Jesus Christ. This movie, in my opinion, is unapologetically Christian. The main character is a young man who runs into a dilemma his first semester of college: his professor hates God.

Throughout the movie you begin to see the pieces come together and hear the stories of where people are at with God. The young man takes a bold step when the professor challenges him to prove God is not dead.

Without wanting to give too much of the movie away I am going to recommend it to everyone to see. Instead of only recommending this movie to Christians I think its a good movie for everyone to watch. It addresses a pastor who is loosing his passion, a woman caught in an unbalanced relationship, a woman who finds out she is dying of cancer, a professor who hates God, an African missionary and a mother battling Alzheimer’s disease. 

If you don’t have plans tonight, or tomorrow night, go to Redbox and consider renting this movie. The worst cause is you will think about your faith! 

Parenting "Don'ts" /// Part One

I figured it was about time to start sharing some parenting "Do's" and some parenting "Don'ts".  Since I think the "don't" list is going to be longer I'm going to start out with that!

The other day I was searching on Youtube to watch movie's with my kids.  Some how I saw this trailer for Iron Man 3 and thought it would be a good idea to watch with my little girls sitting next to me

After my wife came out and pretty much gave me the death look I realized I botched it!  I mean really, lets be honest here.  What kind of dad lets his 3 year old and 4 1/2 year old daughter sit on his lap watching a video clip with a crazy robot man, a plane that is crashing, helicopters shooting a house to bits, people sinking in the ocean and fire all over.  I have no clue what I was thinking but I can tell you I won't do it again.

I now realize how precious my little girls are (more than I did before) and that God didn't create their minds with the ability to handle things my mind can handle.  Little girls; I am so sorry for letting you watch this when you are so young, please forgive me! 

Zero Dark Thirty: Movie Review

Movie Title: Zero Dark Thirty

Run Length: 2 hours 37 minutes

Rating: R

Best Part: When they raided Osama's house

My Thoughts

I rented Zero Dark Thirty from Redbox the other night and watched it by myself.  I heard a whole bunch of chatter about the movie and figured I needed to watch it (honestly I love war movies and this fit that type).

My honest thought is the movie was amazing!  Now that I've said the movie was amazing I have to add that it could have been 30 minutes shorter.  The movie starts out strong but graphic with a torture scene.  It goes through years of incidents quite well but then drags on once the perpetrator is found.

I couldn't imagine how the CIA did all the work it did to find the man closest to Osama Bin Ladin; but I think they are amazing for finding him.  The intelligence that they exhibited to find the home was superb.  Then taking the time to track the man must have took weeks!  Now after you find him you have to be CERTAIN that you have the right man in the right house.  The CIA had global positioning that was able to find out how many people are in the house; they were even able to find out who never came outside.

After finding the man, making sure it was him they still needed approval and a killer team to do the job.  The CIA had to get a unique team to accomplish this task.  The men who raided the house had precision accuracy and did a bang up job given how tough the job must have been.  I give that Seal Team amazing credit for all their hard work for protecting our country; thanks guys!

Bottom Line: If you have two and a half hours go ahead and rent the movie; its worth it!

Sherlock Holmes- A Game of Shadows

On Saturday Charity and I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie; A Game of Shadows.  We both totally loved the first one so when the second one came out there was no question if we would see it or not.  Now I am not a movie review kind of person but I did want to share some thoughts about the movie with you.   I am not going to give anything away about the plot of the movie so don't worry about protecting your eyes as you read this.

First of all I love the movie!  I love the action in the movie.  It is a movie that keeps you thinking.  If you saw the first Sherlock Holmes then you know what I am talking about.  Every little detail in the movie seems to come back and play into the whole of the movie later on.  I love how creative the writers of the movie are (I am not sure who they are but the did good on this one).  The attention to detail in these movies has always impressed me as someone who likes to think about what is going to happen next.

Now I have to admit there are some behaviors in the movie that I would consider questionable.  Doctor Watson is portrayed as a drunk who can barely stand on the way to his wedding and he also has a pretty intense gambling problem.  There is one point where Sherlock Holmes disguises himself as a female to help save his friend.  I didn't sense there was a drag theme at all but that Sherlock was considering the best way to help his friend out.

Finally the best part about the movie was that I was able to see it with my wife on our date day.  We love to create a time, each week, where we just spend time with each other.  The movie is not the ideal place for this but this time we had to make it happen.  See Charity and I have committed to never stop dating each other and times like this allow me to hold my wife's hand, eat popcorn with her, laugh with her and talk about the movie afterward.

Soul Surfer: Movie Review

About three weeks ago a man stopped by my office and gave me some promo material for the new movie that was coming out called: "Soul Surfer".  To be honest, I am not one who is typically interested in Christian movies.  I tend to think the cinematography can be cheesy.

I heard that this movie was going to be different and I decided that I needed to go see it and have some students come with.  Last night I went and saw this movie with a few students and a few leaders and I have to say that I was amazed at how good this movie was!  Now I have to share that the story touched home for me and there were times that I couldn't help but think: "What if something like that happened to one of my little girls?"

The movie has the theme that I love to see: Don't quit!

Hopefully you have heard Bethany's story and how she was bit by a shark and lost her arm.  I am so impressed at this girl and how she continues to battle in life without quitting because most people would have.  Bethany looses her arm and continues to surf.  The movie does well at portraying the pain that she would have to endure with the loss of her love of surfing and how to get that back.

I appreciate how they show that Bethany questioned her faith, and God, in this movie.  I think its more normal than not to question your faith in a situation like this one and I appreciate that the producer added this into the movie.  Every single one of us is going to have pain and suffering in our life; the question is what will you do with that pain?  Bethany chose to not quit surfing and now she is a pro!  I would definitely recommend that you go see this movie and her Bethany's story.

"What Would Jesus Buy?"

Another movie review for you all: "What Would Jesus Buy?" is the last movie that we watched in our household and this one brought up some good subject matter. I am so compelled by the movie that I am putting the trailer into this post:



"What Would Jesus Buy?" started out pretty good. The narrator shared some amazing stats about how much money we, American's, spend yearly on Christmas. The main character, and He is a character, is Rev Billy and he runs "The Church of Life After Shopping". Before I go on, I must make it clear that Rev Billy is not a Reverend. I think (personal thought) that he is dressing up like a Reverend so that when he is outlandish in his actions that people may, key word "may", take him serious.

I think that this movie has great point: we waste SO much money on consumerism! I was very convicted by the facts about shopping the message that his team is sharing. There is so much waste in the world. I wish they would have directed people to share what they could save to help others in need; but that didn't happen.
I did take a few key points from this movie:

• America has taught me that by getting gifts at Christmas, that are expensive, it means I am loved
• America has become a consumer nation therefore; I want to look for products that are made in America when my family is shopping
• I want to use my credit card less (not that we have massive cc debt; we use our cc like a debt card and get airline miles)

If you get an extra 90 min in life and want some laughs and some scenes to make you smile then rent this flick; but be ready to be a bit convicted.

Trade- Movie Review

I recently watched another movie for my Christian Perspectives class and this one rocked me more than Crash did. I watched Trade on Saturday night and about 10 min into the movie Charity got up and walked into our bedroom where she stayed the rest of the night.

The point of the movie (I think) that my professor wants me to get from this movie is the injustice that happens in this world right before our eyes. I am shocked watching this at how naive I am about child trafficing and the slave trade that goes on in the world and America.

The final quote of this move will stick with me for a while. It was in white letters with a black background:
"We don't see much child trafficing in America because we have chosen not to look for it".
This movie made me appreciate the ministry of International Justice Mission and what they are doing so much more!

Crash

Last night I watched Crash for one of my seminary classes this semester. I have to say that I am not really writing this post for anyone but myself: I want to remember this movie. Also, I feel it necessary to say, that I normally do not watch "R" rated movies. They are rated "R" for a reason and I am not watching them for that reason.

If you get a chance to watch this movie (and you can handle the language and racism) it is a good movie. I hope that it will help you understand the way you view the world and how that worldview impacts those around you. This movie really opened my eyes to the type of racism that we face on a daily basis. The racism that we see now does not involve physical slavery, but emotional and verbal slavery.

The impact that racism has on our society, and the fact that it is unaddressed on many levels, hurts my heart. About two years, maybe three now, we did a night on racism in our High School Ministry; I am starting to think that would not be a bad idea to talk about again. This movie has confronted my worldview and the way I live out my faith in Christ. I hope the impact this video has had on me (I cannot completely explain it yet) will not pass soon.

What if...

I was talking with Jessica (Charity's sister) this morning and I was wondering; "What if Transformers, the movie, is really a documentary?" Wouldn't that be sweet! I grew up loving transformers and maybe the movie is a way to ease the public into the fact that robots live among us???
Ok, probably not realistic, but could be super cool!