My Insane Movie List from 2007

Several years ago I got the idea that I didn't read many books, so I decided to make a list of what I read. Making lists seemed kind of fun so I began doing it with other things I did with my life! Yes, I know, the OCD started taking over. So here my first official list of 2007! This includes the movies that I have seen over the past year. But let me start out by saying a few things:

First, I have a young family so sometimes I am subjected to films that sometimes are hard for me to watch.

Secondly, I am a youth pastor so sometimes I watch films that are highly influential with my students that I would not normally watch. Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club was my generation.

Thirdly, I am married to a wonderful wife who has very different tastes in movies than I do! So in order to maintain a healthy marriage, I subject myself to certain films that I would not normally pick. but reply with, "Sure dear, why not!"

And then fourthly, I grew up in the 80's so there is a small part of my depraved self that still likes the cheesy horror genre! I know, time to grow up, but I shan't!

And finally, I was a film major before I believed God was calling me into ministry. So I take a particular interest in this area of the cinematic arts and entertainment.

I will also provide quick, cheap commentary on each film!

Color Code:

• Television
• Horror
• Comedy
• Children's
• Western
• Documentary
• Action / Adventure
• Science Fiction
• Historical
• Drama

24: Season 5 - Love Jack Bauer but the storyline is getting a little far fetched.
The Decent - Cheesy, don't bother.
Jackass 2 - We live in a culture where abuse in becoming more and more frequent. I find it rather interesting that now we make comedy out of self-abuse. There are funny moments, but it is mostly self-abuse for laughs. Scary.
Invincible - An awesome football movie! I love sports movies and this is a great one.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest - What was that? Pails in comparison to the first one.
Superman Returns - Excellent! A great reinvention of a classic superhero. Great villain too!
RV - Cheesy family humor.
The Pursuit of Happyness - Excellent must-see for everyone. A great story over overcoming unbelievable obstacles.
24: Season 6 - Does Jack Bauer ever take a moment to use the restroom or get a bite to eat?
Snakes on a Plane - Very cheesy CGI snake effects. But any movie with Samuel L. Jackson losing his temper is great entertainment.
An Inconvenient Truth - Oh boy, what do I say here? It is an important movie that everyone must see. But I think we need to wrestle with the message, hearing from both sides on this issue and try coming to some logical decisions that we can do to be better caretakers of the earth.
Nanny McPhee - A nice movie to watch with your kids.
V for Vendetta - Worthless.
Barnyard - Good kid movie.
United 93 - A very difficult movie to watch but absolutely necessary for every American to watch. Very powerful and very moving.
World Trade Center - Same as above. We must never forget that day.
One Night With the King - An interesting retelling of the story of Esther from the Bible. I thought they missed out on some of the best parts of the story at the end.
The Illusionist - Pretty good story line. Worth watching with a date!
Flushed Away - Absolutely hilarious kid movie. Definitely something I would watch again.
The Departed - Excellent, superb, Martin Scorsese at his best! What a cast too. The tension in the good guy having to be bad and the bad guy having to be good was done so well.
300 - Visually fun to watch. Good action flick.
Night at the Museum - Extremely funny film for the whole family. Ben Stiller is great!
Borat - Oh my, very funny but over the top in some parts. I am still trying to use my mind erasure to delete some of the scenes from my mind.
Casino Royale - I had my doubts but Bond is back and with attitude. Bring it on Daniel Craig!
Children of Men - A pretty dark futuristic film about the future of the human race.
Blood Diamonds - Another phenomenal movie that I would highly recommend. Powerful. Intense.
Gremlins - Classic 80's Spielberg.
Deliver Us From Evil - The scariest film of the year. Shocking, gut-wrenching, horrifying. Everyone who is involved in any type of ministry to children or teens must see this film.
Rocky Balboa - Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this. Stallone thought this one out a whole lot better than the previous ones. Rocky aged with grace and dignity. Let's see if he can do the same with Rambo!
The Ghost Rider - Lame.
Deja Vu - I will watch any movie with Denzel Washington. This was an average "what if you could time travel and change something" film.
Flags of Our Fathers - Very powerful film contrasting the reality of war with the American media spin. A must see.
Meet the Robinsons - I honestly don't remember much about this movie. Took the kids, must have fell a sleep at the theatre.
The 40 Year Old Virgin - At first glance, I thought this was going to be a not-so-good film but I was pleasantly surprised. Steve Carrell is fast becoming my most favorite comedian. He is hysterical and the movie does justice to those who respect sexuality and wait for the right time versus those who treat it with no respect at all, and you see the consequences of those decisions at the end.
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints - Depressing, could have been so much better.
Apocalypto - WOW. A very captivating story. Amazing on several levels. Very graphic in depicting the pagan rituals of the Aztecs. Not for the weak of heart.
Saw 3 - Worthless. Similar to the sequels of the 80's slashers. Each one getting more ludicrous than the last.
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny - I like Jack Black but this didn't do it for me. Give me Nacho Libre back.
Phone Booth - I was bored and it happened to be on TV. I was hoping to see more of Keifer Sutherland and less of Colin Ferrell. In fact, I wanted Jack Bauer to shoot Colin Farrell half way into it.
Transformers - A very cool, very fun movie to watch with your pre-teen son. I thought the cartoons were cheesy but leave it up to the CGI masterminds to make this a tasty delight of visual eye candy.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - This was probably my least favorite book so I went into the movie with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. It was excellent. Harry Potter ROCKS! The final two are going to be mind-blowing.
Shooter - Cheesy, worthless tripe. Like "who cut the cheese" bad.
Rocky 3 - Of all the Rocky movies I never saw this one from beginning to end until just now. Anything with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T kicks butt! It could only have gotten better if Chuck Norris was in it. Plus, it would have helped to balance out with Rocky's effeminate side in this movie.

Spiderman 3 - Slipping from the quality of the first two. It was okay. Too many villains. Stick with one and really develop that character.
Idiocracy - This movie could have been put together a little bit better but the director was brilliant in his social commentary as to where the culture could potentially be heading in the near future! A must see comedy for anyone who is involved in pop culture.
Live Free or Die Hard - Good hare core action with lovable John McClain. Good villain. Good side-kick. Tight action. A little comic-booky but worth watching.
Evan Almighty - I know this got a lot of bad press but I really liked it. Steve Carrell made me laugh out loud on several occasions. And it was a great retelling of the Noah story.
Blades of Glory - Not Will Farrell's finest.
Stranger Than Fiction - This is definitely one of Will Farrell's finest. A great movie, a must see.
The Last King Of Scotland - A very powerful movie about Idi Amin. Hard movie to watch but Forrest Whitaker is just amazing in his portrayal of the brutal dictator.
1408 - A fun suspense film with John Cusack. I grew up on John Cusack films so I had to watch it.
The Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer - CHEESY! A full brick of Colby.
Eragon - Okay.
28 Weeks Later - Very gory zombie film. Lots of blood and mayhem. Not for the weak.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - Unless you grew up on 80's slasher films, don't bother.
The Reaping - Would have been okay if it weren't for the "Rosemary's Baby" type ending.
Fracture - Can't go wrong with Anthony Hopkins. Good suspense thriller.
Lost: Season 1 - Based on a recommendation from my brother-in-law my end-of-the-year addiction begins.
Lost: Season 2 - Give me another hit man.
The Proposition - A pretty hard core Western that I would not recommend. Stick with Clint Eastwood.

Alvin and the Chipmunks - I hated the cartoon and suffered through the movie. I love my kids, I love my kids . . .
National Treasure: Book of Secrets - CHEESY! Very Sharp Cheedar.

National Youth Workers Convention 2007

I attended the National Youth Workers Convention at St. Louis just this past weekend and I am trying to wrap my head around the things I took away from the conference.

By the way, see this cool picture of St. Louis? If you look out of my hotel window you saw the arch! Pretty cool. I left the hotel plans up to my cousin from La Croix, MS and he DELIVERED!

Okay, THOUGHT #1: There is something going on within the church which is more reflective of the larger culture. Some refer to it as post-modern, others as "emergent". There are those who embrace the change and others who strongly oppose it. Case in point, I was in a seminar with a well-known speaker explaining the emergent thinking going on within the church. During that discussion an audience member called the speaker a heretic! I couldn't believe it, myself. I wanted to start a Flatfoot 56 Irish-smackdown brawl right there! If you know that you strongly disagree with the speaker why pay the money to come to the seminar and throw verbal bombs like that one! But it is reflective of a greater issue within church history. Whether one wants to admit it or not, the church evolves in it's thinking and that is not always a bad thing. Yes, cults and extremist groups have spun out of the mainstream church. But if you look at all of the major figures of church history, whom today we now praise as reformers, movers and shakers, they were all labeled as godless heretics by the church in power at the time. Not to say that no one is above criticism. But what I am saying is that if someone breaks out of the mainstream way of thinking and comes up with a new way of looking at church and culture that challenges the old structures of interpretation then watch your back! I personally am glad to see those who are coming up with new ways of thinking about church. All to often the church is 20-30 years behind the times. It is about time that we engage the culture in its current context and analyze, critique and synthesize our current context into our faith.

THOUGHT #2: Redeem the culture, within the culture! I honestly believe that so much of 20th century was an embarrassment in how the church handled culture. We pulled out of the mainstream culture and created this ghetto sub-culture within Christianity with our own artists, musicians, writers, and film industries. They were made to entertain us and us alone. God forbid if a Christian musician collaborated with a "secular" artist to make a good song. (For those of you old-timers, "The Next Time I Fall" by Amy Grant and front man for Chicago, Peter Cetera). I am so tired of sugary, sweet, family friendly, so-called Christian crap marketed to the church. Of course the mainstream church has lost all sense of taste and has rotted it's teeth on the fluff of the Ghetto Church of Buddy Jesus. If you go to any museum and look at art prior to the 20th century, you will see a huge Christian influence dating back to the first century. Then Christian themes all but disappear at the 20th century. Because instead of engaging culture and trying to be a significant impact and influence with mainstream culture, the Christian community all but pulled itself out. A lot of this has to do with a horrible eschatology that corrupted the mainstream church. But I will save that for another blog! (Thanks to Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye we are still dealing with this even today.) The point in my ramblings is this: we need to engage mainstream culture and redeem it! Mel Gibson proved that it can be done. And he also proved that any real movie based on the Bible will most definitely earn a strong rated-R, and that is not a bad thing! Only when the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God is contrasted with the darkness of sin, separation, alienation and corruption will the true message of the Bible be truly appreciated, understood and received. Doug Fields spoke about ministry envy and I understood what he was saying but it wasn't until Hollywood producer Ralph Winter spoke that I fully understood Doug's message, because if I could steal any ones job it would have been Ralph's. What an amazing testimony of a man impacting culture and making movies that ask the deeper questions and explore issues that we all face, and contrast the dark areas with the light.

THOUGHT #3: I simply love the Skit Guys and I have never laughed so hard in such a long time as I did at their stuff. It is always great to have someone break through all of the seriousness of many of these themes at conferences and the situations that many of us find ourselves in and just make us laugh so hard we hack out a lung. I laughed harder at these guys than most of what I have seen on the Comedy Channel. And these guys make me laugh that hard without any other influences causing me to laugh more than I would normally laugh! I mean it is REAL GUT-BUSTING laughter! Not only that, but these guys are now in a commercial for Southwest Airlines. Once again, guys who are having a great influence on the church but are good enough, and talented enough to begin breaking out into the mainstream culture and having an impact much bigger and broader that just the church culture. Do it guys!

Well, that's my thoughts for now. I would love to hear yours!

And the Wheels of Church History Go Round and Round

This was a monster of a book but it was very true to its title. Bruce Shelley goes through all of the time periods of the church and puts it in terms that were easy to understand and in many cases there was never a dull moment. In fact, you would never guess by the size of the book, but at times, it seemed to me that he was skimming the service of many of the event, giving me just enough of a taste to want to cry out for more. The most powerful thing I learned that seemed to be an all-too-common theme is the constant temptation of the church to want to gain political power in order to control people from the outside-in, instead of doing the harder task of loving and serving people until God changes them from the inside-out. From Constantinople, to Rome, to Geneva, to New England and, dare I say, to the present, we see Christians gain political control believing that they now have the power to establish the kingdom of God here on earth. But in every case throughout all of history, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely. It is surprising to me that the early Christians who remember suffering persecution to the point of hiding in catacombs, now became the ones doing the persecution; or that great reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther, who broke away from a church system that became corrupt and began inspiring people to look to the Bible for themselves, would then turn around and condemn to death people who come to different conclusions than them; or that places like England and Ireland would become countries of intense persecution between Catholics and Protestants.
So I guess my question is this: if all of these lessons in history are there for us to learn from, why is it that it almost seems we are on the verge of repeating the very same mistakes over and over again. The Reformers broke away from a church that allowed itself to become corrupt with power robbing people blind to fund their building projects. Have you seen any of these "Super Walmart" size churches going up all around? I would dare to guess just how much of their budget is actually a part of their empire-building as opposed to real ministry needs within their community.
As a college student in the late 80's I remember being sickened with what was considered evangelical television back then. It was full of charlatans, fakes and frauds yet they drew in the thoughtless masses because they put out a "christian pop-culture" that their mindless audiences ate up. And it really hasn't changed much since then. Now we have a Republican party that has essentially seduced the evangelicals of our country into thinking political power will solve all of our problems YET AGAIN! Read history! It doesn't work. It will not work. It will never work until Christ himself sits on the throne. Even then I have to believe that he will be proned to rolling his eyes at us idiots every once in a while wondering if he still has the free pass to smite us in the desert and start over again. It is time for the church in America to rise above politics and act as a unified body of Christ bringing the best of traditional and progressive thinking to the table and honestly debating the issues and seeking God through it all. And by all means, serving the poor, lost and persecuted. It is time for us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves why we seem like narrow-minded jerks to most of the people out there. Our actions should win people over to Christ, not repulse people away from Him (not Him really, more like us. Or as Bon Jovi would say, " We give God a bad name."). It is time we stop thinking that church history pauses at the end of the New Testament and then picks up with us! The absolute height of arrogance! We need to learn from the giants who came before us, in all of their ugliness and beauty, from every time period that came before us. We need to listen to their voices cry out so that we learn from their failures and flaws and see how God still used them anyhow. Since we are surrounded by such a great, great, great host of witnesses . . .

Wa boo-hoo!

• Game 1: Dang, it's over.
• Game 2: Oh, maybe I gave up to quick.
• Game 3: yesssssss!
• Game 4: YES!
• Game 5: That's alright. We got 2 more chances.
• Game 6: Damn.
• Game 7: Noooooooooooooooooooo! You have got to be kidding me! Hey Ortiz, stop pointing up to the sky! Believe me, God is just as disappointed as I am. Cleveland is God's team! And Manny, you didn't even care whether you won or lost! At least Lofton had the dignity to come back to the team he loved!

The greatest achievement of the whole season: Sending the New York Yankees back home!

Stupidest thing I saw: LaBron James wearing a Yankees hat! Hey punk, remember where your paycheck is coming from. Being a Yankees fan in Cleveland is one thing you LEAVE IN THE CLOSET!

And as we Cleveland fans always say year after year: Maybe next year!

GO BROWNS!

Sexual Preferences of Wizards

Okay! I have got to say this and get it off my chest. WHY? Why is this necessary? I am absolutely confused why J. K. Rowling would do this. If there are people out there that read Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and other such books and they really must know the sexual preferences of each character then let's leave them to their own speculations and fantasies. But I just don't understand why this is a question that she is being asked and why she decided to answer it the way she did. To bring in such a hot topic issue into an incredibly successful series of books after the fact that she has completed the series and has made her fortune doesn't make sense to me. I have read the entire series and never once did I think about the sexuality of who got it on with whom and what their preferences or sexual idiosyncrasies were. I spent years defending her books against the Religious Right who saw her as introducing witchcraft to their kids. I still stand solidly on the facts that J. K. Rowling is a brilliant and extremely creative writer and I love the film adaptations of her books. But to bring sexual politics into a book that is read by a lot of children I think is in poor taste. It is up to the parents to educate their children about sexuality when they believe that their children are at the stages to understand and process the necessary information. I personally am getting tired of a culture that want to try and beat parents to the punch by cramming their views on our kids at a younger and younger age.

A. J. Jacobs Goes Biblical!

I first saw A. J. Jacobs on the Today Show being interviewed about his new book "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible". Now to be honest, I have had my share of experiences attending and working in churches and christian schools where I lived around people who thought they were living the Bible . . . as literally as possible. And quit frankly, I am still dealing with the scars of those experiences. But as I listened to Jacobs I realized that this was going to be very different than an ultra-conservative elitist smugly looking down on everyone else. In fact, Jacobs confesses to being a liberal New York agnositic who after having his first child, realized he wasn't to excited about our culture instilling its morals and values as the primary source of socialization for his son. So he decided on giving Christianity a good hard look by living it out as literally as possible, following ever rule in the Bible for one whole year. And the results are hilarious, enlightening, inspiring and in may ways an incredible sermon that exposes the Law for the very thing it was intended to do: to show the insane impossiblity of trying in our own power to live according to the Law. Jacobs first off, becomes completely overwhelmed with the amount of laws there are to follow. But as he becomes more and more conscious of the law, he begins to realize just how often he is more of a law-breaker than he ever realized: coveting, lusting, lying, etc. Jesus delt with those who thought they were living up to the law in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus knew that many of the religious leaders of the day were dumbing down the law to make it achievable so that they came off looking oh, so righteous! But Jesus pushed the Law to the fullest extent showing that the Law isn't for us to attempt to achieve it but to show the IMPOSSIBILITY of keeping it, thus the point of a Savior!

Jacobs maintains a great sense of humor through the whole experience. He even goes so far as to stone a real adulterer. That story alone was worth the price of the book. But I guess the thing that took me by surprise was that there were many instances where I was genuinely challenged, convicted and inspired to grow in my faith - despite the fact that Jacobs does not convert to Chrsitianity at the end of his project! His work with the homeless, the lessons he learned about thankfulness, the significance of prayer, and the humanity that he portrayed in all of the people and places that he visited was incredible. His experiences at Thomas Road Baptist Church, the snake handling church, Israel with ex-uncle Gil, The Red-Letter Christians, his Jewish friends, The Purpose Christian Life and the rest of the Chrsitian culture that he explored showed a humanity and diversity of people within the church that was all amazing. In many cases where I thought he was going to see the pockets of insanity within the church he actually saw real people trying to the best of their abilities to live out their faith. Jacobs used humor not in a way to make fun of people but more often to make fun of himself throughout his quest. So A. J., thanks for sharing your journey! My only challenge to you is to read a book on the grace of God to balance out all of the lessons you learned about the Law (Philip Yancey's "What So Amazing About Grace?"). Then I think you will get a complete picture of the message of the Bible. Then after that, I sooooooooo want you to go back to the snake-handling church and complete the conversion!

The Miracle of Pope John Paul?!?!

Okay, is it just me or is anyone else slightly concerned about this fiery image that some claim, in a fervor of religious excitement, is the former pope waving to us from this bonfire? Now the last time I checked when an image of a person arises from the ground encased in flame, that was not a good thing! Looking up and seeing clouds that look like Jesus produce warm fuzzies. But ANYBODY emerging from the earth in fire is cause for running away very fast and hiding in a church. So I think it best to not associate Pope John Paul with the bonfire. I would like to think that he would not come back as the Torch to wave to us. Maybe we can find his image in a potato chip or a cinnamon bun! Or better yet a pirogie!