Immeasurably More

Children and parents everywhere love Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are , and I, being no different, was looking forward to seeing the film version released last year. My English coworkers had never heard of Maurice Sendack or his book, so I invited one of them to go with me to a showing at the small local theater. If you haven't seen it yet, don't. Certainly don't show it to your children. And if you must see it, have your best friend/therapist/chinese-takeout-place on speed dial. It is one of the most depressing films ever made. And I don't mean sad or scary. I mean a story absolutely without hope or redemption. In Spike Jonze's worlds both real and imaginary, life stinks and it's not going to get better. Instead, see Stranger Than Fiction in which, when life gets bad, there will be Bavarian Sugar cookies. "And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and l...

I have come to believe that the traditional rating system for films is inadequate. It is impossible to express with a single line of stars opinions about both a films quality as a film and it's entertainment/educational/emotional value. Below you will find the 5 films I watched on my flight from Santiago to Auckland, NZ along with favorite moments and quotes, misc. commentary and my double 5 rating. The first number represents what I thought of the films acting, direction, visuals, message, etc. (see comments in previous posts); the second number represents how much I enjoyed the film and whether I would be likely to watch it again. Film 1: Horton Hears a Who Favorite moment: Horton tucks one ear under the other to form a swimming cap. Quotation: Horton: I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100% Morton: I've never been more than 99%, and I think I'm awesome! Comments: Good if somewhat goofy fun. Rating: 4 - 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Film 2: Ga...

If you know me (and if you didn't, why would you be reading this blog?)... If you know me, you know that I love movies. At one time I thought I might try my hand at writing movie reviews. However, as a reader of movie reviews, I finally realized that I would never be able to do a respectable job of it. My inner critic gets distracted by the lights and music and can't think of anything witty or insightful to say about production values or the quality of the directing. But I love a good story and it rarely happens that I finish a movie without having some comment to make about character development or plot points. So, I'm going to try a few posts of what I'll call "Movie Musings". Not really reviews, just things that are rolling around in my brain about the time the credits start to roll. I haven't yet been able to convince myself that this sort of post meets the stated purpose of the blog - to celebrate the things God does for us above and beyond what w...