The American Trinity

Thanks to Charles for bringing this excellent video to my attention. The American Trinity is not the Holy Trinity, but the three beliefs which make America different than any other nation on earth...

Check it out below...



Good stuff...

No One Reads This Blog Anymore

Okay, No One is pretty extreme.

ALMOST no one. Like, under 10 people... intermittently.

So, if I decide to can this thing AGAIN, I don't want to hear any complaints. I haven't made up my mind yet, but the thought is floating around the old noggin'.

Funny Star Trek Vids

Two funny videos in relation to the new Star Trek film...

The first compares Star Wars and Star Trek...

Watch My Favorite Movie (Star Trek vs. Star Wars) and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

The second plays on the fact that Star Trek director, JJ Abrams, loves to use lens flares to augment the scenes... he actually had people standing off camera shooting flashlights into the camera while filming. In any event, this video shows what would happen if that were to have been done on the original series...

Anti-Catholicism in Hollywood

Angels & Demons is coming out soon. Of course, its full of misrepresentations of Catholicism (big surprise there). Where Hollywood goes out of its way to equalize Muslim characters (one bad is countered with one good), no such courtesy is given to the big bad Catholic Church.

There's a great article about this at Christianity Today located here:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/news/2009/ishollywoodanticatholic.html?start=1

One of my favorite quotes from the article is as follows:

Rome's foes today "aren't debating transubstantiation, they're debating transgender," said Catholic film critic David DiCerto. "They aren't debating the real presence [of Christ] in the Eucharist, they're debating the real presence of humanity in the womb. It's much more the hot-button moral issues than the hot-button theological issues."

That's why we created Sonlight Pictures, to help bring a positive face to Catholics through positive portrayals of Catholic characters.

Star Trek (2009)

J. J. Abrams is a humble genius. The creator of televisions Alias and Lost hopped into feature filmdom with his directorial debut on Mission Impossible: III, which is by far the best film in that series.

He followed up his MI:III success with the impossible task of rebooting the Star Trek franchise, a franchise which is embedded in the very social fabric of the world.

Such an effort would seem much like the kobayashi maru test (a no-win scenario).

But the fearless Abrams takes a stagnate franchise and re-energizes it with a top-notch sci-fi film.

First, the cast is perfect, top to bottom. Chris Pine, as Kirk, captures the charm and confidence of the Captain, Zachary Quinto, as Spock, relays a more subtle, human performance than his predecessor and Karl Urban embodies McCoy flawlessly. The other characters are filled out with excellent performances by John Cho as Sulu, Anton Yelchin as Checkov, Simon Pegg as Scotty and Zoe Saldana as Uhura. Completing the cast is the always-nobel Bruce Greenwood as Pike and Eric Bana as the Romulan threat called Nero.

However, the real credit to the success of this film should go to the Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. This duo combined with Abrams on MI:III (which is one of the best executed action screenplays I've seen) and, with Star Trek, uses a simple, yet effective plot device to shatter any preconceived ties back to the original series and subsequent movies, allowing the franchise to truly start over.

Absolutely brilliant.

For Trek fans, there are enough subtle inside homages to please them while the stories focus on friendship, family and sacrifice makes it truly universal and easily palatible for new visitors to the Star Trek universe.

When the film ended I simply wanted the next film in the series to begin. It's a smart, funny and enjoyable jaunt at the movies.

Bring the popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show!