Michael Clayton (2007)

Michael Clayton doesn't have a lot of explosions or gun play or alien invaders. What it has is an excellent script and an impressive performance by George Clooney as the lead character.

And it's just a really good movie.

Clayton is a "fixer" in a law firm, a lawyer who fixes problems of important clients by whatever semi-legal means necessary. The wear and tear of fixing other people's problems for 15 years is finally catching up to him. He's feeling trapped, lost, and helpless. What was once an intriguing role as "fixer" he now dubs as a "janitor." He no longer really practices law and he's overcome a gambling addiction only to lose all of his money in a restaurant venture he undertook with his sporadic and previously drug-addicted brother. And the money he used to help get the restaurant off the ground was from dubious sources who are now itching for payment.

All of this pressure has built up within him, trapped in a world where neither his professional nor personal life offers any release.

And it's at this precarious moment that he gets his next assignment... to coddle a lead litigator (Tom Wilkinson) who's apparently flipped his lid. This litigator's apparent mental meltdown has put into serious jeopardy a decade long and massive lawsuit protecting a chemical company from paying people to which they may have caused cancer.

Throw in there an ambitious new attorney (Tilda Swinton) hired by the chemical company that will do anything to protect them and things get dicey in a hurry.

How can Clayton, who's barely holding his own life together, bring a brilliant, but unstable litigator under control before the law firm's greatest client, the chemical company, walks away in embarrassment?

That struggle and that pressure are evident on Clooney's face throughout the film. You never know if the very next second on the screen will result in Clayton finally being pushed over the edge. It's a great performance.

The film is directed by Tony Gilroy, who earned his chance behind the camera by penning such hits as the Bourne trilogy, and manages his directing effort with great ease. In his hands, Michael Clayton is successful as a legal movie, a thriller, a drama and a suspense film.

The film is not earth shattering or trend setting, it is simply a really good old-fashioned movie telling an intriguing story with a career best performance by Clooney.

Club God - Finished!

I was finally able to get a missing audience shot required to finish the Sonlight Pictures short comedy called Club God. You can see a still of the finished product below.


So, I have a high-def version completed. It will take a few weeks to get a regular definition version completed and uploaded to various sites like God Tube and You Tube. As always, you can read more about that and other projects over at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

We Will Miss You Father Mike

There have only been a few priests in my life that have been both friend and counselor, a leader and humble, someone who inspires us to God's lofty standards without forgetting his own human frailty.

Father Michael Morris is one such priest. We have been blessed to have him in our parish for the past three years. As a family, my wife, children and I have shared meals and trips and rallies and private Masses and jokes and the Word of God. He's a passionate man who is willing to speak from the pulpit that which is not easy to hear, but what is necessary to be spoken.

During his time with us at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church he has grown to accumulate an immense following, while, at the same time, growing as both a priest and a man. He never goes anywhere without being dressed in his familiar black clothes with a white collar... in an age where off-the-clock priests and nuns are often not dressed in their religious clothing, I asked him why he remains "old fashioned" and his response was very wise. He said "My collar is my wedding ring. Would you leave your house without your wedding ring? If you do, you are only making yourself available, intentionally or not, to find yourself in situations that could be misinterpreted. When I go out everyone knows that I am married to the church and there is never a misinterpretation of who I am and what I represent."

If only more religious would value holy symbolism as highly as Father Mike does. It can be a very powerful statement.

Father Mike with us after the last Mass
Gabriel and DC will ever serve with him.

Father Mike is blessed with the gift of holy gab. His homilies are impassioned and full of humor, detail, life experiences, but most importantly, truth. His words challenge us and make us reevaluate where we are in our relationship with Jesus. He holds the sacraments to the highest regard, reiterates the saving grace of Confession and treats the Eucharist at every Mass as if he were indeed holding the hand of our Savior.

He instituted the Elijah Cup at three Masses at our church in an attempt to foster religious vocations. He often lead the parish in Eucharistic Adoration, attended Pro-Life rallies and headed a group to the Holy Land. He had personal experiences from his military days with the cultures and religions in the volatile Middle East. He is able to speak multiple languages and would, with amazing ease, translate the original words from which the Bible was written and explain the deeper meanings behind the original authors that has been lost when offered to us in English.

His love of the church, his love of his vocation and his love of orthodoxy was a refreshing and welcomed infusion of spirit into a parish named after the Holy Spirit itself.

After three years with us he has been blessed to be able to combine his two greatest joys... his priesthood and his love of the military. He will be leaving us soon to head over to Germany to be a chaplain.

He will be missed. .. his smile, his humor, his love of family and his endless supply of selfless energy to the parish. They say when you become a priest that you give up your ability to have a family. On the contrary. Father Mike now has an immense family of faithful at Espiritu Santo.

He is an important part of our faith community and extended family. We are happy for his next assignment and will pray that he can influence those men and women in the armed forces with the same gusto, the same commitment and the same love of Jesus that he has afforded us at our parish.

God speed and God bless you, Father Mike. You will always remain with us in our hearts and our prayers.

I'm Old Fashioned...

Okay, I'm going to sound really old fashioned here...

My daughter brought home her high school yearbook and there was a multi-page section in the middle of the book highlighting teen moms with their babies.

When the hell did that become acceptable? When did irresponsible sex out of wedlock by teens resulting in pregnancy end up being something to highlight? Is there nothing worth shaming in our society anymore?

And that brings me to another question... how does a society support a person without supporting their decisions?

The Lord knows my life is littered with the remnants of bad decisions, so I do not speak from any higher moral ground here. Trust me!

Single motherhood, for example, is a tough thing. Thank the Lord the woman chooses to have her baby instead of having an abortion. Seriously, praise God for that!

But, how do you support the woman who is a single mother without condoning societal single motherhood?

Look, I know a lot of single mothers who will overcome their challenges and raise wonderful children. And a lot of them are dealing with the father of their child who is, at best, only a detriment to that child.

But, from a big picture societal standpoint, single parenthood is not something that is statistically healthy.

Studies have shown that children learn how to live in a family by the example of the mother and how to integrate into society through the example of the father. This explains why further studies have shown that 75% of men in prison today were raised without their fathers. It also explains why children who's fathers do not go to church are substantially less likely to go to church as adults.

God designed the family unit to include man and woman, mother and father.

I'm not judging single mothers. Or single parents.

Really.

After all, being a co-parent is hard enough. Being a single one takes super-human strength.

However, I think we could all agree that raising a child without a father is a certainly not preferable. From a societal standpoint, it is very likely damaging.

But, not supporting those in need, especially single mothers, is also blatantly un-Christian.

I don't have any answers... I guess we should hold ourselves up to a higher level of societal responsibility than we do now, but it never seems to turn out that way any more.

So, I'm stuck back at my original question... How does a society help people dealing with the consequences of bad choices without, by doing so, condone those bad choices?

And this problem is not tied to single motherhood alone. That's just the example I'm using now. It applies to any social ill to which the government assists and thereby enables people to continue to make the same bad choices.

Where does compassion cross over to condoning?

From a faith perspective, we believe that God will support us through our bad decisions in the hopes that we will follow his lead to a higher calling, a more holy life. And we also believe that we will be rightly judged for all of our decisions, the good, bad and ugly.

We don't seem to do that in America anymore. We support and then we condone and then we accept and then we expect... and we go un-judged and are not called to a higher standard... instead we lower the bar one bad decision at a time until our society believes everything is acceptable and nothing is worthy of judgment or scrutiny.

It makes me wonder... when I crack open my grandchild's first high school yearbook, what on Earth will I find highlighted there?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

This long Memorial Day weekend the family and I took a couple of hours to feast our eyes upon the fourth Indiana Jones installment. And, after a couple of days to digest the latest Spielberg/Lucas offering about oblong Crystal Skulls, I've boiled the film down to one word... silly.

The film is really just plain silly.

Not intriguing. Not trend setting. Not record breaking. Not excellent. Just silly.

I don't want to get too much into the plot, because it will give too much away, but... really? That's the best you could come up with in twenty years? Really? Just how hard did you try?

Rumor has it that Frank Darabont, the excellent writer who penned and directed The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, as well as wrote various TV episodes of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, also came up with the first real script for Indy IV. Spielberg apparently loved it, but Lucas did not.

So, Lucas and David Koepp put their brains together and came up with a story that really offers nothing original, unless of course you believe that taking story ideas from a whole bunch of previous movies (Apocalypto, National Treasure 2, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark) and mashing them into a new movie constitutes being "original."

What they came up with is... well, silly.

However, even the weakest of story ideas, bolstered by the immense talent of Spielberg and the star power of Harrison Ford, suddenly become enjoyable and alive. Add the acting and screen chops of Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf and the film becomes a nice cinematic ride.

Blanchett's character, however, offers her few opportunities to shine. Now that I think about it, she's supposed to be some sort of Ruskie mega-psychic, but I can't really remember her being successful at ever using those abilities.

Odd choice.

And only LaBeouf's character, Mutt, brings any real emotion to the film. All of the other characters simply move through the set dressings, seemingly unaffected by the amazing events that have transpired around them.

There were some other things that still bother me a bit as well. I don't know if it was due to the quality of the film print I saw or not, but the special effects looked really cheesy. I never once thought anyone was in real danger, especially during an extended car chase scene, because the effects were so obvious... odd for a Spielberg/Lucas collaboration.

And the demise of the baddies was all too familiar. The lead baddie and the lead henchman all meet their maker in events that could have been taken directly from Raiders... granted, the actual demise is different, but the the structure, the way it all unfolds made me feel like I had been here before. And that was because I had... in a far superior movie.

So, in spite of its vastly weak storyline and razor thin character development, the film is still a lot of fun simply because Spielberg, Ford and LaBeouf make it so.


So, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun movie, but you may find that the National Treasure films do a better job in the genre right now.

Spielberg and Lucas have left the door open for LaBeouf to take over the Indy reigns and that would be very, very cool. He's a great young actor and could bring new life into a growing, familiar genre.

Otherwise, you can wait for the next National Treasure release to get your next historical fantasy fix.

Old Vids

I spent Memorial Day going through my computer and storing a lot of files on DVD so I could free up the space for future projects (Messenger Doc, Purgatory USA, etc.). While purging I came across these stills of projects I was in a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Pete & Leslie in The Tempest... awful.

In A Common Fate Trailer... unimpressive.

Divorce Court... embarrassing.

Hungry Howies... low point.

With Patrick Wilson in Chase Bank's
Sherlock Holmes Spoof... not bad.

Unfortunately, almost NONE of them are any close to being respectable. Sad, sad, sad. It's amazing what we do as actors starting out... just about anything.

Ugh... some of my past I wish I could delete, like the computer files I purged today.

Little League - Regular Season Ends

As the season came to an end the Cardinals finally started putting things together, winning five of their last six games. The league had a series of games to see who would represent Safety Harbor in the District 12 "Best Team" tournament. The Safety Harbor Yankees took that honor.

The rest of the teams played a season ending runner-up tournament, which the Cardinals won, winning their first game 10-0 in four innings and the championship game 15-4 in four innings. Congrats to the Cards and Coach Gannaway on a great end of the season!

For their troubles each player received a season trophy and the Cards received a runner-up tournament winning trophy. Great job guys!

Gabe got stronger as the end of the season approached. It's been a while since I posted highlights, so I edited the remaining ones together into a pretty hefty file. So, don't even attempt to download this unless you have a broadband connection. Internet Explorer is recommended.

When downloading, as soon as the page brings up the video screen, hit the STOP button (button with a square in it) and wait a while for the file to download. Otherwise it will start and stop as it downloads each small piece at a time.

The entire video file is about 3 minutes. Even in the extremely efficient compressed format of a flash file, its still pretty big. You can watch it HERE.

At the end of the video Gabe will thank you for watching, he mentions coming in 2nd (meaning winning the runner-up tournament) and then getting ready for the All-Stars.

In the video you'll also see Gabe steal second on a walk as well as hitting a line drive back at a pitcher (Christian), striking the pitcher in the face. Fortunately, the injury was minor.

On a side note, one of the qualities I love about Gabe is his compassion. In a critical game he threw a home run pitch to a friend. When he got the ball back he called time out and walked over to the opposing teams dugout and handed the player the home run ball. All of the coaches in the league still talk about that. When he accidentally struck Christian in the face with a hit, he ran over to the pitcher's mound and made sure he was okay. On the rare occasion he hits a batter with a pitch, he walks with the batter down the first base line making sure he's all right.

It's those things that make me more proud of my son than what he does in the batter's box or on the pitcher's mound. I'll take him being a better person than a baseball player any day of the week.

Gabe's really enjoyed everyones guidance and response to his highlights all season long. Thank you for your love and support!

Messenger CD Documentary

I've been asked to document the creation of our Lifeteen Band Messenger's first CD. I'll be keeping pics and progress on the project over at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Pete behind the camera.

Jim and Chilton rock the house... literally.

The ever-wacky Tiffany and her patient mother, Cathy.

They're a band choc-full-o talent, so we're all looking forward to the final product.

Nerd Test Results

Inspired by my brother Charles' entry, I too took a Nerd Test. The results are below...

I'm officially less of a Nerd than Charles. I can't imagine what my brother Paul's score would be. Can it go over 100%?

Updates at SonlightPictures.com

I've updated the Sonlight Pictures website (sonlightpictures.com) with a new layout for quick links to each of our current projects as seen below. We'll have more info there and at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Stop by every once and a while and see our progress.

Iron Man (2008)

Only one actor on the planet could pull off the lead character of Tony Stark in the film Iron Man and that man is Robert Downey, Jr. Who else could effectively play a billionaire playboy, womanizer, wunderkind, computer and mechanical genius, arms dealer with a soft heart surrounded by a thick skin of self indulgence who turns into a superhero?

Seriously. Name one other person.

To say Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast is an understatement.

The story for Iron Man is very well told, both smart and funny. It utilizes the refreshing Stark character to play against the awe-shucks superhero type and give us a flawed man we both want to be and could see ourselves being, yet know we'll never get there. We identify with this imperfect man who turns his gifts that have benefited his wallet and into something that benefits everyone.

He goes from selfish to selfless. From conceited to a man with a conscious.

Actor and director Jon Favreau from Rudy, Swingers and Elf fame, puts on his directing cap and guides us skillfully across the world and into near-fantasy as man and machine become one in the form of Iron Man.

A fun, smart and memorable superhero action flick. Bring the popcorn, bring the wit and enjoy the ride.

Rays in First Place?!?!?!

Do not adjust your sets. The Tampa Bay Rays are now officially in 1st place in the AL East.

The Rays!?! The once awful Devil Rays, now just Rays, have won 8 of 12 this month and have swept the Jays, the Angels and the Red Sox this season.

After beating the stinkin' Yanks 2-1 in extra innings last night, the Rays moved ahead of the Red Sox by a 1/2 game to hold onto first for the first time in franchise history.


I know it's a long season. I know it's only May. But, this team is vastly improved. Four out of the last five starting pitchers for the Rays have left the game pitching a shutout. That's amazing.

So, we'll enjoy this run as long as we can. Tonight Gabe and I are heading to the ballpark to watch our stud James Shields pitch against Mike Mussina, I believe.

Should be fun!

Merrill's Alter-Ego Identified

My niece, Merrill, recently took a job position in Tampa. In Sunday's newspaper she was pictured twice, once as Merrill Stewart and another as Michael Nielson.

Now that I think about it, that actually explains a lot!

Click on the pic below for a bigger image and see for yourself.

Click on me!

Do any of you have any Merrill Stewart, err, Michael Nielson stories you'd like to share?

Great Sermon

Talk about tough love.... this is a great sermon from a Baptist preacher. A wonderful eye opener, discussing the difference between being "saved" and being "holy."

They say...

"This is a Shockingly Powerful & Biblical message preached to about 5,000 youth in a day when youth are appealed to through shallow and worldly means. At one point in this sermon the 5,000 Youth are clapping and yelling BUT THEN the preacher makes a comment that CHANGES THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE TO WHERE YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP... As you can imagine, the preacher was never invited back."

He presses that saying "I believe in Jesus" is not enough... we must live a holy life. He says "It is not that you have sinned, but that you have done nothing but sin!" Later he says "It is more than just acknowledging Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges Jesus is Lord."

If its true he was never invited back... well, I can see why. He holds no punches.

Check it out. It's worth it.

Creation of Sonlight Pictures

Over the next five days at the Sonlight Pictures blog I'll be sharing the humorous creation and faith journey that culminated in the creation of Sonlight Pictures.

Check it out if you like!

Little League - Games A' Plenty

Due to scheduling issues, what was supposed to be a game Thursday and a game Saturday turned into a mini-tournament. So, we played one game Thursday (we won), a game Friday evening (lost 4-1) and another game Saturday (lost 4-3).

The team did well. The losses were competitive games, which is all you can ask for at this level. Gabe did well pitching and at the plate. I'll have highlights in a few days.

We'll have one more weekend tourney just for fun next week and then it's prepping for all-stars.

Club God Rough Edit Complete

Spent the last few late evenings finishing the rough cut edit of the short Club God.



You can see more screen captures from the edit and info on our progress at the Sonlight Pictures Blog website.

Little League - Cards Down Dodgers 13-8

The game started out like any other... accurate pitching from Gabe, good hitting from the other team and a lot of errors by the Cards. That put us in an early 8-0 deficit after two innings. After that Gabe shut down the Dodgers and the Cards bats started to come alive. Everyone contributed. Gabe went 1-3 with a triple, a walk, a ground out and a strike out.

One by one the Cards clawed their way back into the game, ending the fourth inning down 8-7. After hitting away the opposing starting pitcher, the team was patient at the plate with the next pitcher and made solid contact with the ball, ending up rallying to win 13-8.

The game was important to Gabe because the Cards had not beaten the Dodgers this season, he incorporated a lot more of his off speed stuff in the game and he elevated his starting pitching record to 4-2.

The Cards and Dodgers go at it again on Thursday. The opposing pitcher is Gabe's best friend, Robert. That should make for an interesting game.

Little League - Cards Win 5-2!

After a long drought that included two tournaments, the Cards finally put together a solid game to win yesterday evening, beating the Pirates 5-2.

Gabe went 3-4, beating out a throw for an infield single and followed up with two hits to right-center to setup some runs. The Cards had solid defense, especially the second base play of Phil Sorensen and a reshuffled batting order helped on offense.

You can watch Gabe's at-bats HERE (big file, IExporer)


But the real hero was pitcher Tommy Dailey, who struck out eight, made a cross-body diving catch from the pitchers mound on a shot hit right up the middle and went 3-3 with three RBIs.

So, the win was nice. We celebrated by spending the evening at the family sports bar called Varsity Club.

Funny thing was, the Varsity Club is located next door to the Cinema Cafe, where we started earlier that morning shooting Club God! Life can by cyclical at times.

Club God Shoot a Success

Well, the aggressive Club God shoot schedule seemed insurmountable, but we managed to pull it off.

On the set of Club God.

Everything came together. We were very blessed! You can read more and see more pics at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Little League - Gabe Hits Four in Loss

Gabe's new and improved swing is finally coming around. After weeks of tweaking his swing to incorporate his hips more, thereby giving him more power, he's finally starting to make consistent contact.

Tuesday night he went 4 - 4, with two line drives to the outfield and two strong hits through the infield. You can see the highlights HERE (you know the drill, big file, Internet Explorer).

In an otherwise typical night at the fields, we fought back, but ended up losing 13-9 to the Oldsmar Indians. Gabe pitched three-innings and struggled a bit, but for good reason. He's trying off-speed pitches (change-ups, no curve balls) during different counts... they require a different release point, so, like his swing, these additions to his pitching repertoire will offer some challenges at first, but we're hopeful he'll have it all worked out by All-Stars.

Sonlight Pictures Blog - Update

Don't forget to frequent the Sonlight Pictures Blog, where we're updating our progress on our first Christian short film called Club God.


The Club God short is scheduled to shoot this Saturday, May 3rd and stars Brian Shea and John Snell.


On the blog you can read about how to make Do-It-Yourself (DIY) lights and Props being used for Club God and future projects.


After Club God, we'll be shooting a six-part Christian web comedy series called Purgatory, USA. It's a very funny comedy about a young girl, Nikki (played by Dorothea Bauer) who must spend the summer with her flaky cousin, Babs (played by Tiffany Ross).

The Purgatory, USA script is already written and we've had a successful read-thru... we'll have more on that in a few weeks.

I'll be keeping the blog updated with all of our busy work this summer, so stop by and make the Sonlight Pictures Blog one of your favorites.

Fox News Promo - Update

So, as mentioned in our trip to New York City, while showing the kids the Statue of Liberty we were asked by some people from Fox News to participate in a pro-American promotion.

Well, about two weeks ago we got a call from the producer, Brad, asking us if we could send them some pictures and home videos they could incorporate them into our spot. Apparently there is going to be a website that shows all of these videos... Brad will let us know when its up and running.

So, this past week Dea and I scoured our old pics and old videos and picked out 50 pics and 20 video clips over the years that augment what we said during our interview. I put them on a DVD and sent them up to NY. Sending these personal memories off to Fox News certainly takes a fair bit of trust, but Brad had been a stand-up guy so far, so I'm confident they'll be used in a positive manner.

Can't wait to see the end results.

Little League - Games Continue, So Does Losing

The Cards finished up a three game tournament this past weekend, finishing 0-3. As a matter of fact, we were the only Safety Harbor team to go winless in the tournament. We could have won two of the games, but found ways not to do it. That's been our season.

This is the first season where I've seen a large portion of a team simply choose not to improve over the course of a season. It's not for lack of coaching or practice... they simply don't care enough to make the extra effort or to think ahead.

Frustrating for the few players who care and who are competitive.

Gabe's pitching went well and his hitting is finally coming around. The last game, from the left side he hit a line drive over the center fielder's head and got a single. The next at bat, on the right side, he hit the ball so hard we thought it was going to be his first home run, but it was caught at the fence by the center fielder. So there were some positives.

Gabe hates losing... really hates it. So, he's been really challenged being on a team with kids who don't share his drive. That's Little League, though. It's supposed to be more about fun than it is about winning.

So, we talk about it, saying the Lord is challenging him to lead by example through the tough times. By not giving up. By working hard. By staying positive.

And I shared my experiences with him... when I was in a kid I was on a Little League team that went winless one year. Right after that I played football and was on a team that went winless.

I remember asking my Mom why God won't let me win? She said, "Perhaps the Lord is preparing you for something later on in life."

And she was right. Not settling, not giving up... that's a strong part of who I am. It's what allowed me to handle the numerous rejections actors get in their careers. And what continues to drive me today.

So, it's tough for my son right now, but it doesn't mean the struggle will go to waste. I wonder what fruits this time in his life will bear years down the road.

Cloverfield (2008)

A long time ago... about ten years ago, I made a short film called Raw Footage. My directorial choice was to have the audience watch the film unfold as if they were watching the raw footage of a tape found at a crime scene. Where my story revolved around the murder and eventual killing of a news crew, Cloverfield revolves around the raw footage of a going-away party in NYC that ends up capturing the attack of something massive and mean.

Viewing Cloverfield on my fairly large movie screen in my house was hard to endure, at times, because the hand-held camera shaking was almost unbearable. Sure, the director had to show the kids running from the menace and that wouldn't entail smooth camera shots, but a little less verocity to the camera shake would have been nice. Normally, I wouldn't mention such a thing as directorial choice, but in this case it actually got in the way of me enjoying the story he was trying to tell.

The story itself is about a surprise going-away party for Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel). The camera is manned by his brother Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) as they collect goodbye messages from the awaiting guests. Soon after Jason arrives and some personal drama unfolds between him and his girlfriend, who abruptly leaves, the party continues until the apartment shakes violently. The party goers rush onto the roof of the Manhattan building to see what is happening and find, in the distance, something destroying the city.

Jason receives a call from his trapped and injured girlfriend in her apartment across town. Unwilling to leave her behind, Jason, along with his brother and friends, head off to rescue her even though she lives directly in the vicinity of the creature killing everyone.

The story moves very quickly and the acting from a cast of relative unknowns works well enough. Despite the camera shaking, which lessens the impact of the film, the end result is an entertaining movie. If you're prone to motion sickness, car sickness or vertigo, I'd watch this film on a regular-sized television... or have a bag handy, just in case.

On a side note, the cool thing is that the camera I own, the Panasonic HVX200, was used to shoot many shots in this film.

The Mist (2007)

When I realized I wanted to make films, I knew that they would more than likely have to be low-budget. So, ever since then I've had a certain affinity for low-budget flicks. I started by watching the renowned, genre redefining film, Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. I followed that up by watching Carpenter's The Fog... which is still a guilty pleasure for me. When I first watched The Fog I kept saying to myself "what a brilliant idea... fog as the bad guy... how low-budget can you get! And it's creepy!"

So, the idea for The Mist immediately intrigued me... a group of town folk end up getting caught in a grocery store by a heavy mist. When someone tries to leave... well, bad things happen.

Based on the story by Stephen King and written and directed by Frank Darabont, I expected great things. The King/Darabont collaboration had worked exceptionally well with The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, so I wouldn't think there would be any letdown with The Mist.

Though not as heartfelt as Green Mile and Shawshank, The Mist can be equally as effective within its own genre story-telling.

The film is an ensemble piece and stars Thomas Jane (Punisher, 61), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River), Lauren Holden (The Majestic) and one of my favorite actors, Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Streets). The story deals with the effects of fear on a group of people and how the breakdown of civilization can so quickly occur as mans survival-of-the-fittest instinct kicks in. Along with it is what is waiting in the mist... and it ain't pretty.



Darabont, who is one of the most talented writers in Hollywood, does a wonderful job of making the breakdown of civilized behavior not only intriguing, but painful to watch unfold. The escalation of fear is exponential and the eventual outcome is frightening.



With The Fog and The Mist now having successfully explored the "evil in a cloud" theme, I wonder what Hollywood will come up with next... They'll have to be creative... how about The Cold Front? The Damp and Hovering Weather System? The Vaporized, Yet Low-Moving Collection of Air-Bound Moisture?

As for this current incarnation, The Mist is spooky and suspenseful, thought provoking and, at times, devastating.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3:10 to Yuma is one of the most interesting films I've seen in a very long time. It unfolds in such a unique way, with such flawed lead characters and unexpected paths in the mix, that it really took my by surprise.

A remake of the 1957 film, this film is directed by James Mangold (Copland, Girl Interrupted, Identity) stars Christian Bale as Dan Evans, a one-legged ex-Civil War vet who inadvertently crosses paths with a ruthless outlaw, Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe. After a heist and an error in judgement, Crowe is captured and Bale is one of the men being paid to make sure Crowe gets on the 3:10 train to Yuma.

What is so wonderful about this film is that the characters are so well rounded. You have Bale who is both noble and impotent. You feel his pain as he struggles to maintain his land and keep his family intact, yet you get frustrated when his own weakness interferes with his own success. You have Crowe as a cold-blooded killer who can be both charming and scary. You feel, if things had been just a little different in his life, he would have been a great man.

In the end, you feel that both men are not where they want or intended to be, but simply where they ended up. And that their paths happen to cross and eventually join is mere happenstance.

The last half-hour of 3:10 to Yuma is pretty great cinema and you'll find yourself drawn in and moved by these two very flawed, very human characters.

DC Goes to Prom

DC got invited to a Home School Prom by her best friends. She got all dressed real pretty and had a great time.

Sarah, Mary, Marisa, Caitlin,
Kenny (token male), Mary, DC, Ali, Kelli

DC, Kelli and Mary
(aka My "Daughters")

DC looking all beautified

Yeah, this whole teen daughter thing isn't going to work out too well for me.

Funny Headline

From the exceptionally funny satirical website The Onion comes this great headline:

****

Suspicious Package Industry Falls On Hard Times
New security measures put in place to allay terror fears are threatening to drive suspicious package retailers out of business.

Little League - Its going to be a long season...

Well, the second half of the Little League season started out like the end of the first half. Except for Gabe's 15 strike-out game at Countryside, the Cards are getting beat, and soundly.

As the rest of the teams have slowly improved over the course of our season, our team has not. The top four batters are hitting above .400. The rest of the team is batting .119. So, we'll start a game and get two or three batters on with one out and score nothing.

Add that and the multitude of errors that we always seem to allow per game (I think there were 12 last night in our 10-1 loss to the Yankees, including, for example, four by our first baseman in one inning) and you have the makings for a very, very long second half of the season.

Now, I know its just Little League. The sky is not falling. The world is not ending. It is just a game. However, kids being kids, they don't have a lot of fun losing all the time, no matter what the official brochure says.

And it's been tough on my ultra-competitive son.

He's been working on improving his swing and that has translated to some tough game time at-bats. I know he has it in him to be more consistent as soon as he gets more reps. The other night at one of the shorter Countryside fields (their fields are always smaller than ours) during an impromptu batting practice, Gabe hit a home run over the fence from both sides of the plate. So, he'll get there, but its going to be tough until then.

It's a good learning experience for him... test his leadership skills, his focus and his commitment. For the parents, not so much fun right now. :)

Local Friends Get Holy Publicity

Well, it is a small world. Some of my daughter's best home-school friends were lucky enough to make it up to New York to see the Pope offer Mass at Yankee Stadium. One of the teen leaders from our parish, Karen Underwood, along with her daughter Kelli and friend Mary McCook, scored tickets to the Mass and traveled up to participate in the blessed event.


We were all praying for their safety during their journey. Funny that, when we woke up this morning, Kelli and Mary's pictures were on the TBO website (which is part of the Tampa Tribune). Kelli and Mary are like daughters to me and are wonderful, loving friends to my daughter. It was wonderful to see them be able to express their faith and spread the gospel through their example.

You can read the article at the TBO website.

Can't wait to see them when they return!