6/17/2005

Movie Review: Batman Begins


May I say that when I originally heard of a 5th Batman movie, a few years ago, I can't say I was eagerly awaiting. If it was going to be anything like the last two disasters (Batman Forever and Batman & Robin -- if anybody comments anything good about George Clooney, I will delete your comment and maybe stone you), it was probably going to flop. But then I thought, who the crap is going to play Batman?? Is there anybody who could step up? Keaton was great, but I doubted that he'd even consider coming back. So, I knew they had to start from a clean slate.

So, that's what they did. They got some great actors, some old faces, some new, and really put it together. I'd like to start by talking about the authenticity. The writers, director, etc went all out, it seems, to be as correct as possible... and they were! Kudos to the purists who had this thing running, and I tip my hat to the dedication to bringing Batman out in a way that was true to the story.

His humble beginnings as a young boy, and his fear of bats, to his training by Ras-al-ghul. Speaking of which, Liam Neeson rocked. Very true to his character, and I dig the Orientalish-goatee deal. Check it out.

Gotham City was exactly like it was suppose to be. I'm not sure about the whole "island" deal... which makes it look a lot like Manhattan, but there were definite parts that gave the city a comic feel... kind of larger than life feeling, that only the world of Batman could bring.

I've already started this, but I'll give a character review:

- Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman = Solid! I'm not sure they could've gotten a better fit. He was very believable, as both the dark knight and a billionaire. Good job big wigs!

- Liam Neeson as Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul = Again, rockin! He has this mentor aura about him that puts him exactly in the right role.

- Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes = She played a part, I guess. Her character is made-up, I think. I don't ever remember seeing her in any comic. I may be wrong, but she didn't need to be in it. I guess she was to bring in some kind of love story. Although, who knows whether or not they're really together at the end... very ambiguous.

- Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon = He's definitely a great actor (The Professional, Bram Stoker's Dracula [1992]), and I guess it was the mustache, but I thought he was almost an exact duplicate of what I pictured Jim Gordon to look like.

- Michael Caine as Alfred = Michael Gough portrayed the Wayne care-taker in the Tim Burton versions, and did a great job, but I think Michael Caine, a veteran and accomplished actor, was better suited. I bought that he actually cared for the family and was willing to do anything to take care of them. I dunno, probably has to do with him being a better actor all around.

- Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow = Again, true to his character. Might not have gotten as much time in the movie as some purists would like, but he definitely was an intriquite part of the story, and was true to the story of how he affected his victims, and how he fell victim to Batman. Good stuff.

- Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone = I think this guy was made up, but it doesn't matter. He was kinda symbolic of big crime in the city that Batman was supposed to rise up against. Wilkinson did a great job because he stereotypically always plays a bad guy because well, he's good at it.

- Rutger Hauer as Earle = Another veteran actor that made the grade and kept the movie at an all-star cast status. Another great bad guy.

- Mark Boone Junior as Flass = Another comic-true character. The actor isn't that well-known, but he's been around a while. He'll be a typical bad guy but this is his chance to prove himself.

- Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne = I love how they showed lots of flashbacks to him and his connection to Bruce. I really brought to the surface the real anger that Bruce has for his parents' killer, and made you feel that with him. It helped that the actor was more of a father-figure kinda guy too.

Final Grade: A -- for sweet effects, great acting, true to the comics in story and characters, and all-star cast. I would have given it a A+, but it lost the plus because the fighting scenes were hard to follow and trying to push a love story.

6/13/2005

Holy Crap

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

79%

Emergent/Postmodern

64%

Fundamentalist

61%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

50%

Neo orthodox

50%

Classical Liberal

50%

Reformed Evangelical

50%

Roman Catholic

36%

Modern Liberal

36%

What's your theological worldview?
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6/07/2005

Communion Sunday

June is about the 8th month of our attendance at Destiny Place Church, and this is the 2nd Communion service (the 1st being 6 weeks before this one). Unlike most churches, our church's communion ceremony involves "intinction". This is where you have a plate of bread, that you break off while the holder says, "This is my body broken for you". The next person is holding a cup filled with some kind of dark fruit juice (ours just happens to be cranberry-grape), and you dip your piece of bread in the cup, and eat it as the holder says, "This is my blood shed for you".

I am the one put in charge of getting the necessities: bread and juice.
I knew that this was not a huge responsibility, but needed to be done. We drove in from Jessica's parents' house in Zachary on Sunday morning, and had to stop quickly to drop off our dog at the house. Following that, we stopped at "Save Yourself Center" Sav-a-Center, across from our house to get the goods for the service. Not too hard, right?

So, we get to the church, and set up for service, as usual. Jessica was then asked to take out the bread we bought out of the package, and place them on the plates. When she opened the bag, she immediately noticed a distinct smell. GARLIC! She saw the label that we obviously overlooked that read, 'Roasted Garlic Bread'. Eek-eek. The bread was pretty strong, and it even had thick cloves of garlic inside it! We could only gasp and snicker at the idea of using it for communion.

Of course, we had nothing else and no time to go pick up some regalar bread, so we proceeded as if it was a normal thing, and it went over just fine. Most people noticed that it was a strong bread, but didn't seem to mind. Most actually were overheard saying "man, that was good bread". We even saw someone carting off with it to bring home!

This just proves one thing: even when you mess up something like this, God is still glorified.