A Flighty Film…

Filmed on location in the rainforests of Costa Rica, The Blue Butterfly offers stunning close-ups of insect and reptile life as it tells the story of an entomologist who grants a dying boy his last wish. However, something seems amiss in this cinematic adaptation of an inspiring true story. Could it be a wildlife narrator? [Read more]

Do Unto Others…

There’s a vast chasm between (post) apocalyptic literature and films like the Left Behind series and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (see March 29th post) and Michael Haneke’s Le Temps du Loup (Time of the Wolf). A fan of ambiguity and untidy endings, I obviously prefer the latter to the former. I just finished watching Haneke’s Time of the Wolf, which is just as mysterious and intense as his more popular, recent film Cache. As I watched it, I recalled some of the scenes from McCarthy’s The Road…high praise indeed. [Read more]

Athletic Ethics?

My summer reading program has started off successfully. I’ve caught up on Dave Eggers’ newest “novel,” What is the What, a graphic novel, The Pride of Baghdad, and most recently, Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. All three of these raise significant ethical questions for consideration, and Eggers’ novel poses some questions for theology that require much more thought before I write a post on them. Lewis’ book, however, fit into a train of thought I’ve had recently and worked on during the spring semester, the relationship between sports and spirituality/theology/ethics. [Read more]

It’s Just Money…

On one of his newer albums, The Devil You Know, Todd Snider has a song entitled, “Just Like Old Times.” In it, he sings of an old friend, “Living out our own kind of American dream…. Your goal was always the same as mine…. You didn’t want to throw a fishing line in that old main stream…and you didn’t.” Snider might as well be singing about Jennifer Aniston’s character, Olivia, in Nicole Holofcener’s film Friends With Money. The film did not have a terribly long theatrical run and has been out on DVD for quite some time. The film’s juxtaposition of the rich and the “just-getting-by,” both polluted by their own kinds of problems, raises great questions about success, happiness, and well-lived lives. [Read more]

Thinking Bloggers…

This might be the most self-serving post yet, but I couldn’t help sharing that Pop Theology got tagged by our friend Tripp in the thinking blogger meme. Thankfully, I am forced to list 5 other sites that make me think. Check these sites out of you get the chance. They are well worth the visit.

In no particular order:

PoMo Pirate–right back at you Tripp.

The Revealer–a daily review of religion and the press. Anything by S. Brent Plate is especially interesting.

The Spectrum Blog–from the Adventist side of things.

Beatitudes Blog–the blog for a great service-oriented community that I have recently come to know.

Faith in Public Life–the blog for an ecumenical group that seeks to influence public policy.

Messed Up…

As a fan of Judd Apatow’s hilarious The 40 Year Old Virgin, I had high hopes for his latest raunchy rom-com installment, Knocked Up. As has become the case with this year’s summer blockbusters, I was disappointed yet again. Apatow trades in a brilliant subtelty for examining relationships for a heavy-handed, in-your-face pessimism that could simply be summed up by the lame joke that “marriage isn’t a word, it’s a sentence.” [Read more]

Granny Games?

We’ve seen a couple of articles on video games that challenge the couch potato stereotype. First, scientists were using PS3’s to do medical research. Second, PE classes turned to games like Dance Dance Revolution for exercise. Now, it looks like video games are making their way into retirement communities and retirement homes across the country. Check out the following article:

Video Games: Not Just for Kids Anymore

Today’s Problems, Yesterday’s Answers

Recently released on DVD, The Queen offers another opportunity to view a near perfect film punctuated by two fantastic performances, Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth and Michael Sheen as the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair. As it tells the story of the royal family’s response to Princess Diana’s death in 1997, The Queen raises questions of tradition, political protocol, humility, and modernization that find striking application to contemporary events ranging from politics to religious denominational affairs. [Read more]

Heir Unapparent

As the cinematic summer rolls on, we have the latest installment of the Shrek series. As a fan of the first two films, I looked forward to more of their all-ages humor. Unfortunately, that’s just what Shrek the Third offers. [Read more]

A Slice of Joy

Big summer blockbusters not your thing? Disappointed over and over again by sequels that fail to deliver? Forget the latest installment of Shrek or Spiderman and go see Waitress instead. This delightful little movie will no doubt be the surprise hit of the summer season and should end up being one of the better films of the year. [Read more]