So You Think You Can Dance - Summer 2013

Back Row:  Jade, Malece, Jenna, Tucker, Paul, Makenzie, Haley, Curtis, Aaron, Jasmine H., Jasmine M., Alan     
Front Row: Carlos, Mariah, BluPrint, Brittany, Nico, Alexis, Amy, Fik-Shun

Like a certain Genesis song, I know "I Can't Dance", but these guys and girls sure can!

     Our favorite dancers all season were Aaron and Jasmine.  He was the tapper who didn’t even make it into the top twenty… until one of the guys who did had to quit due to an injury, so the producers asked Aaron to come back to the show, and he managed to make it into the finals.  And she was Cyrus’ old girlfriend with a wounded self confidence who began to realize her talent when she made it into the top twenty.  These two were paired together throughout the early portion of the competition, and no couple was better.  They were dazzling:

     Of course, they didn’t win.  Fik-Shun and Amy won.  They were paired together throughout the competition, and they were quite good as well, particularly considering that Fik-shun was a hip hop dancer taking on other styles for the first time.  This competition is never about the best dancers necessarily, only America’s favorite dancers (though they all have to be crazy-good to impress the judges enough to get into the top twenty).

     Here’s just a few of the more memorable people from this season from among the other dancers, judges, guest judges, choreographers, guest choreographers, or all-stars:

1. Choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo, better known as NappyTabs, shared their new baby on camera this year (see the link here).
2. Choreographer and season 2 runner up Travis Wall choreographs and dances with winner Amy Yakima (Linked here).
3. This year had three tappers!  Runner up Aaron Turner, plus Alexis Juliano and Curtis Holland (see the link here)
4. Nigel Lithgow and Mary Murphy were the mainstays on the judging panel this year, and one of the best guest judges was Jenna Elfman.
5. Adam Shankman was still a guest judge on occasion, taking a break from directing those Step Up movies.  See him practice for the Dizzyfeet foundation dance this year here.
6. One of our other favorite dancers from this season was contemporary dancer Malece Miller.  In the clip linked here, she dances salsa with co-contestant and partner Alan Berkin. 
7. Cat Deely again did a great job as host, even if her outfits were usually on the outlandish side, to say the least.  Here, she poses with two of this season's hip-hop dancers, BluPrint and the short but very talented Jade Zuberi (see the link here)
8. Another favorite guest judge was the always funny Wayne Brady, and you should also check him out on the new season of Who's Line Is It Anyway?  (See the link here)
9. Travis Wall choreographed a moving number for contestant Tucker Knox and returning all-star Robert Roldan about two survivors giving each other a helping hand.  In real life, both of them had survived devastating car accidents (linked here).
10. Paul Karmiryan and Makenzie Dustman perform a tender piece (linked here).
11. Returning all-star Mark Kanemura shows he has a lot in common with Tim Burton on the creative front with some of the most outlandish yet intriguing dances of the season.  Here, he dances to the weird sounding "I Am the Best" by 2NE1 with contestant Jenna Johnson (linked here)

For more from this season of So You Think You Can Dance, see the following links:
http://www.fox.com/dance/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/so-you-think-you-can-dance-crowns-season-10-winners-video_n_3904097.html
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/09/so-you-think-you-can-dance-season-10-winners-fik-shun-and-amy-talk-about-their-victory.html

"Mom" & "Dads": Two New Sitcoms I Probably Won't Be Watching, For Two Different Reasons

I watched the pilots of two new sitcoms.  Moms is critically acclaimed.  It stars Anna Faris of the Scary Movie franchise, and Allison Janney as her mother.  Anna plays Christy, a working mother with a young son and teenage daughter, and a slacker ex-husband.  She comes from a background of neglect and drugs.  The pilot episode, which was, by the way, quite funny, has her come home from work listening to a self-help CD, and she witnesses her daughter’s long-haired, half-naked boyfriend crawling out her daughter’s window.  The daughter feels no shame about this, and the mother doesn’t make a big stink about it, saying she can’t reprimand her daughter for things she did herself.  She is in love with the boss of the restaurant where she works as a waitress, but he’s already married.  They still want to continue seeing each other, however.  Her slacker ex spends his time playing violent video games with his son that involves beating a hooker with a bat.  After reconnecting with her mother at an AA meeting, they share lunch, where it is revealed during the conversation that the mother once tried to snort cocaine out of a shag carpet, to which the mother retorted that it pays to be thrifty, and that she ran a meth lab out of her home, to which she comments, “It’s called ‘work’!”  The characters are all immoral in one way or another, but they did manage to wring humor from the deplorable situations.

     No wonder the critics love it so much, and I predict it will be a hit.  It sadly, but unabashedly, reflects modern life in America for many families.  A lot of people will see themselves in these immoral characters, and laugh right along!

     Now Dads, which has been universally panned by critics, is, unfortunately, not a laugh riot.  We found a few amusing moments, but the whole pilot was a rather stiff affair.  It has potential, but will it be around long enough for the characters to develop?  Unlike Mom, the premise and the characters are not obviously immoral; hence, one reason the critics probably didn’t like it: It wasn’t filthy enough, except for one scene at the very end with a case of sexting.  Other than this, its more racy elements were merely suggested.  Although a show like this always has the potential to max out on the immorality meter sooner or later, like most of them do, such as the still popular Two and a Half Men, it wasn’t manifest in the Dads pilot like it was for Mom.

     I probably won’t end up watching either one.  Although I like Anna Faris and some other members of the cast, Mom is already crossing the line.  Likewise, I like both Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi, but their material isn’t so funny yet, and if the negative hype is any indication, Dads will be the first show to be canceled this season.

     But there is a faction of viewers in middle America, and quite a large faction I would think, for which morality really does matter.  And although I may make too many exceptions already, I’ll be damned if I’m just going to watch some new show just because the critics liked it and it happens to be funny.  There are other considerations… and other shows. 

Photos from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660806/mediaindex, http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/dads-seth-macfarlanes-new-comedy-faces-a-tough-room-at-the-tca-press-tour, http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/dads-seth-macfarlanes-new-comedy-faces-a-tough-room-at-the-tca-press-tour

Series 5 of BBC's "Being Human": Not the Original Cast, and Not Quite As Good, But Still With a Story to Tell

Tom, Alex, and Hal, ready for battle

Watch a TV show long enough, and it will invariably disappoint you.  For instance, I loved all the Star Treks, even Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which some fans didn’t care for, but I could never really get into Enterprise (and I’m not the only one, judging by the negative criticism and early cancelation).  Some say it got better after the hideous second season, though it ultimately proved to be too little too late.  The Dead Zone started out strong, and ended weak, and the same could be said for The X-Files and even Fringe, and don’t even get me started on Heroes!

A Werewolf, a Ghost, and a Vampire

    And so we have the fifth and final “series” of the BBC Being Human.  I hung in there!  After three strong years getting to know the vampire Mitchell, the ghost Annie, and the werewolf couple George and Nina and their plights, three of them left the show.  The only way to redeem the character of Mitchell, by this point, was by the character’s self-sacrifice, and then it was revealed that Nina had been beaten to death by vampires shortly after giving birth to a little baby girl in between seasons, and George died in the first episode of the fourth season trying to protect his daughter from superstitious vampires.  That left Annie and an orphaned werewolf named Tom to protect her, and then the vampire Hal moved in with them, and before the end of that season, a young woman named Alex was murdered, became a ghost, and moved in with boys after Annie made a final sacrifice during the climax of series four, exiting the show at the same time. 

     The British shows have always been on the quirky side of things, mixing some great dialogue and character development with elements of the supernatural, and often getting rather blatant and bloody, even back in the days of Annie, George, and Mitchell.  This most recent series, set around the new friendship of Hal, Tom, and Alex, has pretty much the same eccentric dark/humorous tone, as they fight the devil himself while the boys take jobs at a local hotel.  But when things get rather ridiculous with the plot or a bit too gruesome at times with some of the unstable, supernatural characters that surround them, you could always go back to the friendship between Mitchell, George, and Annie as the core paranormal triumvirate that was the real life of the series above and beyond any plot machinations.  In the end, with this final series, I miss the three originals (and Nina), and I’m not sure these new characters, as appealing as they can be, are able to fill their shoes and rise above some of the more outlandish plot elements.

Previous Being Human Characters:  Annie, Mitchell, George, and Nina; Aiden, Nora, Josh, and Sally 

     The American version on SyFy started out on shaky legs, but after a near carbon copy first season to get the ball rolling, they’ve taken their three supernatural houseguests - Aiden, Josh, and Sally - and werewolf Josh's girlfriend Nora, in completely new directions, and that series seems to be thriving and alive with possibilities and great storylines and characters.  The fifth series of the BBC show often (but not always) now feels like only so much ludicrous contrivance by comparison, and without the characters I came to know and love.  Hal, Tom, and Alex have their moments, to be sure, and there’s still a spark of creativity here, but not nearly enough to rival the great characters that came before them, in my opinion.  Perhaps that’s why series five is the last.  No one else could really make the jump after they lost their entire original cast.

     But they sure did give it the quirky old English try!

You see?  Even THEY were a little bored :)

Celebrity Watch: Miley Cyrus, "Twerking" Celebutard

I'm starting to write about not just role models or people I admire, like Jesus or John Wayne that I posted about recently (here and here), but the idiots too.  There are a lot of them to choose from!

Give most of these celebrities enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves!

     Not that the public minds.  I imagine many of them probably loved Miley Cyrus’ appearance on the Video Music Awards, especially if they’re in the industry … or liberals.  I can hear them now:  “Hey, she’s just like the rest of us!”

     I, of course, was never a fan, or either her or her father.  I don’t have kids, so I never had to suffer through a ton of Hannah Montana, which, I’m told by at least one of my nieces, was a great show.  I’m sure it was, just like all the other Disney or Nickelodeon shows, and I’ve even seen a few episodes myself of tween hits like Phil of the Future, Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire, The Sweet Life of Zach & Cody, The Wizards of Waverly Place, Good Luck Charlie, Austin & Ally, Kickin’ It, Big Time Rush, and unfortunately, Dog with a Blog.  What can I say, I have a niece or two who like quite of few of these shows, and has shared them with me on occasion, and to be fair, I have watched a few on my own, out of boredom or curiosity.  Sometimes I even liked what I saw, as guilty pleasures.  I even have a favorite from all of those shows:  Drake & Josh.  Josh Peck reminded me of Lou Costello, and I liked his comic mugging; same goes for Shia LeBeouf in Even Stevens, Raven Symoné in That’s So Raven, and Jerry Trainor in both iCarly and Wendell & Vinnie.  But don’t even get me started on all those cartoons!  NOT a fan!

     And right in the middle of it all was a hit show starring Billy Ray Cyrus, fresh from his stint as Doc in the cable show of the same name, and his daughter Miley.  I never thought she was talented, as either an actress or a singer.  I found her quite whiny and nasally.  But a lot of teens, and their parents, found her to be a role model.  Billy Ray was a Christian, after all! 

     Then she grew up, and it didn’t help when she started making theatrical Hannah Montana movies like the 2008 Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert and Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2009, and the studios greedily charged more money because they knew the kids would demand to see it, no matter the price, and their parents would pay it.  They pulled this recently with concert movies for Justin Beiber and Katy Perry, and I find the practice nauseating.

     You see, for every idiot celebutard, there are millions of idiot fans, clamoring for more.  I can’t blame the young, impressionable kids (I was one once, and probably one of the worst as far as being manipulated by the entertainment industry), and the parents have enough to worry about.  They’ll grip about having to pay more, and then they’ll pay it to keep the kids happy.  The whole situation is probably a marketing strategists’ dream!

     And you want to know what’s really bad?  Sometimes, I’m one of the idiots!

     But at least I’ll admit it.

     And if Miley ever apologizes, or makes a come-back in a great movie, I might change my tune about her.  I did with Andy Dick after seeing the last season of Dancing with the Stars, where he admitted to being an idiot for so many years, and redeeming himself in my eyes (at least, what I could see), so I guess anything is possible.

     Yet the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  I guess Miley doesn’t like the taste either.  Just look at that tongue!  Is she gagging even while she’s in the middle of it all?  Oh no, my bad.  She’s just being filthy.  

Hey Scott, I Like Him Too! John Wayne: A Real/Reel Hero

[All titles below link to videos]

I’ve been wanting to add the Duke to this list of role models and people I admire for some time now.

     I’m not the big western fanatic my older brother is, and even though I’ve seen my fair share over the years (Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Big Valley, the brilliant Little Big Man, Cat Ballou, Young Guns, Silverado, Tombstone, Open Range, the remake of 3:10 to Yuma, and the History Channel's mini-series of the Hatfields and McCoys, to name a few), and I appreciate a good gunslinger tale from time to time, I have not seen a lot of the older westerns, and that includes the movies of John Wayne, who is most known for his westerns, though he has very rarely played a few other types from time to time, such as soldiers and cops in films like The Green Berets and Brannigan.  Once upon a time, he even played Genghis Khan, in Howard Hughes’ The Conquerer from 1956, with a dismal 3.2 audience rating on the internet movie database.  He wasn’t really the greatest actor.  He never disappeared into his roles the way Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier were known to do back then, or that actors like Gary Oldman or Daniel Day Lewis manage to do these days, but then, fewer actors than you might think are able to do this with precision. 

     What he did do was exude realism, and dignity, and decency, and nobility, both onscreen and off.  I’ve actually only seen John Wayne in a few movies:  Rio Bravo, El Dorado, The Cowboys, and True Grit, and I’ve seen parts of The Quiet Man, and Rooster Cogburn, the sequel to True Grit.  (Perhaps, after reading this, my brother will be nice enough to reply with other John Wayne movies that shouldn't be missed.  What do you say, Scott?)  And in each of these characters, and more, he displays bravery, morality, and courage under fire.  In True Grit, he won an Oscar as Best Actor for playing an old, washed-up, one-eyed, drunken gunslinger, and still wound up the most noble character in the entire movie!

     And then I recently came across a video on YouTube (linked here) in which he was a guest on Dean Martin’s variety show in 1966, and his words made me appreciate him all the more, especially in today’s day and age where people, not just actors, can be famous and idolized for being idiots, like Kim Kardashian, The Situation, and now, Miley Cyrus.  When Martin asked about his new eight month old daughter at the time, and what John Wayne wanted for her, Wayne’s reply was what would be now be considered narrow-minded, but also ethical and elegant:

     Well, ah, the same as any parent wants, I guess.  I’d just like to stick around long enough to see she gets started right.  I’d like her to know some of the values that we knew as kids; some of those values that too many people these days are thinking are old fashioned.  Most of all, I want her to be grateful, as I am, every day in my life to live in these United States.  I know it may sound corny, but the first thing my daughter’s learning from me is the Lord’s Prayer and some of the Psalms.  And I really don’t care if she ever memorizes the Gettysburg Address, just so long as she understands it.  And since little girls are seldom called upon to defend their country, she may never have to raise her hand for that oath, but I certainly want her to respect all those who do.  I guess, um, that’s about what I want for my daughter, Dean.

“I’m proud to know you, Duke!” was Dean Martin’s apt reply.   

     If only our current president loved this country and the Lord as much as John Wayne did, but everything John Wayne stated in this little speech are things Obama and the liberals are always apologizing to the rest of the world for!

            …and then we make such a big thing of Miley Cyrus “twerking”.

            We need more people like John Wayne!  And we need them badly!

James Bond vs. Academic Freedom Writers on the Planet of the Olympians in a Hallmark Meta-Horror Teen Beach Playbook: Other Movies I Saw in August 2013

All titles link to trailers, and there are a few other surprises here (see if you can find the link with Carol Burnett and Roddy McDowell in his ape makeup singing a duet!)

In my last post, I revealed my picks for favorite movies and stinkers from all the movies I saw in August 2013, which were Les Misérables and Now You See Me as the best, and Law Abiding Citizen and Kick-Ass as the worst (see the post linked here.)

Here are a few of my thoughts about all the other movies:

Dr. No

Just say “No!”  This first of all the James Bond movies is now quite dated.  You should see these old cars, phones, and huge reel-to-reel computers.  Back in the day, it was probably the height of modern technology, but now, it all looks practically stone-age!  Still, Sean Connery filled out the role quite well, and Ursula Andress filled out that bathing suit quite well, to set the tone for all the various Bonds and Bond women to come!

Skyfall

Hailed as one of the best modern James Bond movies, I liked it because it was easier to follow than most convoluted Bond plots and with some great twists and developments.  This is Judi Dench's best appearance as M, and Adele's opening theme song is brilliant, deservedly winning the Oscar for best song!

Admission

I have an admission:  This Tina Fey/Paul Rudd comedy was actually pretty good.  Of course, critics and audiences won’t like it because the characters are more normal and it’s not filthy, but when people complain they don’t make movies like they used to, or everything is too immoral, remind them about movies like Admission!

Freedom Writers

Based on a true story about about teacher Erin Gruwell and the real "Freedom Writers", this film joins a long list of illustrious movies about teachers reaching hopeless inner city kids.  I like the way this movie deals with race, and how Hilary Swank tries to help these kids rise about their situations, even at the cost of her own marriage  but on the other hand, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the made-for-TV movies The Ron Clark Story or Frontof the Class.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Other than the original, the Planet of the Apes movies have actually had a troubled existence, including half the sequels, the all-but-forgotten TV series, and Tim Burton’s unfortunate remake.  What a treat, then, that this very loose retelling of Conquestof the Planet of the Apes is such a welcome edition to the legacy!  This is arguably the best one to come along since the original, and Andy Serkis was brilliant as Caesar, utilizing the latest motion capture technology.

Escape From the Planet of the Apes

And this is the obvious exception to the above argument!  This is hands down the best of all the sequels even more so than Conquest (Beneath and Battle were definitely the worst).  This one finds the ape couple Cornelius and Zira from the first movie traveling back into the past and becoming celebrities in 1973 America.  Yet when Zira reveals they are from Earth’s future, where apes are smart and humans are dumb, and an ape war will destroy the earth, and then reveals she is pregnant, the two apes become fugitives, hunted by the government!  At times corny and dated, charming, funny, or downright tragic, it’s still an enjoyable time travel/fish out of water romp from beginning to end.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

A cute movie with some great visuals and a good story, about an ordinary but likable boy who discovers the ancient Roman gods are real, and he is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea.  Discovering his powers over the waters of the earth, he must elude all manner of gods and beasts, who think he has stolen Zeus’ lighting bolt.

Straight From the Heart

I gave one of these Hallmark movies a chance, mostly because I hadn’t seen AndrewMcCarthy since his heyday with the Brat Pack in movies like St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink.  This was a cute but ultimately forgettable little charmer about a city woman finding love with a grieving, emotionally distant rancher.  A good, but not great, romance.

Scream 3

The third time is not a charm for this tired old concept, and this is missing some of the inspired scares and astute social commentary about pop culture, especially horror films, of its two predecessors.  Dealing specifically with trilogies, it’s not even in the same league as the first two.  From the pre-title murder of Cotton Weary to the big, final reveal, this is the first time this formula feels like the inferior movies it comments on.

Scre4m

A surprise, especially after the disappointing third act, and taking place so many years later, this is still not as good as the first two, but a much improved, valiant effort over the last one.  Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox join an all new cast.

TeenBeach Movie

Silly fun in the same vein as the High School Musicals, this Disney channel movie is reminiscent of many other films, but was still enjoyable in its own right.  The whole thing was nothing but fun.

Silver Linings Playbook

My mom and sister just loved this, and Mom couldn’t wait to share it with us.  I liked it, but perhaps not quite so much as she did, and it’s not quite as good as Chocolat, another movie they saw first and highly recommended.  Still, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are both quite captivating as two psychologically disturbed and outspoken people finding each other, on and off the dance floor.

August 2013 Movies: "Les Mis" Was Anything But Miserable, "Now You See Me" Should Be Seen, Butler Isn't So "Law Abiding", and "Kick-Ass" Needs to Have It's... Well, You Know the Rest!

Out of all the movies I saw this in August (no matter when they were made or released), here are the ones I liked the most, and the ones I didn't like so much:

Movie of the Month:

Les Misérables

A few months ago, I saw this in the same month I saw Oz the Great and Powerful and Life of Pi, which I named in my journal then (and in this blog yesterday) as "Movie of the Month" and the "Runner Up".  I couldn’t let this movie pass by a second time without naming it as Movie of the Month.  It was that good, and a second viewing found me liking it just as much as before, if not more so, for it allowed me to cement my feelings about certain performances, voices, and songs.  

I found Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Banks, young Isabelle Allen, and even Russell Crowe to be as good, or better, than they were before, and though critics seemed to be making fun of Russell Crowe’s voice (see the hilarious Honest Trailer linked here), to my ear it was actually Hugh Jackman that strained my auditory senses more often, with that Honest Trailer linked above stating Jackman has a "really annoying vibrato".  I'd have to agree.  Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the main villains did a great job, but provided only a bit of occasional comic villainy and song, and nothing more.  Best songs:  “I Dreamed a Dream” by Anne Hathaway, “On My Own” by Samantha Banks, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” by Eddie Redmayne, "Red and Black" by Aaron Tveit and the cast, and perhaps even both of Russell Crowe's solos, "Stars," and "Javert's Suicide".  

Runner Up:

Now You See Me

Many movies these days are full of mindless action, gore, romance, or humor, and you can check your brain at the door!  This one, about four famous magicians joining forces to rob a bank and then performing two more increasingly impossible tricks on a global scale, requires you to use your noggin trying to keep up with all the twists and sleights of hand, and just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, as most characters here do until they are duped, at no time can you trust that what you are seeing is what you’ve really just seen.  The all-star cast features Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco as the four magicians, Mark Rufallo and Mélanie Laurent as the agents hot on their trail, and with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman as the ones possibly pulling all the strings – or are they???  This was an absolute delight, especially for thriller fans, as the twists come fast and furious throughout this heavily plot driven but thoroughly entertaining exercise!
     By the way:  COOL POSTER!!!  MC Escher would be so proud!

Stinker of the Month:

Law Abiding Citizen

This was convoluted, with no noble characters to identify with or root for.  Both Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler play deplorable people here.  They took the very sympathetic character of Clyde Shelton, played by Butler, whose wife and young daughter are ruthlessly murdered at the beginning of the film, and ruined him by turning him into a despicable murderer in his own right, turning vigilante and then some!  They also tried to make Foxx’s smarmy lawyer character into a moral guy by the end, but neither is a great example of humanity.  Trying to find justice for his slain family, Shelton is appalled when the prosecuting attorney Nick Rice accepts a plea bargain with the ruthless animal who actually did the killing, turning on his silent partner in crime.  Because of this plea bargain, the accomplice gets the death penalty, and the actual killer is released from jail in a few years!  It’s at this point that Shelton, a former CIA specialist, sets his rather ruthless, sadistic, and yes, ridiculous plan in motion, killing both of the men who killed his wife, and then allowing himself to be caught to make a mockery of the justice system, targeting anyone and everyone involved in his case.  It is then, and only then, when pushed to extremes, that Rice begins to feel anything approaching a conscience about his earlier decisions, attempting to outsmart a now coldblooded, brilliant madman with a dead family and a chip on his shoulder the size of Cleveland!  Neither character is redeemed in the end, and I felt like I needed to take a shower!   

Little Stinker:

Kick-Ass

I so wanted to like this film, despite the swearing even in the title, since this was an inspired, original film about a geek who decides to become a super-hero named Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and ends up joining forces with a father/daughter team named Big Daddy and Hit Girl (Nicolas Cage and Cloë Grace Moretz).  There’s also a subplot about another possible superhero named Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), but he turns out to be a super-villian.

     There was a lot to like here, and perhaps if it was made years ago, I might have liked it more. There are themes of loyalty and bravery, and fighting for justice and against evil, and those are noble concepts.  Unfortunately, they took the basic outline of this good story and these interesting "super-hero" concepts and threw in lots of swearing, violence, murder, and sex.  True, the main characters are vigilantes standing up to and killing a ruthless mobster and a bunch of his drug dealing goons, but does it not bother anyone that most of the killing and the worst swearing onscreen comes from the 11 year old Hit Girl?  The sex comes from Kick-Ass, whose true identity is dweeb Dave Lizewski, a teenager obsessed with his female teacher and the pretty girl from school.  She becomes his friend only when she takes pity on him, and thinks he’s gay and wants a gay pal.  When he reveals to her that he is, in fact, Kick-Ass, and is not gay, she is immediately offended... and then sleeps with him... several times.  There are certainly better, and more moral, superheroes, whether they are actual superheroes like The Avengers and The X-Men, or the wannabes, such as those in Mystery Men and Sky High.  Are these characters actually aspiring to greatness, or just being debased by the evil elements they fight against?

I LOVE MOVIES: My Picks for Favorites (and Stinkers) So Far This Year

Every month in my journal, I keep track of all the movies I watched during the month, and I pick my two favorites and usually my two least favorites (unless there weren't two movies I hated) and name them as "Movie of the Month" and "Runner Up", and "Stinker of the Month" and "Little Stinker".  I've been doing this since the year 2000.  The only rule is that I can choose any movie I saw that month, regardless of when it was made, as long as I didn't already choose it before.  That means I might name movies from as far back as the 1930's, or even silent films if I happen to see one and decide I loved it or hated it.  So far, for the first week of the month of September, I've already seen World War Z, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Hotel Transylvania (for the second time), Fanboys, I'm Reed Fish (both starring Jay Baruchel), and most of the funniest clips for the raunchy satire A Haunted House.

To catch up so far, this year I've liked and hated the following movies:

January:
Some months, I don't get to see a whole lot.  Perhaps that's why the otherwise pedestrian Trouble with the Curve wound up as my favorite of the month, and (surprisingly) Pitch Perfect, a comedy film about college a capella groups, and I didn't care for The Words with Bradley Cooper.

February:
I loved the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet from 1968, and also The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and re-watched Baz Luhrmann's version Romeo + Juliet with DiCaprio & Danes and remembered why I didn't like it in the first place.

March:
I surprisingly found the Kevin James comedy Here Comes the Boom to be my favorite, followed by Seven Days in Utopia, and with St. Patrick's Day upon us, I re-watched The Commitments and realized why I always loved the soundtrack much more than the raunchy movie itself.

April:
My favorites were the visually stunning Oz the Great and Powerful and Life of Pi, and I was very disappointed by Beasts of the Southern Wild and Unstoppable.

May:
In a month where I saw the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness, as well as Baz Luhrmann's flashy The Great Gatsby, any other movie I saw that month just didn't stand a chance!  Case in point are the two films I stuck at the bottom of the list:  The 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland I caught on cable one weekend morning, and the remake of the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.

June:
The old gangster flick True Romance and the classic comedy Airplane wound up as my favorites this time, even over the new Superman movie Man of Steel, which was a major disappointment, the 2008 Best Picture winner at the Oscars, The Hurt Locker, and the rom zom com Warm Bodies, and though these films didn't wind up on my stinkers list, Rumor Has It and G-Force weren't so lucky.

July:
Despicable Me 2 was the best, followed by the made-for-TV movie Amish Grace, about the power of forgiveness, while the comedy potential for both Yogi Bear and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone fell flat.

Tomorrow, I'll post my picks for best and worst movies of all the films I saw in August, which includes, in alphabetical order, Dr. No, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Kick-Ass, Law Abiding Citizen, Les Misérables, Now You See Me, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Scream 3, Scre4m, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall, Straight from the Heart, and Teen Beach Movie.  Now, I really liked at least 6 of these movies, and found at least three to be disappointing  but as usual, limited myself to the two best and two worst, in my humble opinion.  I already know certain members of my family and my co-workers wouldn't quite agree.  If you're curious, check tomorrow's post for reviews of my favorites and least favorites from August.  HINT:  On this alphabetical list, all my choices just so happen to be listed right by each other, with my choice for stinkers followed by my picks for favorites.   

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is THE Role Model!

Akiane Kramarik and her portrait of Jesus, which she painted in 2008 at the age of 8!  See the videos linked here and here, where young "Heaven is for Real" subject Colton Burpo picked out this portrait as the only right one.

If I’m going to start afresh on a list of Role Models and people I admire, the place where I have to start is with Jesus, the ultimate role model!

     Detractors try to say he was just a man.  This isn’t true, but even if it is, what a man!  Even His opponents would have to admit He was something quite remarkable!

     There is a small group of disbelievers and anti-Christian theologians and intellectuals (The Jesus Seminar, for example) who try to say the historical Jesus was not a real person, or was an amalgam of several different people, or that His words and life were not recorded accurately in the Bible, but these kinds of kooks can be dismissed as biased or of such a small number and minority opinion that we do not need to consider them.  They are merely a small faction of Jesus haters who are trying to discredit Him and His deeds.  Even most of His critics agree that He was a real person, and that the evidence of His existence is at least as prevalent as the evidence for Cleopatra and Alexander the Great.  If one questions Jesus’ existence, by the same criteria, one would also have to question all the other historical figures, from Socrates and Genghis Khan to Ivan the Terrible and Queen Victoria.

     Once you get past the ridiculous assumption that Jesus wasn’t real, you then have to decide if He was who He claimed to be, or question the accuracy of His words in the Bible.  But even beyond this debate, there is this fact:  Jesus’ mission on this earth is relegated to a mere three year period in which he traveled through a small area of what is now the Middle East preaching and teaching about love and truth and the Kingdom of God, and whether you believe He died on the cross and rose again or simply disappeared without another word, the fact remains that His ministry and His followers grew to completely change the face of the earth forever.  He was more influential and has reached more people than any other person that has ever existed, including all the other religious prophets.  And unlike other faiths, His message is not spread by force (no, not even during the crusades, which was not missionary by nature), but rather by love and compassion.

     Even if you believe that Jesus was just a man, then you should still be amazed by the way in which He touched this world, and you’d have to ask yourself just who was this man, and what was He all about that He was able to change the world the way He did?

     And for believers, Jesus is so much more than just a man.  We understand exactly who He was, and is, and will be, and for us, that answers the question of how He was able to change the world the way He did!  

    I’ll apply Occam’s razor here, which is the principal that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.  When presented with two explanations, one simple, and one overwhelmingly complex, the principal of Occam’s razor says that the answer is usually the simplest one.  Applied to Jesus and Christianity, the simplest explanation is that Jesus really is who He and His followers said He was:  the Son of God, or, as Jesus said of Himself on more than one occassion, "I AM".  This explains the existence of Christianity better than any other elucidation.  In fact, if Jesus wasn’t who He said He was, then He wasn’t as great as His followers claim, for He would have been a loony or a liar, or His words wouldn’t have been recorded accurately in the Bible, in which case we would need all kinds of complicated arguments and theories in order to explain how Christianity developed around someone who wasn’t all the Bible claimed Him to be.  It means either Jesus or His followers, the very people who wrote the New Testament, were liars, or those who compiled the Bible years later, twisting the words and deeds of Jesus into something they weren’t, and that just doesn’t correlate with the doctrine of Christianity in general.  A person may preach the truth of their faith and then lie to themselves and others about other things, simply because they are sinners and are not perfect.  But what they don’t do is to preach their entire faith as truth if they know that what they are preaching is really a lie, especially if the basis of that faith is all about truth!  It just doesn’t make any sense.  What DOES make is sense the simplest answer:  Jesus was God made flesh, who came to earth as a man to preach and teach the Good News about the Kingdom, and then take our place in death so we might have eternal life with a God who would otherwise be unattainable due to our sin nature.

     But no matter who you think Jesus was, the fact is that He was the most influential man ever to walk this earth.  And even anti-Christian Jesus-hater Bill Maher should agree with me on that!