Fraser’s blog on Juno reminded me that I haven’t said anything about a regular column my wife and I write for her parish newsletter “Inside Story” at St Paul’s Lutheran Church Box Hill.
The column is called “Cathy and David at the Movies” which, as some of you will recognise, is based on the approach to movie reviews from Margaret and David’s “At the Movies” on ABC1.
Here are some of the reviews we’ve done in the past (you have to scroll down the reviews page to find them):
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
If we seem to be overly generous with the stars, that’s because we don’t watch movies we don’t think we will like! After all, David and Margaret might get paid to do this, but we aren’t.
We’re going to see “Wall-E” with the girls at a school fundraiser tonight, so that’s the next one to be reviewed.
I saw excerpts from “As it is in heaven” during a service at the church i currently attend. I thought “Gabriella’s song” was one of the most powerful images seen in movies-a woman who is a victim of domestic violence saying that she wanted to live freely.
The other poignat scne was when Daniel ,recovering from the assualt by Gabriella’s husband ,tells the choir members his real name from childhood.”Amazing Grace” was the song they all responded to in this confession ,and i wodnered if there was an analogy to concepts of the exercise of grace that Christians shoulsd be exercising. Perhaps i have been reading too much phillip yancey!!
David,
I’m heading off to see Wall-e tonight, after a rather good feed: an egg sandwich, half a Scotch egg, some pasta, ciabatta bread with blue cheese and fresh strawberries. One must prevent the onset of starvation, and movie food costs too much.
Will let you know how I like it!
Yeah, it was a good film.
What a spiffy, spiffy photo! And a delightful shared endeavor for David and Cathy. Very cool!
Glad you liked Iron Man. I thought it was great! I liked Wall-E too. Haven’t seen the others and have no plans to. How about Batman or Hellboy?
Yes, we saw “Dark Knight” and were going to review it, but another reviewer got in before us while we were at WYD! While it is, of course, a fantasy film, I found it treated the very serious issue of the difficulties and dangers in facing and combating evil very well. It was a long way from the comic book!
Hellboy I don’t have so much interest in. I didn’t see the first and am not likely to watch the second.
Wall-E last night was terrific. An absolutely delightful film, which I believe will end up on just about everyone’s dvd shelf at home next to Shrek and Finding Nemo. It deserves the rave reviews it has been getting.
I could ask whether I am the only one to notice that Wall-E is a reincarnation of “Number Five” from the 1986 film “Short Circuit”?
There’s a bunch of movies out this Summer (well, Summer in the northern hemisphere!) on the dangers of fighting evil, which is, the inter-relationship of good and evil — the possibility of a fighter for one going over to fight for the other and whether it’s more about being a fighter than whether for good and evil, on top of which, the fighter for any cause knows than even if he wins, once the fight is over, he is irrelevant and often an unwanted vestige of an unpleasant time.
Batman particularly, but also Hellboy and Hancock took up these themes, and of course the whole Star Wars thing (which also had a release this Summer) is full of that. Not to mention the great Kurasowa’s Seven Samurai, and its recasting as a “Western”, The Magnificent Seven.
And in my humble and most characteristically measured opinion, the greatest theologian of our time, Clint Eastwood, has explored throughout his canonical works the inter-relationship of good and evil, both in themselves and within those who serve either side. I think particularly of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Dirty Harry, Tightrope, The Outlaw Josey Wales, In the Line of Fire, Absolute Power, and of course the magnum opus Unforgiven.
God bless me ten times, maybe you could start a third blog, something akin to the much missed “Luther at the Movies”!
David,
I think Hellboy (I and II) would be worth a look.
And what did you and your better half think of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull?
Cathy says she has seen the Indiana Jones movie. She says: “A rollicking yarn, greatly entertaining, laughed out loud a few times [Was it a comedy?! – DS] and had to close my eyes and peek through my fingers in a few places.”